~*~ Chapter Forty-Seven ~*~

One Year 8 Days (Still)

Scatterblade turned back to Charlie and Rex. "You okay?" He asked the woman. She nodded, though her grip on Rex tightened.

Rex tried to soothe her with touch. None of this was going to be easy. "Why don't we go relax while we wait?"

Charlie nodded again and forced a smile.

"I'll be here," Scatterblade said, and walked to his corner, Silverdust tucked in his arm.

Rex guided Charlie to a spot where they could be seen but out of the way and comfortable. Charlie leaned against the wall, using Rex's hand to lower herself down. He sat beside her, wondering if this was going to work or end horribly, but kept his thoughts to himself. Charlie curled into him, letting the panic ebb. She wanted to talk to him, ask him anything, tell him what to say to make her feel better, but her lips stayed glued.

"Don't worry," he said finally. "We'll all get through this." He felt odd saying that, like maybe he was cursing them to fail, but damned if they wouldn't try anyway.

"We've gotten through worse," she said trying to pull her optimism higher.

"That's right." He hugged her, rubbing a hand over her arm.

"I'm just worried we haven't seen the worst." Charlie shook her head, "I'm sorry. I'm done talking."

"No, Charlie, you don't have to be done. You shouldn't keep it all in."

"I'm trying to keep something from happening. The more I talk, the more I slip, and then I'm just gone," she said at a rushed pace. Each breath became more shallow, and she curled into herself. "That's not clear," she moaned.

"No, it's not," he hugged her closer, "but it's okay."

Her head suddenly felt tight, and she felt herself rocking softly in his arms. "I'm having a panic attack," she said casually. Her eyes were unfocused, gazing off like a deer in the headlight.

"Okay," he said calmly. "It'll be okay. It's been a hard year. We'll all make it through; it's going to, be okay." He kept his voice soothing, rocking with her. This wasn't surprising. After everything they had gone through, a panic attack was the least of what could be.

Charlie stayed that way for some time, riding the slow waves that rolled from her head to her chest and back again. She wanted to laugh, maybe even cry, but instead she sat frozen.

Rex stayed quiet for a while, giving support and trying to help calm her. "Maybe you should stay here with Scatterblade. I can get into Tanya's office; it won't take two of us to get it done."

"You sure?" She sounded relieved and it made her feel guilty.

"Yes," he had almost expected an argument, he knew he would feel better with her safe here out of harm's way.

"I can help," she whined, still unable to calm herself.

"Of course you can. You do, have, and will. But I think maybe this time, it will be okay if it's just me."

"Please, be careful."

"I will," he promised. He held onto her, feeling more at ease knowing she would be here, safe. The wait wouldn't be as hard.

Charlie rocked for several more minutes, tears slipped down her cheeks. She felt stupid for crying, for panicking at all, but it was halfhearted. Having Rex there made it better, less like she was out of control.

It was quite some time before Jazz indicated that things were about to begin. Knockout was up and seemed more than ready to cause some trouble. Blindside was happy to have a distraction from Sunstreaker. Knockout had quickly assessed the partially completed frames and chose the best one. He and Blindside got to work on finishing up what had to be done to support a spark while Wheeljack claimed 'Ah know what will help!' And set to yet another task very diligently.

Charlie had finally calmed down and reluctantly let go of Rex's hand. He gave Charlie a kiss and another firm hug before he left her with Scatterblade. Charlie held onto him for as long as she could.

"It may still be a while, but I want to be somewhere she won't see me when she storms off." Rex explained as he prepared to leave the Bay.

"Stay safe," Scatterblade nodded.

"You too," he nodded to the mech, glancing over the sparkling and Charlie. An unease ran through him, but he shoved it down and headed for the elevator. Sidestep made a show of lounging not far from the small group, still not willing to socialize, but willing to show he was there if needed.

Rex had been just in time to miss the raging storm that was Tanya as she rushed down the halls toward the elevator. Had he be been a second later she would have seen him ducking down a side corridor to avoid her. He almost laughed at how easy this seemed and slipped back into the hall and headed for her office.

"Alright, Jazz, it's your thing now," he whispered as he planted the device the saboteur had given him near the main server in Tanya's office. He paused to look at the room wondering what a woman like her might hide in plain sight.

