Author's Notes: So, after almost a year, the story lives! Immense writers block and other stuff forced me to...well, forget, and I know that's bad, but life gets in the way. Anyway, here it is guys, enjoy! - Dave

The Final Battle Begins

...

Sunlight spilled through the slits in the blinds, overflowing like trickling streams of white glowing light. Crows cawed quietly in the distance and a few car engines hummed by, when the tranquil silence snapped with the blare of an alarm clock.

"Gah!" Jack gasped, sitting upright and groaning, rubbing his bleary eyes with balled up fists, one hand stretching out to the table, fumbling blindly to thump the clock. After several thumps from the seat of his fist, all missing and hitting the bedside table top, he clapped the top of the wailing alarm clock to shut it up. Silence filled the bedroom and Jack yawned tiredly, blinking unevenly and even threatening to fall asleep again.

He snapped himself awake again before he fell into the pillow below and slid his feet over the side, ice cold floorboards biting his bare toes. He rubbed his face and groaned groggily, reaching over to the bedside table and grasping his phone, fumbling to not drop it in tiredly uncoordinated hands.

He flicked it open, scratching the back of his head, when he raised an eyebrow at a new message.

"Huh?" he mumbled, opening the message from Arcee.

Cee:

Jack,

I'm not usually good with goodbyes, hell I downright hate them. Maybe it's because I never got to say goodbye to my partners, or...I dunno, I'm rambling in a text, how stupid and human is that?!

Look, I'll cut to the chase. I left early this morning to fight my sister and her crew, and by the time you've read this, I'm already well on my way.

"No, no, no!" Jack shook his head, now fully alert and awake, his heart hammering in his throat as he scrolled desperately through the message.

Don't even think about coming after me, Jack, because if you got hurt or killed, that'd be it for me, I couldn't take it, I really couldn't. You found something long hidden in me. Something human's call love. I hate the word and all it stands for, but you're fleshy spark got to mine, damn it.

You're my weakness, Jack, my one and only weakness, and it just gets weaker and weaker the more and more we bond and connect. I love you, so much, but I have to stop my sister, I have to free Miko and Raf.

This isn't goodbye, just...see ya, my Sparkmate.

By the time he'd finished the message, he'd already frantically gotten dressed and jammed the phone in his pocket, desperately running down the stairs, pulling his shirt over his head, ruffled black air poking out the top. He slid round the corner on slippery sock feet, thumping against the wall. Jack ran into the kitchen, eyes watering and lip trembling, meeting his Mother by the Coffee machine. June turned and her smile vanished the moment she saw the state of her hyperventilating son.

"Jack, what's wrong, honey?"

"Arcee! Sh-She's gone! She's gone to fight her sister! She's gonna die!" He stammered, running past the kitchen table, his hip cracking against the corner of it, making him groan and hiss in pain. The china on the table rattled as he barged by it, holding his sore hip. June followed suit, trying to calm her hysterical son.

"Jack, calm down, stop!" June tried to catch him as he jogged into the empty garage, breath heavy and rapid, his heart physically rattling his chest. "Jack, darling it's okay!"

"No, Mom, she's in trouble, I gotta save her!" he cried, limping over to the garage door and hoisting it up, a bursting bright wall of light hitting their tired eyes. "She's..." he blinked and adjusted his eyes to the blue and pink motorcycle on the driveway, propped and shining in the morning light. "...In trouble." he mumbled, eyes wide. June sighed and gently gripped his shoulder.

"I tried to tell you. Must have...been a prank?" June tried to reason, but Jack wiped his bleary eyes and stormed out onto the drive. "Jack wait-"

"Morning Partner!" Arcee said with a hidden smile, tilting her wing mirrors into a curled beam. Jack kicked her tire. "Ow, what the scrap?"

"You think that's funny?!" he roared at his bike, June wincing as she eyed the neighbors, seeing them peek through the curtains and raise eyebrows at the boy. "I nearly had a panic attack, what the hell is wrong with you?" he snapped, crossing his arms, tapping his metal foot. Arcee shrugged her wing mirrors.

