(A/N FINALLY! It is done.Sorry, I couldn't get myself to think of some ideas which is why I took almost 5... 8 weeks in working on this chapter. This is the moment you have all been waiting for. Enjoy the chapter. )

"In hindsight, we accomplished what was required. With Unicron's awakening, extreme measures needed to be taken. Enemies became allies. Allies became confidants. And with the Matrix of Leadership, the planet Earth was saved... though at immeasurable personal cost. When Optimus surrendered the Matrix, he lost more than the collective wisdom of the Primes. He lost himself." Ratchet explained further. 

Arcee frowned at him, "That doesn't follow. Optimus knew Megatron!"

Bulkhead nodded, "They were like BFFs!"

Ratchet shrugged, "If Optimus did not know his own name, perhaps it is because the title of Prime hasn't yet been granted to him."

Fowler stared up at him in confusion, "Huh?"

Jack's expression was the same. "What?"  Miko leaned forward, her hands on her hips. "Say again?"

"With the power of the Matrix no longer within him, it would stand to reason that Optimus has reverted to his pre-Prime state: the historical archivist, Orion Pax."

June seemed to grasp the concept. "In his mind." Fowler motioned up at him, "Are you telling me Prime thinks he is some kind of librarian? AND a Decepticon?!"

Ratchet shook his head, "Being a Decepticon is a choice, Agent Fowler. One I have a hard time believing Optimus would make at any point in his life."

Bulkhead looked up at him, "So, if he's riding with the 'Cons.."

Arcee continued, "It's because Megatron is working some kind of voodoo."

  Nova was speechless when Ratchet said when Optimus lost his memories. She knew what was like to lose a memory and it was traumatizing, even painful for her to forget the memories she had in the past.  Every part of her memory is important and she doesn't want to lose herself for what makes her who she is.  

Ratchet turned to face the 'bots, "Orion Pax may not currently be an Autobot up here, but I must believe, he will never stop being one in here." He laid his hand over his chassis, frowning softly. "We must locate him to know for certain."

Fowler held up both his hands, walking closer to the railing. "Hold up. I have a chip lodged in my behind that let's Uncle Sam know when I stop for donuts. Are you telling me you can't just track Prime?"

Ratchet turned back to his computer screens. "Optimus's signal has not reappeared since he embarked for Earth's core. But we must get to work finding him if we have any hope of initiating his contingency plan."

Arcee looked back at Ratchet, "Contingency plan?"  Bulkhead frowned, "What contingency?"

Miko leaned on the railing, "Is that even a word?"

   "I think he is refering to 'that contingency'...."  Nova said, pointing the key Jack was holding.

  Jack asked, "So, what's it do?"  

"It grants access to Vector Sigma, the repository of the wisdom of the Prime's." Ratchet explained.

"Is that some sort of supercomputer?" Raf asked.

"So, we can just download Optimus' memories back into him? Great. Which one's the big 'V'? Over here? Somewhere in back?"

"If it were in base, I would have spotted it by now." Nova said.

"Vector Sigma is more than a supercomputer, Jack. It is an ancient source of mystical power - on Cybertron."

"Jackson Darby, you will not be traveling to another planet," June hollered the next moment, the bot's hopes shattering.

"I'll go!" Miko cheered.

"You're not either," she glared. "Not when one of you can," she glared at Ratchet.

"June's right. Why send a boy to do a 'bots job?" Fowler asked. Nova was questioning as well why would Optimus gave the key to Jack but not to the autobots.

"Because only a Prime can access Vector Sigma, or one chosen by a Prime." Ratchet explained, "Optimus gave the keycard to Jack. It is now imprinted with his unique biosignature."

"So why did Optimus pick me and not Nova?" Jack questioned.  "Yeah, I mean Nova certainly knows how to handle things." Miko added, making Nova raise an eyebrow. "See? She even has Optimus' cool." 