It was a simple office with little personal decor. A patriotic flag, some mugs and a few photographs of military balls. She wasn't one to dress up, though she did smile slightly in some of the younger pictures. There was even a smiling couple that might have been her parents. There were two plants standing in the corners of the room just adjacent to the door. A large dark cabinet with several drawers, two doors and side shelves dominated the wall.

Rex poked around a little, more curious than searching for anything specific. He was rather certain that anything they would need to know Jazz now had access to, but still, it never hurt to look. He didn't move anything that could be noticed, but inspected anything that he was sure wouldn't be spotted. He checked the file drawers, expecting they would be locked, and same with the doors. Several of them were, all the drawers on the cabinet held firm, but the door gave. Inside were several screens one right on top of the other, all rotating every few seconds from cameras all over the facility. The middle screen of the three changed and Rex could see the bay, Charlie still with Scatterblade and Silverdust. Another screen showed the medbay, Blindside near the elevator door.

"Oh," he didn't know why he was surprised. He had been sure she watched them like crooks; here was the proof. He watched the screens for a few minutes, seeing what she saw and wondering what she thought while she watched them all so closely. He was annoyed by the invasion, but they had known it would be this way. He felt bad for their friends, there wasn't a 'bot among them that had privacy within the building. It was a wonder they hadn't all left already. They stayed, he knew, because they needed what they could get here. It was crap. Unfair. Angry he slammed the door and headed back. He would be with Charlie and his friends where he was meant to be. Where he wanted to be. Had he stayed just a few moments longer, he would've seen the screens go black as the power to the rest of the building was cut, the bay, the medbay, and the lower levels.

Blindside was heading back to the table when the lights went out. "She saw it. Let's move." He barricaded the door in his alt mode, the elevator shaft locked in place.

"Why are th' lights out?" Wheeljack asked as he approached with his new device in hand.

"Who gives a slag about the lights; what is that and what are you doing with it?" Knockout was grabbing the spark cage. He hardly cared who it was, only that their point was made. Slag the human that told him he couldn't do his duty as a medic.

"It's a transfer module, keeps th' sparks from tryin' ta slip off when yer puttin' them in their new cases." Wheeljack fitted the device to the new frame's spark chamber and grabbed the cage from Knockout to fit on the opposite end. "See?" He locked the device in place, pressed a button and pulled a leaver, allowing the spark to drift from captivity to its new frame without the shock of open air and stimuli to excite it.

"That would have been useful." Knockout grumbled even as he prepared for yet another rude awakening once the spark settled into its new frame.

The mech onlined with a shunt of air, vents working hard, optics onlined brightly. He sat up abruptly, his vocalizer trying hard to catch up with a rambling of words. Something about the words, the longer they listened, started to piece together and make sense and confuse them even further. The mech had been in the middle of very old prayer. Blindside couldn't remember when he'd last heard anything like it, even he hadn't been any kind of organized before the war.

The mech stopped speaking and looked about in the dark at the other bots. "Where- where am I?"

"Earth, you're safe," Wheeljack answered with a kind tone.

"That's a matter of opinion," Knockout added as he continued with his scans, detaching the transfer module and making sure his plating closed properly.

It only confused the mech more. "Where is that?"

"Well...where do you remember being last?" Wheeljack ignored Knockout's comment, focusing on bringing the mech up to date as much as possible.

Before he could respond a bang sounded from the elevator shaft. Blindside transformed, forgetting about blocking the way and grabbing up his weapon. "Guys, I've got bogeys coming down the lift."

Wheeljack moved between the new mech and the elevator, keeping his body language and tone as calm as ever. Knockout, on the other hand grabbed the stun rod that the inventor had used previously on Sunstreaker and stood ready.

The prospect of an enemy - one that seemed mutually recognized anyway - had Sunstreaker up and on his feet in an instant, slag the aches and pains, or the strange off-ness in his spark, he would fight. Knockout started to say something, then thought better of it and kept his mouth shut. Better to have the crazy pointed somewhere else. The mech stumbled off the table and ducked behind one of the several pillars throughout the room.

