"The situation is out of our hands, Optimus." Agent Fowler's voice rang through the base, and the Prime was gazing at the screen with his faceplates unreadable. "We were able to track her movements until she left this state. It was almost as if-"

"She vanished..."

Ratchets voice makes Optimus turn, and Fowler nods on the screen. He was seated in his jet, eyes scanning the horizon. "Exactly. No energon readings have been found, and the sun is about to rise. I have to land for fuel soon, but we can't do anything else now." His eyes turn towards the bots, as if he was looking directly at them. "It's up to you to find them, Prime." With that, the feed cuts, and the Autobots are left on their own. Bulkhead had taken Miko home, and Smokescreen accompanied Raf. Sam and Bumblebee were out searching with Will and Ironhide. Sideswipe, furious, had raced out, being the first to take action and he hadn't commed in since. Optimus takes a step back, and he feels his legs start to give. 

Ratchet is at his side in a nanosecond, wrapping his leader's arm over his shoulders. "Easy Optimus..." The Prime only nods his helm, and the yellow medic shakes his head. "Over here..." He says while slowly leading Optimus to a large berth near the computers. The Prime doesn't argue, his processor elsewhere. Ratchet only grunts and returns to the computers, digits typing furiously. This does catch the blue and red mech's attention. "Ratchet?"

"Did you ever think the reason she 'vanished' was because she was out of energon?" Optimus' optics widen as Ratchet continues. "I had hoped my study over it would stay strictly experimental, but now I am glad I decided to delve deeper into dark energon." Filled with a new strength, the Prime is quick to the medical officer's side. "Are you able to pinpoint her location?" Ratchet doesn't say anything, focused on the screens. A map of the globe emerges, and the United States is highlighted. It zooms in, then sections off the central area of the states.

"I've almost got her.... I'm detecting dark energon in Colorado. Narrowing the search to known predacon deposits." This causes Optimus to lift his helm a bit in surprise. Ratchet only grunts. "Ever since we learned of the bone fragment in her spine, I have been searching for their signatures and found a few, very weak, as if they were hidden underground. On certain occasions, I had the team scout a few in hopes that we could find the people responsible for the desecration to Jazz." Optimus lays a servo on Ratchet's shoulder, causing the medical officer to slightly slump. "He would be grateful."

Suddenly, a purple signal lights up, and before Ratchet can say anything, Sideswipes icon pops up on screen next to the signal. "Hey, doc? Anyway anyone still at base?" Ratchet growls, but lets out a vent before answering. "No, the rest are out searching as well." Ratchet glares at the Prime, as if daring him to try to say otherwise, but Optimus stays silent. A grunt is heard through the comm, and Ratchet turns back to the screen. "Sideswipe?"

Another grunt, then a crash echoes through. Ratchet feels Optimus stiffen behind him, but the medical officer simply stares at the screens, watching Sideswipes icon and-

"By the Allspark! Sideswipe, fall back!" Ratchet cries out. 

A pained shout replies as the purple signal seems to crash into Sideswipes icon, sending it flying a good few feet. "No can do, doc. I was supposed to protect her.... I'll bring her back, so help my spark." The link is then severed, despite Ratchet yelling into it. "That dim witted, glitching, useless, microchip processor-"

The ground bridge suddenly swirls to life.

"Ah-Ah-Absolutely not!" Ratchet whirls, finding Optimus standing at the foot of the bridge. "Ratchet, you and I both know that Sideswipe will not last on his own-"

"You will not be any help either in that state!"

"That is why you will accompany me."

Ratchet sputters in shock. He starts to form a new protest, then Optimus turns towards him. The sight shocks Ratchet to his spark. The Prime was no longer hiding his emotions, and his optics held worry, brokenness, and regret. Fighting back his medical expertise, Ratchet opens a comm and sets the ground bridge up to switch destinations to Arcee and Cliffjumper. "Arcee, stay where you are. A ground bridge will arrive in three minutes. Return to base and set the ground bridge to the coordinates provided. We have located Rachel in the Elk Mountains in Colorado."

Without waiting for an answer, Ratchet walks over to Optimus, grabbing a medical kit near the wall. "I swear, if we make it out of this with our sparks in tact..." Optimus only gives him a small, grateful smile, then the two walk through the portal.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

With an ear shattering roar, Rachel slams her tail against Sideswipes chassis again, and he crashes through multiple sets of tree before coming to a stop in a trench made by his body. His chest is riddle with many deep slices and dents, energon leaking from each of them. His optics are dim, but still on. Carefully, he lifts himself out of his crater only to be slammed back down into it by a violet clawed ped. He grunts in pain, lifting a single servo to attempt to remove the ped. However, he simply grips one of the claws and growls as Rachel's helm lowers to near his own.  Her growl overpowers his, but the voice that speaks is not her own. "You were a fool to believe you could save us." The voice was gravel-like and mixed with Rachel's and Broadwing's voice. 

Sideswipe coughs, energon spilling from his lips. His gaze locks back to Rachel's, and he gives a smirk. "I don't care about saving all of you.... I'm just... wanting to make sure Rachel is safe." The mech feels his spark ache as the predacon growls, but it suddenly skips when the predacons optics flicker. The dragon shifts, and her ped lifts slightly. The optics flicker off, then back on, but they were no longer purple...

They were cyan.

