… Beautiful. That's pretty much what I'm thinking right now. What is beautiful you make ask? Not me that's for sure. I don't have that high of an opinion myself to compliment myself, but I am happy with the conversion of my new guns I have on hand. They offer a bit more oomph than my gattling wrist guns and should allow me a bit more power to take on the stronger Decepticons, such as Megatron, Starscream, and so on. The two weapons I have on my table are there beautifully but I also can't help but feel my Lahti was almost not worth getting.

The way how Jack's mom was… angry at me was not… pleasant. Not at all. Faaaaaaarr from it I swear. The verbal berating she gave me was… "Uhhhuhuhuh…" I shiver at the memory. Seeing as how my mother never really did anything like that to me, this was a whole new experience for me. Felt like I had an actual mother… but I reeeeaaaalllly don't want to do that ever again. "Phew." I let out a breath of air decide to go for a walk. I walk out of my room and head down the way towards the main area. When I get there I spot Ratchet at his usual spot as always but the others aren't here. "Hey Ratchet, how's it going?" I ask walking up the stairs closer to him.

"Recently, nothing of note. No new energon deposits or Decepticon activity…" He pauses and seems to tap a bit more hastily on his console. "Until now."

"What you got?" I ask as I lean on the rail, staring up at the screen. I don't see anything right off the bat so he has to be the one to tell me what's going on.

"I think I saw some Decepticon signatures appear on screen a little while ago, but they were only a moment and they aren't there anymore. So I can't tell if the Decepticons are on the move or we have glitch in the system."

"So what do we do?" I ask, looking at him.

"I'm going to call the others here just in case our enemy's really are up to something. Can you go up top and get Arcee while I get the others?" He asks.

"Sure." Without question, I jog over to the elevator and ride the thing all the way up to the top of the base. As soon as the doors open I am greeted to the open air and sunset atmosphere of the outside. As step out the elevator, it doesn't take me long to find Arcee. Peaking around the corner I spot her standing in front of the grave belonging to Cliffjumper. I stay in cover and out of sight as I barely catch what she's saying.

"Hey, partner. Heck of a view you got up here. If there's even a small chance your spark is out there listening, well, we could really use you, Cliff. Seems like every day another decepticon arrives on the scene. We're outnumbered and outgunned. Yeah, I know what you'd say - "sounds like a fair fight." If that's the world we live in, so be it. I just want you to know I haven't given up. I'm gonna find the 'con who took you from us." She firmly finishes saying with conviction.

After seeing that she's having a moment with the late Cliffjumper, I decide not to encroach on her moment so I turn around and begin heading back down, opting to come up and tell her if we do need to move out. "I know your there Mason!"

"Nngh!" I let out a low strangled cry at being found out. There is silence for a few seconds before I slowly poke my head out. I spot Arcee at the edge of the plateau, next to the small grave of Cliffjumper. She has a small smile on her and gestures for me to move to her. I step and do just that, walking over to her carefully and slowly. Eventually I make it to her and stand next to her as we stare out into the sunset. "… Sorry. I didn't mean to interrupt."

"That's alright. I know you didn't mean to." She replies, not looking at me. We stay in silence for a few more seconds just staring out into the landscape. "You know, I'm sorry you didn't get to meet Cliff more openly. I think you two would have been good friends."

"You think?" I ask, glancing at the mound where his horn is before back at Arcee.

"I think so. Your both hot headed and brash, jumping into things you really shouldn't…"

"Hey!" I loudly proclaim with my finger held up. "… I should be angry but the truth hurts." I dejectedly state. I did kind of go through a bunch of things I really shouldn't have when I was a part of the team, even before when I wasn't, such as stumbling upon an energon site with a giant Decepticon warship parked nearby it and look where I am now.

This gets chuckle out of the femme bot, alleviating her former somber mood. I smile as well, happy to have at least lighten the mood a little for her. She settles down from her small laugh and gives me a smile. "Thanks. I… I kind of needed that."

"No problem." I reply. I give us a few moments of silence before I sigh. "Listen Arcee, I'm sorry to cut this short but I came up here because we're getting some weird readings down below. Ratchet thinks its Decepticons on the move and wants us downstairs incase we need roll out ASAP."

"Alright then." She turns around and begins heading towards the elevator. "Thanks for telling me. Let's get going then."

I nod after her and take a few steps to follow her. However I stop after a few and glance back to the grave of Cliffjumper. "… I will help her Avenge you. And with my suit, a piece of you will have a chance for revenge as well." I whisper towards him before I break out into a run to catch up to Arcee. 'Count on it.'

A short elevator ride down and everyone is situated back down on the main level of the base in front of the ground bridge. "Alright Ratchet, what's the problem?" Arcee asks as she and Mason come walking up to them.

"Well, nothing at first but I wanted to be sure of—" Ratchet begins to say until his scanners flare up. He quickly begins to focus in on the signal now that its more focused and persistent than the spotty signals he got earlier. "There we are. Optimus, our scanners have detected a Decepticon energy profile, but it's ancient." He quickly informs Optimus of what he found.