Everyone looks at Nova which she had her cool and neutral face for a few moments before she let out a sigh. "Becoz I knew he was lying about the keycard," Nova answered.

"He may have thought that you would question him thoroughly for not telling us of this earlier," Ratchet stated to her. "He did avoid the topic of what would happen, I'm sure he knew something was coming."

Miko walked over and looked at the key, "So you mean Jack's, like, some kind of honorary Prime?"

Ratchet thought about how to answer her for a second, "Let's just say Jack is the only one who can return Optimus to the Autobot we knew."

"But why would Optimus willfully endanger a human, a child?" June asked.

Jack took some offence, "I'm not a child mom."

"Maybe Optimus believes there's more to Jack than meets the eye." Arcee offered.

"All of which is moot. They key-card is useless to us without the means of reaching Cybertron, which we at present do not possess." Ratchet said.

Miko motioned to the ground bridge, "Dude, what about that?"

Raf walked over to her, "Miko, the ground bridge barely got them into Earth orbit, remember?"

Miko turned around, "Yeah, but Ratchet built it. Can't he just turbo-charge the thing?"

Ratchet looked over at her before bring his hand up to his chin, thinking hard about her statement. Nova was curious about the keycard becoz she felt a strange energy emitting from it. Nova walk over to Jack and asked, "Hey, JAck If you don't mind, Can I see the keycard for a minute?"

Jack seem hesitated at first which made NOva realized as she assured, "Don't worry Jack, The dark energon is no longer in my system anymore so I should be fine."

Jack thought about it before handing it to NOva. "Alright, It's just....I can't believe he entrusted this keycard to me."

"Yeah, I don't believe it either when he lied to us."

Reaching out to the keycard, Nova just barely touched it when something strange happened. It all happened in under a second, but the whatever-it-was gave off a small zap of static electricity when her finger touched it, seeming to momentarily glow brighter in that sparse second, as an image flashed before her eyes. 

In an ancient and deep cavern-like room, a light blue glow lit up the pitch-blackness. There were these odd circuit-like designs that were faintly cybertronian in nature that glowed a sky blue, branching out from a circular area on the floor and reaching the bottom of the chamber's walls. 

An intricate sort of walkway reached out to the middle of the design with a rounded rectangle portion on the edge of it that glowed the brightest. But the most inspiring part was the large ball of energy that hovered in the middle of the area and burned like a small star with a whitish-baby blue color. The cluster of energy was blindingly bright, seemed to fluctuate and move, twisting, turning, and almost dancing as it pulsated and hummed lowly like a men's bass choir as two glowing rings twisted around the sphere. It was like a cybertronian version of a time-turner, large, metallic, and ancient but clean and new looking.

She was astound by the view when she didn't notice her eyes were glowing bright and the  blue tron-line began to spread on her body then throughout the chamber the moment she heard voices....no....more like whispers. A thousand of whispers echoed around her as she tried to find the source but more whispers are getting louder and louder until the voices called out to her.

'Herald'

Then the image was gone, replaced by an almost surprised-looking JAck, who regarded me with an indecipherable look. He was confused and worried when he noticed the keycard just glow a bit before it stopped when Nova touched it. Jack asked, "Are you alright, NOva?"

"Did you just hear that?" Nova turned to him. 

"Hear what?"

Nova stared at the key for a minute before shaking her head as she handed back to Jack and replied, "Nevermind....It's just nothing. That keycard sure is important." Nova turned her gaze somewhere as she placed her hand on her forehead and mumbled, "W-What was that just now?"

On the Nemesis

Optimus, or Orion as he now thought of himself, worked on decoding the Iacon entries for Megatronus. Something kept nagging at him, some memory wanted to reemerge, but he couldn't place what it was. The doors hissed open as Megatronus walked in, "Orion, how fare project Iacon?"

"I am a bit rusty I fear. I've only managed to decode three entries." In his heyday he should have been almost finished with the files, not just three entries in.

"And what do these entries comprise?"

