Thanks for your patience, readers! Sorry this chapter took so long to get out, but it's because it's over 6,000 words long :U Anyway, enjoy the epic conclusion!

Thoughts and criticisms are encouraged and appreciated!

It didn't take long for Steve to make it out of the city. It helped that he was going much faster than the other vehicles around him, and they all seemed to swerve out of his way when he went through the intersections. Raoul probably would have yelled at him about that... But Raoul was gone, and he was trying not to think about that.

Once he'd gotten away from the more populated areas, Steve followed a road up the side of the mountain, trying to find somewhere high enough to get a view of the whole range. He was looking for the tallest mountain, and he had to see which one of them that was. After struggling for a bit trying to find a way up high, he went off road and started climbing that way. Looking out on the peak, he found that none of the nearby mountains looked to be any higher than the one he was already on.

That was a relief. He was already exactly where he needed to be! Well, almost exactly. He still had to find the mine entrance, though. That would prove to be a challenge. The Decepticons were careful to place their mines and their entrance points in places that humans were unlikely to find. After hours of trudging up and down the rocky terrain, Steve hadn't managed to catch sight of anything that could even possibly be the mine. The first few caves he came upon turned out to be just empty caverns, so he was starting to get pretty discouraged. After coming upon another cave that turned out to be too small to even drive into, Steve decided to take a rest and sat on a nearby outcropping of rocks.

He hadn't expected this to be easy, but it was still taking its toll on him. He transformed back a few plates on his chassis to reach into his storage space and pulled out what was left of the energon Frank had given him. The cube was somewhat crushed by being stored away for so long, but it's contents were so diminished already that it didn't even matter.

Steve was just about to reach up and remove his mask to down the rest of the energon, when he paused to think. Frank and the others were still just sitting around waiting back at his mine. Maybe the Decepticons had already gotten in contact with them... Or maybe someone else had found them.

His claws dug into the plastic of the cube, denting it further. What if something happened to Frank? He wasn't there to help. He wouldn't even know about it. The very idea was twisting his intake into knots. He didn't think he could even keep this energon down with the way he was suddenly feeling.

Letting out a heavy vent, Steve hunched over the cube and spoke aloud to himself, "This... was a mistake..."

Honestly, what had he been thinking? Did he expect to save Rodrigo? Was he going to heroically find the answers and save his mine or something? All he had done was get himself lost on an alien planet and then abandon the one person he'd met who was trying to help him out... And he thought he wasn't the type to leave a team mate behind. Of course he was. He'd done it to his own mine. He'd even done it to Frank! And for what? For this?

Rather than sit there and stew in his own misery, Steve slowly pulled himself onto his pedes again. Taking a few steps forward, he reached up to store the energon away again. Unfortunately, he wasn't quite paying attention, and stepped on some looser rocks that went sliding out from under him. Steve struggled to keep his footing, but it was no use. He tumbled to the side and went sliding down a rocky incline, banging heavily against the rocks and even taking out a few trees that got in his way. Finally, he slid to a stop just before reaching the bottom of the steep ravine.

Steve didn't move for a minute. He was feeling pretty dinged up, and there was Earth vegetation stuck in some of his joints. Just as he was thinking this couldn't possibly get any worse, he realized the cube he'd had in his servo was gone. He snapped his head up and looked down a few yards to where the rocks plateaued off at the bottom. During the fall he'd lost his grip on the cube, and it had gone flying down the hill and the plastic burst open on impact. The energon was splattered across the ground, useless.

"DAMN IT!" Steve screamed, slamming his fist into the rocks beneath him. It probably caused more damage to himself than the ground, but he didn't care. He pulled his arm back and struck again, then again, then again. "Damn this planet! Damn it to the Pit! I can't..." Letting his helm fall back onto the rocks, Steve vented heavily yet again. "I can't do this anymore..." He spoke quietly this time. "I want to go home."

He let his optics shutter for a moment. If only it were that easy. He couldn't go home. None of them could. But he could at least go back to his own mine- he could go back to Frank. He would fuss about all the dings Steve had gotten and help clean out all the gross organic stuff from his pedes and his joints. That sounded so tempting right now. Sure, they wouldn't be any closer to finding out what happened, but it would be a lot easier.