"The past has a way of catching up with the present, ratchet." He grimly tells the medic. "Everyone get ready. If this energy profile is indeed from the past, then we must ensure that the Decepticons don't retrieve whatever it is they are looking for."

"That sounds like a good idea." Mason mutters before he leans back. "As we've experienced recently, our track record for old derelict pieces of Cybertronian tech haven't exactly been to our favor."

"The scraplets." Bulkhead hisses in disgust at the memory.

"The Cybonic plague." Arcee mutters as well.

"While it may be dangerous, we have to assess and make sure whatever is on that ship doesn't give the Decepticons an edge." Ratchet informs them.

"Mason, suit up. We may need your small stature to gain into blocked off areas." Optimus orders. He salutes him.

"Yes sir." He replys and begins heading to his room, ready to arm up and back up his team.

One ground bridge later and we made it to our destination: an intact ancient defunct Decepticon war ship. The place is pretty secluded and abandoned so it's been pretty much untouched… until now. "So you guys haven't seen this ship before?" I ask the others as we walk through the dark bowels of the ship. I proposed to take point to prevent any problems from targeting the bots. The plague before is tailored to Cybertronians and while it might destroy my suit, it shouldn't have as much of an effect on me personally than the others. True we have the cure in hand but we can't take any chances. At the same time, I have both of my new weapons on me, ready to be used and tested extensively in the field against any opponents we find. My Lahti is in my hands, aiming every which way to look and keep an eye out for any potential threats.

"Not at all. We would have totaled it otherwise." Bulkhead comments.

"This ship most likely shutdown when it crashed on the planet and by the time we made our way here, it just never showed up on our radar." Arcee adds.

"Our scanners are primarily meant to scan for any active Cybertronian signatures, be they Autobot or Decepticon. And the one you are currently in only recently turned on. Combine that with the spotty signals I tried to find before and theirs a good chance our enemies are looking for something there." Ratchet informs us over the radio.

"And whatever it is they are looking for must not be good." Bumblebee adds finally.

"Well hopefully it won't be too bad like our previous missions." I hopefully say.

"I am your commanding officer!" A loud angry voice yells through the halls.

"Did you guys hear that?" I ask the others. No one answers as we find our answer in the form of one of our most hated enemy's down a hallway we turn down.

"Airachnid!" Arcee growls out in anger at seeing her. I'm not too happy seeing her either.

"Surrender." Optimus orders to her.

She's definitely the type of be smart because instead of engaging us she immediately turns right around and bolts off down the corridor around the corner. We take off running after her with Arcee speeding ahead of us, Optimus behind her, me next and Bumblebee and Bulkhead bringing up the rear.

"Airachnid, you traitor!" A peculiar sight we come across when we turn the corner is she was not alone. Starscream is here as well but he's on the ground and tangled up in Airachnids webs, immobilizing him. Airachnid completely goes past him and heads to a dirt rock wall. Where she immediately drills her way through it and up to the surface. We Autobots move past the downed Decepticon in favor of the more immediate threat. Arcee immediately begins crawling through the tunnels without question.

"Arcee! Wait!" Optimus calls out to her but she doesn't stop, nor can Optimus follow her due to the small size of the hole. He looks at the hole before turning to me. "Stryker…"

"On it." I walk up to the hole and holster my rifle on my back. It collapses and magnetizes onto a portion of my back for me to carry my weapons without overloading my arms. I jump into the hole and begin my treck upwards. I have to brace myself for a second as the earth shakes for a second and I hear crashing noises up top. "Not good." Unlike the others my gloves fingers aren't sharp enough to dig into the ground, so I have to jam my hands into the ground and my feet as well in order to gain some traction for me to climb up the tunnel. I have to finesse myself up a little and I'm slower than I would have liked but eventually I manage to climb out of the tunnel and onto the surface. When I do, the situation is not good.

I watch as Arcee charges at Airachnid but she doesn't move whatsoever. She goes for a punch but Airachnid anticipates that, easily dodging the attack and getting the edge on Arcee, getting her into a harsh lock and immobilizing her. Their backs are to me so Airachnid doesn't see me grabbing one of my weapons. "Speaking of, add any more deceased partners to your growing list?"

*Puing*Boom*

"Arhhhh!" Airachnid cries out as my shot hits her in the back. From my Denel Neopup Inkuzi PAW-20 grenade launcher, courtesy of Agent Fowler, a small 20mm energon laced ordinance flies out and impacts Airachnids back, making a blue explosion go off on them, engulfing the two of them for a second. This sends both of the bots to the ground, Arcee a little dazed and Airachnid rolling further away seeing as how she took the brunt of the hit, which is what I was going for. When she stops, she turns and angrily stares at me.

"No, she doesn't Airachnid." I threaten her. She hisses at me and gets ready to pounce at me but something makes her optics widen and to turn right around. I'm about to fire again but loud stomps come from behind me. A quick look back shows Optimus running towards us, blasters out and ready to fire on our enemy. Looking back at Airachnid, she decides not to fight us, especially when I shoulder my launcher and get ready to fire at her again, so she transforms and takes to the skies. Optimus opens fire on her and I try to aim at her but she flies too far and moving too fast for me to get a good enough shot on her. Instead of wasting the ammo, I lower my weapon and just watch her run. With a sigh of frustration at seeing her gone, I turn to Arcee. "You know what was pretty stupid Arcee." I bluntly tell her at how she almost got taken out so easily.