The noise grew quiet until the doors blew open and gunfire sprayed into the room. Blindside took the front line firing back and blinding them in flood lights as the human soldiers advanced. Sunstreaker roared and lunged forward. Last he remembered, humans had turned against them; humans had been the ones to take him down, and humans had deactivated his brother. The rage that heated his frame caused steam to rise off him as he knocked away guns and struck one human after another.

"Sunny! Don't kill 'em!" Wheeljack was scrambling from where Ratchet still lay in drug induced recharge, yanking the medic from his berth to a more protected place.

Knockout found a shielded spot and waited until he could strike without too much damage to himself. Blindside moved back, the weapons starting to hit more painful places. Hitting back and knocking them down wasn't too hard to choose from anymore. This team of twenty was whittled down to half in barely five minutes, though the remaining men hid behind the rubble of the blasted elevator shaft. Sunstreaker didn't listen to Wheeljack's warning, he didn't care about the bullets tearing through his armor, he didn't care about anything as he followed those few retreating into the ruins. They were enemy and that's all he knew.

"No good, no good, no good," Wheeljack chanted as he watched from a safe distance.

The dark lit up as the firing continued, added to it were grenades. Blindside did his best to throw them back, nearly panicking as one got too close to their energon stock. He managed to take out another two before the men retreated further. Blindside watched, half stunned as Sunstreaker tore after them. 'Fragging idiot, let him fall into a trap.'

The elevator became a hole in the wall as the combined efforts of grenades and Sunstreaker's blind rage demolished whatever structure there might have once been. The mech grabbed one human not quick enough to get away and flung him hard against a wall before knocking more to the ground, crushing weapons and likely arms at the same time. Four more went down, only three remained. The fire ceased but the frenzied mech pressed on.

'Three, out of twenty,' Blindside thought. Seemed like now was a good time to stop. They weren't going to accomplish much, unless reinforcements came. "Sunstreaker, enough!" He barked above the din.

Sunstreaker growled something that wasn't words, but was clearly meant to be.

"He won't stop," Wheeljack warned sadly. He had seen it too many times, Sunstreaker got so lost in anger and battle rage that he couldn't stop. Not unless he was knocked offline or Sideswipe got to him. "We have ta take him down."

"After you!" Knockout invited the inventor, not eager to get his plating ripped off.

Blindside took the invite, almost too eagerly and he ran at the mech and tackled him from the side. Sunstreaker twisted and rolled, stunned by the unexpected attack but driven as he was he hardly bothered with bracing for impact and turned what once might have been sharp claws on his new opponent; however, this frame had not been given that particular advantage. His digits scraped across armor, seeking gaps to pull, loose plating to tear. When he had leverage enough he punched and kicked.

Knockout watched this new turn in horror. He had grown fond of Blindside and was rather certain he was about to watch him be torn to shreds.

Blindside took what hits came but slid away from most the attacks, slamming his fists into the mech's head, and striking at the back of knees to knock him down. The rage driven frontliner's optic began to flicker as the damage increased, but instead of going black indicating he was going offline, or white into his blind rage, they flickered to a calmer azure blue. With a final strike, the mech went limp but not offline. His optics remained azure and he stared without understanding at the mech that hit him.

Blindside vented heavily and stepped away. "And stay down." He winced as he rolled his shoulder, touching a few spots the mech had landed a hit. Then he glanced to the three soldiers who hadn't been crushed or injured. They were gone.

Sunstreaker uttered something heavy with static, but didn't try to get up.

Knockout went to Blindside, pulling him to a table - and away from the still lax frontliner - to check his injuries. "That was dumb," he scolded in a far more serious tone than he normally used.

"It got him to stop, didn't it?" Blindside said, any defense he wanted to put up was replaced with a wince.

Wheeljack looked over Ratchet quickly to be sure no stray bullets or shrapnel had hit him, then turned to the new mech. "You alright?"

The new mech came out from behind the pillar, a look of astonishment on his faceplates. "What the Pit were those? Where the frag are we?"

"Uh, yeah, back to that." Wheeljack vented, offering a half grin. "Those were some of th' natives..." He looked the mech over once more before going warily toward Sunstreaker. "This is Earth - it's uh tiny organic planet in one of th less traveled parts of th' multi-verse."

"I'm fine," Blindside waved Knockout off. His injuries weren't major, the right side seemed a little off alignment, which did tend to happen when he went linebacker on a 'bot's aft.