Feeling the crushing weight of defeat on his chassis, Steve struggled to pull himself upright. He only managed to get himself onto his knees before he finally turned his helm up to look around. The ravine was steep, but not steep enough that he wouldn't be able to climb out. He could make it out of there and be on his way back pretty quickly. He turned the other way to put his servos on a rock nearby to help pull himself all the way up, but something caught his optic and he hesitated.

Farther along the ravine, it ended in a steep wall with an overhang, and just below it... A massive, dark opening in the rock.

As Steve stared into the dark cavern, he felt his spark constrict in its casing. The fear that suddenly overcame him that was stronger than it had ever been on this journey. That was it. That had to be it! This narrow, steep ravine was the perfect place to put a mine entrance, and the cavern was leading down and into the mountainside. He'd found Rodrigo's mine! It was hitting him all of a sudden that he had no idea what he was going to find in that mine. If he went in there, his worst fear might be realized. He might even be killed! He had been about to give up and go back, so maybe he still could...

But no, he was here; he'd made it to the end. He had to at least look inside.

Feeling a sudden surge of energy, Steve quickly stood up and, after transforming out his blaster, he started towards the cave entrance.

Stepping inside, he slowed to a quiet pace, keeping his optics trained forward in the darkness. He couldn't make out much, but going in deeper made it pretty clear that this was not a natural cavern: this had been drilled out. It was definitely the mine.

As he continued down, he saw a barely visible, faint blue glow from up ahead. There was energon... Whether it was still crystallized or someone's spilled energon he couldn't tell, but the fact that he was so close to the main chamber and all the mine's lights were off was not a good sign.

He paused a moment just as he was about to round the corner to where the glow was coming from. This was it; whatever was waiting ahead was what he had been working so hard to find. He could feel his whole frame shaking, terrified by the possibility of what he might see... Drawing in one last deep ventilation, Steve whirled around the corner with his blaster primed to fire!

It was so dark he could barely see into the massive chamber, but after a few quick sweeps across the room with his blaster, it appeared that the whole place was empty.

Steve remained cautious as he stepped forward to look around a bit more. The blue light was, in fact, from the crystallized energon still protruding from the cavern walls. There was no spilled energon to be seen. From what he could tell in the darkness, it didn't seem like there had been a fight here. No blaster marks, no exploded energon, nothing of the kind that would indicate a struggle. That helped calm his nerves him a bit, and he transformed his blaster away.

"Hello?!" Steve called out, looking up towards distant ceiling. "Is there anyone here? ...Rodrigo?"

His voice echoed back across the multiple levels of the mine... But there was no other response.

Feeling confident that he really was alone, Steve flicked on the headlights on his chassis to get a better look around. There was no mining or processing equipment to be found, and the processed and cubed energon, which a mine like this ought to have a lot of, was all gone too. Someone had cleaned this place out... But who?

Turning his helm towards the center of the cavern, Steve finally saw something that had been left behind: the main console. That controlled the lights, the elevator, and the mine's communications. Who ever had decided to clear out this mine had probably decided this was too big and heavy to bother with. And it was big. This mine was one of the largest they had, so their communication equipment was much stronger than the one back at his own mine. If anything would be able to reach out for help, it was this console.

Hurrying over to it, Steve stepped up onto the platform and pressed the command to power it on. Nothing happened. He tried again with the same result. Someone had disabled it, and unfortunately, he had no idea how to get it up and running again.

After a moment, Steve let his servo slide off the console's keyboard. This whole time he had been looking for the mine, he had at least expected to find some answers when he got here. Whether they would be good or bad was what he had been worried about. He hadn't expected to find nothing at all. All he had now was more questions. Where did everyone go? Were they evacuated by Decepticons, or captured by Autobots? Did they all get tired of waiting and leave like those other Vehicons? He didn't have a clue... He had nothing.

Steve sank to the ground, drawing his legs up to his chassis. His headlights faded off and he sat there silently in the darkness. He didn't want to move. He probably couldn't have brought himself to move even if he had wanted to.

