"Arcee to Optimus!"

The Prime tuned into his comm aas he heard Arcee begin.

"The cons are back! Cliff might be neck deep in scrap!"

"Understood," Optimus spoke before opening the line to Ratchet. "Ratchet, do you have Cliffjumper's coordinates?"

"I'm locked onto his signal, Optimus. But our team is scattered across time zones," the medic replied over the line. "Adelaide?"

Back at the base, Adelaide looked up as her name came through the comm lines.

"I hear ya, Optimus. What's up?"

"Prepare to bridge everyone back to base."

"On it."

She quickly got to work on opening the groundbridge for each of her other teammates to come through.

The moment everyone, save for Cliffjumper, was back in the base, Ratchet pulled the lever for the groundbridge.

"Autobots, roll out!" Optimus called before they all rushed through the groundbridge to save their comrade.

Optimus revealed his blaster as he prepared for battle, only to see an empty scene in front of him. They stood in front of what looked to have been an energon mine that was blown to bits.

"An untapped energon mine," he spoke as he pulled his weapon back into himself.

"What's left of it," Bulkhead grumbled.

Ratchet walked forward as he looked at the destroyed mine. "The first Decepticon activity in three years."

"That we know of," Optimus pointed out. "If they are still scouting for energon, they may be preparing for his return."

"But where's Cliff?" Bulkhead asked as Arcee and Bumblebee made their way down into the hole that had once contained precious energon.

Optimus knew in his spark that the worst had happened, but he couldn't bring himself to think of that.

Arcee caught a glimpse of something shining in the dust. She immediately ranover and bent down, picking up a silver horn. "No..."

She could swear her spark stopped in that very moment. Her partner, the most important bot in her world, was gone.

"Ratchet, can you track his position?' Optimus requested as he looked at the horn in Arcee's tender grasp.

Ratchet quickly checked his radar and frowned. "Cliffjumper's life signal just went offline."

The Prime just nodded with a stone face. He couldn't allow the others to see his spark break over the loss over their teammate. He had too stay strong, too be their rock.

"Miss Adelaide, reopen the bridge."

-

"We must not allow our anger over the loss of Cliffjumper impair our judgment. As of today, only we five Autobots remain on this earth," Optimus spoke as the Autobots stood around on the roof of the base, in honor of Cliffjumper.

Adelaide wiped her eyes quickly as she watched Arcee cradle Cliffjumper's horn in her hands.

"We owe it to ourselves, to the memory of Cybertron, to any Autobots in any galaxy seeking safe harbor." Optimus looked down at Adelaide before continuing, "to humankind."

Arcee gently set Cliff's horn down on the roof and stared at it for a moment.

"And we owe it to the memory of our fallen comrade to survive," Optimus finished before seeing Arcee begin to walk away. "Arcee?"

"If Cliff's gone, standingaround her sulking won't bring him back. So, unless anyone minds, I think I'll get back to protecting humankind," Arcee gruffed, making her way back towardss the entrance to the base.

Ratchet stepped forward, watching the two wheeler walk away. "Optimus, helping humans will only result in more tradgedy."

"Your opinion is noted," Optimus replied simply.

Bumblebee let out a sad whir which made Addie turn towards him.

"I know, Bee," she said softly as she gently set a hand on his leg. "But you've still got me."

The young scout scooped her up and she smiled a bit as she sat his palms. He made a few beeps and she nodded with a smile.

"Yeah. let's go for a ride," Adelaide agreed.

Bee carried her towards the roof's exit, but Addie looked back to Optimus for a moment, meeting his gaze with a sad smile.

Optimus watched the rest of the team slowly go back inside the base, but he stood there for a moment. The overwhelming sense of failure weighed on him. Now Cliffjumper was added to the long list of Autobots whose lives he had failed to save.

He had failed to keep his home safe from Megatron's wrath, but he refused to allow the Earth to meet the same fate. This was one fight he would refuse to lose.

He had grown to love his new home. All of the beautiful sights of nature like the towering mountains, and the way snow would gracefully land on the leaves, when it would rain and he could watch it from their old base. He also enjoyed the little things like listening to Adelaide sing along to the radio when they would go on a drive together, or learning more about human history in his free time.

Optimus vowed to himself on that day that he would never let another one of his teammates die before him.