"I almost had her." She sulks, making me shake my head.

"You were in her arms." I hiss right back at her.

"Arcee, you know better than to engage the enemy alone." Optimus warns her.

"Not her. Not after what she did to tailgate." She angrily states. I notice her hands clenching tightly as she looks like she's remembering something, something not good. Most likely the memory of Tailgate. "She will pay." I can understand her want for revenge for her partner, I would as well as in her position, but I would want to also make sure I keep some sense in my target to make sure I don't meet the same fate as my fallen comrade.

"Revenge will not bring back those we have lost. Is that understood?" Optimus tells her.

"Don't meet the same fate as him Arcee." I sincerely tell her, hoping my tone would show her to be careful not just for her sake but also the others. She lets out a frustrated sigh as she looks away but no doubt relents.

"Move it!" A new voice interrupts us. Turning around we see the rest of our team walking up to us, plus one bound Decepticon.

"No need to use force. I'll tell you anything you want to know." Starscream informs us as he's pushed forward.

"Is that right? And what do you want in return?" Bulkhead, and myself a little, are a little skeptic as to what Starscream would ever want in return from us.

"I want to be… on your side."

"…"

*Thunk*Thunk*

I proceed to hit the side of my helmet a couple times. "Arcee, is my helmet on the fritz or did I just hear something I never thought I'd hear?" I ask her.

"Nope. He said he wants to join us." She answers.

"Right." I reply, confused still.

"On our side? Yeah, right. And I've been lobbing with the fallen." Bulkhead jokes. I don't know who he's talking about but must not be good considering the context of his joke.

"You wouldn't betray the decepticons." Arcee claims for the 'con.

"Wouldn't I? What have they done for me lately, besides humiliate me, spy on me, demote me? Megatron tried to extinguish my spark in cold blood then all but replaced me with that traitorous wretch airachnid. She abandoned me, left me for scrap. So, why not rat them out?" He replies venomously.

"He's telling the truth about Megatron trying to scrap him. We saw with our own eyes." Arcee says, motioning to me. I nod back in confirmation.

"He is right about all that stuff though." I say with a little bit of skeptically.

"You're not saying you actually trust Starscream?" Bulkhead questions.

"I trust him about as far as I can throw him… and I'm not that strong." While what is say is bit of a jab at me, I don't claim for my suit to be able to give me several tons of strength, being small, maneuverable and dodgeable are what I prefer to focus on.

"Trust him? Never. But this may be the one time our objectives align." While Arcee doesn't trust him to the same level as me, she does have a point about taking this opportunity for our advantage.

"You're right to be wary, Bulkhead, but I agree with Arcee." Optimus agrees. With our set, it seems we are going to work with Starscream for a bit.

True to his word Starscream did tell us what we wanted to know and where Airachnid most likely went. The ship that they were on was split when it crashed into earth so the cargo section of the ship, the part that carries the important objects it was transporting, fell elsewhere. That's where Airachnid took off too, and that's where we are going currently.

We ride towards a large rocky mountain area including a large arch that's the biggest indicator as to where we need to go. When we get close enough, we stop and transform and step closer to the arch.

"What do you know?" Bulkhead chimes in.

"This looks like the place." I comment.

"Could still be a trap." Arcee mutters at the possibility.

"Starscream's loyalty to Megatron has always been questionable. If he has truly split from the Decepticons, our prisoner's knowledge of their agendas could make him a valuable ally." Optimus points out to us. While it would be good to have the information that Starscream has, what he wants in return to join us, would also leave him in a position to do the same to us what he's doing to the Decepticons, betray us.

"You don't mean permanently, as in keys to the base and everything?" Bulkhead asks for clarification.

"However unlikely that scenario, every sentient being deserves an opportunity for redemption." Optimus always has been the one to see the good in others.

"Even bot killers? Even airachnid?"

"Cool it Arcee. This isn't her we're dealing with." I cut in to Arcee, making sure she doesn't say something that she'll regret or needlessly stir up Optimus. Her stunt with going solo against Airachnid was already a bad move to begin with.

"Without that hope, we may never achieve lasting peace." While I like Optimus and can somewhat get behind his views, that doesn't mean I won't do what's necessary to protect us and make sure we aren't put into a bad situation. Once we are done talking, its time to get our prisoner. We turn to the trailer that Optimus was pulling as Bulkhead heads to the back.

"Rise and shine, screamy." Bulkhead taunts and proceeds to pull Starscream out of the trailer not so gently. He groans at the treatment and dusts himself off a little before seeing us staring at him.

"We're here. Where's the ship?" Arcee demands.

Starscream hesitates a little before recompensing himself. "It's through the arch, among the stones." He points forward.