"They were logged by Autobot archivists during the war, after I entered stasis. My only knowledge of their content so far is that they are coordinates targeting locations on this very planet." Orion explained pointing to a holographic globe, "I surmise that they could indicate hiding places for vessels shuttled from Cybertron for safekeeping."

"Such as historical documents or cultural artifacts?" Megatrones seemed to hiss in disappointment.

"My greatest fear would be weapons of mass destruction hidden away for later use." Orion concluded. Orion looked at the holo-globe again as a memory resurfaced.

A girl, a strange girl, said placing her hand on his ankle, "Because you are not Megatron, Optimus. Never have; never will be."

"You are wrong. I am—" Orion heard himself reply.

"Not I'm not," She interrupted with stubborn insistence. "You may think so, but you're wrong." She craned her neck until she met his optics. "Think back to each time you had a chance to offline Megatron. What stopped you? Was for the sake of a friend? Was it because your moral compass would not allow it? Or the fact that it went against what your cause stood for? Or was it because each time you simply felt that the Autobots were so mighty, that you arrogantly believed that you would never fall?"

 The girl added, "You see? You always have a good reason, doing things out of excessive personal loyalty and not for the desire for more power like Megatron. It's what makes you Optimus Prime because that's your fatal flaw."

The memory faded as Megatrones finished, "...From Autobot reach. Orion?"

"Hm?" Orion said looking up at Megatronus, "Yes?"

Megatronus walked over and put a servo on Orion's shoulder, "We are fortunate to have you on our side, Orion Pax."

"Lord Megatronus, I am puzzled by one particular finding." He called up the file on Starscream, "I have discovered several historical references to Starscream as your second in command...yet I have not seen him aboard the ship."

Megatrones turned around to answer before leaving, "Sadly, commander Starscream is dead."Orion nodded then looked down as another memory popped into his processor.

She said sadly, "I can't believe you're leaving me."

"My will is your own; I've never truly left you."

   "Ok OPtimus, I won't let you down."  She said valiantly.

  "Look after them for me while I'm gone, little one. They look up to you more than you know. Till all are One, Nova of Earth."  He said, placing his digit on her cheek in a gently caress. 

She lowered her face before grasping the gentle digit at her cheek with her own small hand and giving it a slight squeeze as she spoke. "I will, just so long as you stay safe," She looked up with a somber expression with a small sad smile. "Till all are One, Optimus Prime of Cybertron." 

 As the memory faded, "Why did she keep calling me Optimus Prime?" Orion wondered out loud, confused also to who this Nova he seemed to know actually was.  

THe Next Day

It was afternoon, Nova was riding on her bike just to have some fresh air due to the vision she was having, It had been repeating since she touched the keycard. She tried to learn what it meant but she wasn't able to focus the topic. Despite the fact, OPtimus was no longer with them made her feel disheartened. Even she was riding her bike, it made her recall the time when she was racing with OPtimus. But now She wasn't feeling energetic before instead she felt cold. WHenever she was in her room, she felt cold even though it was not winter. SHe tried to warm herself yet she felt empty like something is missing inside her. She doesn't know why but it was almost like the same thing to Dr. Login. She wonder if Optimus won't be able to come back.

Nova blinked as she shook her head and said, "No, Don't think that. They'll find him, I know they will. I hope Ratchet is still working on the turbo-charging the groundbridge." As she came back to the base, Campy hopped happily on her shoulder to see that she came back. Nova greeted, "Hey Campy." petting him on his helm.

NOva parked her bike as she head to the main room, only to see her human friends were on the platform while Ratchet was still working on tinkering with the ground bridge when Fowler decided to com them, "Ratchet? You awake? This is an emergency."

"Agent Fowler, is it Optimus?" Ratchet asked hopeful.

He shook his head, "It's 'cons, and they're busting into the same military research lab they hit two months ago."

Bumblebee buzzed behind her, and She turned to see the other three bots behind her. "

"Another space bridge?" Bulkhead grumbled.