"Dunno what you're talking about, Jack." she grumbled. Jack growled and she raised a wing mirror in confusion. "Seriously. What's got you all worked up?"

"I got..." he fumbled and pulled his phone out, showing the screen to her wing mirror, turning her front wheel to lay her headlight upon it. "...this message this morning! What sort of joke it that?"

"Jack, I never sent that." Arcee sighed. "God damn it, my sister has gone too far!" Arcee growled, backing out the drive on her own. Jack grabbed onto her handles and pulled the revving bike back up the drive.

"What? She's got your contact info too?" Jack asked, skeptical. Arcee sighed and stopped revving.

"Yeah, guess so. Some other way of threatening me and my friends." she grumbled.

"Well, you need to get to the base and tell Optimus, now!" June commented, crossing her arms, looping a stray black lock behind her ear. "M-Maybe you can track the message and locate your sister! Find Miko and Rafeal." June nodded. Jack nodded too, eyes alight. Arcee sighed and shrugged her mirrors.

"Get on. You may have to remind me which way to go to the base, I've got so much on my servo's, I may have deleted the coordinates by accident." She moaned, Jack laughing weakly, sticking his shoe on and hopping on to straddle Arcee. June stopped the pair and prodded Jack's motorcycle helmet into his chest.

"Wear it young man, or grounded and no Arcee."

"What? A crisis like this and you threaten to ground me, a-and take away my Autobot partner?" Jack's voice rose in octaves. June shrugged.

"Mother first." June smirked. "Now go, get them back, find your sister." She nodded to Arcee. Jack pulled the helmet down onto his head and Arcee backed out the drive, turning and speeding off into the direction of the sun baked desert.

...

"Man, I can't believe she hacked your contact info, just to mess with me." Jack growled as Arcee sped through the desert, towards the distant titan rocks. "Sucks, this just...sucks!" he growled, slapping his hands in his lap, letting Arcee do the driving.

"I know it sucks, but hey, at least we can track the message, right?" Arcee commented, Jack nodding weakly. "err, Jack, now which way?"

"You seriously can't remember?" He scoffed, laughing. Arcee swung the rear of the bike out a bit to jostle him. "Okay, Okay, turn here, then down towards the big rock, see it?"

"Got it, smart-aft." she scoffed. "So, we tell Optimus, get the signal and surprise attack them from all angles."

"Sounds like a plan." Jack nodded, rubbing an itch beneath his grey T-shirt. Something dawned on Jack and he raised an eyebrow, looking down at Arcee. "Hey, where'd you're sidecar go, you know, the armor thing we picked up from Barricade?"

"I umm...I don't feel comfortable having ti on all the time, so I hid it round the back of the house. I just...don't feel like I've earned my master's armor, you know?" Arcee mumbled, clearly uncomfortable. Jack smiled and patted her chrome gas tank.

"You have earned it, plus you'll need it to woop Flamewar's ass!"

"Jack, my beloved and trusted Partner, are you saying I can't defeat her without it?" She said with an unseen coy smirk. Jack gulped, going rigid.

"N-No! I-I'm just-"

"Hah! You are too easy, Jack!" Arcee cackled, Jack shaking his helmeted head. The pair raced along the orange desert, and it wasn't long before they neared the titanic rock. The huge wall of dusted stone shuffled and slid apart, huge silo doors mechanically whirring and sinking into the desert floor, rising plumes of red dust masking the entrance.

"It'll be good to see the guys." Jack smiled. "Maybe they've got a plan." he sighed, shrugging.

"Oh I'm sure we'll think of something." Arcee said coyly, driving into the sudden darkness of the base, the lights of the tunnel flicking on as they drove up into the wide open Command Center. Optimus was stood tall by Ratchet, looking over a datapad of schematics. The huge Prime looked down at the new arrival and gave a weak smile, as Jack stepped off, letting Arcee sit up and transform, cricking her neck and stretching her arms up over her head.

