This has taken quite a while, but it is finally done! I want to thank ZeDancingHobbit for checking my work and giving me such a better final copy than I had originally. I am honestly embarrassed that I made something like that. But this one is much better and I'm proud of it! Please enjoy!

"Optimus," Ratchet called when he saw readings on the main computer. "Decepticon activity," he said, turning the ground bridge controls, already putting in the coordinates.

Arcee crossed her arms. "Another relic?" she guessed.

"That's what I'm assuming," Ratchet agreed.

Bulkhead smiled. "Then let's go get the package, beat some dents into those 'Cons and be back before lunch."

"Rock on, Bulk!" Miko cheered, walking to her guardian.

Bulkhead shook his head with a frown. "Sorry Miko, but you have to stay. I don't want you getting hurt."

Miko rolled her eyes and slouched her shoulder. "Come on, Bulk, you can't be serious!" she whined, stomping her foot. But, Bulkhead ignored her and transformed and drove into the swirling green vortex.

Miko made her expression turn to a look of sadness as the rest of Team Prime drove through too. When she noticed that Jack was eyeing her, to see if she'd chase Bulk, she sighed and waved with little effort towards the ground bridge. "Maybe next time, Bulk."
But, she didn't fool Jack, and he was right behind her when she smirked before taking off into the ground bridge. Raf, not wanting to be left behind, chased after the two.

"Miko!" Jack yelled to the Asian teen, "Where do you think you're going?!" He was a foot or two away from catching up to her.

She smiled and turned her head around, not stopping her dash, though, and replied, "Cybertronian smack-down, duh!" She rolled her eyes before reaching the end of the ground bridge and jumping down.

Jack groaned and followed her.
"Wait up!" Raf shouted, not far behind.

They leaped out and landed in snow. Jack and Miko sunk down to their ankles and Raf sunk to around mid-calf. "Cool," he marveled. Most kids have seen snow before they were approaching their teen years; that is if you didn't live in a place like Nevada, but unfortunately Raf had never seen real snow. Snow was better than he had ever imagined. The movies made it seem so fake, but now that he was here with real snow he realized how wrong they portrayed snow. Raf was awe struck, nothing could possibly be better.

"No," Jack said, "not cool. We have to get back to Base."

Miko rolled her eyes. "Let the kid have a little fun, Mr. Mother. We can play over here; out of the way while the 'Bots beat some 'Con aft. Once they finish, we'll leave with them. Easy as that."

"No, it's too cold. We could get sick. I'm calling Ratchet for pick-up," he challenged, taking his phone out of his pocket.

Miko heard a small sigh come from Raf and she held a finger up to the young boy to signal him to wait. "Hey Jack."

"What is it, Miko?" he said, dialing in Ratchet's call link code without looking up.

"You can't call the Doc-Bot." She had a smirk in her tone.

"And why is that, Miko?" He paused his dialing for a second to look up at the Asian teen. Instead of verbally answering him, Miko plucked his cell phone from his hand and chucked it to the opposite side of the snow plain from where the battle was taking place. The three watched it soar through the air and then make a soft 'pluff' noise as it disappeared into the snow.

It was silent for a moment; the three of them remained still. A smile formed on Miko's face from satisfaction. Raf gulped and slowly backed away when he saw Jack shut his eyes.

Jack tried to calm himself down, but failed to do so and yelled at Miko, eyes shooting open. "Miko! What? I mean, why!" he groaned shaking his head narrowing his eyes at the teen as steam puffed from his ears. Are you kidding me?! That was my phone! What was that for?!" He was outraged. "Miko, that was my cell phone," he repeated. "and do you know how long it took for me to save up money for that?! My KO paychecks aren't going to cover a new phone! We're you even thinking?" His face was red with anger. "You never think! Because if you did, you wouldn't throw my phone out into the middle of a freaking ice waste land, for God's sake, Miko! What were you thinking?!"

"Come on!" she called, ignoring him and already halfway to the open barren field filled with snow.
Jack crossed his arms and looked down at Raf. He gave him the look that said, 'Don't even think about it.' Raf knew that Jack was in no mood, but this was his chance- possibly his only chance- to ever see snow. No way was he giving that up!

Raf smiled shyly before apologizing and slowly making his way towards Miko, but as he got closer and closer it turned to a run. "Come with us, Jack." Raf smiled back at his friend.

