Steeljaw walks past Strongarm, he can't believe what he's hearing. Did his carrier really set this up so he would find a mate that would set him on the right path? Once he makes it out of the woods he walks over to the cliff to look out over the ocean.

"Steeljaw?"

Steeljaw looks back to see Strongarm standing behind him, "I think I know who set this up."

"Who?"

"My carrier, she's the only one I can think of that would do something like this."

Strongarm was a little surprised but she had heard of some Wolf-Cons being good, "Was she one of the Wolf-Cons that was good?"

"She was. She grew up in a criminal family that caused so much harm to others but she just couldn't follow in their footsteps. She wanted to be different."

"What about your sire?"

"He was a full-on criminal, he became one of Cybertron's most wanted."

"How did your carrier end up with him?"

"He knew her family, they ran in the same circles. Her sire wanted her to mate with him and he was in love with her the moment he saw her. She refused but he wasn't taking no for an answer, he forced her to mate with him. Even though she didn't want to be with him she still kept to the Wolf-Con biology of staying faithful to your mate and she stuck by him. Eventually, she came to love him."

"What happened to her?"

Steeljaw looked back out over the ocean as he thought back, "She was killed when I was a cub. My sire took me out of the city one day for some training, he wanted me to follow in his footsteps and be a criminal like him. When we returned we found the whole city completely blown up. We found her body under the remains of our house. My sire was so sparkbroken that he almost died right along with her, but he chose to keep living for me."

Strongarm's spark sank, she couldn't help but pity him. He lost his mom when he was a cub, that had to have been traumatic for him. Then his criminal father raised him to be a criminal just like him, "Do you know who did it?"

Steeljaw clenched his servos as he growled, "Autobots! We were told Autobots blew up the city!"

"That can't be, Autobots wouldn't just blow up a Decepticon city like that. Autobots stopped doing that when the war ended."

Steeljaw turned to look at her, "You're an Autobot so of course you don't believe they did it!"

"I don't believe it because it's a fact that Autobots have stopped blowing up cities. They storm cities and arrest the Decepticons not blowing up their city and killing them. You were lied to."

"Autobots blew up the city, I was shown proof!"

Strongarm stayed silent as she looked at him, she knew there was no arguing with him. But she also knows that there is no way Autobots blew up their city, she needs to find a way to prove it to him. She's now starting to understand him, he's a criminal because he was put into that life by his father, it's the only life he knows. And he hates the Autobots so much because he believes they killed his mom.

"Even though my sire lived on to raise me I could tell my carrier's death really pained and broke him. It's what killed him, the pain got too much for him and he couldn't live on without her anymore so he let his spark give out. I don't want to go through that, I can't lose you." He places a claw on her cheek and caresses it, "I don't want to lose you. That's why I've been holding onto you so tight and won't let you escape and why I marked you to make you my mate."

"I can understand that but you're doing it all wrong. What you've been doing is not the way to get my love."

"My sire never showed me the right way, he made me believe I had to do it the way he did."

"He did it the wrong way too. You do not kidnap the femme you want to love you and force her to mate with you."

"You do know that you willingly mated with me through interface."

Strongarm rolled her optics, "I'm in heat and I didn't want to go through my second heat cycle alone," she said as she turned away from him to conceal her blush.

Steeljaw raises an optic ridge, "Your second? How old are you?"

Strongarm faces him again with a glare, "Now you want to know my age after we already mated!" She says as she slaps away his servo.

Steeljaw shrugged, "You seemed old enough so I didn't see the need to ask."

"I'm eighteen vorns. You?"

"Twenty-four. So you're not that much younger."

Strongarm scoffs, "My parents are more vorns apart than we are."

~~~~~~~~~~

Grimlock looks around at the people still cutting him open and testing out his functions. When he looks down he can see his chest is completely open and exposed as well as other parts where his wires are hanging out. They already turned off his pain sensors so they didn't have to keep hearing his screams. Grimlock could feel his optics fill with lubricant but he held them back, he was determined not to cry in front of them.

At one point they place Underbite next to him so they can make side-by-side comparisons to see how alike or different they are. He's in just as bad shape as him, all cut open with his insides exposed and wires hanging out. The two look at each other, both wishing they had paid better attention to their surroundings instead of trying to fight like usual, then maybe they wouldn't have been taken by surprise and they wouldn't be in this predicament.

"You better hold on you stupid Dinobot, I still want our fight."

"You better hold on loudmouth, I still want our fight too."

Underbite lets out a small chuckle. He hopes the others find them soon, he doesn't care if he gets locked up it would be better than this scrap.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Are we getting closer, Agent Fowler?" Bumblebee asked the human that was riding inside him.

"Yes, just a few more miles."

"Good, I'm ready," Bumblebee said before he got on his comm to call Ratchet.:: Hey, Ratchet. How's Sideswipe? ::

:: We just finished with the surgery. He's not completely out of the clear yet but we're making progress. We're now getting started on fixing up his wrists. ::

:: That's good to hear. How's Knock Out holding up? ::

:: He's holding up better than I've seen any other medic do while working on their son. He refuses to let his son offline just as any parent would. ::

:: Keep me informed. ::

:: We will. How's the search going? ::

:: We're closing in on the human group's base. Hopefully, we can find Strongarm and save her. Grimlock was taken too so I'm hoping to find him and save him as well. ::

:: Good luck. ::

:: Thanks, we'll need it. :: Bumblebee says before he cuts off the comm.

When the group gets closer to the base they see at least a dozen vehicles heading their way, all of them equipped to take down the Cybertronians. "They must have security cameras all around so they were able to see us coming!" Bumblebee says as he dodges shots that are coming from the weapons on the vehicles.

Thunderhoof swerves around so he can get to the side and he rams into one of the cars pushing it into another one. He pushes them into a tree crushing both vehicles and killing the humans inside. Arcee drives toward a truck swerving and dodging the bullets and blasts of electricity that they're shooting, she jumps up and transforms before landing on top of the truck and she uses her blades to slice the weapons and make them malfunction.

"Arcee, go with Bumblebee!" Wheeljack yells as he and Magnus work to keep some of the other vehicles away from Bumblebee who drives past them. There's not really anything he can do as long as he has Fowler inside him, and besides, he needs to find the leader.

Arcee jumps off the truck and transforms again before she drives off after Bumblebee, Thunderhoof follows after them leaving Wheeljack, Magnus, and Fracture to fight the rest of the humans.

Please stay safe, Wheeljack. Arcee tells him through their bond.

I will babe, you just find our daughter and kick Steeljaw's aft. But make sure to leave some for me.

Arcee laughed. Will do.