"I have a proposition for you, Megatron," Knockout read the message out loud as Ratchet silently followed along. They were nearly the same.

"I have something of my dimensional counterpart's, as I'm sure you know. If you want to keep them safe, contact the other dimension, and tell them to send the Decepticons' contact code over to us. Or, Optimus Prime will never see his human pets again. You have one hour to respond."

They were silent after that. Agent Bishop opened his mouth to say something but stopped and closed it again.

"...our message says the same thing," Ratchet finally whispered.

The heavy silence continued; both sides thinking of the scrap that could happen with both evil forces working together.

"We can't," Airachnid muttered eventually.

"We have to," Arcee snapped lightly. "Who knows what they could do to the kids?"

"Megatron wouldn't hurt them, would they?" Breakdown asked, before realizing Megatron was looking at him.

"Uh, your Megatron," he corrected.

"It is unclear what could happen if we refuse the offer, though, unfortunately, that seems to be the most likely course of action."

::Would your Optimus do the same thing?:: Bee asked, the first words he had said since they first made contact with each other. The other side was silent. He didn't have a voice, he warbled.

Their Bumblebee didn't talk that often, but when he did, his voice was thick with static and hard to make out.

::Did I say something?:: he asked, quickly becoming self-conscious when everyone was silent and looking at him.

Megatron shook his helm.

"What? No. You're fine. But...Optimus probably would. He...might, either way."

All optics (or eyes, in the humans' case) were on Optimus now, who only looked back at Megatron seriously. He knew the mech wasn't talking about him; he'd never harm a human. But it still hurt to think that he would do it so easily in another dimension.

"My son's life is at risk," Doctor Darby said, breaking the silence. "Your doppelgänger had better not lay a servo on him," he seethed.

"And what is he supposed to do about it? There is no 'telepathic link' to tell him that," Ratchet replied, quick to defend his leader and long-time friend.

"What do you think, Autobot?" Jason Darby replied, saying "Autobot" as if it were poison. "Let them have what they want."

June silently agreed, though she knew Jack probably wouldn't.

"Doctor Darby, more than your children's lives could be at risk," Knockout explained. "If both evil sides worked together, who knew what could happen? Both dimensions could be destroyed!"

Ratchet nodded in agreement.

"If Jack were here he'd say something like 'This is more important than the lives of six humans'," June muttered. "But...I can't bear to think that he could be killed by the Autobot he looks up to the most," she whispered. "Or his guardian."

Optimus and Arcee exchanged glances with each other before Arcee rested her servo on both June's shoulders.

"We'll get him back, June," she whispered, making the nurse look over at her and smile a little.

"Well then," Agent Fowler muttered. "Is that what we're going to do? Just let Megatron and Prime contact each other and watch both worlds burn?"

"Of course not!" Ratchet replied, giving the agent an "are you insane" look.

"My doppelgänger and Optimus Prime might be able to speak with each other, but they won't get anywhere, as long as we can help it," Megatron tried to reassure the agent.

"No offense, Megatron, but that didn't console me whatsoever," Agent Fowler replied.

"How do we reply?" Knockout asked.

"We want to see the kids and have them in our possession before we give them the codes," Bulkhead replied immediately.

"Let's hope they'll comply," Ratchet muttered, starting to type.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

***

"Wakey wakey," Knockout greeted the three, purposefully greeting Jack first, who shrunk back in fear. It was entertaining to see.

"You're being moved," he announced, gesturing to three glass cylinders.

"Just remember, if you try to escape, one careless kick or toss can leave you damaged or worse," he grinned.

"Shall we, then?"

~

Ratchet was the one to deal with Jackson, Miko, and Rafael in the Shattered Glass dimension. Bulkhead was in the room to watch, staring at everyone with his red optics, which creeped Miko out, to say the least. She had been silent ever since he walked in to watch them. Arcee walked into the room as Ratchet prepared the cylinders.

"Bulkhead, you can stop staring at the pathetic fleshbags and actually put them in a cylinder," she hissed, walking over to Jackson, who paled as she released his bonds and didn't give him any time to react before picking him up roughly and dropping him in, making Jackson yelp in surprise and his ankle twist under him as he landed badly. Ratchet took Rafael, undoing his restraints and looking him over a few times.

"It would be an interesting case of study to see how your kind operates," he muttered. "If we weren't so pressed for time, dissection would be interesting."

Rafael squeaked in fear, and Ratchet narrowed his optics before taking him from the berth and at least tilting the cylinder slightly to let the human slide in, instead of dropping him in like Arcee had done.

"Bulk, would you hurry up?" Arcee snapped. Bulkhead's thick digits made picking the slim human girl up rather hard.

"Do you want me to crush her?" Bulkhead snapped back. Miko considered sitting up to help him a bit, but trying to be picked up by her guardian's doppelgänger was freaking her out just a bit and she couldn't move.

Eventually Bulkhead just gave up and slid her over, creating a slight metal burn on her arms before she fell into his other servo and he dropped her in, where she at least didn't have a twisted ankle.

"Miko," Jackson called through the glass, and though his voice was slightly muffled, she could hear him.

"You okay?"

She silently nodded, before Jackson looked over to Rafael, who was curled up against the glass. All he wanted was Bee. His Bee.

The last time he saw Bee he was lying on a berth after taking a hit for Optimus. He had no idea if he would be okay or not.

Ratchet sighed and handed Rafael's cylinder over to Arcee. He'd be staying with the ship, as he usually did. Arcee walked out of the room with Bulkhead following behind her, and walked over to Bee, dropping the Cylinder's handle into his waiting servo before walking away, and Bee looked down at the human that was apparently his guardian in another dimension. The middle portion of his optics contracted and disappeared completely just thinking about it. So puny. He could throw him across the hallway gently, and he'd be injured or dead. And Optimus wanted to not only rule this planet, but the planet in the other dimension as well?

He shrugged as Ratchet opened a bridge for them, and Optimus stepped through after the others, the bridge closing behind them as another opened, and out walked Megatron with his team, save for Soundwave.

~

"Well, the codes?" Megatron smiled evilly, waiting for Optimus as the three humans, with their supposed Decepticon guardians, watched them intently.

~~~

Yay another update!

With over 1000 words this time! woohoo!

Also, happy memorial day everyone! (Who's in the US anyway) I called my Grandpa, who served in the air force. It was nice.

Anyway, you got to see more SG Autobot and TFP Human exchange! Woo, I did something right.

Anyway, hopefully this is getting exciting? School is ending the end of this month so I should be able to get more updates out (keyword being "should"...).

But anyway, thanks for reading :D