Jack rubbed his forehead in aggravation, but he couldn't resist Raf's innocent smile he was giving him. Miko was running away because she was being stubborn like usual, but Raf just wanted to play in the snow. He wanted to know what it was like.

He clenched his teeth and made his way slowly to his two friends, giving in to the devil inside of him.

Sure, he wanted them to have fun, but he was the oldest. He was considered the adult and adults are responsible for every consequence. He had to look out for all of them. That was his job and he wasn't going to fail; not in this lifetime, or the next, not ever.

"Miko! Get back here!" he yelled when he saw her again, but now she was packing a snowball together in her hands with a mischievous smirk on her face.

She shook her head with a smile, tossing the snowball from one hand to the other. "It's fun!"

Jack rolled his eyes, "No it's not, Miko. It's dangerous."

She widened her eyes in a mocking shocked look, "It's dangerous? Oh no!" she said sarcastically with a light laugh.

"Miko," he said between clenched teeth, "I'm being serious. Find my phone, and then we're out of here." She still wasn't off the hook for losing his phone yet. Maybe when she found it, he'd rethink forgiveness, but it's easier said than done; his phone could be anywhere.

Miko added more snow to her snowball so it no longer fit in one palm of her hand, she now had to cup it with two hands. "Blah! Blah! That's all I'm hearing from you right now," she said, ignoring him before hurling the snowball and nailing Jack right on the shoulder. She smiled in approval. Raf let out a small giggle as he watched from the sideline.

Jack rolled his eyes for the millionth time at her and continued through the snow. "Fine, but I'm going back. If you two want to freeze your butts off, be my guest." he said, trudging slower and slower as the snow got deeper. He had no idea how Raf was even making through; the kid was probably so excited he didn't even notice.

Raf sighed sadly rubbing his hands together, "It's not that I want to disobey you, Jack, but it's just that I've never seen snow before and it's amazing. I mean, you've been to Cybertron and Miko's been to Japan and Greece! Where have I've gone? School, Base and home, every single day for the past twelve, thirteen years. Boring! But this, this is the coolest thing ever and I just want to be able to know what it's like. To go home and be be able to say," He stood up straighter and puffed out his chest and used a deeper voice. "yeah, I've seen snow. Yeah, it's cool. I know you're jealous, but there's more; I haven't just seen a little snow! I've been to the Artic!" as he continued, he got more excited and the act he had put on was dying and before he finished he was back to his normal voice with a huge smile across his face. "Jack, it's amazing. If we could just stay for a few minutes..." He trailed off looking up into Jack's eyes.

Jack couldn't help but notice how happy the snow made Raf. He looked like a child waking up on Christmas and taking him away from the snow would be like giving a kid coal instead of toys.

'No', Jack told himself as he shook his head. He couldn't be like that if he wanted to do the right thing and convince the two of them to leave. It wasn't safe to be here with no coats, mittens or hats on. "Raf, it's not safe, I'm sorry. You're already knee-deep in the snow. You'll catch a cold. So come on, can I borrow your phone while Miko looks for mine?"

Raf didn't want to say 'No' to his friend, but he also didn't want to leave just yet. Luckily, Miko saved him by interrupting with a shout. "Hey guys, come check this out!" He looked up at Jack a second later with an apologizing look in his eyes, "Sorry Jack, but I promise 10 minutes at most!" he tried to assure him before running—or at least trying to run—after Miko.

Jack groaned and started after the determined boy as Raf struggled more and more as he continued through mounds of snow. Some were thicker than others and required more of an effort, but once he was on the other side of the deepest snow hill, he saw his trek was well worth it.

Miko found a pond that had frozen over and she was gracefully gliding across it like she was soaring, with her arms spread wide and her eyes the size of the sun. She smiled and laughed as she twirled around and landed on her butt. She looked up to Raf and waved. "Dude, you have to try this!" she shouted eagerly.

"Whoah," Raf muttered before sliding down the hill on his feet. He landed on the ice and started to glide with ease, just as Miko had been doing. He made sure he added as little pressure as possible so it didn't crack.

Jack soon caught up to them and didn't waste a second before yelling at the two kids about how dangerous they were being.

Raf stopped and bit his lip. Jack was right; maybe playing in the snow was fun, but this was actually dangerous. They didn't know how thick the ice was or how much weight it could hold.