Bulkhead was nervously pacing in the corner, his heavy feet thumping, hands pressed into the temples of his rotund head. His blue optics flit back and forth in thought.

"Come on, Optimus, w-we gotta be able to track em, o-o-or something, I mean...her Energon signal!" He nodded, fingers clicking. "Track her Energon signal!"

"Oh yes, a brilliant Idea, Bulkhead, I'll track a single Energon signal...on a planet rich in Energon deposits and Decepticons!" Ratchet snarled sarcastically. Bulkhead growled and stamped his foot in annoyance, the base shaking, a few streams of dust falling from the metal rafters above. Optimus gently grasped Bulkhead's shoulder to calm his pacing.

"Bulkhead, ease yourself. We are trying to track her." He smiled softly to his friend. Bulkhead didn't seem convinced. "Stay calm."

"St-Stay calm? Optimus, it's Miko! It's my little..." He groaned and cradles his head, shaking it back and forth, titanium scraping against his palms.

"Bumblebee has lost Rafael too, Bulkhead. We're trying our hardest." Ratchet groaned, looking deeper at the schematics. Bumblebee was currently sat in the corner, hugging his knees, grumbling to himself, large blue optics looking down at his lap. They were both distraught.

"Optimus, we got a way to track her, well, maybe." Jack held up his phone, Optimus raising an optic ridge and bending down, pistons hissing.

"What am I looking at, Jack?" Optimus asked.

"I got it this morning. Flamewar used Arcee's number to threaten me. You can track it back to her!" He grinned, pleased with himself. Optimus looked up at Arcee and she nodded.

"Ratchet? What do you make of this?" Optimus stood up as Ratchet bent down to look at the phone, his blue optics painting Jack in cyan glows.

"Hmm, seems like Arcee's style of...Ahem, messaging." he rolled his eyes at the love parts, Jack grumbling to himself. "But, it can be worth a shot." Ratchet pinched the tiny device and placed the phone into his datapad, watching it buffer. "Bare with me." Ratchet worked on his device.

"Jack, Arcee, y-you may have saved her! Thank you, thank you!" Bulkhead beamed, Bumblebee sitting up and nodding with a gleeful smile. Arcee smiled back and shrugged, Jack nodding too. "Come on Doc, anything?!" Bulkhead impatiently asked.

"Almost...I've...I've actually got something." Ratchet nodded, optics alight as the group of bots gathered around the pad. "Huh...well that is...odd?" Ratchet raised a ridge, lowering the pad as the group all laid optics on Arcee.

"What?" she asked, hand on hip. Bulkhead shook his head, pacing round the bots, almost stepping on Jack in his blind obsession with finding Miko.

"B-But, that doesn't make sense! She's right here!" Bulkhead pointed to Arcee beside him. She raised a curled eyebrow.

"Huh, wh-what's going on?" Arcee shook her head, confused. Ratchet sighed and slapped the datapad on the Bridge controls. He caressed the chrome plating of his brow.

"It says that you are in the middle of the desert, which isn't true since you are here!" Ratchet groaned, rubbing his brow. "For some reason, you're vital signs and transponder are walking around the desert." Ratchet grumbled. "Useless Earth technology."

"Wait, how can that be?" Jack asked, shaking his muddled head. Arcee giggled, Bulkhead and the other's raising eyebrows and peering at the giggling Fembot.

"Ar...cee?" Jack asked, eyebrow raised as Arcee began hysterically laughing, almost keeling over. The group all watched in confusion as she continued to laugh uncontrollably, before finally getting control of herself.

"Oh..." She wiped a stray Energon tear. "You got the wrong sister." Arcee grinned, raising her blaster and without hesitation firing an Energon round straight through Bulkhead's chest, a spray of metal and inner workings falling out from the wound, along with Energon and sparks. Bulkhead groaned and grit his chrome dentures, dropping to his knees with a thud. Jack ran behind Optimus's leg, the entire ensemble of Team Prime backing up with shocked wide optics.