The minutes passed by and still he stayed curled up by the console, unmoving. Now that he'd found this place empty, he really should go back to his own mine... But what would be the point? He didn't have any answers, and what if when he finally got back, his own team had vanished?! If he got back and everyone was gone- if Frank had disappeared too... he didn't even want to know about it! He was better off just sitting there, alone in the dark, until he rusted and his spark flickered out...

He didn't know how much time had passed, but finally, Steve was shocked out of his despondency by the sound of an engine rumbling towards him. Turning his optics up, he saw a faint light coming from the entrance but it was growing stronger by the second.

Before Steve could even try to stand up, a pair of headlights came bursting into the cavern and a vehicle screeched to a stop, pointed right at him. He was somewhat blinded by the sudden light, so Steve couldn't tell what or who the vehicle was, so he instinctively drew his blaster.

"Stay back!" He shouted a warning, but quickly realized it was unnecessary. The lights suddenly dimmed to low and the engine cut off as the car powered down.

"Hey, chill out, man. It's only me!"

Steve recognized the voice but he couldn't believe it... That is, until Raoul stepped out of the car and into the dim light of the car's parking lights. "Sorry, didn't mean to scare you." He shrugged.

"How did you...?" Steve looked over at the bulky, green and black car Raoul had gotten out of.

"I swiped it from that lady who tried to shock you." Raoul was smirking as he approached. "She may have had some tough weapons, but other than that, she was a push-over. And everybody else had already been scared off, so I figured I'd help myself. It was the only way I could come after you."

Steve watched as Raoul struggled to pull himself up the step onto the platform with him. "But why did you come after me? I left you behind... I thought you'd be mad."

Raoul stopped as he finally reached Steve, and looked up at the sitting robot towering over him. "Well, a little. But to be fair, that whole thing was kinda my fault, wasn't it?" He mumbled, "Sorry I tricked you... It was really uncool of me to try and uh... Sell you to the Geddis brothers."

"Yeah... It was."

"And I'm sorry. Really, I am! That's why I had to come find you again," Raoul continued with a smile, "I had to make sure my main machine wasn't in trouble."

"No... No trouble." Steve looked out at the empty mine. "Nothing at all, in fact... Everybody's already gone."

Raoul turned to look around as well. "Oh... Where did they go? Can we find them?"

Steve shrugged. "All the systems were disabled. I can't even turn on the lights..." He pulled his legs back up to his chassis again. "You were right, Raoul. I should have given up already... This was a huge waste of time."

"No! No, that's crap, man!" Raoul reached forward, placing his hands on the plating of Steve's ankle. "I was totally wrong. I was just afraid to take risks for myself so I kept on making compromises... and you know where that got me? Working for chumps like the Geddis brothers! But you're not like me, Steve. You can't give up now. You're so close to finding some answers!"

"But I can't! The console is-"

"The console is just a machine. And you happen to be lookin' at a world-class mechanic, man!" Raoul turned and jumped off the platform, running over to his car. "Alien tech or not, I'll have that thing up and running in no time at all."

Steve watched as Raoul pulled his toolbox out of the car and hurried back over. He couldn't be serious. This technology was thousands of years more advanced than anything Raoul had ever seen; there was no way the human was going to be able to turn it back on by fiddling with his little tools! ...But it wasn't like there were any other options left. And maybe he could manage to get a little power into the console. Anything at all would be helpful, because then Steve could step in and work the controls to power the rest of it on. Against his better judgement, Steve was actually starting to feel a bit of hope again.

Raoul hurried back over and stepped over to the side of the massive machine.

"Alright." He said, placing his toolbox down. "Let's start by pulling back some of these panels." He looked up at Steve. "Think you can help me with that, pal?"

Steve nodded and shifted to his knees right in front of the console. It took him a little bit of finagling, but once he got his claws into the metal, he managed to pry a section of the panels back.

Raoul let out an impressed whistle as he looked at the inner workings of the machine. "I got my work cut out for me..." He mumbled. Then he reached down, pulling out a few tools from the box. "But if I can hot-wire a car, I can sure as hell hot-wire this baby!"

As Raoul started touching the wires inside, Steve scooted back a bit to watch him work. It would definitely be awhile before he made any progress, so he may as well sit back and try not to worry anymore than he already was.

Unfortunately, just as he was starting to relax a little, a blaring siren suddenly erupted from the console! Raoul was so startled he dropped his tools, staggering backwards while covering his ears.