He turned to Miko and carefully edged to her, not wanting to make any unneeded weight added to the ice. "Miko, Jack's right, but we can still have a snowball fight," he suggested with a smile.

Miko smiled. "Don't be a party pooper, Raf! What, are you taking after Jack now?" She giggled, spinning fast on one foot before she fell to the ice with a loud bang. Jack and Raf both yelped, afraid that it was too much for the ice to hold and the two would fall through.

She rolled her eyes, "Come on and have a little fun, won't you?" she said before grabbing his hands and starting to spin him in a circle. She progressively grew faster and faster as they continued to spin.

He shut his eyes tight and couldn't stand spinning; it made him nauseous. The only thing he heard as he was being spun was Miko's laughs and Jack's scolding. He let out an 'oof' when Miko let go of his hands and he went flying before he collided with the cold, hard ice.

He sat there for a moment trying to get over his dizziness, but before he could the ice cracked beneath him and he fell through into the freezing cold water.

He groped for anything that could stop him from falling through, but he failed. In a split second, he was flailing his arms and legs widely in the dark, never ending ocean. His hands flew to his face to grab his glasses just before they floated off his face.

He could stay afloat in a pool because there was usually a surface that he could push up off of inches below. Unfortunately, right now he couldn't find a flat surface to get a hold of, this just made his situation worse. Fear gripped his heart as he tried to reach the surface. He was experiencing the most frightening event that he could ever be put through. He had never felt as scared as he was right now.

He couldn't even tell which way was up or down.

He could feel his lungs burning as they ran out of fresh oxygen. They begged and screamed for air. He let out a strangled cry and kicked his feet over and over trying to propel himself forward. Whether he was traveling to the surface or to the bottom, he had no clue.

He continued until he felt something collide into his head. He opened his mouth needing oxygen, but only received water. He paused his struggling when he started to cough. Well, he wasn't even sure if he'd consider it coughing; it was more of a choking.

He began to worry even more; he didn't think he was going to make it, but his hope was regained when he stretched his arms over his head and his hands came in contact with the sharp edge of the cracked ice. He ignored the slight pain of the ice slicing his fingers and soon felt a sudden grip on his wrists. He could feel himself slipping as the pair of hands tried to pull him up and sure enough seconds later he plunged back into the water. He didn't even have a chance to get air before he went back fully under.

He used whatever strength he had left to propel himself upwards once more. His fingers got hold of the freezing ice. His grip was weaker this time though and his fingers were slipping. But, just before he let go,he felt two warm hands grab his wrists again. The set of hands now had a firmer and stronger grasp this time though.

With a lot of effort and extreme difficulty, Raf was finally above the water. He felt the ice tug at his stomach as he was dragged upwards by Jack, but he continued to try and help as much as he could until he was lying on the frigid ice, belly down.

Jack panted and wiped sweat from his brow. He didn't think he was going to be able to save him, but here they were with Raf saved.

He lifted Raf to his feet and asked him if he was okay. Raf slowly nodded his head and pushed his glasses to the bridge of his nose. He coughed up water and couldn't stop shaking.

Miko was quickly by his side, patting his back carefully. "Raf, I didn't mean to. I am really sorry. It just, I didn't really want you to fall, but-"

Raf placed a wet hand on her thigh shaking his hand, "S'okay Miko, you didn't mean to, I know."

Miko sighed sadly before being pushed away by Jack. "Raf," He said when he noticed that he was shaking worse by the second. He could sense the boy's tremendous amount o fear. "you're gonna be okay. Miko and I are going to be right by your side and we're going to get the 'Bots and we are going back home." Most of it was accidentally pointed towards Miko. He had his eyes on her, but was still huddled by Raf to keep him warm.

Once Raf was back to his feet again, Jack turned to face the Asian teen. He could feel steam puff from his ears, "See Miko? Why couldn't we have just left earlier?!"

She didn't say anything, she only stared at him. Jack could see the guilt in her eyes, so he toned down a bit. "Miko, you have no idea how frustrated and angry I am in you." He sighed and turned to the boy who was sitting on the ice again with his eyes closed as he wrapped his arms around his small body to keep warm.

"You okay, Raf?" he asked again because no matter what Raf said, he knew he wasn't. Jack was instantly unzipping the light jacket he had on. It was winter in Jasper and even in scorching places like Jasper, it sometimes got chilly and June had forced them all to wear one before they could visit their Autobot friends.

