"Turns out, I need you just as you need me."

"Prime!"

The ever so familiar voice of Agent Fowler rang through the base.

Almost all optics and eyes turned to the elevator that the Agent just exited. The only one who had no care to even look at the man was the pity-partying weapon specialist whose condition had only worsened after Ratchet had managed to return his consciousness back to his frame.

Optimus vented quietly under his breath, "What is the issue, Agent Fowler?"

The dark skinned man glanced at pity-party, "You may to to listen to this, Autobot-" Ironhide scowled at the human, "-I just got a hit on a M.E.C.H. base."

Instantly everyone was curious. From the nervous curiosity of Raf, to the wild excitement of Miko.

"What?" Jack piped up, "How?"

"A better question would be "where"," Ratchet frowned as he looked at Optimus, the Prime himself quiet as his optics carefully looked between all of Team Prime.

Which included the suddenly alert Ironhide. The mention of the human organization that he had been stuck with for years.

"We got reports of an apparently abandoned warehouse burning in flames half an hour ago," Fowler said, his arms crossed over his chest, "Just outside Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, not too far from New York."

Ironhide got up, surprising those who hadn't been watching him from the corner of their eyes/optics.

"Then, let's get going," he gruffed out, his faceplated hard.

Optimus shared a meaningful look with Ratchet, "Are you sure that you are well enough to go out, Ironhide?"

The cold glare that Ironhide leveled at the Prime startled him, "I'm sure," Ironhide grunted out.

Miko, Raf and Jack shared looks as the Autobots followed Optimus through the ground bridge.

❀

The scene wasn't pretty when the Autobots arrived.

The flames had been put out quite a while ago, leaving behind ash, dust and burnt metal. As the Autobots carefully walked inside the remains of the warehouse, shivers ran down their spinal struts at the surprising sight of burnt, dead human bodies that could be found around the remains of the warehouse.

"What the frag happened here?" Arcee muttered lowly, breaking the quiet of the night air.

Ironhide's optical ridges furrowed as he looked around, hoping for anything.

"No idea," Bulkhead answered Arcee, his own optical ridges raised, expressing his surprise at the situation

"Something did happen," Bumblebee buzzed, looking horrified at the sight of the dead bodies, his processor couldn't help but imagine if his young human ended up like the bodies. His whole frame shuddering at the mere thought, let alone the image.

Optimus's grim faceplates didn't give away much, "Something that appeared to have destroyed everything," he said, taking another look around.

"There's nothing here," Bulkhead called from where he stood, looking through more burnt metal, grimacing at the smell of burnt human flesh.

Arcee shook her helm, "Whoever did this..." she trailed off before shaking her helm again, "Nothing here," she called to the others.

Optimus looked at Bumblebee who shook his own helm in response. The Prime sighed before turning to look at Ironhide..... or rather, where he was before he seemed to have disappeared.

"Great," Arcee rolled her optics, "Nuts for brains went and probably kicked his bucket."

Optimus vented as he moved in the direction that he guessed his old friend had gone, the Autobots following after him, even if they were a little doubtful.

"Ironhide?" Optimus called out carefully, knowing that anything could have happened to the weapons specialist in the short time frame he was gone.

"Over here, Optimus," Ironhide's voice came from further up.

Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee shared a look as Optimus didn't even pause, following after the voice of the black mech. The trio soon following after the Prime warily.

Optimus's confused frown only deepened as he saw Ironhide crouching down and looking in trees, "Ironhide? What is the meaning of t-"

The mech waved at the Prime to shut him up as a small smile crossed the black Cybertronian's derma.

The four Autobots were confused when Ironhide calmly, and carefully reached into a tree.

A feline hiss made Ironhide pause for a second before reaching in and grabbing the feline.

The lioness roared at his faceplates, making the mech's optical ridges furrow for a second.

"What has this got to do with any-"

Arcee was cut off by Optimus who held out a servo to tell the femme to stop and let the weapons specialist do what he needed to do.

Optimus hadn't seen his friend like this in vorns.

Ironhide narrowed his optics at the lioness who bared her teeth at him, her claws uselessly attacking his frame. The pair were stuck like that for a while, just looking into each others eyes/optics, when suddenly all hostile emotions fled the lioness's body.

A more curious look crossed the "big" cat's face as Ironhide finally let his digits that had been holding the cat in place, relax.

The lioness's eyes blinked curiously at the mech, before her entire form shifted.

Arcee had to hold back a gasp of surprise that threatened to leave her intake, Bumblebee and Bulkhead weren't as lucky as her, their gasps echoing through the quiet night air. Optimus was much better at hiding his surprise at the sight of where there had once been an Earthly animal, to where a human girl now stood.

Her black leather jacket was torn in places, her black jeans ripped and burnt slightly. Her combat boots had a thick layer of mud on the soles. She looked like she'd been through hell and back.

The human girl's eyebrows were furrowed in confusion as she looked up at the mech.

"Leona?"

It took Arcee a moment to realise that the spark-broken voice came from the black mech himself. Her optics widened at the familiarity of the name. The name that the kids back at the base had been talking about for weeks.

The girl- Leona- didn't seemed worried at how the Cyertronian knew her name, only confused, "Who are you?"

Crickets chirped in the distance.

Ironhide frowned, "Ironhide."

Leona paused, like the name was familiar but couldn't quite put her finger on it, her lips turned downward in a frown. Her gaze moving to her dirty soot covered fingers.

Her silence worried Ironhide, who had grown to know that silence from Leona was never a good thing(unless she was sleeping. But even then, whispers left her throat as she slept, dreaming away.), "Leona?"

The girl looked back at him. Her eyes filled with an uncertain confused that made Ironhide's spark stop.

"How do you know me?" She whispered, her brown eyes scared, "Because I don't know you."

Here's Chapter One.

I'm just gonna go hide in a hole now...
Sorry, not sorry!
(Apparently I like to put my characters through scrap and hell.....)

Hope you enjoyed!
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