"What the hell?" He shouted, "I barely did anything at all! You didn't tell me this thing had an alarm, man!"

"I didn't know it did!" Steve had to shout over the blaring siren, and his audio receptors were aching from the noise.

He'd never seen one of their consoles do this, and back in his own mine the foreman had been rooting around in their own system for way longer than Raoul had. Something had set it off, but what did that mean? Was it just going to keep making this awful noise? Then after a moment, another sound joined the wailing screech: a mechanical voice.

"Organic life detected: initiating defense protocols"

"That sounds bad!" Raoul quickly leapt away from the panels just as a visible charge of electricity ran through the circuits. The blue sparks were arcing dangerously close to the human, so Steve quickly scrambled forward, scooping Raoul up into his servos. A few dizzying seconds later, Raoul found himself behind the wheel of Steve's vehicle mode again and they were zooming off to a safe distance from the electrified machinery.

Once they were in the clear, Steve circled back around just in time so the two of them could watch smoke start pouring from out of the console's paneling as it continued to sizzle with charge.

"That was too close..." Raoul mumbled, leaning back in the seat. "Sorry about that, man... I mean... I've dealt with some pesky alarm systems in my line of work, but that was just unfair."

Steve let out a resigned vent as he watched the smoke floating up towards the high ceiling of the cavern. "Well... I probably shouldn't have gotten my hopes up." He replied, "But I didn't realize our tech could be set to... uh... self-destruct if a human messed with it."

Raoul opened Steve's door and hopped out. "So this thing's totally fried, I guess... we'll just have to do better next time." he said starting back towards the platform again.

Steve's whole chassis lowered sadly as Raoul spoke. "Raoul... There is no next time. You said it yourself: the thing's fried."

"Right. This one is." Raoul shrugged his shoulders as he continued to walk, "But there's other mines around, aren't there?"

"Oh. Well, there are, but if we couldn't get this one to work-"

"We couldn't get it to work 'cause we didn't know the thing was boobytrapped against humans!" Raoul interrupted. He paused to climb up onto the platform and stopped right next to his toolbox to turn back and look at Steve. "But if we find another one, I can just have you do the repair work while I talk you through it. No alarms are gonna go off for one of you miners fixing your own console."

"I guess that's true." Steve slowly rolled closer to the edge of the platform. "But wait, are you saying you want to come with me? I thought-"

Raoul smiled down at the purple car below him. "I'm not gonna let you go it alone, man. I promised to help you and that's what I'm gonna do. For real, this time!"

Before Steve could offer his thanks, or say anything at all for that matter, he was cut off by a flash of light and the distinct sound of a groundbridge portal opening up!

It took a moment for Steve's optics to adjust to the now green light flooding the cavern, but he managed to get his sight back just in time to see a group of five human's hurry through a portal just behind Raoul, each of them with a weapon drawn and ready to fire.

Humans with a groundbridge? Oh no...

Steve froze up, trying to keep as still as possible so as to look like just a regular car. Unfortunately, Raoul was already in the human soldiers' sight. The one in front, a big, square looking human with darker skin went straight up to Raoul.

"Oh, it's just a kid." He said, looking down at the other human who was staring with wide eyes back at the still spinning portal. The soldier pulled a black box with an antenna off his waist and spoke into it. "False alarm, guys. It's just some random punk who broke into the console."

"Wh-what...? Wait, who are you guys?" Raoul finally spoke up. He took a few cautious steps away with his hands up. "I don't want any trouble, okay?"

Before their leader could respond to Raoul, one of the armored soldiers flanking him spoke up. "Agent Fowler! That vehicle-"

Steve felt a chill run through his tank. For a brief second he considered swerving around and speeding for the exit as fast as the he could, but then he noticed the human wasn't looking at him. He was looking at the green car behind him: the one that Raoul had driven into the mine. As he spotted the car, the human named Fowler's expression suddenly became much harder, and he reached forward grabbing ahold of Raoul's arm so he couldn't back away any farther.

"Oh, so you are with them, huh?" He said glancing around the cave, "Who else is here with you, boy? Where's the rest of your crew?"