Raf kept his eyes squeezed tight, but nodded. "I guess," he whispered. "Just a little cold and scared..." he admitted. He slowly opened his eyes and looked up at Jack.

Jack saw the fear he was talking about deep in his eyes. Jack honestly did not blame the young boy; he had almost just lost his life. He was not even 13 and he had been put through many life threatening situations that a regular kid would never come close to experiencing.

"Come here," Jack said pulling Raf closer in a comforting manner sending daggers at Miko. She frowned and looked down at her lap. Deep down she knew she was the reason that Raf was almost killed and she hated it. She didn't mean to cause the ice to crack, she only wanted to have fun, for Raf to have a great first time in snow. She didn't mean for it to go this far.

Jack pulled the wet orange sweater vest off and helped the boy put his arms through the sleeves of his jacket he had taken off earlier. The jacket was baggy and the sleeves covered his hands and it didn't make him that much warmer, but it was an improvement.
Raf gave a weak smile looking up at Jack. "Thanks," he muttered softly.

Jack nodded his head and said softly, "No problem."

Miko crawled back over in front of Raf and apologized once again. "I'm sorry, Raf. I didn't mean to do that. I just wanted you to have fun," she said sincerely.

Raf reached his shaky hand over to Miko's lap and patted her leg. "It's okay, Miko. I know you didn't mean it."

Miko smiled gratefully and placed her hand over Raf's, but her mood suddenly changed when Jack joined the conversation. He looked up and moved Raf from his lap to the vacant spot next to him. Jack quickly stood up and grabbed Miko's arm pulling her to the side to scold at the girl. "Miko, you're lucky that Raf is safe and alive right now. Do you understand how close he was to dying just a second ago?"

Miko quickly wiped away what looked to be a tear. "I didn't mean to hurt him Jack! And I know that you know that; you're just worried, trust me, we all are," She whispered looking over at the younger boy behind them who was doing his best to keep himself warm.

Jack looked over at Raf and when the boy noticed him, he gave a small smile, but behind it he could easily see the fear that still haunted his mind. Jack narrowed his eyes and used Miko as a way to get all of his stress out. "Miko, we're worried because you always do whatever you want and never listen to anybody else, even when they're right 75% of the time!"

Miko crossed her arms and muttered "We all make mistakes, Jack" She avoided Jack's eyes knowing she was in no position to argue back.

Jack looked back over at Raf and saw that Raf noticed that they were fighting, he tried to calm down and lower his voice, but it didn't work. Raf could hear every word.

He slowly inched away. He didn't like it when Miko and Jack had a argument, especially in a situation like this. Arguing led to shouting, shouting led to screaming and screaming led to chaos. Sometimes they'd tackle each other, and say some things that would get Raf grounded for months.

They reminded him of a married couple, and Raf responded to the situation by covering his ears or playing with Bee. He was the frightened child and Miko and Jack were his argumentative parents.

They could get along great, but one little disagreement and it started World War III. Raf was only twelve, barely even thirteen, so he did what any other kid would do and stayed out of it.

"Jack, I don't want us to argue, but you're making it seem like I wanted to hurt him. I really didn't mean for it to happen!" She said desperatelly, trying to convince Jack that she was being completely honest. She also knew that any other day Jack would have believed her because he knew what was right and when it was right, but he was so lost on what to do right now, he was taking it out on her and she knew she would soon follow.

"I'm not pointing any fingers, Miko. I just want to know why you have to be so irresponsible all the time. If you hadn't been so stubborn and wanted to get on my nerves by playing in the snow, we'd be at the Base right now with the 'Bots! Safe, warm, and dry!"

Raf could feel himself start to shiver. His drenched clothes clung to his skin and every time the wind blew, it was like he was momentarily in a freezer set to 70 below even with Jack's jacket. Raf was not a stupid kid, he knew what happened if you stayed in the cold too long, especially wet; hypothermia. That wasn't good.

Raf stood up slowly and tried to peek over the miniature mountain to see if he could see Bee. He walked further down expecting to see them fighting somewhere, but they had traveled further than he thought and what was in his line of sight was much more frightening than Miko and Jack's fighting.