"But for all we know, Optimus is riding with them," Arcee pointed out.

"Roll out." Ratchet order.

As the Bots began to leave, Nova run to turned to Fowler, "Agent Fowler! You might want to get all humans evacuated if we don't want to have the gov. on our backs."

"Will do, though their already engaged, so it could take a bit of convincing." Fowler nodded before cutting the transmission.

A few minutes later Bulkhead called for pickup, "Where's Arcee?" Jack asked.

"She went through the Decepticon ground bridge. I have no idea where she is." Bulkhead answered.

Ratchet began scanning for her until she commed him from the Artic. Ratchet bridged her back, "I am done with the Artic and anything else that's negative fifty." Arcee growled.

Ratchet ran a scan over her as he asked, "You weren't able to determine the Decepticons' location or if Optimus was even aboard ship?"

Arcee looked down, "I...couldn't confirm."

Bulkhead grunted and crushed one of Ratchet's tools, "Bulkhead!" Ratchet yelled.

"What? You needed that? The only thing I need is our head honcho back." Bulkhead snapped.

Jack frowned up at them, "It's not your fault."

Arcee shook her head. "If any of us needed rescuing Optimus would have found a way. I didn't, simple as that." She turned her head away, crossing her arms.

  "But you're not Optimus, none of us are." Nova retorted, "Even Optimus can't always save everyone. He tries his best, and yes, he does tend to find weird loopholes to get us out of sticky situations but even he fails sometimes."  

The computer beeped before Fowler yelled at them. "Ratchet! What happened out there? Reports indicate at least a dozen wounded. The heats on me to provide some explanation. You bots better get your act together or the Pentagon will make me shut down your base." He then cut the signal, hanging up on them.

"But where would you go?" Raf questioned.

"Who knows!?" Ratchet shouted angrily. "Maybe they'll ship us to some island or fire us into space ; wouldn't that be a welcome relief!?"

  Arcee shook her head in anger, "I don't blame Fowler. Optimus would have evacuated all humans before engaging the 'Cons."  

Bumblebee buzzed in what NOva assumed was agreement. Bulkhead motioned to them. "We don't actually know what Optimus would have done because he's not here!"

Arcee got up and faced up. "You're pretty good at stating the obvious, Bulk." She got closer, angry. "Anything else you'd like to mention that we already know?"

Bulkhead leaned down, narrowing his optics. "Nothing I can say in front of the children."

  "All right that's ENOUGH!" NOva suddenly shouted and all eyes and optics looked to the techno. "Chill it would ya?! This isn't going to help us get Optimus back by yelling and arguing with one another. You are all talking about what Optimus would have done, how do you think he would react if he saw you arguing like this when you should be working as a team?" The Autobots relaxed and lowered their heads in shame. "Look, I know we all care deeply for OPtimus, but the only way to help him is to put aside those feelings and focus on the job at hand." She told them.

  "Right and we're overlooking one positive, what the cons just got there claws on." Jack then said standing by her side.  

Ratchet turned back to them, scoffing. "Yes, we managed to allow them to finally acquire a power source for their space bridge!"

Arcee leaned down, motioning to Jack. "How exactly would that be a positive?"

Jack stepped forward, "We let them finish building their space bridge." Everyone looked shocked by his statement.

Bulkhead frowned, "Why? So they can bring more zombies back from Cybertron?"

  "No, Bulkhead. so we can commandeer it and use it to send me and Jack to cybertron." She told them  

"Whoa. That's a pretty good idea." Miko said. Arcee then laughed mockingly "Oh well if miko thinks it's a good idea."

"Arcee, no one said this will be easy, but you've all seized a space bridge before." Nova said to her. "We blew one up. That's a whole lot different than the three of us seizing it and holding one." Bulkhead said.

Bumblebee buzzed.

"Bee's right," Arcee said, tone softer than before. "We'd have to find the thing first."

"Uh, hello! If it's a space bridge isn't it..." Miko said as she pointed upwards.

