Okay so I'm gonna try this thing where I try to update at least every month. Keyword; try. I don't know how busy since school started up again. I'm really glad to see some of my long-time favorites are being updated again on this site :). Thanks as always for being the best readers I could ever ask for; BlushLouise, Yuroko Rhapsodos, Cinematronix, alexae15, DaLadyofSouls, Wildwolf, NovaShifter15, mostly a fangir99, TheCauldron, blueinate, CastielLunaWinchester, Reyda, Guest, the everchanging, and jgoss!

Buckle up ladies and gentleman.

Onto the story!

Chapter Forty-Four: Awaken

(Third person's POV)

There were a million other things that Barricade would agree to be doing, rather than doing this. And by 'this', it entailed to being submerged several hundred-thousand feet under the surface of the Earth with an annoying Seeker mumbling frantically to himself. Which was an amazement in itself of how he could hear him through the loud, monotonous droning of the enormous drill that was currently plunging itself through the Earth's mantel. Yes, there were a lot of things the black and white Decepticon would rather be doing than blasting his audio receptors to slag with the whine of the drill, getting dirt and decomposed organisms stuck in-between his platings, and feeling the annoying yet ever-present ache of the arm Knock Out had to re-attach after that yellow maniac had torn it off of him.

And yet, here he was, enduring all of this unnecessary misery.

Why? For one reason. His only reason.

His only reason for agreeing to come in the first place was because he had to see for himself if this Seeker was onto something, or if he was just plain fraggin' insane. Barricade had known about the plan Starscream had been scheming up by himself when he thought no one was looking. He had taken a glimpse of the maps and ancient Cybertronian text laid out on the holo-monitor as he mumbled to himself a designation that wasn't supposed to be mentioned. The Decepticons were in a state of chaos after Megatron's untimely death, then his revival, and shortly after his sojourn into deep space to plan his next attack with an old friend. He could see it himself, the ranks unfolding into turmoil as the question of who should be in charge buzzed around the air like charged particles. And almost no one gave any form of protest when Soundwave had decided to take over as the regent. They would've been a dead mech if they tried.

And for some reason that surprised the black and white mech, Soundwave had decided to keep Starscream as the number 2, even if it was obvious that they didn't get along. They never had. But something told Barricade that there was a reason for whatever truce was brought between the two. His sneaking suspicions were only strengthened after he had seen Soundwave in the room one day, with all of the maps and ancient text and drawings displayed, as Starscream carefully explained something to him. It heightened even more when Soundwave had allowed Starscream to launch an attack on a seemingly useless and insignificant human city in Washington a few months back. Now, Barricade was curious- curious and suspicious really- on what the two were really doing behind the rest of the Con's backs. And that is why he had volunteered to go on this absurd mission; to find out what Starscream has been doing, and decide for himself if it was worthy enough for him to be apart of it. He just couldn't imagine what top-secret, special operation would require them to go so far into the Earth though.

"How much longer do we have to slaggin' drill?" Barricade growled in annoyance, fed up with the meticulous sound. He was never the most patient mech.

"Quiet," Starscream hissed in response, his red gaze focused solely on the holographic map on the tablet in front of him. "I'm trying to read."

Barricade raised in optic ridge and sneered, "It takes you that long to read a map? Did all those years of beatings finally mess up your processors?"

He saw the way the Seeker's wings stiffened at that remark, and he snapped his crimson glare to him. Barricade's sneer widened to a smirk, it was always fun to get a rise out of the frenetic second-in-command.

"We wouldn't have to rely on this map so imperatively, if you had just done your job and capture the human like I told you to." Starscream snapped back, and Barricade frowned. "I mean really, it was a simple task. How hard could it have been to take a 5ft human girl?"

"Well maybe, I would have been more prepared if you would have told me she was traveling with one of the Terror Twins." Barricade snarled back.

Starscream rolled his optics, "It was only one of them."

"Yeah, the psychotic one."

Starscream huffed, "You're just a coward."

The black and white mech's eyes gleamed with a viperous delight, "Then what does that make you, Starscream?"

The Seeker didn't reply verbally, instead just shot the taller mech and icy glare, before returning to analyzing the map. The drill doned on in the background, and it was back to where they had started again. Finally, after what felt like days of continuous drilling, and trekking deeper and deeper into the Earth, the Seeker suddenly stopped, and the drill stilled. There amongst the rocks that were so red and so hot that they were almost molten, stood a large, slanted piece of rock that shined so brightly it gleamed. It was double the height of Megatron, and there was something that seemed so off-putting and unnatural about this type of rock that made Barricade frown curiously.

"Is this...Cybetronium?" Barricade mumbled out loud, running a servo against the smooth surface. A quick scan gave him the answer that he wanted. Why would there be metal from Cybertron on Earth? He thought to himself.