Thinking that he had seen wrong, he took off his glasses and wiped the frost that had invaded the edges of his lenses. When the glasses were placed back on his head and the image hadn't changed, he gulped and swerved around to face Jack.

Jack was a few feet away, but he still couldn't hear his young friend calling him because he was busy yelling at Miko, and it didn't help that Raf's voice was quieter than usual due to falling through the ice.

He started to run to his two friends, but slipped. Fortunately, it brought their attention to him for a second.

"Raf, be careful," Miko said with concern, kneeling alongside of him with Jack as they slowly lifted him up. Raf saw the Vehicons come closer behind his two older friends. They began to make bigger strides with their blasters raised.

Raf couldn't seem to find his voice. "Ah, b-b, J-J!"

"Calm down, Raf. It's okay," Jack said.

Miko took Raf's hand in hers and rubbed it. "He's all wet and cold, probably freezing."

Jack agreed, "We should head back."

Miko narrowed her eyes at Jack. "Yeah, we wouldn't want someone getting sick," she said bitterly.

Jack sighed, "Miko, please don't start this again."

She scoffed, "Trust me, I don't want to."

Raf gulped and before Jack could say anything back, he said, "G-Guys!" and he pointed his finger at something behind them.

Jack and Miko turned their heads to see what had frightened the boy and saw the Decepticons slowly approaching. Jack quickly rose to his feet and pulled Miko and Raf up by their wrists. "Come on, guys!" he yelled, but never let go of them.

He continued to run faster and faster, but because Raf's legs were so short and he had difficulty keeping pace, he wasn't able to keep up with Jack and Miko. He tried to keep his legs moving, but he couldn't concentrate because he was shivering the whole time.

He was breathing heavily and he started to stumble. He couldn't walk anymore either because the snow was close to his hips now.
His hand never left Jack's though, even when he tripped and fell. Jack stopped running with Miko when he felt a dead weight in his grip.

For the third time that day, Jack had to lift Raf back to his feet. "Raf, you have to stay on your feet and run faster," he said as he tried to catch his breath before they started running again. He made sure that he spoke softly to the boy.

Raf brushed the snow off of his legs and panted, "I-I can't k-keep up, J-Jack. It's too da-da-de..." He took a deep breath before he let it out slowly and finished, "deep."

Jack looked down at Raf with concern in his eyes. He could barely talk, he needed to get them out of there—now! He looked behind him and saw a 'Con point their pulse cannon at Miko and shoot. She easily dodged it by jumping out of the way. "Hurry!" she said before she continued on running so she would not get hit.

Jack narrowed his eyes in determination. "Come here, Raf," he muttered before he scooped the young boy in his arms. Jack had one hand supporting his bottom and the other holding the back of his neck close to him.

Raf's short arms wrapped tightly around Jack's neck and his hands clung to his t-shirt. Jack winced when he felt the cold wet skin on Raf's face when the young boy tucked his face in the crook of his neck and shoulder.

The young genius was freezing cold. Jack noted that his clothes were soaking wet and only made him more cold. Jack could feel his small body shaking as he shivered.

Jack held him closer to try to keep him warm as possible. Carrying him was no problem at all, it was like holding a young toddler or a small puppy.

Raf watched the Vehicons slowly gain on them. One in particular was ahead of the others and now had its pulse cannon pointed straight at the two boys. Raf let out a strangled whine, "Jack, one's sha-shooting!" He started to pull on Jack's shirt to catch his attention.

Jack turned around just as a pulse of red came streaking towards them. He yelped and dived; covering Raf with his body. He felt the heat of the bullet as it sailed over him and landed a few feet in front of them. He sighed in relief when realized they were both unharmed. He didn't get up right away though because he heard the Vehicons stop and start a conversation. "Hey, Steve, did I get them?"

"I don't know," Steve's monotone voice answered. "I think. I see one, but it's not moving."

"Well, what about the other one?" the other wondered as it looked around.

"How would I know, Darren?" he spat his comrade's name.

"I don't know," Darren groaned, "Go check."

"Uh-uh, I don't think so, you can go poke the thing; not me," Steve said quickly.

"Why don't we just head back?" Darren suggested uneasily, trying to change the subject quickly.

Jack kept praying that the two 'Cons would leave them alone. He remained still as a stone above Raf with his eyes squeezed shut. But, they shot open fast when he realized Raf wasn't shivering anymore.