Raoul tried to lean away, but Agent Fowler was holding on fast to his arm. The other humans with him had their weapons primed and were moving forward, looking cautiously around the dark cave.

"I-I don't know what you're talking about, man!" Raoul insisted. He dared a glance over at Steve, probably looking for some sort of help. Unfortunately, Fowler seemed to notice, and signaled the other humans to move in on Steve.

As the humans jumped off the platform and started towards Steve, Raoul was now being dragged away towards the portal.

"We'll see about that once you're back at the base, son." Fowler reached onto his belt and pulled out a pair of shiny cuffs. "And I suggest you come quietly. You're in enough trouble as it is."

Steve was still frozen in place, even though the humans were closing in on him, he was doing his absolute best to just sit still and look like a regular car... but he couldn't let this happen. Raoul had come back for him. He had even promised to help Steve find another mine so they could contact the Decepticons. Raoul was his team mate now. There was no way he was going to let him be captured.

Before Fowler had a chance to reach forward and put the restraints on Raoul, Steve revved his engine as loud as he could, and took off for the platform the humans were standing on. The others had to dive out of his way so as to not get hit, but he wasn't interested in them so he let them escape. Just as he was about to reach the edge of the platform, he transformed back into his robot mode with his blaster at the ready, and took aim.

"Let him go! Now!"

Agent Fowler's expression went from stern to some mixture of shock and dumbfounded, and he immediately dropped his grip on Raoul, holding his hands up in surrender. Once he was free, Raoul sprinted across the platform towards Steve.

"Whoa, hang on a second!" Fowler called out, taking a step forward, "You're a Decepticon, right? I think there's been a misunderstanding. Just let me explain-"

"Don't listen to this chump, Steve! Let's get outta here!"

Raoul was right: Steve wasn't interested in anything this human had to say, he already knew who he was working with. In one fluid motion, Steve scooped up Raoul into his servos, turned towards the exit, and transformed, then went speeding off towards the exit. The humans didn't fire after him, but just as he made it out of the cavern, he definitely heard the Fowler human requesting backup on his communication device.

"Steve, what the hell- Who were those guys?" Raoul was glancing out the back window as they drove through the cave tunnel towards the surface. It didn't look like they were being followed, but Steve had other things on his mind.

"They're... they're with the Autobots. They must have been, they had a groundbridge."

"A what?"

"That portal!" Steve shouted, "It teleports you places, it.. oh slag, the Autobots got the signal that we were in there. They knew where that mine was! What if they've found the others?!"

As he finished this sentence they came blasting out of the tunnel's entrance and into the rocky ravine outside. Steve slammed on his brakes and transformed back into his root mode. Raoul, who had been in his front seat, found himself suddenly being hauled up into the air and was grabbed by Steve and placed on his shoulder. He only had a second to grab onto the mech's plating before he started moving again. Steve hurried forward and started climbing the ravine wall

"I have to get back." Steve said, ignoring Raoul's protest that he slow down. "I have to warn them all- I have to warn Frank! He's in danger!"

Raoul stayed quiet for a moment, then let out a quiet expletive that Steve didn't understand. "Alright, man... I'm not gonna be able to fight off any Autobots, but I wanna go with you!" He said, giving Steve's shoulder a tight squeeze. "Just in case you need me, I wanna be there."

Steve didn't respond immediately. He should probably have been grateful, but at that moment he was too consumed with worry for his friends... Like Rodrigo. There hadn't been any sign of the miners in that mine, or that there had been a fight down there. What had happened to him? What were the Autobots doing with the Vehicons?!

After a few minutes of struggling to get up the steep hill of the ravine, Steve finally made it to the top. Every circuit in his frame was screaming at him to rest for a moment, but he didn't have that time to waste. He had to get back to his own mine to make sure that whatever terrible thing the Autobots had done here, they wouldn't get a chance to do it to the rest of his friends! He picked Raoul up off his shoulder and placed him on the ground so he could transform. Once in his vehicle mode, he popped open his door and Raoul immediately jumped in.