"I-it's Flamewar!" Ratchet shouted, as Arcee sauntered beside a crawling Bulkhead. They all aimed at her, but Ratchet stopped them. "No! You could hit Bulkhead!"

Her blue paint peeled away along with the pink, revealing orange and black. Her grin melted and charred across her face, splitting and forming a jagged evil grin. Her blue optics turned fiery orange. Bulkhead groaned and writhed in agony, his metal chest plating seared and scorched, blown open in a flowering blossom of torn metal. He rolled onto his back and Flamewar cooed as she watched him in pain.

"Wh-Where's Miko, you hunk of scrap." Bulkhead spat Energon down his rotund chrome chin.

"Aww...she's fine, for now." Flamewar shrugged, Bulkhead growling and gritting his dentures. "Any-who. Bye Bulk." She pouted, lifting the blaster and without even a second thought, firing multiple Energon rounds into his chest, chunks of metal spraying up from his destroyed torso. "See ya in hell." she grinned, Bulkhead's optic's falling black, hands limp.

"Bulk!" Jack screamed, Bumblebee roared as he lunged at her without hesitation. She grinned and the pair slammed into each other with the force of a few mega-tonnes, dust falling the from the stone ceiling. Ratchet took the chance to run to Bulkhead, rolling him onto his back, placing two metal fingers against his pulsing metal neck.

"Thank Primus, a pulse, but it's weak. Quick! Get him to the medical bay!" Ratchet shouted as Optimus took it upon himself to lift his gravely injured friend and back down the hall as Ratchet ignited his chrome blade from his wrist, covering Optimus's retreat.

Bumblebee slammed Flamewar against the wall, pinning her by her throat. She cackled as his wrist pressed deeper and harder against her charred neck.

"Where's Raf?!" He roared, Flamewar laughing, fire drooling from her jagged teeth.

"Mine now." she cackled as Bumblebee fired repeated blasts of his wrist mounted blasters into her belly, metal melting and bursting. She laughed the whole time, kicking him away, her wounded stomach plating heating and warping, welding itself back together, closing Bumblebee's inflicted wounds.

"What the scrap are you?" Bumblebee gulped. She grinned.

"I am hell...on Earth." she laughed, lifting her boot sharply, slamming it against his cheek, a spray of sparks ringing out as he fell back onto his spine. Bumblebee groaned and went to get back up. She rolled her fists into tight balls and her chest expanded outwards with a deep inhale. Her optics flared orange and her Jack'O lantern like grin widened, fire lapping at the scorched teeth. Bumblebee quickly tucked and rolled behind a box of crates, as she leaned forward, breathing a lapping sea of flames across the Command Center, engulfing Ratchet's Ground Bridge controls in heated fire. His technology popped and crackled, melting in the rising flames, now entombing the entire center.

"Jack! Get outta here!" Bumblebee called across the glowing orange Command Center, Jack hiding behind the warping and groaning metal beam of the flame engulfed Bridge Control panels. Huge pillows of jet back smoke rose up into the ceiling above, creating a low stormy formation of deathly black smog, enveloping the metal girders that held up the stone roof.

"Jack!" Bumblebee called from behind the burning stack of melted crates, unable to locate the boy through the thick smoke enveloping the base.

"Where is the Time-Shifter?! Where is my relic?!" Flamewar roared, pacing through the knee high flames, fists at her sides. Jack groaned and hissed as his bare elbow touched the glowing hot metal of the groaning controls, seeing it beginning to warp and slouch. He shuffled round and just then he heard a roar of aggression and two massive bots slam into each other.

Bumblebee had leaped out from behind the crates and tackled Flamewar, both falling into the sea of flames, writhing and slamming fists into each other's polymer faces. He relentlessly pummeled her face, and she grinned up at him.