"You mean backwater slag pit," Knockout grumbled, finding anything and everything to keep him as far away from Sunstreaker as possible.

The mech shuttered his optics, taking it in. "So... how long was I out?" He asked slowly.

"Well, that depends on when you-" Blindside halted and corrected his train of thought, "went under."

"I was on a mission. My first. And we were attacked. That's all I remember," the mech shrugged.

"What was th' mission? Who was yer CO?" Wheeljack kept talking as he reached Sunstreaker. He was a little surprised that the mech was still online and not trying to attack anything that moved. "S'gonna be alright, Sunny," he soothed, examining the wounds he could see.

"What faction?" Knockout chimed in.

"Faction? What are you talking about? I was sent to find how seriously involved Megatronus was in the terrorist attacks," the mech watched the others with confusion.

"Megatronus?" Knockout almost laughed at the name. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Oh...that was, well, it was uh long time ago." Wheeljack was shocked by the indication of how long sparks had been 'collected' by Lockdown, but was a professional at not letting his surprise show when working with unstable elements - of which Sunstreaker was very much included.

The mech tried hard to recall anything else. "I don't understand. What did you mean by factions? What happened?"

Blindside shook his head. "Kid, you're gonna want to take that slowly."

"Not like it matters anymore," Knockout shook his head. "Big news: Civil war broke out and it went really badly."

"Maybe there's a more informed way we coulda' gone about that news," Wheeljack suggested as he lifted the strangely compliant mech back to the table he had been on.

Sunstreaker said something heavy with static, a garbled sentence that vaguely contained Wheeljack's designation.

"Yeah, Sunny, it's me. Told ya Ah'd take care of ya."

The mech spoke again, shaking his head before his optics went dark.

"Wonder what all that was..." The inventor pondered out loud.

The mech was stunned to silence, though the gravity of the news wasn't fully understood. Sunstreaker also distracted him. "What's wrong with him?"

"The list of what's right with him would be shorter," Knockout stated with a wary glance at the silent frontliner.

"He's fine," Wheeljack said calmly, setting up a new infusion set, the previous one trashed. "His brother was deactivated some time back and he's goin' through shock, but he'll make it."

"Lucky us," Knockout added.

"My condolences," the new mech nodded sadly.

Blindside watched him carefully, bewildered by this mech who had apparently been in limbo the last four million years. It was either the most perfect stroke of luck any 'bot could ever have or the worst curse in existence.

"So, what's yer designation?" Wheeljack moved on, unbothered by Knockout's continual foul mood. He worked on the basic injuries - nothing was too serious, but likely Ratchet would have to see to him when he came out of his forced recharge.

"Tirade," he said, still with a confused look on his face. "He killed the planet, didn't he?" He had heard all the rumors, being in the guard, even if it was for a short time, he'd heard what Megatronus's actions might lead to.

"Well..." Wheeljack tipped his head from one side to the other as if the answer needed to be weighed first. "It's kinda everybots fault - th' war really. Then there was that thing with Sentinel...who knows what happened ta th' planet after that." He vented with the loss as though it were no more troubling than one of his failed projects.

"Sentinel... Sentinel Prime?" Tirade furrowed his brow. Blindside was right, taking this slowly was his best bet.

"Well, welcome to the mess, Ti. Name's Blindside. That's Wheeljack and Knockout."

::Blindside, is everyone alright?:: Scatterblade's distress bit into his audios.

::Yeah, Scatter we're okay. You?::

::Cemetery Wind is still together. Apparently,:: he grumbled. ::Tanya's gone. Joyce had her arrested.::

::Are you serious?:: Blindside grinned, ::That's awesome.::

"There's uh lot ta catch up on." Wheeljack seemed satisfied with what he had done and stepped away from Sunstreaker, a mildly confused look on his face but he only shrugged and went back to Tirade. "I would take you upstairs to meet the others, but it seems our lift is currently broken. It probably wont be long before something is figured out, fer now ya got me. Where do ya wanna start?"

This was going to be a long conversation; Knockout could tell already he wasn't interested in being a part of it. He had, begrudgingly, seen to the few survivors of Sunstreaker's rage - for once he was pleased with the frontliner's actions. He only wished more of them had died. Oh well. He would do what he could for the living until their own kind came for them.