He looked down at the boy and all he could do was helplessly watch he saw Raf trying to hold back a sneeze. Jack bit his lip and winced when he heard a small sneeze followed by a sniffle.

Raf moaned, closing his eyes slowly. Jack shook Raf's shoulders silently, causing Raf to open his eyes again. "Come on, Raf. You have to try and stay awake."

"C-Can't," he stuttered, "t-too cold." His shivering started back up once again.

"Scrap," Jack muttered. Raf was getting too cold and too cold meant hypothermia. Raf was starting to fall asleep again, but before Jack could wake him up he awoke himself in a fit of coughs.

Jack's eyes widened as he desperately tried to quiet his friend, but he failed.

"Hey," Jack suddenly heard. "Do you hear that?" He knew it was one of the drones, but he couldn't tell if it was Darren or Steve.

"Yeah, it sounds like a clogged exhaust pipe," the other said.

"Are you kidding?! It is totally something that blew its gasket!"

The other scoffed, "Okay, yeah right," he said with a roll of his optics. "You'd probably think that; coming from your kind I mean."

The other one seemed surprised and offended. "What do you mean, 'my kind'?"

"Transform and we'll find out," he said in a threatening tone.

Jack was grateful that the two were bickering because it was buying him and Raf time to help stop the young genius' coughing.

Raf's hands were balled into fists by his mouth as he coughed violently into them; his small body shaking uncontrollably.

Jack silently prayed that the Decepticons wouldn't notice them, but his hopes were crushed when he heard the engines of a few more landing. "Shut up, you two pieces of scrap. Find and kill the source of that unbearable noise!" One of them ordered.

Jack's eyes became the size of dinner plates when he heard a Vehicon answer the other one. "It's over here; alive too."

They laughed and one started to advance towards them. He groaned and bit his lip trying to decide what to do. With a second of hesitation, Jack scooped Raf up in his arms and started running to where he had seen Miko head to last.

He mumbled under his breath as he kept running. He felt Raf's chest rising and falling unevenly and it sounded forced. Jack knew that Raf was probably falling asleep on his shoulder unintentionally, so he had to keep him awake.

"Hey Raf, can you tell me how many are close to us right now?" Jack knew this would keep Raf's mind going and he would know what he was dealing with, a win-win.

"1, 2, 3, 4…5," Jack could hear Raf slowly counting softly. "6 or 7, but they're coming fast, hurry J-Jack." Jack frowned when he heard how hard it was getting Raf to even count to 6.

He closed his eyes and nodded his head, "Don't worry, I am," he whispered as he started down a hill. He descended more and the slope increased his acceleration.

"We're in the c-clear…f-for now…I think," Raf said, taking deep breaths in between the words in his sentence.

Jack nodded and narrowed his eyes in determination. When he was just getting to the bottom of the hill and when the 'Cons were about to reach the top of the hill, a hand grabbed his arm and stopped him from continuing to run.

"What the…" He moaned when he crashed face down into the snow. He probably would have stayed in that position for a few minutes to catch his breath, if he wasn't laying on top of Raf.

The boy barely seemed to mind though. When Jack lifted himself slowly off of his friend, Raf's eyes opened wide as he looked widely around. "Jack, where'd you go?" he asked, even though Jack was kneeling right in front of him.

Jack grabbed Raf's hand and his eyes quickly focused on him. "I'm right here, Raf."

Miko's gaze turned to Raf. "Getting worse," she stated more than asked.

Jack narrowed his eyes in annoyance. "Obviously."

She went to say something else, but Jack intrrupted her, "Miko, just shh. They're going to hear you."

Miko rolled her eyes and waved her hands, "Why do you think I built this?" She gestured to her snow barrier. "I call it Fort Miko," she said proudly.

Jack quickly covered her mouth when he heard the 'Cons talking. "I saw those things run this way." The robots searched for a few minutes, but they couldn't seem to see them inside of Fort Miko. The three walls and ceiling hid them. It was about four feet wide in diameter from one wall to the other and it was about five feet from the entrance to the back wall. But, a foot or so was cut off of that because the ceiling descended instead of being flat.

Jack's grip tightened a bit as he heard one of them practically right behind them, but thankfully it stopped advancing once he received a comm. from another Vehicon, ::Lord Megatron has ordered you to return. The Autobots have retreated.::

Once the link went dead, one of the 'Cons spoke up, "What about the organics?" He said 'organics' with much disgust.