"You on top? I don't think so. See, I'm a Femme who loves to be in control." Flamewar smirked, cooing as she spat glowing orange Energon from her jagged teeth. Bumblebee reeled his fist back to deliver another blow, roaring as he did it. She quickly lifted her hands and sunk the white hot appendages straight through his chest plate, Bumblebee screaming in agony, feeling her super heated claws writhing beneath his chest armor.

She threw him to the side on his spine with a collateral thud and rolled over to straddle the scout. Bumblebee groaned and grabbed at her wrists, hissing in agony as she sunk her sizzling arms deeper into his metallic ribs. "Now, where oh where is the Spark? Is it...the left?" she grinned as he screamed and writhed beneath her, feeling her drag her arms over to the left inside his torso, ripping and melting his soldered chest further. His metallic palms desperately clawed at her face, frying to get her away, his legs kicking uselessly beneath her.

"Stop!" Jack screamed, stepping out from behind the pillar, shielding his eyes and face with his wrists, his skin drying and flaking in the lapping flames that now engulf the facility. He stepped aside with a gasp as a chunk of molten metal fell from the smoky ceiling above. Bumblebee was panting and groaning beneath her as Flamewar grinned and eyed Jack through the huge raging fires.

"And there he is. The boy who tamed my sister." She pulled her arms out of Bumblebee molten chest, leaving him to gasp and roll onto his side, clutching his yellow glowing chest piece. Jack gulped as she got up off of straddling Bumblebee, leaving him to writhe on his own. Smoke rose from his dented and glowing hot chest. Flamewar sauntered over to Jack, bending down, her fiery optics mere inches from his face. His skin dried and he blinked repeatedly to dampen his rapidly drying eyes, the heat was that evident.

"Look whose grown up." she sobered, staring daggers at him. "You know, the rivalry between me and my sister goes back eons, way before you were even a glint in the eye of evolution." She chuckled. "You know I will kill her, don't you?" she pouted. Jack shrugged.

"She'll give you a run for your money, I bet." he snarled. She laughed outright, shaking her head.

"Oh Jackson Darby, such bravery, all bottled up in such a puny little human!" she giggled, prodding his chest with a super heated fingertip. "Where did you learn such bravery?" she smirked. Jack shrugged, patting the flame off his T-shirt, leaving a singed hole in the fabric.

"What do you want? Arcee isn't here, as you know." He growled, shrugging. "You never sent that message, did you? It was really from her."

"It was. I used your heart, Jack, to get in here. Now I know where the bot's make their home. Made their home." She admired the rising fires. "I couldn't have you keeping my Relic, and I certainly couldn't have you all using it to rewrite history, in some vain attempt to save her." Flamewar cackled, swirling her hand dismissively.

"I will kill you." Jack scoffed, shaking his head. Flamewar's optics burst wide and her grin spread into a lop sided cackle. She stood up tall and laughed outright at the smoke and flame engulfed ceiling.

"You, kill me? Tell me, Jack, tell me..." she nodded sarcastically, bending down on crouched knees, elbows resting across the spiky caps. "If my sister, and all your Autobot friends can't kill me, how can you?" she smirked as his eyes fell in defeat. "I thought so." She got up and sauntered past him, her huge boot knocking by him and dropping him to a thud on his back, groaning. She walked through the fires and licked her jagged fangs, sauntering by a wounded Bumblebee. She bent over and blew a kiss to him, the flames escaping her lips and melting the metal on his cheek. He growled and turned his scarred face away.

Flamewar stepped into one of the burning quarters, seeing the Gauntlet on one of Ratchet's tables. She grinned devilishly and skipped over to it. "La-La-La la-Lala" she hummed, clicking her metallic tongue against the fiery roof of her mouth. She snatched up the ancient device and sauntered out of the room, back into the flames, seeing Optimus holding up essentially a huge metal wall, groaning as his arms shook and the titanium in his biceps warped. Beneath it, Ratchet was resuscitating a near-death Bulkhead.