However, it only last for a nano-click, and they start to shift to purple again. Sideswipe summons his last bit of strength and shoves the ped away before pushing up with his legs and flipping backwards. His peds slam into Rachel's helm, snapping it up. The dragon loses its bearings for a moment, giving Sideswipe the time he needed to move back and get his blasters ready. Purple optics online once more, and the predacon glares back towards the wounded silver mech. It flinches back at the sight of the blasters, and for a moment, Sideswipe swears he sees betrayal flicker across those violet optics.

The dragon growls, lowering its head and taking a step backwards. The silver mech switches its gaze for a moment, searching the ground. Once he finds his target, he switches focus back to Rachel. He had told Jack to run, but the young boy simply hid behind different trees, and he was now crouched, watching the battle with wide eyes, trying to figure out what to do next. One gun switches back to a servo as the pain starts to set it again, and Sideswipe holds his chest. 

Rachel spots movement, and her gaze switches to the ground where Jack was. She growls, optics narrowing as the boy starts to move away from her. Sideswipe takes this moment and lets lose one shot. He just needed to get her down and keep her there until Ratchet and Optimus arrived....

But Rachel swiftly covers herself with a wing. The blast hits it, and a black mark is left on her wing. A growl is released as the wing lowers, and Rachel's optics burn through Sideswipes. The silver mech keeps his weapon raised, but he feels his spark sink. He had hoped it would be enough to bring her back, reminding her of all the drives they used to take...

But it wasn't.

She still wasn't back....

The predacon charges, despite the yell of protest from the young boy on the ground, and Sideswipe tries to charge his weapon. However, he knows it's all in vain, as she is moving much too fast. He grimaces as his arm doesn't lift fast enough, and her claws near his spark. He didn't want this to be the end... Rachel would never forgive herself because of this...

A cannon fires and Rachel is launched to the side.

Sideswipe turns and spots Optimus, cannon smoking at the end, with Ratchet at his side. The medical officer swiftly rushes past once Rachel was away from Sideswipe and cautiously wraps his arm around the wounded mech. Sideswipe nods to Optimus as the Autobot leader walks over and stands protectively in front of the mech. Ratchet gazes at the leader, then his optics fall on Sideswipe. The silver mech needed immediate medical attention, and he knew what he had to do.

"Optimus..."

The leader doesn't turn to look, but keeps his gaze on a purple hue in the treeline. Ratchet only vents before turning back towards the still open groundbridge. "Be careful."

Optimus nods slightly, his cannon still aimed towards the purple. As Ratchet vanishes with Sideswipe, and the portal shuts, Optimus holds his cannon up for a moment more before it suddenly switches back to his servo. "I will not harm you again, but I cannot allow you to harm my team...."

A growl replies, slowly turning into a chuckle.

"And yet you harm one to save another." 

Optimus narrows his gaze, then braces himself by raising his arms as a tail flings out from the darkness. The Prime grunts as he is pushed back, his peds digging into the ground. He prepares himself for another hit, but a pained whine is all that echoes from the treeline. The Prime straightens his stance, holding himself back while his spark begs to run forward. "You asked me not to call you Rachel anymore... To what may I call you by?"

Silence replies, and Optimus feels his spark lurch in concern.

Until a purple fireball is suddenly nearing his helm at rapid speed.

Barely ducking out of the way in time, Optimus finds himself in the path of a tail once more, and he rolls underneath it. Pain radiates on his backstrut as spikes slice across it, but the Prime stops on one knee after the roll. It grows quiet once more, but the purple hue still remains where Rachel lay. Optimus stands, hiding his pain from the sudden movements. Another whine hits his autoreceptors, but something else meets his processor as well.

"Optimus!"

The Prime's head snaps to the side, spotting Jack hiding behind a tree. The boy gestures towards Rachel's position again, drawing the leader's attention to the ground. Rachel's tail had not gone back into the tree line like before, but was laying across the grass...

The purple tinted grass.

Optimus nods and steps forward. This makes a weak growl escape the predacon, and her tail slides closer to the darkness, but she doesn't move besides that. Optimus stops his movements, not wanting Rachel to harm herself more. "What... do you like to do?" The Prime slowly questions, carefully lowering himself to the ground. A confused noise meets him, but the predacon actually replies.

"What... are you doing?"

Optimus cautiously replies. "You wish to be called something else, making me assume you also have different interests than Rachel... I simply would like to.... understand you better." The predacon grunts, making no other noise in reply. Therefore, Optimus continues. "What do you remember?"

This makes the dragon shift, and the color flickers. "We... I remember... Jack.... and Raf..... and... you." Optimus keeps his spark steady, or as steady as possible. Before he can speak again, Rachel's head appears, but it was no longer purple...

It was a soft, almost nonexistent blue. 

"O-Optimus..... I-I'm... I.... don't...."

Her helm suddenly crashes against the dirt as the lights completely go out, and Optimus launches from his spot on the ground to her side.  His normal general-side yells at him that this is a trap, but one thing slips through that makes him understand he has only a few moments to save her.

Purple energon drips from a wound on her snout, but behind it is dull cyan blue energon...

The last of her fuel inside of her. 

She was out.

And she was dying.

~~~*~~~*~~~*~~~

Welp, that was long, but there ya go! We are nearing the end, but I have many more books in the works. So I hope your quarantine will be less boring now!

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