Optimus nods at the news before addressing the rest of us. "Bulkhead, Bumblebee, you're with me. Arcee, Mason, remain with our prisoner." He orders and begins walking to our objective. While I nod at my orders, Arcee walks forward in protest.

"Optimus, please. For Tailgate." She says, wanting revenge for Tailgate and wants to fight Airachnid.

"Your desire to avenge tailgate will only continue to cloud your judgment." Is the answer that Optimus gives her, not granting her request to bring her. She doesn't argue anymore but she does seem a little frustrated at the denial as Optimus and his team walks off, leaving the three of us here.

"Is the clamp really necessary? I promise not to fly away. It's really giving me a crick." Starscream complains, which does no

"We could shove you back in the trailer." She proposes to him. He groans at the response and settles in for an uncomfortable time.

With our prisoner no longer moving, I move up close to Arcee as she stands there staring at the arch, the direction where the others went off too. "So, what do you think of this weapon everyones after?" I ask next to her, standing sideways to her so I can easily see her and Starscream so he doesn't do anything behind our backs.

"Hm, could be very dangerous, especially in the hands of a… very dangerous… wielder." She darkly says as her optics narrow.

"Yeah." I mutter in agreement. Being Airachnid how she is, freezing her targets is perfect for her predatory playstyle and toying with her targets of prey. "Hopefully the others can take her down quickly before she can use it."

"The chances would be better if I was there to take her down." She harshly says. I also don't bother mentioning to her that I also have a stake in bringing Airachnid down as well.

"Maybe, but we have to watch our… ally." I say the term with sarcasm. "And its better if we have at least two watching him, otherwise he might get the drop on us." I quickly add before she retorts a reason for only needing one of us. I glance back at Starscream to see him sighing.

"I'm not really so bad, you know. Megatron, he's the evil one." He says, obviously trying to make himself look good to us.

"Tell it to someone who cares." Arcee replies harshly back to him.

"Like whom, Airachnid?" He retorts. "What I wouldn't do to get my hands around her wretched throat."

"Never thought we'd agree with you on that." I comment.

"Oh, you have no idea. She showed up one day, and the next thing you know, she's acting like she runs the place. She whispered lies into Megatron's ear, maneuvered to rob me of my rightful place." He explains to us, trying to get us to sympathize with him. Arcee and I look at each other before back at him.

"Well, she treated me as nothing more than prey and a pet, and gave me a scar so I can never forget her." I growl at the memory.

"And she terminated my partner." Arcee mentions.

"What?! She's taking credit for scrapping him now, too? That was my doing!" That was an outburst from Starscream that either of us were not expecting from him.

"What?"

"Come again now." This catches Arcee and I at the choice of words he's saying. "I thought you said Airachnid was the one who…" I leave the question hanging.

"She did. You weren't there." She says, turning to Starscream, her attention focused on him now.

"Of course I wasn't. I don't know what I was thinking." If Cybertronians could sweat, that's most likely what Starscream would be doing right now as we continue to stare at him and his poor attempt to divert our attention from him.

"Who are you talking about?" Arcee demands angrily.

"No one. Who are you talking about?" He sheepishly asks.

"Tailgate." She angrily says to him.

"Uh, who's Tailgate?" Now this confuses the two of us on the inconsistencies of who killed who.

'He's not talking about Tailgate. But the only other partner of Arcee's we know who's gone is—' A look of realization dawns on both of at what he's talking about. "Oh you stupid…" I begin to hiss at who we now found, especially as I slap my hand on my faceplate.

"You were the extinguished Cliffjumper." Finding this out, Arcee moves forward and grabs his binders, forcing him and herself close, ready to attack him and get revenge for Cliffjumper. It may not be Tailgate but Cliffjumper is another that needs to be avenged.

"Cliffjumper?! No! No, no, no. You misunderstand. It wasn't like you think." Starscream all but begs at the ire he has now sparked in Arcee. Before she was just simply angry at him but now she really wants to tear him apart. I admit, I'm feeling the same way as I feel myself on the cusp of extending my blades. "The troopers mortally wounded him. I was trying to help Cliffjumper. Put him out of his misery! He begged me to."

"Somehow, I find that really, really hard to believe." I grumble, obviously not believing that to be true. From the stories I've heard about Cliffjumper, begging doesn't seem like something he'd do. Arcee meanwhile throws him to the ground.

"Okay, okay, it was a mistake! I've made many, but I've changed! You wouldn't terminate a defenseless prisoner, would you?" He begs. You know, before with Arachnid Arcee and I had all the anger we needed in order to destroy Arachnid without a second thought, whether she was our prisoner or not, but now with Starscream and how much he's begging right now, I'm not sure exactly what we are going to do with the new information.

However Arcee pulling out and throwing the key right in front of him was something I was not expecting. I am very surprised to see what she's doing and what she's implying by giving him the key to his binders. Frankly, I don't want to take any chance whatsoever of this prisoner escaping and she wants to give him a fighting chance? Where he can just transform and leave? As a precaution I check my gauntlet and look at the readings on the rest of the team. They don't look good, sporadic and the fact we haven't been contacted by the others as to their progress makes me worried for them, and Arcee for what she's doing right now.