Transforming noises could be heard before another answered, "Who cares? We won this battle, and besides, without their precious Autobots to help, they'll be dead soon."

Jack nudged Raf hard when he be heard the boy mutter Bee's name. He prayed the Decepticons didn't hear him.

Fortunately, they didn't because they were too busy laughing before they flew or drove off on the other direction.

Jack waited a few seconds until he no longer heard the Decepticons before he released his hand from Miko's mouth. She spit into the snow beside her when he did. "I know when to shut up, ya' know!"

Jack ignored the stubborn teen and pulled Raf up into a sitting position. The young boy groaned and tried to lean back into the snow wall, but Jack stopped him before he could. "Try to touch as little snow as possible, it'll keep you warmer."

Raf pushed Jack's hands away and opened his eyes so they looked like a normal size, "I'm fine, Jack, honest."

Jack didn't believe him because when his mother had sat him down and gave him a full blown lesson about hypothermia, she listed every single known symptom. Jack could tell Raf had a mild form, but it was developing fast. The young boy was already shivering violently, his skin was pale, and he was stumbling with his movements and speech. Confusion was sure to follow soon.

Jack wasn't aware that he was speaking aloud until he heard Miko laughing, "A class? Remind me to ask about that later." She wiped her eyes and slowly stopped laughing.

Jack rolled his eyes. "No, Miko."

Miko smirked and nodded her head. "I will push for details later," she repeated before turning to Raf to make sure he was okay.

Once he assured the girl that he was doing okay she started a conversation with him. "Can you believe his mom made him learn all this?" she said with a smile trying to get one from Raf. "Leave it to Helicopter mom to start training Jack." She could see a small one form, but it disappeared as quick as it came when Jack had to put his two senses in.

Jack crossed his arms. "Miko, if my mom didn't teach me about this we'd be in trouble."

Miko rolled her eyes at this. "I'm just trying to lighten his spirits, Jack."

Jacky's tone softened a bit. "But, I wouldn't need that lesson right now if you had listened to me! Every time the 'Bots go on a mission you don't have to follow them. Just because you want to do something, Miko, doesn't make it right."

Miko knew deep down that he was right. "I realize how stupid I was, but I learned from it and I'm sorry."

"But, Miko this wasn't even a lesson needed to be learned, you just didn't use your common sense. It does not involve a rocket scientist to know that you shouldn't add any unwanted weight to ice and crack it for starters." Jack arched an eyebrow when he noticed that Miko wasn't even paying attention to him, instead she was looking down at Raf with a smile. "Miko, are you even listening to me?"

She returned her attention back to Jack and she nodded. "Yeah, but someone isn't."

Jack looked down and saw Raf sleeping on his shoulder. The young boy looked almost dead because his breathing was so forced and his skin was white as a ghost. But, Raf's little snores could still be heard.

Jack looked up at Miko in shock. "Why are you smiling?"

Miko looked at Jack in confusion. "He fell asleep on your shoulder; that's cute."

Jack looked down again and started to smack his cheek lightly. "Not if he's got hypothermia, Miko. He's not allowed to sleep; he must stay awake." He shook him again gently.

Miko rolled her eyes and leaned into Raf's ear. "Raf, get up!" she screeched.

Raf's eyes opened up slowly and he turned to face Miko. "I'm awake."

She looked back at him, "Yeah, but you weren't a second ago."

"Yes I was."

Miko raised her eyebrows and crossed her arms, "You're kidding, right?" She didn't wait for him to answer. "You were snoring two seconds ago."

Jack shushed her and ran his fingers through the younger boy's wet hair. "Raf, you were sleeping. You okay?"

Raf coughed into his hands; pale body still shaking. "I'm fine, Jack. Not tired." He quickly wrapped his arms around himself when a cold wind blew and made his shivering only increase.

Jack let go of Raf and stood up. Miko's gaze followed his movements. "Miko, your fort was great from hiding, but unfortunately it doesn't block us from the direction of the wind." He inspected the walls silently for a moment.

Without Jack to keep Raf awake, he was now laying on the snowy ground, almost asleep once again. Miko noticed this and quietly crawled over, taking her light sweat jacket off and laying it down beside him.