Starscream never answered him, instead he had walked directly up to the smooth metal gateway, unsheathing a claw, and began to cleanly print symbols on the metal. It didn't take long for Barricade to figure out that this was the old Cybertronian text that the Seeker had been looking at earlier, he just wondered what he wrote across the metal. Because whatever he wrote, had caused the metal to split neatly into two vertical halves, and Barricade felt a tremor that rocked him to his core as the slabs of metal began to slowly and loudly, move away from each other until there was just enough space for a Cybertronian to walk into.

Barricade gaped at the opening, suddenly unsure if he wanted to go through with this scheme, while Starscream let out an excited and borderline maniacal chuckle. Inside seemed to be a completely different world than on the outside, and for a nanoklik, Barricade had wondered if they had gone through a bridge without noticing. It was an enormous cavern on the inside, much more spacious than he originally thought and now Barricade was extremely interested in whatever Starscream and Soundwave were scheming. Starscream for his part, looked comparatively less awe-struck and amazed by his new surroundings, and instead grabbed something from his subspace. The black and white mech's gaze zeroed down on the glass vial in his digits that was so small even Starscream struggled with holding it correctly.

But what alarmed him wasn't the size of the vial, it was what was in the vial. Since he was a little sparkling, he had been told countless horror stories of what a substance like that could do to a Cybertronian. What it meant in general. And his processors nearly frizzed at the fact that the Seeker had been carrying it with him- on him this entire time! Perhaps he was a lunatic after all.

The black and white mech's optics widened, "Starscream, don't tell me that's what I think it is."

The Seeker's grin was sinister with the way it slowly stretched across his lip-plates, "Oh, it is."

He's fraggin' insane! I need to leave! Were Barricade's inner thoughts, and he was just about to act on them when the Seeker unclasped the vial. Neither of them had expected what would happen next.

First, they were in a cavern completely devoid of light except for the crack caused by the split metal at the opening. And then suddenly, they were plunged into a room, glowing in an eerie amethyst. Barricade's processors nearly stalled again when he saw the long, purple tubes that looked like wires which were running crissed-crossed everywhere in every direction, but they all stemmed from one thing. And that thing was a massive, diamond shaped object that looked suspiciously similar to a spark. He didn't even notice that Starscream was moving again, getting closer to the thing in the middle, and Barricade couldn't help the words that came out.

"Are you fraggin insane? What the pit are you doing?!" He hissed in a low voice.

"I can't do much, but this is a start." Starscream replied bemusedly, tipping the vial and pouring the dark purple liquid onto the thing.

And suddenly, Barricade could sense a pulse. It was somewhere between a beat like a humans', and a thrum like a Cybertronians', and he felt like his processors were going to overload. It radiated a strong, powerful energy that the mech had never felt before in his entire life. As the thing pulsed, Barricade could see the surge of purple energy animate the long, skinny tubes back to life.

"They're veins." The black and white mech murmured after a minute. Slowly he brought his gaze back to the center, "And if these are the veins, then this must be-"

"The heart, spark, whatever you want to call it. Essentially, it is his life-force, and dark energon is his fuel." Starscream replied, still wearing that creepy smile on his face-plates.

Barricade's optics narrowed in wary confusion, "His?"

"Yes," Starscream replied, turning to look at his comrade, "It is time that he begins to fully awaken."

(Charlie's POV)

Everything was different now, a lot more different, but in a good way.

Ever since Sideswipe and Sunstreaker confessed their love to me and vice versa, things had seemed a lot less gloomy, and were looking up for once in my life. Ratchet had confidently claimed that he found a way to stall the dark energon growth within me, my family has accepted the Autobots fully and was getting along quite nicely with everyone at base. I took up training classes again with the new wave of soldiers coming in, because I figured if I was going to have to live with the threat of Decepticons chasing after my ass, I should at least know how to have some defensive-training. But I had to admit, I was starting to enjoy the one-on-one (or should I say one-on-two?) lessons I was getting from the twins. Or well, I was enjoying them. Until those said private lessons became my personal hell.

A large spike of pain raced up my back as I landed on the hard, unforgiving floor for what had to have been the sixth time in a span of thirty minutes. I let out a ragged, pain-filled groan as I stared up at the ceiling, waiting for the blurriness in my vision to clear up, before daring to move again. Light chuckles were floating above me, and I sat up to glare at the two assholes that were standing in front of me, varied levels of smugness on their faces.

"Maybe we should stop here for today." Sunstreaker said, but the smirk on his face erased any chance of it being genuine.

"Seriously? You guys barely give me a chance to breathe before you attack! And how is this fair anyway, there's two of you." I muttered bitterly, ignoring Sideswipe's attempt to help me up. I dusted my clothes off.

"Oh please schlemiel, that was nothing. We were going easy on you." Sideswipe teased, but I paled. If that was them going 'easy' on me, then I really didn't want to find out what them going hard on me was.

"You're not gonna stay mad at us all day, are you?" Sideswipe complained when I refused to let him wrap his arm around me. Between the two of them, Sideswipe was the one more prone to skin-ship and public displays of affection.

I crossed my arms and pretended to pout, pointedly not looking in his direction. Sideswipe whined some more before I finally gave in and let him side-hug me. He made a happy, satisfied sound before leaning in to kiss me on my forehead. My mouth fell open in a silent gasp as I felt the blood rushing to my cheeks, and Sideswipe proceeded to tease me about them.