Just as Steve was about to take off down the mountainside, a loud roar was heard from down in the ravine. It sounded like an engine- the Autobots must be coming after them! Realizing he was probably low on time, Steve slammed down his gas pedal and headed for the cover of the trees. He wasn't even able to make it out of the clearing before the source of the noise became apparent: something shiny and silver flew straight up and out of the ravine and into the air above them. It took a moment for Steve to realize that it wasn't a missile or projectile, but an actual jet... but wait. The Autobots didn't have any jets on Earth, right?

He didn't even have time to think about what that might mean before the jet swerved around and headed straight for him! There was nothing Steve could do about it, he wasn't fast enough to get away. All he could do was slam on his brakes as the jet got closer, hoping that whatever it was going to fire at him would miss.

To his surprise, he didn't hear any blaster fire or missiles coming his way. It became apparent why not a moment later when the jet pulled upward suddenly and transformed into what was clearly not an Autobot. It was an Eradicon, in fact- the same frame as Frank, but with a silver paintjob instead.

They glared down at Steve through the optical slit of their black visor and shouted, "What the frag do you think you're doing?!"

It was a good thing Steve didn't have any time to feel relieved that this was not an Autobot, because it would have been gone the instant he recognized their voice, anyway. "AA-00?" He asked, instinctively inching backwards at the name of their superior officer.

They seemed to recognize Steve by his voice as well. "Oh, ST-03. Of course it's you." They said, their wings giving an irritated twitch. "And who exactly gave you permission to leave your mine? Or scan a new alt-mode? What, so you thought you could get away with going on a little joy ride before you had to leave, did you?"

Steve was still somewhat dumbfounded by their sudden appearance, so he wasn't quick to offer a reply. Raoul was still in his driver's seat, though, and he seemed to have something to say. He opened Steve's door and hopped out onto the ground to glare up at AA-00.

"Who's this jerk, Steve?" He demanded, "Are they with the Autobots too?"

At the sight of Raoul, AA-00 visibly drew back in disgust. "Ugh! You're letting one of those things ride in you? That's disgusting..."

"That doesn't answer my question." Raoul snapped, returning the Eradicon's glare.

"Wait, AA-00... something's gone wrong! The mine down there, NTX-19, the Autobots were-"

"What was that about the Autobots?"

Steve didn't recognize that voice. He swerved around to face the ravine again in time to see a massive blue and red mech with an Autobot insignia glowing brightly right in the center of his chassis. A jolt of fear shot through Steve's spark at the sight of it, and instinctively, he transformed out his blasters. Just as he was about to fire on the Autobot, he was stopped when a heavy pede slammed down on his hood.

"Stop that, you idiot!" AA-00 commanded, "Ultra Magnus is with me."

It took Steve a moment for those words to sink in, and even when they did he didn't fully understand them. He hit his reverse to get out from under the Eradicon's weight, and then transformed to stare at them.

"What do you mean with you?" He demanded, "That's an Autobot!"

AA-00 seemed to be growing annoyed with his questions. "Do I look like I don't know that." As they spoke the Autobot, Ultra Magnus, stepped over to their side and looked down at Steve along with them. "Is that why you didn't come back with everyone else? You didn't want to have to cooperate with the scary, Autobots? Well, tough. Things are changing now that the war's over, so get used to it. You'll be seeing a lot more of the Autobots from now on."

"Over?!" Steve stumbled backwards, suddenly feeling dizzy. He backed up enough to bump into one of the rocks jutting out of the ground, and fell backwards onto it. He just sat there for a moment looking shocked, until Raoul ran up to him, placing a hand on his leg.

"Hey man, you okay?"

"Y-yeah I just..." Steve paused, rubbing the side of his helm, "It's just a lot to take in all of a sudden... a minute ago I thought I was going to die, y'know?"

"Yeah... This is a pretty big 180." Raoul nodded.

While the two of them spoke, at the edge of the ravine, a huffing and puffing Agent Fowler managed to pull himself up and onto the flat ground of the clearing to join all of them. Once he'd pulled in enough breath to speak again, he looked up at Ultra Magnus.

"Everything alright up here, Commander?" He asked.

"Affirmative, Agent Fowler." Magnus replied, "It appears as though this Vehicon did not receive AA-00's initial message, and therefore did not realize the war had ended."

"What message?" Steve asked, "When was there a message?"