She shook his shoulders gently and his eyes opened a fraction of an inch. She slowly and carefully pulled him into her lap. She then lay him in the sweat jacket. Raf's small fragile body fit in the center if it perfectly, and she was able to wrap him up fully with it.

She pulled him into her lap once more, but this time she cradled him like someone would while holding a newborn baby. His tiny body was so pale, the only way that Miko knew he was actually alive was because of his chest. It rose and fell in a way that made her cringe.

She looked up at Jack when he started talking once again. "We have to take this wall down." Jack gestured to the back wall. "And then we'll have to build a wall over here." He pointed towards the opening.

Miko disagreed, though. "Jack, this wall is too deep to unbury, trust me. I didn't build it; I found a mound of snow and so I carved a spot so we could fit. I did see another one further on though. But the reason I didn't use that one is because it's going to be cramped and it's uphill."

Jack bit his lip in thought. "Is it going to be easier to make the fort correctly?"

Miko nodded her head.

"Just how far?" Jack questioned looking off into the distance, where they would soon have to travel to.

Raf started to cough, and Miko in return held him closer. "For us, 10 minutes, for Raf much longer," she noted as she stood up with Raf still in her arms, but Jack shook his head

"He has to walk," Jack commanded.

Miko's eyes widened. "But, look at him, Jack. He's barely awake; he won't be able to make it. Just let me hold him."

Jack gave Miko a sympathetic frown and placed a hand on her shoulder. "The more we keep him moving the better chances we have of slowing down his hypothermia."

Miko looked deep into Jack's trusting eyes and finally gave up and nodded. "Fine, but the second he falls I'm carrying him."

"Deal," Jack agreed, rolling his eyes. He took Raf from Miko and placed him on the snowy ground. The cold temperature of the freezing snow seemed to wake him up more because he opened eyes wide the as one his feet made contact with the ground.

"Raf, you're gonna have to walk by yourself for a while, but when you can't take it just tell us, okay?" Jack said.

"I-I can't," he muttered, shaking his head slowly.

"Yes you can, Raf. We'll help you too," Miko offered. "You can hold my hand as you walk and if you need to stop or if something hurts just squeeze, okay?"

"I'll try," Raf said as he started walking by putting one foot slowly in front of the other.

Miko smiled, ruffling his hair. "That's my Raf."

The walk wasn't that bad, save for a few of Raf's coughs that would have made a smoker cringe. A few times Raf did stumble a bit, but he insisted that he could keep on going. This worried his two older friends because they both knew he was pushing himself too hard.

When the trio finally reached the uphill part of their journey, Jack turned to Raf. "You okay, Raf?"

He panted, but answered, "Yeah, Miko, I'm fine."

Miko and Jack exchanged confused and concerned glances with one another. "Uh Raf?" Jack said, looking down at the shaking boy. "That was me, Jack."

"Oh sorry. Jack," Raf coughed as he looked up at Jack to make sure he didn't get the two confused again.

"Raf, why don't I carry you the rest of the way?" Miko suggested, but Raf refused, shaking his head and insisting once again that he was fine.

"Okay," Jack breathed, turning around to climb the mountain. "Then let's go, shall we?"

Miko saw Raf give a weak nod before she started scaling the hill slowly so Raf could keep up.

He was actually going pretty well- for the first two minutes, but a minute later his knees buckled and fell to the ground. He curled into a ball to keep himself warm, coughing uncontrollably. He was wheezing, and his breathing was being forced. Jack didn't think he'd be surprised if he passed out right there.

"Raf, calm down," Jack said, referring to the young boy's rapid breathing. "One of us will carry you."

He started to refuse. "I'm fine Jack. D-Don't worry about m-me."

Jack ignored him, though. "I am going to worry about you, Raf," he said picking the younger boy up carefully. Jack frowned, looked sadly down at Raf and quickened his pace. They were going to get better shelter, but what really worried Jack was that they still didn't know how or when they were getting back to Base. He did not even know which way had been the direction where the 'Bots were fighting. But, if they didn't figure out, Jack knew they would lose Raf. They had to hurry.

Thank you very much for reading and I hope to have the next edition up soon! I will also try to update Cut, but the next episode I have to do has been taken off YouTube and it has not been on TV yet so I hope to finish that soon. I would also like to inform you guys that I have made an Instagram just for my FanFics, so that is mostly where i will post news on any stories and answer any questions!

Let me know what you guys thought if this so far please!