Even though we had declared ourselves officially together, it still shocked me a little when Sideswipe or Sunstreaker would try to kiss me. Or hug me, or hold my hand. It had been a long time since I had a boyfriend, and even my boyfriends in the past could never give me the amount of love and affection the twins did daily. It stilled baffled me how strongly they cared for me, but I guess it would only make sense, because I cared for them just as much.

"Don't you guys have your patrol rounds soon?" I asked them as we made our way out of the human training hangar.

Sunstreaker nodded, "We do, but it's not until another half an hour."

"Yeah, and besides, what would you do without us constantly at your side?" Sideswipe grinned.

"Finally have some peace and quiet." I said dryly, before adding a quick "Kidding!" when Sideswipe's eyes widened. He made the cutest facial expressions sometimes, and I wondered if he was even aware of how human it made him seem. "I'm actually planning on meeting up with Jenna later after her shift so we could go visit my mom and brother." I answered honestly.

"Well, I'm sure we could come by later if we pull some strings with Prowl-" The silver twins sentence was cut off by the crackle of the speakers as the PA system suddenly came to life.

"Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, please report to Optimus Prime's office immediately. I repeat, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, report to Prime's office. That is all." Prowl's deep voice boomed over the speakers.

"Speak of the devil." Sunstreaker murmured.

"Wait, why are they calling us in?" He turn to glance at his brother, "Did you do something? Did we do something?"

Sunstreaker shrugged silently, and Sideswipe turned to me. His eyebrows drawn in and a cute frown on his face, "Sorry sweetspark, looks like we have to part earlier than planned."

I blushed at the pet name but nodded anyway, "That's okay, you can come by later like you said."

Sideswipe nodded in return, "We'll see you when we see you."

I nodded, feeling the immediate lack of warmth as Sideswipe's arm slide from around my neck and both of their holo-forms vanished, leaving the tiny sparks and the smell of charred air in their wake. I stood there for a moment, taking in the scent that I'd come to like with a soft smile on my face, my fingers brushing against the place where Sideswipe had touched me when I noticed something.

Something incredibly wrong.

It was small, not really visible unless you were specifically searching for it. But it was there; a single, small purple vein that rain from the inside of my wrist all the way to the crease on my elbow. My eyes widened at this realization, how is this happening? I thought Ratchet's pills were working! A heavy, ominous feeling churned in the pits of my stomach. The hairs on my arms stood up, and I knew something had to be awry.

"Charlie!" A voice called, snapping me out of my thoughts and I turned towards the caller. Luckily for me, it was Quickshift.

His wide, silver optics widened when he saw me, "What in tha 10th circle of pit are you doin' here by ya'self?"

"Just came back from training." I replied.

"And tha lover boys?" He inquired.

Despite my previous worries, my lips split into a grin, "They were called to Prime's office."

He seemed to take this answer because after a moment he nodded, before grabbing my hand. I inwardly smiled at the contact of warmth again, "Perfect! Now we can finally spend some time together! I heard there was supposed ta be this awesome show on Netflix we gotta watch! And we should stop at the pharmacy to get ya a blanket cuz ya hand is cold as ice!"

I didn't have time to reply, before I was being dragged towards the opposite direction by a fervent little red bot.

(Sideswipe's POV)

Once we shifted from our holoforms and into our alte-modes, we transformed immediately in the Autobot hanger. I stretched my joints for a moment, before heaving a sigh as Sunstreaker rolled out his wrist-joints.

"This better be a life or death emergency." I grumbled, and my brother nodded silently as we made our way down to Prime's office.

Once we arrived, the door slid open, with Optimus sitting at his desk, Jazz and Prowl on either side of him.

"Prime, you called?" I asked curiously, nodding to him in respect.

"There has been a strange disturbance, our energon radars had spiked significantly in the past two hours. We've already deducted that whatever this new source isn't the Allspark shards, then we assumed it was entering this planet's atmosphere. We sent Dino and Jazz earlier to search, but we didn't find anything either. Which means that this strange source is resonating from somewhere on Earth."

I raised an optic ridge, "What on earth could give off such a strong energy signature like that?"

"I have my theories," Optimus began gravely, "But nothing can be proven until we figure out what it is and where it is coming from."

"So this is where we come in?" Sunstreaker asked the obvious unspoken question.

Prime nodded, "Yes. Prowl, Jazz, Ironhide, you both and myself will be going back to the States."

"How long will this take?" I asked.

"Hopefully, not very long."

I glanced at Sunny. ::Should we take it?::

::Do we really have a choice?::

Well, we were Autobots for a reason. I turned back to Prime, "How long do we have until we leave?"

"Two days."

"Okay." ::We'll tell her tonight.::

Sunstreaker nodded.

So it was a bit short, but I wanted to get this out for you guys before I get swarmed with college applications! Anyways thank you so much for reading, and make sure to comment because I love to read your thoughts! Until next time :)