"The term space refers to its transport range not its physical location! And we've been monitoring earth's orbit since the last one, we'd know if it were there!" Ratchet groaned.

"So the bridge could be somewhere here on earth." Jack said.

"Like trying to find a servo in a scrap yard." Bulkhead said.

"Then maybe we'd better start looking." Arcee said in a much calmer state of mind.

"Ratchet, try to find any possible energon spikes, then each of you can scout those areas." Nova ordered. They all looked dumbfounded at NOva, the way they looked at her, she felt like an idiot.

"Look i know you mean well Nova, but i'm not taking orders from a child." Arcee said.

Nova then sighed, "I knew it was a bad idea for Optimus to entrust me with this position but....." She started.

"But what? What do you mean?" Arcee questioned. Nova took a deep breathe and said, "The Keycard was not the only thing Jack entrusted, OPtimus instructed me to.....take his place to lead, in order to keep you all in line."

"WHAT!!!"Everyone said unison.

Jack said disbelief, "OPtimus gave you his position.....to lead."

"I know you all think i'm just a technoroganic and a child but you have faith in Optimus and this is his decision...just think it as that." Nova said as she was cut down a bit from the lack of faith, had confidence in herself that she can do this...but if no one is willing to follow that doesn't really help.

Nova lowered her head and explained, "Ever since, I lost my memory I thought I could forget the horrors of the deeds I've done however my past kept on haunting me which made me lost my trust from the outside world. When I met all of you, at first I never trusted any of you but I witness how you were willing to risk your life just to protect this world and becoz of that you all earned my trust. You all gave me something that I wanted to experience the most; having a family. Which gave me the reason to keep on living and made me who I was now. You all gave me such good memories and that is something I don't want to forget. Optimus lost his memory too and I don't want him to forget the times he had before. Which is why he's counting on us to save him. "

Everyone was stunned by her honesty and determination words which she expressed her feelings to them.  "I've learned that every part of you is important and that is something we should not forget. All of you helped me and I'm grateful so now its my turn to return the favor and that is.....getting Optimus back. Beside, he is my guardian and I owe him my life, I just don't want to lose him the same way I couldn't save the one important to me." Nova added.

With the long silence Nova decided to finally asked, "I'm not forcing you so I'm going to ask......Will you be willing to follow me?" Nova asked as she looked at them all, they had doubt all over their faces, as she didn't break eye contact with them, minutes went by as complete silence.  

Then Ratchet then nodded and was first to respond, "I'll follow you." He said.

Nova said to him, "okay, only because Optimus said so, right?"

"No, all of us have shown poor judgment in handling the situation, and during all this you're the only one who speaks reason and hasn't lost her head. So, I'll gladly listen to you." He said which she was surprised at his lack of stubbornness.

Arcee sighed, "He's right, I've been reckless this whole time and never thought things through, so maybe it's time i put aside the human thing and focus on just you...and thinking about that alone, I'll follow you."

"I'll follow you, unlike Arcee as long as you point me in a direction I'll listen to anyone, well except fowler." Bulkhead said.

Bumblebee then gave he a thumbs up. Nova smiled that she couldn't believe everyone are willing to follow her. She never asked anyone to help her before and now the situation was changed. She felt her chest burning with pride to see that everyone are going to listen to her. 

 "All right, but i'm pretty inexperienced that I never lead a team before so I might need some advice. " Nova said to Ratchet.

"I'll help you in anyway i can...so you were saying i should start searching for any energon spikes?" he then said.

"yes, then we'll scout those area's for any sign regarding the space bridge, myself included, and we must act swiftly because tragically megatron may be using Optimus to give the decepticons the upper hand." She ordered as everyone get to work. Miko said with awe, "Whoa, spoken like a leader." Meanwhile, Nova had a determined look on her face as her resolve firmed and hardened like Lava cooling.

'Whatever it takes, I will get you back Opitmus.'

As the search begins...