"Stay with me Bulkhead! Stay with, Primus don't you dare give up on me!" Ratchet growled, hearing Bulkhead splutter and return to consciousness, optics flickering. Optimus groaned in agony and dropped to his knee, resting the falling wall slab across his shoulders to ease the load on his arms.

"Huh. All in all a good day." Flamewar smiled, swiveling childishly on her heel and skipping down the hall, her metal boots clapping along the fiery floor. "What a lovely day, La-Lala!" she sing-songed, skipping back into the control room. Bumblebee was crawling across the floor and Jack was trying to help the bot up best he could, considering his minuscule size. Bumblebee lifted his palm over Jack's head as a segment of stone dropped from the crumbling ceiling and smashed against the top of his hand, shielding Jack.

Jack coughed and spluttered in the low hanging ceiling of smoke, currently filling his lungs. "Oh deary me." Flamewar stepped widely over Bumblebee and carried on sauntering towards the exit. "So long, bots!" she curtsied to the burning Commander Center. "Thanks for the hospitality." She saluted them with her index finger, smirking as she turned to leave, Relic in hand.

...

Arcee stood alone in the wide open expanse of desert, miles from civilization, from New Jasper. A single pillar of black smoke rose into the sky from the distance, making her raise an eyebrow over her shoulder. She sighed and lowered her gaze to her holographic message in her palm, the one she'd sent to Jack. She chewed her lip and shut her optics tight, closing her fist and with it the message.

She took a shaky breath through polymer lips and looked down at herself. Her body was hugged and adorned in Prowl's Samurai armor, now, like a chameleon, changed colors from black and gold to suit her Blues and pinks. Similar to ancient Samurai armor, the overlapping plates ran down her hips similar to a skirt of armor. Her ample chest plating was covered in folded curls of thick armor that come up to form a thin collar piece. Along her thin wrists were rounded shields, each with folded away Energon swords.

Her head's usually sharp unicorn-like crest of pink metal was now rooted with smoothed over armor plates, all meeting at her temples to form tall antenna like ears that poke up and protrude on each side like Optimus'. Along her jaw line were curved and hugging plates of metallic blue armor, each hiding half of a fold out face plate, once again, similar to Optimus Prime's. Arcee gulped hard and shook the clammy feeling from her polymer palms, her Energon blood prickling with nerves and fear. She was going to stop her sister, once and for all, no more holding back because of who her sister used to be. She'd have to end Flamewar, even if it meant losing what was left of Chromia.

Arcee's optics widened at a noise over her shoulder, turning to look over her Samurai pouldron at the intrusion to the silent desert. A trail of dust was racing towards her, the roar of a motorcycle sounding too. Arcee knew who it was, she could feel it churning beneath her spark chamber. She gulped hard and growled, her faceplate engaging, covering her mouth, her optics narrowing.

The flaming motorcycle slid by her, kicking up dust and rocks, chipping and bouncing off Arcee's blue paint. The bike of fire morphed and transformed, spine hunching as plating folded away and sunk into their rightful positions, all the while a mane of fire crackled along her spine. Flamewar stood up and groaned, stretching her pistons. Her orange glare landed on Arcee, who looked fixed for combat, Samurai armor ready, her shields boosted.

"Hey Sis, what's up?" Flamewar grinned, fire seeping from the corner of her crooked smirk.

"What's up?!" Arcee scoffed sarcastically. "Where are the kids?" she snarled, fists raised, her voice sounding muffled and metallic through her mask. Flamewar growled and rolled her optics.

"Jeez, calm down. The kids are fine. We got em on our ship, kay?" Flamewar perched her rear on a large rock, crossing one leg over the other, hands on her charred thighs, clapping them on the rounded metal. Arcee dropped her fists slowly. "So...calm...down, yeah?"

"Whatever, hand the children over, and we can get this over with." Arcee snarled, looking straight forward, optics set on the distance.

"Hey." Flamewar leaned into her view. "Yo, big sis." she knocked on Arcee's head. "Knock Knock, big sis?"

"Don't ever call me that." Arcee snapped, eyes fixated on the desert.