"What… what is that?" Starscream asks in disbelief.

"The key to your cuffs." She answers.

"Arcee…" I mutter quietly, not enough for her to hear but to voice my unease at what she's doing.

"What for?"

"Cliff would have given you a fighting chance." While Arcee may be right that he would, its not exactly the smart choice given our situation.

"No, please! I-I don't want to! What's past is past. I'm one of you now." He begs. I'm completely surprised when she straight up pulls out her blasters and aims at Starscream.

"Arcee!" I yell loudly in surprise but she ignores.

"No! No! Please! No!" Starscream has all but turned into a blubbering begging wreck at this point.

"Take it!" Arcee angrily demands.

"Whoa whoa whoa enough Arcee! That's enough!" I shout, getting in front of her and stopping her from doing something she'll regret.

"Out of my way Stryker! It's about time I do this!" She demands but I don't move.

"By freeing our prisoner and possibly letting him escape?! Are you crazy?!" I counter in equal anger. I understand her anger, but this is still not a good idea.

"I have to do this for Cliff!"

"Not like this!" I yell back at her still. I grunt in frustration at this situation before quickly looking back at Starscream then at her. "Go help the others, I haven't heard back from them and their life-signs don't seem right. I got this." I wave to Starscream.

"What?! Do you think I'm just going to leave you with—"

"Tailgate or Cliffjumper!" I yell both names to her, this causes her to freeze and stop mid argument. "The others could use your help and you just might get your revenge for Tailgate." I lowly tell her. "Choose then."

She seems to hesitate at this. On one hand, she could go and back up the others in their fight against Airachnid, get the revenge she wants on her, or she could stay here and execute Starscream like the cowardly scum he was and get revenge for Cliffjumper… but killing him on his knees is something that Cliff wouldn't do, and they have him while Airachnid could get away again…

The scars for Tailgate has festered far longer than Cliffjumper is the final thought she has. With a loud frustrated groan she turns right around and begins heading up the hill headed towards where the others are to be.

"My sincerest thanks Stryker. I had a feeling a mini-con such as yourself would—"

*Shing*

He stops as my blade pops out and presses right up to his throat. "You… shut… up." I tell him. He whimpers a little and gulps as I turn around fully and stare right at him. Him being on his knees and slightly slumped puts me a little over at head height with him, so having to stare down at him, even a little, makes my threat that much more apparent. "See, here's the thing, you should really prefer it if Arcee is the one that watches you, because unlike her…"

*CRINK*

Starscreams eyes widen as my foot comes up and steps on the key, shattering and breaking it into pieces. "I have no qualms with fighting fair. Killing you right here,"

*Thunk*

"Arhh!" He yelps as I slam my foot into his binders, forcing him to kneel below me as I keep my blade pressed against the side of his neck.

"Right now is perfectly alright with me." I threaten him, ready to slice his head off.

Meanwhile with the rest of the team, its not looking good. Already Airachnid was able to grab the immobilizer, the weapon that was housed in the defunct war ship, and has already turned it on the Autobot team. Bulkhead stands there frozen in place as Arcee stares at him in surprise.

"Mason was right." She mutters in realization that he wasn't just saying what he said to get rid of her, but because the others indeed might need her help. Without much she can do for the wrecker, she focuses on where the others are. She hears explosions and blaster fire further in the maze like canyon. She moves into cover and out of sight, moving around to find the others.

Optimus and Bumblee do what they can to engage the spider 'con. Her nimble acrobatics and jumping ability allows her to scale the large rock formations and make it that much harder for the Autobots to be able to hit her. Nonetheless the two continue to open fire on her as much as they can. Optimus is pinned down as Airachnid uses the immobilizer on him, forcing him to hunker down behind a rock for a cover and make the weapons blast hit the rock. When the blast is done, he pops back up to fire again.

Unfortunately, she's no longer there in front of him. Optimus looks around in hopes of finding her but can't see her. He does hear the sound of drilling though, which means she's gone under—

"Freeze." Optimus turns around at the voice. Before he can fight back, the immobilizer is fired at him. Just like Bulkhead, Optimus is too frozen stiff, much to the surprise and anger of Bumblebee, who lets loose on her, forcing her to move back. As she does, she returns fire back to 'Bee, making him jump into cover.

"Tell me, bug." Airachnid begins to playfully tell him. "Do you think Megatron will enjoy his new trophies?" She addresses 'Bee as she walks up to the frozen wrecker before pushing Bulkhead to the ground. "He'll probably use the Bulky one here for target practice." She then maneuvers around to address Optimus and even gets on top of him. "Prime is the true prize. Perhaps he'll adorn the prow of Megatron's warship." From her perch on top of the Autobot leader she opens fire with her blasters on 'Bee's last position, forcing him into cover again and creating some dust on the rock in front of him. Seeing the small amount of smoke cover, he opens fire as well to create even more dust for cover on the large rock formation behind him. Pieces of the rock fall away and kicks up a massive cloud of cover for 'Bee, allowing him to make a run for some better cover. Airachnid not wanting to take any chances fires with the immobilizer into the dust in hopes of hitting him. Much to her elation, she finds the yellow scout frozen in place in mid run. "But you, bug, I suspect Megatron will simply dismantle you for spare parts." She says with a playful laugh after seeing him as she walks up to him. "As a rogue, a scavenger, I should disappear into the night with this treasure, but using it to worm my way into Megatron's favor Is too good an opportunity to pass up." She says while moving back to Optimus, monologuing the whole way. "Wouldn't you say, Prime? I mean, with results like this, I could end Megatron's eternal trust." She says to him, not really expecting a response since he's frozen but does it anyway as a joke.