-

"I just wish I could do more. Against the cons, I'm little more than an ant to them," Adelaide spoke as she sat in Bumblebee's driver seat, obivously not driving though.

Bee made a few beeps and clicks, assuring her that she was helpful.

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Wouldn't it be cool if I could fight Decepticons with you guys, though? That would be sick," she imagined with a light laugh.

Then an alert popped up on the screen on Bumblebee's dashboard. There was two cons tailing Arcee's signal not too far from them.

Bumblebee immediately let Addie know to hold on tight before he stepped on it, swerving through traffic to get the Arcee.

"Just get there. I'll be good," Addie assured, gripping onto the seat for good measure.

She clenched her eyes shut as Bumblebee rammed into one of the vehicons, causing it to slam into its partner. As Bee spun out, she was able to open her eyes for a moment to see a boy riding on Arcee.

She didn't even have time to question it a Bee swerved to block the vehicons behind him to keep them away from his teammate and the new human.

One of the vehicons got up on Bee's side and pushed him into the guardrail before driving off with his accomplice.

"Oh, fuck," Addie groaned as sheheld her headbefore Bumblebee let out some concerned bleeps. "I'm fine. Don't worry about me, Bee."

With that, they sped off to catch back up with Arcee and the Deepticons.

They continued until there was a road block for the construction closure ahead.

"Bee, down there!" Adelaide pointed out as she saw Arcee fighting with the now bipedal Decepticons down on a lower part of the highway.

She watched Arcee take a direct hit as Bumblebee jumped the curve. He transformed around her and made sure to catch her in his hand as he landed on one of the vehicons.

Bumblebee used his free hand to throw a punch at the other Con before sliding Adelaide down to the ground. He then threw one last punch to take the Con to the ground.

The scout took a step back, his eyes widening as he heard a crunch under his foot. He moved his foot and looked down to see the tiny rc car that he had just crushed. He turned to the two young boys who were stood to the side, watching in awe, and he whirred an apology.

"No problem," the boy assured. "Really."

"Bee!"

Before he could heed Adelaide's warning call, he was hit with a blast.

Addie ran over to the two boys quickly as bee fell backwards. She knew Bumblebee could handle himself, but these two kids shouldn't be near any of this.

The smaller boy with red glasses on that had spoken to Bumblebee watched the bot get stomped on. As the Con's prepared to fire their blasters, he shouted, "Leave him alone!!"

The Cons looked at the three humans for a moment.

"Please?" The boy squeaked out.

"Bad call," the older boy decided.

"Very bad call," Addie said as she grabbed the arms of the two boys. "Come on."

The two ran with Addie as one of the Decepticons started following them.

"Wait, you know these robots?" The older boy questioned as they ran.

Addie nodded before seeing an open drain pipe. "Yep, now hurry. In the tube."

She led them into the pipe and they kept running as the Decepticon reached his hand in.

Adelaide looked back for only a second and swore in her head. She tugged the younger boy as hard as she could, pulling him in front of him as the Con grabbed at him, grabbing her instead.

She his in pain as she was squeezed, being pulled out of the tunnel before she was dropped suddenly. She gasped for a moment and saw Bumblebee look down at her. "I'm alright."

Bee then looked into the pipe. He saw the two boys looking back at him and he bleeped at them quickly.

"Thank you," the younger boy spoke before his arm was grabbed by the older boy and they ran deeper into the tunnel.

Bumblebee stood up and turned back to attack the Cons as Addie looked at her arms.

They were bright red and she knew they were gonna bruise because of the tight grip the Con had had her in.

Bee took a couple solid hits, landing a few as well, but he was thrown backwards by one of the Cons.

Arcee ran to his aid before there was honking sound coming towards them.

Adelaide looked up to see Bulkhead barreling towards them which brought a smile to her face.

Bulkhead transformed and brought out his weapons. "Who's ready to rumble?"

The Cons realized that they were now outnumbered. Instead of staying to fight, they transformed and sped off.

"What took you?" Arcee snarked.

"Traffic."

Bumblebee then quickly scooped Adelaide off the ground and started whirring frantically.

"They grabbed you?!" Bulkhead freaked out for a moment.

"I'm fine, guys. Just a little sore. The kids got away safe though," Addie assured.

Arcee groaned. "We are so fragged."