"Oh, come on, what's that old Earth saying?" Flamewar hopped off the rock and sauntered into Arcee's eye line. She tapped her smoking chin. "That's it, one stick alone breaks-"

"That's not it." Arcee grumbled, rolling her optics. "One stick will break on it's own, because it's weak. But try to snap loads of them together, and it's tougher. It's harder to break if many stand together." Arcee finished proudly, stoically. Flamewar's laughter built and built, till her head was keeling backwards and she was having to steady her hands on her knees.

"Ah! That, that is priceless!" She giggled, wiping a drop of lava from her optic. "Ah, that's grand, really it is." she calmed down. "Whew, too good."

"What's so funny?" Arcee grit her hidden dentures.

"Well see, I'm not like a stick. I don't snap on my own. I'm more of a...a..." she snapped her fingers with a click. "I'm a metal pole."

"You certainly are." Arcee mumbled.

"Yeah, see, I'm strong and durable on my own, unbreakable!"

"Unless in fire, then you warp easily, right?" Arcee smirked beneath the mask. Flamewar's grin turned stern, her optics set like stone on Arcee, one of them twitching, along with the edge of her jagged fiery lip.

"You think you know me?" Flamewar remarked, turning away.

"I used to." Arcee retorted with emotion in her optics and voice. Flamewar scoffed and clicked her titanium tongue, shaking her head.

"Yeah...sure." She whispered to herself, orange gaze lowering as she kicked dust back and forth. "Used to."

Arcee lowered her gaze and sighed, her Face-plate disengaging, revealing her sorrowful frown. Flamewar sniffed and looked up at the sky.

"Look. Right on cue." she growled, storming by her to stand behind Arcee, arms crossed over her orange and black chest. Arcee grumbled and looked up at the blue expanse of sky, just as the thump of a sonic boom broke the sound barrier. Her optics landed atop the sight of a small black speck dropping from the heavens, a thin dish of fluffy white clouds curling around the black object as it broke the barrier again.

"If the kids are hurt in anyway." Arcee growled over her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I'ma gal of my word. Unlike you." Flamewar snapped.

Arcee looked up as the rapidly dropping object grew larger, the outline of the jet black VTOL gunship growing more apparent. The four adjusting thrusters crackled and a flash of blue light emanated from each nozzle, slowing the ship's free-fall. Arcee's lips contorted into a gape of unsaid words, and her optics dropped from the decelerating ship and in a last desperate plea, she turned and faced her sister, Flamewar raising an optic ridge.

"The day you got your spark from the well of Allsparks, I knew you'd be special." she smiled weakly. Flamewar's optics softened. "I-I knew you'd be your own person, no matter what. But, even then, and even now, you and I, we're not so different." Arcee's lip trembled. "Chromia, I'm not what you think I am. I-I'm just like you. I'm just the outcome of a war, I-I'm just a soldier who wants the fighting to stop. Chro-Chromia, I'm...I'm just a broken monster too."

She sighed when Flamewar growled and dropped her gaze to her feet, fists at her sides. Arcee lowered her optics as her last ditch attempt failed. She turned and looked brokenly over her shoulder as the desert ground rattled and the ship slowed to a hover above the floor, curtains of dust billowing up from the down thrust of the massive vessel.

The ship hovered over them, shadows casting Arcee in dank lighting. Flamewar shoved the Samurai's shoulder, Arcee grumbling. The ramp before them shifted and slid open, slowly lowering to reveal Tailgate perched on the lip of the ship, hanging onto the rafters above. His gaze was mean and aggressive, and looking up, she could see how the light accented the deep scarred metal on his throat. Arcee sighed and looked down at the stones by her feet. She nuzzled her boot tip deeper into the ground, feeling Earth beneath her toes for the last time.

"Get on." Flamewar snapped. Arcee looked up as Airachnid sauntered onto the lip of the ramp, pinching the scruffs of two kid's necks. Miko hanged from one hand, while Raf hung from the other, both screaming and covered in grime and blood. Raf's glasses where cracked and one lens was missing completely. Miko's pigtails were ruffled and untamed, a trickle of red gore running down from her bruised scalp.