"You could…" Yet her optics widen at the new voice she hears when she wasn't expecting one. Suddenly a blaster pops out from under Optimus's right arm. "But like we'd let you." It opens fire point blank at her.

"Arhhhh!" Airachnid cries out as she's hit in front full force by the blasters. She backpedals several steps back to keep from getting hit in the face. Her arms come up to block some of the shots. When they stop soon after, she looks angrily forward at who shot her. She's even more angry as she sees it was Arcee hiding behind her leader as she steps out. "Urhhhh! You insufferable little—" She begins to say until she hears footsteps behind her. When she turns around, she's met by a fist straight to the face. With another cry of pain, she's sent flying back through the air and loses her weapon. Without taking any chances, Arcee and 'Bee open fire on it, breaking it into pieces and rendering it useless at the moment.

Airchnid looks on in surprised horror at the powerful weapon having been destroyed right in front of her. "You fools!"

"Sorry to disappoint Airachnid." Arcee begins to playfully say back to her, blasters aimed and traced on her alongside her teammate. "But we're not taking any chances of you getting that weapon back."

"Surrender! You've got nothing now." Bumblebee tells her.

Seeing as how she's outnumbered, she lets out a growl of anger before sighing. "Oh forget this." She mumbles before jumping back and transforming. The two Autobots open fire at her, nailing her a few times but otherwise she's able to fully transform and retreat, albeit with a few more scorch marks and scratches than before as she's turned tail and run.

"Scrap." Arcee lets out a sigh at her target escaping. "Not again." As much as she wanted to let loose and absolutely chase after her, wanting nothing more than to snuff out her spark, she doesn't want to leave her frozen and helpless teammates. "You okay, 'Bee?" She asks her scout teammate.

"I am, but what are you doing here? What about Starscream? And where's Stryker?"

Arcee's optics widen. "Mason…" She breathes and runs as fast as she can, followed by Bumblebee.

"P-please! Please no! I beg of you! I can be a fortuitous ally to the Autobots! I can—"

"Quiet!" I shout, shutting him up. The bot has been begging like crazy for me to spare his life after I made my threat and my patience is running very thin. "Problem with that is you want to be our ally because you have no choice. You betrayed one group, there's no guarantee you won't betray us as well." I step off his binders, allowing him to sit up a little and look at me as I talk. "If you stay with us, Arcee in her anger, just might do something stupid that'll endanger us and her, just like right now." Starscream glances down at the broken key before back at me. "You can't stay with us. You killed an Autobot, you killed Arcee's partner. Now matter what you do, no matter how much you promise you will be better… let's be honest you won't." He looks at me in surprise and slight anger at what I'm saying about him. "Arcee wants you dead. If she wanted to, she could have killed you so easily but the one thing that was stopping her was Optimus's orders and her knowledge of knowing Cliffjumper would have given you a fair fight. And unlike you," I lean in close and lowly tell him, "We follow and respect out leader."

"Then why didn't you let her?! Why didn't you let her just snuff out my spark and get her revenger?!" He angrily asks loudly in anger. What I said about his leader set something off in him.

"Because! That's! Not! Her!" I loudly yell as I grab him by the collar, "She's not some type of blood thirsty monster! She's not the type to kill people in cold blood and she's not the type to kill someone as pathetic like you because you don't deserve to die by her!" I yell before throwing him to the ground. He yelps as he falls on his side. "You are a pathetic selfish excuse for a Decepticon and make me sick at the idea of you joining us." I stare at him angrily, before soon my expression eases up as look at him in his almost groveling state. Slowly, I kneel next to him. He shakes as I get close, until I sheathe my blades, which he relaxes a little at. "You're not going to stay with us. Not when you'll be a constant angry reminder to her, tempting her everyday until she snaps, or you take the opportunity to betray us like you did your master." I stand up and take a small step back, allowing him to sit up in a slumped state and stare at me.

He groans as he sits up and gives me an angry stare at first but it soon turns to a small amount of fear.

"You're going to leave, you're going to run, you're going to scrounge like the rat you are just to survive because you will have no allegiance, not to Autobots, not to Decepticons. And you know what else?" I ask him, my face close to his.

"Eh, uhhh, what?" He asks.

I lean in really close, staring right into his optics, seeing them tremble just a bit. "You… owe… me." After I finish talking, I stand up and turn my back to him. He pushes himself back up to a sitting position

*SHING*

My right blade extends before I turn and raise it into the air. Starscreams optics widen. "Wait! No! Please don't!" He futilely raises his bound hands up.

