"The cons have destroyed the base." Agent Fowler hangs his head as he tells them what he saw 

He stands upon the new walkway in the new base, looking out over the Autobots. All of them have been waiting eagerly to hear anything from the Agent. They are now in a new building at a top-secret military base. Anything that could trace the cons to them have been destroyed, all communication has been ceased for now.

"Did you see anything else?" Dreadwing asks with hope. 

"I'm sorry. There was no way I could get any closer without the Cons spotting me. I never saw her come out." Fowler says sadly. 

"AHHH!" Dreadwing roars, throwing his fist into the wall. 

"Dreadwing..."Optimus starts.

"No! She didn't have to die. I should have stayed with her. I could have flown her out of there." Dreadwing growls. 

"And then get shot down yourself." Arcee interjected. Her servos going to her hips, glaring at him. 

"Shelby did not die in vain. She made great sacrifice that will not be forgotten. She would want us to continue this fight." Optimus raises his voice, speaking proudly of the young women. 

"But what if she did survive, she can't contact us. What if the Decepticons got her?" Dreadwing questions. 

"There is no way she would have been able to survive that explosion. We will have to wait until the Decepticons leave for us to be able to find a body. I'm sorry Dreadwing." Fowler's eyes drop to the floor. 

The room was filled with sadness. No one wanting to believe that she is gone. Miko holds onto Bulkhead's finger, her face turned away, hoping no one sees her tears. Raf and Jack sit against the wall, Jacks' arm around Raf. The two boys hold it in, wishing this wasn't true. Arcee stands off to the side, thinking over all the words she has ever said to Shelby. Wishing she could take them back. Hot Rod leans against a wall, his arms crossed, optics to the floor. Internally kicking himself for not staying with her. Dreadwing paces back and forth, his helm reeling in the fact that he is without her.

"What do we do now?" Smokescreen asks after a moment, his voice soft, almost hard to hear. 

"For now we stay silent. We can't do anything right now with the Decepticons finding out we were not in the base. It will be difficult, but we can not leave base for any reason. They are going to be out scouting for us." Optimus orders. 

"What about Wheeljack? He's still traveling the planet." Bulkhead whips his head up, completely forgetting about the wrecker. 

"We can not under any circumstances send him a message. We do not need him getting captured." Optimus says.

"What if he goes back to base and see it destroyed? There has got to be a way to tell him." Bulkhead pushes. 

"Optimus, our lines are secure. As long as I'm sending a transmission straight to Wheeljack, we should be alright." Ratchet says after typing on the new set up. 

Optimus looks down for a moment, thinking about the idea. "I don't like the idea, but do it."

"I will send an encrypted message, to help make it more secure." Ratchet types away, writing a quick message for Wheeljack. Their only hope is that he gets it without issue. 

"If he plans to regroup with us, we will have to be careful. I don't want to bridge unless absolutely necessary." Optimus forewarns. 

"I could go meet up with him and bring him back." Agent Fowler suggests. "I'll probably be in his ship, right?"

"Most likely, but I don't want the Cons to follow you back." Optimus says. 

It isn't much later, a ding comes from the computers, "He sent a message back." Ratchet says. 

"What did he say?" Bulkhead takes a few steps forward, eager to know if his friend is alright. 

"He says he's at the old base now. He was heading that way when he watched the cons destroy the base. They are digging through the scrap now." Ratchet reads, "Optimus, should we have him continue recon? Maybe he can see what's going on while the cons are digging."

"Tell him to keep his distance and not to engage." Optimus orders. 

Ratchet nods and starts typing way. 

"Think maybe he could keep an eye out for Shelby?" Dreadwing asks, getting his hopes up. 

"Ask Wheeljack to keep an eye out for Shelby's body. Hopefully once the Cons find her, they will leave her alone." Optimus adds. 

They hear nothing after that. Wheeljack knows the rules of engagement. They have already sent one to many messages. There only hope is that the cons weren't able to pick anything up. So far, they were safe. It would be some time until they would be able to resume. They need to plan. Having the cons distracted for now, gave them an edge. The room goes silent, no one is sure what to say next. Arcee decides its best to say what the others have been thinking. Destroying the silence. 

"When were we going to find out about this new base?" Arcee asks. 

Optimus takes a moment before answering, " Our hope was that we wouldn't have had to come here. It was only for emergencies. Shelby, Dreadwing, Ratchet, Agent Fowler and I discussed it after she told us about the future. Agent Fowler found the base and we had equipment built here. We wanted to tell you all, but we couldn't risk one of you getting captured and the Decepticons using the coradical psychic patch. There was no time to explain after what happened on Cybertron. Until now."

"She literally told us that we would lose the base. If anything, Megatron could have found any of the information she told us before. It wouldn't have mattered. You should have told us." Arcee argues. 

"Does it really matter now? We are safe now. All because of Shelby." Hot Rod speaks for the first time since they came through the ground bridge. 

They all turn to him, realizing the severity of his statement. How much it really doesn't matter. She is gone, but they are safe.

The room falls silent once again. 

The flames are dying down to glowing coals. Large steps shake the building as they land from the ship flying high above. Rubble gets kicked aside as they make their way through the remnants of the once proud home. Orders are spoken to search the base. Their prideful leader smirking at the destruction he has caused. Excitement of what he could find, fills his back struts. A corpse of his enemy would give him great joy. 

The red speedster walks around the ruins. His master still incredibly upset about what happened at Cybertron. Only the death of the Autobots would bring the bringer of chaos some feeling of happiness. The Decepticon medic steers clears from his leader, hoping he doesn't bring up the fact that a certain human was able to cause a huge setback in his plans. He has been loyal to his master for eons in the never-ending war, but after meeting the Marine, his thoughts have begun to change. He thought he was helping the Autobots, but now he feels he has failed. It isn't until he catches the glare of a broken visor that almost brings him to his knees. 

Looking over his shoulder, he checks to see if any other cons are around. When it seems, they are busy in other directions, he makes his move. Carefully removing rubble off of the beaten body. The suit is torn in some places, blood seeping through. He attempts to remove the broken pieces of glass covering her face, the glue holding onto the helmet for dear life. Deep blue, blood shot eyes slowly open, looking up at him. 

"Knockout."