Disclaimer : I don't own Transformers. If I did, I wouldn't be here now, would I?

Note : Yep, Transformers : Animated has even taken over my life. Thanks to my psychic ability to see into the future by exactly seven days, I can watch two episodes every Saturday morning if I want to. This story starts directly after the episode 'Return of the Headmaster' which was, while still totally full of supreme ownage, NOT the best episode ever.

The Simple Things

Chapter One

There was some low key mumbling about the laws of physics and why quantum mechanics should be left to the professionals. It filtered through over the transmission despite Helix's attempt to keep his voice down. Fortunately, no one was paying much attention to his words just yet, not that it mattered much since his everyday speech was normally littered with the technical jargon of his chosen field. As of right now, there was a fifteen second lag because of the distance he was transmitting at and the added inconvenience of data transference. He hated this method, not only because of the heavy encryptions involved with long range communications, but because so many things could go wrong with it.

At the very least there could be file corruption during the transfer process.

At the worst it would fail to even reach its intended destination.

He had explained this several times, but no, this was too important a situation to wait for a personal data delivery. There had been several breems of argument over this, but in the end his station had been threatened and if there was one thing Helix did not want, it was to be demoted.

"All right," he muttered, glaring at the computer screen as it announced that the file was received. "Let's see what we've got here."

Despite his pessimism, it had transferred through a hundred percent complete. This only served to put him in an even sourer mood, as now he could no longer rant about faulty spot beams and satellite relays. However, he could grumble about the quality of the scanners used to provide the data in the file, which he did.

"Not even a full spectrum analysis."

:Just work with what we've given you, Helix. You don't need a full spectrum analysis to be able to confirm what it is:

Helix threw the comm. screen a grouchy glare.

"It'd be nice though," he grumbled, examining the screen. It showed a blue-green diagram of what appeared to be a piece of broken crystal, with several text displays scrolling alongside it pointing out various little factoids. It didn't take long for him to run a cross-reference program, the terminal barely humming as it spat out the results on an EPD readout sheet. He snatched it up out of the print tray and skimmed over the page before turning his scowl back to the communications monitor. "It's definitely a piece of the Allspark, Ultra Magnus. Edge marks on two sides are ragged and sheared inward, which indicates that something struck it with enough force to crack inwards against the geometric seams. The other three edges are concurrent with the seams, with no shearing, which would indicate outward motion or deliberate disassembly."

:This, at least, confirms what we were told by Optimus Prime. Can you estimate how many pieces there are, or would that require a full spectrum scan?:

"If it had been separated equally at the seams, there would be twelve congruent pieces," Helix said, turning back to the diagram. He tapped in a couple of commands on the control panel, pulling up a reconstruction program. Within seconds a model of the Allspark rotated into view, with a flashing blue section indicating where exactly the broken shard had come from. "However, as this shard proves that wasn't the fact, it could be anywhere between twelve and twenty-five pieces. That's all I can get from this scan. If you find another one, get an analysis of it and send it up. I'll be able to tell you more if I can compare the two."

:Of course.:

"Oh, and Magnus?"

:Yes?:

"These shards may just be pieces, but they're still imbued with Allspark energy. Without structure, that energy is completely unfocused. If the incident you described at this human manufacturing plant is any indicator, then anything of a mechanical nature that these shards touch is liable to malfunction on a dangerous scale."

:Noted. I will call again if we find another shard:

Cael remembered when his sister's headaches first began. They had started out small, seemingly caused by the mundane everyday things that usually made such a symptom appear. Too much television to begin with, which was always a problem for anyone under the age of ten. She had a bunch of favorite shows and all the schedules memorized, like a living version of the TV Guide Channel. She tended to get upset when the networks decided to twist things around for a movie special or some other event. When the headaches appeared and he told her to stop watching so much TV, she'd thrown a fit.

That had been two years ago.

Today she was trying to stay within the lines of one of pictures inside one of the coloring books he'd brought her. There were several crayons scattered about, some broken and worn down. He leaned over to pick one up that had rolled off the table and onto the floor. The wrapped had been ripped off and it held the tell-tale smudge marks of other colors. Setting it back on the desk he made a mental note to stop by the store to get her a new box.

She paused in her scribbling, eyes settling on the crayon as it rolled from where he'd tossed it back onto the table. Judging, maybe, if it was one of the colors she needed to finish the picture. After a moment, she set down her current color and picked it up, setting the dulled end against a blank spot on the page to continue her drawing. However, she pressed too hard and the crayon snapped as she went to drag it over the paper, creating a jagged line over an area she'd already filled in.

"Rrrrr..."

"Its okay, Ray," Cael said, taking the now broken one away and handing her an intact crayon of the same hue. "This one's the same color, look."