*Shink*

For a second, all is silent to him, until the clinking of metal can be heard and he looks on in surprise as he finds his hands are free, his binders fallen from his wrists. He stares up at me as I glance at him before turning my back to him.

"Go… before I change my mind." Giving him his chance, I slowly begin my walk back to the others, opting to go find out about the others and make sure they are alright. Frankly, I'm not surprised as I hear the rapid loud pounding footsteps behind me. I let out a disappointing sigh before I pull my Lahti from my back. It extends out as I grip it in both hands, while at the same time turning right around.

*PTOOM*

Not even shouldering the weapon, I hip fire straight into his chest just as he jumps towards me. My Lahti, turned into a gauss rifle basically, sends out a small glowing blue ball of energon coated 20 mm round straight into his chest. Being a much stronger Decepticon than the grunts they employ, he doesn't die instantly. Instead he goes flying back through the air, a small puff of blue fire erupting off his chest from when he got hit, and landing roughly on the ground before sliding back a bit, carving deep groves into the dirt. He lets out groans of pain from the hit before slowly bringing himself sitting up. For a moment, he lets out a groan of anger and looks at me with anger but it turns right to fear as he sees me aimed right at his face, ready to fire again. "Wanna try again?" I ask playfully. "Or are you gonna run?"

This time he gets the message and begins running. He crawls away from me at first before finally pulling himself up onto his feet and running. My aim stays trained on him the whole way he runs until he finally crests the hill and disappears into the canyons nearby. I let my rifle fall to my side and let out a sigh. I turn around to head to the others, but I freeze as I spot Arcee and Bumblebee standing on the opposite hill from where Starscream left.

'They saw. They saw everything.' I think, if its any indication from their wide optics as they stare at me. I let out a frustrated sigh and holster my rifle on my back. "Are the others alright? Is the objective completed?" I ask. I don't get a verbal answer from them, just nods and head shakes as answers. I groan back. "Ratchet, bridge us. We might need some medical help."

A quick bridge jump and everyone is back in the base, with some members having meandered off while Ratchet was busy getting everyone who was injured or frozen back into working shape.

"The damage looked bad, but it was a snap to repair, allowing us to reverse its effect on you. You should regain your full range of motion before long." Ratchet gives his prognosis to Optimus and Bulkhead.

Optimus nods his head at the good news. "And what of…?" He asks, glancing towards Arcee slumped on a crate nearby while not finishing the sentence, allowing him to imply.

"She didn't sustain any injuries, physically, but something tells me theirs other things weighing on her mind." Rachet surmises.

Optimus nods again and walks over to Arcee. She glances at him out of the corner of her optic before sighing. "Arcee?" He says her name in question, not really having a question in mind but wants her to tell him what's wrong.

"… I thought settling scores would allow me to move on. Instead, my need for revenge nearly cost us more lives. Starscream was chased away because… he… because he was… worried." She says, implying someone else, not Starscream at the end. "He thought I might… fall if I went through with it, and that forced him to make a decision that might have cost us the war to keep us safe."

"Wisdom cannot be granted, Arcee. It must be earned sometimes at a cost." Optimus tells her. "You saw something that Mason did. It might be best for you to talk to him and make sure everything is alright."

"… Yeah, I think I should." She says and stands up before heading towards the elevator.

"Hey Cliff, I know we didn't really meet under good circumstances together, but I just wanna say that I'm happy to be part of this team and am doing everything I can to keep them safe." Mason says quietly, sitting to the left and next to the pile of rocks indicating Cliffjumpers grave. Before it was Arcee talking to him, now its Mason. After the completion of the mission, or at least prevention of the enemy from getting the immobilizer, Mason retreated up to the top of the base to get what he's thinking off his chest.

He lets out a sigh and rubs his head. He is still in his armored suit with his helmet off on the ground next to him, allowing him to breathe in some fresh air and clear his mind. He looks off at the lowering sun and lets out a sigh of appreciation at the setting. "This team… its something… its something good. Something wholesome. Too many times have I seen greed, anger and selfishness just destroy people and others by chance or by proxy. You weren't there to see, but Optimus and everyone else actually agreed to destroy the Space Bridge, which was more than likely going to be the only way you Cybertronians had of returning home. You guys sacrificed your only means of returning home, to save mine. That's… that's something that cannot be overlooked." He lets out a rush of air as he glances around before staring at the grave of Cliff, his head then craning down in sadness. "I'm sorry Cliffjumper. We had the opportunity to get your killer, and possibly get information from him, information that might have won the Autobots the war, but I don't know how things would have been if we had him join us. I just… I made the call… despite Optimus… and I hope you can forgive me." His head cranes down, eyes closed in sadness.

"Cliff may have been cocky…" He snaps his head up and looks around at the new voice in surprise. Behind him he sees Arcee standing there, a smile on her face with a hand placed on her hip. "And sometimes will annoy you, but I think I can say he'll forgive you."