"Arcee!" they both cried, trying to claw at Airachnid's fingers.

"Two human children, as promised." Airachnid smirked, throwing Miko and Raf off the lip of the ship. They both screamed and fell to Earth, Arcee quickly catching them both in her arms, cradling them to her chest. Miko was still screaming but hugging Raf tight.

"It's okay, hey, guys, it's okay, I gotcha." Arcee smiled. Both Miko and Raf calmed at this. She knelt and gently let them stand on their own two feet. Miko staggered but caught herself.

"Arcee, th-they're gonna kill you!" Miko cried, her big eyes glassy.

"No they're not. I'm gonna kill them." She shrugged non nonchalantly. Miko smiled weakly. Arcee suddenly cried out in agony, arching her spine and gritting her dentures to the sky. A set of superheated fingers gripped her shoulder, melting the pouldron beneath her vice tight grip. Flamewar leaned over and whispered venom in her ear.

"Get on the ship. Now."

Arcee growled and shrugged out of her grip, getting up and limping her samurai armor clad body up the ramp and stepping onto the ship. She paced by Airachnid and stared at Tailgate, as he avoided her gaze. She scoffed and pushed by him, deeper into the belly of this beast. Flamewar walked across the sandy floor, her fiery hot metal feet turning her footsteps into glass. Miko staggered back and fell on her rear with a thump, Raf trying to help her up. Flamewar hopped up onto the lip of the ramp.

She eyed Airachnid as the Spider bot scoured the horizon. "Looking for something?"

"Someone, yes." She mumbled huskily. "Where are you, Blackout?" she asked herself. Flamewar scoffed and barged by, stepping into the troop bay of the gunship.

Miko sat up and saw the trail of dust racing towards them across the desert. She waved the three Autobot's down, smiling widely to herself at the long nose red truck in front. Her smile dropped when she saw them charred and covered in black soot the nearer they got, without Bulkhead beside them.

"Incoming Autobots!" Tailgate took aim with his rifle off the ramp. Flamewar scoffed.

"So what? We got her, let them cry." she smirked.

The Autobots slid to a stop in the dust and immediately transformed as a group, all standing on forming heels. Optimus stood tall and aimed his rifle at the hovering ship as the ramp closed up into the rear of the huge metal leviathan. The engines hummed louder and louder, thrusters crackling. Jack ran by the group, chasing down the titanic hovering vessel. Optimus reached out for the boy, Ratchet sitting up with a groan, Bumblebee cupping his wounded chest, barely able to transform.

"Jack, Jack no!"

"They've got Arcee!" he screamed, running towards the huge belly of the ship. The ship loomed higher and higher into the sky, blue flames crackling beneath the belly, dust flicking up in huge sheets. The tired and wounded Autobots, covered in ash and soot aimed and fired, Energon shells bouncing off the ship's shields. "Arcee!" Jack screamed, watching the huge ship angle upwards, a titanic echoing thump sounding as a burst of energy left the jets, boosting the ship vertically into the blue sky above. A massive shock wave of dust erupted outwards in a ripple, blowing all the kids and the tired bots over onto their sides and backs in a chorus of thumps.

Jack lay on his back, groaning as he watched the black speck disappear into the blue sky, gone forever. Silence enveloped the desert as the remaining bots got up onto tired legs, some trembling and dropping to their knees, Ratchet spluttering into the floor.

"No...Cee." Jack breathed, tears dripping down the sides of his face as he lay on his spine, trying to find that black speck in the infinite expanse of blue. She was gone, in the hands of Flamewar, and there was nothing the bots could do. If she was going to come back alive, it'd all be up to her now.

Author's Notes: Here we go guys, hope you like and hang in there, cos I'm gonna try and get this all done soon. Been so long, I know! See ya next time, and don't forget to review, let me know what you think! - Dave