"S'not."

"Yes it is."

"Nuh uh, s'not!"

She shook her head in an exaggerated fashion and tossed it aside before proceeding to tear the picture out from the coloring book. She crumpled it up and tossed it on the floor as well before proceeding to grab up a purple crayon from the box. She ignored Cael as he reached down to pick up her previous picture, smoothing the paper out before folding it properly. He stuck it in his jacket pocket, then glanced down at his watch. He always kept it set five minutes ahead of schedule, a habit that always kept him from being late.

"Hey, Ray, I have to get to work, okay?"

She didn't glance up, but slowed down her aggressive scribbling rate as if listening.

"I'll come see you when I get off my shift, alright?"

"N'butter?"

"Yeah, I'll bring you some Nutterbutters," he agreed with a faint smile, reaching over to pat her shoulder. In the past, he would've tousled her hair, but even though it had started to grow back, it wasn't long enough for that particular action. "I'll get you pop rocks too, how about that?"

She grinned at this one, letting out a rather loud giggle before returning to her coloring page.

Cael watched her for a moment longer, then stood and headed for the door. Opening it, he found one of the nurses waiting for him out in the hall, a nervous look on her face. She was rather new, probably less than a few months on the job, because he couldn't remember her name.

"Yes?"

"Doctor Shellers has an MRI scheduled for her tomorrow," the nurse informed him, with a nod towards the display board mounted on the wall. He glanced at it and saw that it was due in the afternoon, right in the middle of his shift. "We know you like to be there, but scheduling couldn't get any other openings and Doctor Shellers said not to wait on it."

Cael nodded in understanding and heaved a sigh. Try as he might, he couldn't always be there when Ray's tests were run, especially with the hospital as busy as it was recently.

"I'll be here before work in the morning," he informed the nurse. "I'll talk to Dr. Shellers then."

"Alright."

Shoving his hands into his jacket pockets, Cael trudged off down the hall towards the elevator.

:Noted. I will call again if we find another shard.

There was a long silence as the comm. screen fell dark and certain relays powered down. In the few seconds that passed, Helix entertained the idea of maybe, just maybe, investing in another security terminal for his lab. Sure, it would set him back a couple thousand credits, but it would be worth it just to make sure that certain transmissions had a lot harder time finding their way through to him.

:And just how many shards are there, Helix?:

The new voice had a tone like an elementary calculator, no emotion, just bland numerical values turned into audio. He had expected the question to take much longer to reach him, but then again he had also expected to actually get in a full recharge cycle. Things just had a way of not happening as they were supposed to.

"Nineteen," he answered, turning his chair so he could see the monitor that had lit up. It was a different one every time, which at least kept things interesting. How that was accomplished wasn't an area of Helix's expertise, though he was relatively sure it had something to do with networking. Never-the-less, it was always unnerving to come face to face with that singular glowing optic. He managed to keep himself from shuddering. "Ten non-uniform fragments and nine cut out from the precise geometric seams."

In the pause following this announcement, Helix again pulled up the screen with the Allspark diagram. Something about it had been causing an itch at the back of his processor. He stared at the rotating diagram, optics squinting in concentration.

"Aha!"

:Yes?:

"Not nineteen," Helix said, not in the least bit surprised that his 'employer' hadn't severed the connection. He tapped out several things on the control panel to pull up a magnified view of a certain section of the diagram. The lines there had been showing a discrepancy on the normal scale. Under magnification, however, it showed that there was another minuscule piece to the puzzle. "There are twenty. One is so small that the reconstruction program did not acknowledge its significance."

:But as you stated before, each shard is still charge with energy. Does the size of the piece directly correspond with the amount of energy contained by it?:

"Depends on how it's used."

There was silence, which indicated either that the intended joke had flown over the head of the recipient or that Shockwave was not amused. Judging by the narrowed glare being directed his way, Helix gathered that it was probably the latter. He made a mental memo to keep his interface jokes to himself from that point on.

"Look, it's the Allspark; no one knows for sure how it reacts to anything. Could be that maybe the smallest piece of it is the least powerful of the bunch; after all, the program did overlook it. But Primus is a sneaky bastard and I wouldn't put it past him to play the inverse."

:Your blasphemy is not amusing:

"All I'm saying is to be prepared for anything and everything when the Allspark is involved," Helix returned, rubbing at his left temple. "I've dedicated my entire career to understanding the damn thing and all it's done is give me a perpetual processor ache."

:You will contact me when you have more information:

"Yeah, yeah. Just make sure-"

:Your payment has already been transferred:

"Oh goody."

The screen went dark, but there was a violet after-image burned into the screen of that strange singular optic. It remained for some time, eventually fading back to the black of the inactive monitor.

"I really have to get some upgrades in here."