"You think so?" He asks, his surprise having disappeared and now replaced with a bit of curiosity.

"I think so." She walks up and sits down to Mason's left, joining him in watching the sunset as well. "And I'm pretty sure he would have liked you as well. Your both brash, hard-headed, leap into things without waiting most of the time, can be tough to deal with at times…"

"Wow, thanks, I feel so loved." He deadpan says in a monotone voice.

This causes Arcee to let out a few chuckles at him. While she does he has a smile on his face as well in appreciation, happy to have a small change in mood from what he was feeling a little while ago. They both soon delve into silence with each other, just admiring the scenery for a bit. "Arcee… I'm sorry I got in your way, and let Starscream go. I just… Optimus believes in redemption, and I like that about him, but I don't think we have the ability to redeem someone like Starscream." He apologizes to her.

"No, its okay. I understand. No matter what Starscream would have done while he was with us, I don't think theirs anything he can do that would truly allow us to consider him an ally."

"At the very least, I think it would be a good idea to have him as an outside ally, a neutral party that we would help him and he would help us on different occasions." He proposes.

She nods in agreement. "That sounds a bit better than him living here with us and having to see and interact with him every single day. If that were to happen…" She clenches her hands in anger.

"Yeah, my thoughts exactly." He agrees with her. "He may given us some information, but I don't know how good it would do if some of us…" He glances for a second to Arcee before keeping his eyes forward.

She nods at that but then decides to change the subject a little. "Anyway, Optimus wanted me to come up here and check on you after you left."

"I'm fine." He says, not really giving any other information.

Arcee is skeptic about the short answer. "You sure? Because when I saw you yelling like that, how angry you were, I got worried and… am I… like that sometimes, when it comes to Airachnid?" She asks, her own views remembering how much she would go to the lengths to get Airachnid, and now at the time Starscream.

"…Sometimes." He answers with some hesitation. "I want her too, but she only gave me a scar. She took someone right in front of you… but I've also seen you get so angry when it comes to fighting Airachnid, fighting her without any backup from us." She looks down at the mention of that. "You wanted to free Starscream of his binders and fight him on even ground. There is no even ground with a snake like that."

"So that's why you sent him packing, even after he tried to sneak attack you."

"He's a rogue element. He might help, he might not. But at least we know he's not going back to the 'con's. And there is one other thing that we do know about him."

"And what's that?" Arcee asks looking at him.

He grins as he turns to her. "He owes me. That's going to stick with him for a loooong time."

Arcee shares a similar smile.

Okay… a little thing I noticed that I have been making a mistake up until this point that completely went over my head. Turns out I've been pronouncing Airachnids name this whole time. Since the beginning, I've been pronouncing her name as Arachnid, when in reality it seems her name is pronounced Airachnid. It may have been one letter off but I still feel disappointed in myself for having overlooked that, and not noticing the difference in how you say the two.

Anyway, besides that it's good to get some work done for this story again. Sorry for the long time its been since I last updated this. Kind of focused a bit more on one of my other stories since then and I've also been focusing on my own personal life and all. Trying to get a job and all that mostly but now I'll do what I can to get back into the swing of writing some of my other stories.

Kaijuqueen13: Yep. He's gonna have some new toys to play with.

Grimlock987: Definitely a big gun.

Guest: I'm not sure what you mean by that.

Dylan-A-Friend: Thank you.

Krieger: It would if he could get his hands on it, but he can't so he'll have to make do with what he's got and turn that old equipment into a powerful weapon worthy of destroying 'cons.

ZabuzasGirl: Thanks.

John Lenard (Ch.3): He's got a few in his bag. Glad you like it and hope you like the rest of the story.

Hope you all like this. I decided to make things a bit different than how things went in the show, namely the end confrontation with Starscream. Instead of letting Arcee just straight up get blindsided by the 'con, Mason would stop her from doing something rash and deal with Starscream himself. He has no quarrels with giving that snake a fighting chance it would seem better to just send him on his way. Starscream having easily wanted to betray the Decepticons when faced with the Autobots, theirs no reason for him to do the same to the Autobots, especially if the anger Arcee and some of the others exhibit to Starscream will make him want to leave just like with the 'cons and take their secrets.

Anyway, I hope you guys like the slight difference in how things went, and what this might mean for Mason and the others in the future. Afterall, Starscream owes him now.

One thing I was also going for when it came to him using his guns like that is I kind of wanted to give Mason more of an edge when it comes to fighting Cybertronians and allowing him to better be on par with them. I was kind of going with a similar vibe like with Cade Yaeger from the Transformers movie Age of Extinction. A small human with an assault weapon powerful enough to take on nearly all types of Decepticons was amazing, despite what people feel about the movie as a whole. Seeing able to shoot down and destroy 'cons was awesome to see and that's what I like to imagine Mason is able to do.

Happy to be writing for this again. As I said before, I hope you all like how this chapter turned out. It was a nice change of pace to write and happy to be writing for this story again. Gotta work on the other story's as well. Thank you for reading thus far. Go ahead and fave, follow, review, whatever you wish, but most of all, have fun reading and have a great day for everyone.