"It's was almost a full cycle ago by now." AA-00 huffed, crossing their arms in front of their chassis. "I sent it out to all the mines telling them what had happened and when they could expect to be sent a bridge to return to Cybertron."

Steve leapt to his feet suddenly, "Cybertron?" He shouted, "We're going back to Cybertron?!"

"Yes!" AA-00 snapped, "It was all in my message! If you had stuck around in your mine for long enough you would have heard it."

"I was in my mine until a few sub cycles ago!" Steve insisted, "If I had heard we were going back to Cybertron I wouldn't have left. And... and I've met other Vehicons who left their mines for the same reason; there was no message."

"There was a message." AA-00 looked annoyed again. "I recorded it and had the Autobots broadcast it to the common frequency used by all the mines."

Ultra Magnus, still standing behind AA-00, nodded along with them. "Yes, and we were very careful about using the correct frequency. We used the one catalogued on the Nemesis just to be certain it would reach the mines."

Suddenly AA-00's wings perked up. "Wait..." they slowly turned to face Magnus, "You didn't use the broadcasting system on the Nemesis, did you?"

"...Well, yes. Is that a problem?"

"Oh of all the-!" AA-00 stopped themself in the middle of the exclamation, and leaned forward, pinching their visor between their digits. "The Nemesis is ON CYBERTRON!" They finally said, "If you send a message from another star system it's not going to get here for another decacycle!"

Ultra Magnus didn't say anything, but the massive Autobot did look rather sheepish standing there being yelled at like a sparkling. Steve didn't really get time to appreciate how funny the whole scene looked before AA-00 rounded on him.

"You! Let's go, I've gotta get back to Cybertron and fix this mess." They said, turning to head back towards the ravine.

Back to Cybertron... Steve never thought he'd hear those words spoken so casually ever again. Now that he'd had a moment to actually absorb what was happening, he was overjoyed! This meant his friends were not only alive, but they were safe back on their own home planet. Of all the possibilities he had prepared himself for at the end of his journey, something this wonderful had never crossed his mind. He was going home!

"Hey... so this worked out, I guess."

Steve looked back down at Raoul as the human spoke. "Guess you didn't need me after all..." He shrugged. "I'm glad for you, Steve."

"Of course I needed you!" Steve knelt down to get closer to his level, "If you hadn't been there to help me, I would have gotten lost, or crashed into even more unsuspecting humans, or... or I might have given up when I found this mine empty." Holding out a single digit to the human, he added, "Thanks Raoul. You saved me."

With a smile, Raoul pulled Steve's servo closer and wrapped his arms around as much as he could of the massive hand. "That just makes us even, I guess."

"UGH. Enough with the feels-fest!" AA-00 was still perched at the edge of the ravine and now glaring back at the pair. "Say goodbye to your pet already, we're in a hurry."

"Oh..." Steve looked from AA-00 back down to Raoul again. "Well, uh... It doesn't have to be goodbye. Maybe you could come with us?"

"NO!"

Steve glanced up at AA-00 in annoyance, but said nothing more. It was Agent Fowler who broke the silence this time, walking up to join Steve and Raoul. "Don't worry, I'm sure we'll work something out. You'll see each other again." He put his hand on Raoul's shoulder, "You ought to come back with me though, son. We've got some questions for you about that car you had down there. And we'll get you caught up on the rules that come along with making friends with a cybertronian."

"There's rules?" Raoul allowed Agent Fowler to lead him away this time. "How many humans have made friends with these guys?"

Fowler responded with a quiet chuckle, "Well they're not at the base anymore, but we had quite a cast of characters hanging around for awhile there..."

Steve stood up straight and followed after them. AA-00 continued to shout for them to hurry even as they all started down the side of the ravine back towards the mine and the open groundbridge within. Steve was barely listening to them, though. There were a million thoughts running through his processor. He was really going back to Cybertron. He'd never even dared to dream about this day coming, but now it was happening. There were so many possibilities open now that they had their planet back- it could mean so many different things! It wouldn't be the same as it was before the war, but that might not be a bad thing. As Steve was walking down the cavern entrance into the empty mine, he honestly wasn't sure what he would think of the new Cybertron. The only thing he could definitively say was that he was excited, and he was ready to see whatever it had in store for him!