Ratchet was talking but I wasn't paying attention... My father lost a lot of good and bad memories. He would still remember me but he wouldn't remember our fight. But we still had to get him back. I need someone that isn't a team mate. I need my Papa.

I was snapped out of my thoughts by Arcee.

"That doesn't follow. Optimus knew Megatron", she says.

"They were like BFF's", Bulkhead adds.

Bumblebee buzzes something and Ratchet spoke immediately after that. "If Optimus did not know his name, perhaps it is because the title of the Prime has not yet been granted to him."

There was a lot of confusion and I jumped in to help Ratchet explain.

"He wasn't always Optimus. He was once Orion Pax, a clerk at Iacon. I suspect that without the power of the Matrix, he has become Orion Pax once again", I say quietly from my corner. Heads turn toward me and there were a lot of blank stares until Arcee speaks.

"I forgot she was here again", Arcee whispers. I chose to ignore that comment. Agent Fowler then stepped in.

"Are you telling me that Prime thinks he's some kind of librarian? And a Decepticon?!", Agent Fowler exclaims.

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

"So, if he's riding with the cons", Bulkhead starts but Arcee finishes. "It's because Megatron is working some kind of voodoo."

"Orion Pax may not be an Autobot up here", Ratchet points to his head. "But I must believe that he will never stop being one in here." He points to his spark. "We must locate him first to be sure."

Agent Fowler was confused. "Hold up. I have a chip lodged in my behind that lets Uncle Same know when I stopped for donuts. Are you telling me that you can't just track Prime?"

"Optimus' signal has not reappeared since he embarked for Earth's core", Ratchet explains. Ratchet does a lot of explaining. Am I the only one who's noticed that? Huh. Oh well. Back to paying attention to what's happening. I need to stop getting lost in my thoughts...

Evidently I missed something as Raf was asking if Vector Sigma was a supercomputer.

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

Ratchet then explains (see? He does a lot of explaining!) to Jack that Vector Sigma is more than just a supercomputer.  When he says that it's on Cybertron, the new lady immediately starts yelling at Jack.

"Jackson Darby, you will not be traveling to another planet!", she yells, obviously worried for him. Who is she?

"I'm in!", Miko exclaims.

"You're not going either!", the lady glances at Miko. "Not while one of you can!"

Agent Fowler joins in. "June's right! Why send a boy to do a bot's job?" So, the lady's name is June. I wonder why she's so worried about Jack. I took at closer look before I recognized the same protective features on her that my mother had. She must be Jack's mother.

Dang it, I got lost in thought again! I missed Ratchet explaining to June about the keycard.

"But why would Optimus willfully endanger a human? A child?", June asks. Jack then protests.

"I'm not a child, Mom!", he exclaims. I was right, she is his mom.

"Maybe Optimus believes there is more to Jack than meets the eye",  Arcee says.

"All of which is moot", Ratchet declares. "The keycard is useless to us without the means of reaching Cybertron, which we at present do not possess."

"The Cons have a space bridge", I whisper.

Ratchet turns to me and his optics tell me to continue.

"I don't know where it is but I do know that some vehicon troops were talking about it being almost completed. I think they just need a power source."

Ratchet sighs sadly before Miko brings up another idea.

"Dude, what about that?", she says, pointing to the ground bridge.

"Miko, the ground bridge barely got them into Earth's orbit, remember?", Raf says softly.

"Yeah, but Ratchet built it", Miko says in a matter-of-fact voice. "Can't he just... turbo-charge it?"

Ratchet hummed in thought before sending Arcee, Bulkhead and Bumblebee to different locations to look for Optimus. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It's been about a two and a half months and so far there's been no sign of Optimus. I haven't been allowed out of base as Megatron could be looking for me. 

Ratchet gets a call from Agent Fowler, luckily when all the Autobots were in the base. Cons are attacking the same military base they did two months ago. That's strange. Two months ago was when I was onboard and that's when I finally saw Megatron's true colors. The power source! For the space bridge!

I wasn't the only one who came to that realization. Ratchet quickly opens a ground bridge and everyone leaves. I listen over the comlink and I hear Knockout and Breakdown. I feel my spark tug. I haven't kept in contact with them like I said I would. I sigh sadly.

Soon, the bots call for a bridge back except Arcee wasn't with them. She had made it on board the warship. Soon, she called for a ground bridge. She couldn't even confirm if Optimus was onboard. Soon everyone starts fighting. After a while, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Guys! Stop it!", I shout. Finally silence. "You're overlooking one positive."

They look at me in confusion. Jack steps in.

"Nobody's talking about what the Cons just got their claws on."

"Yes, we managed to allow them to finally acquire a power source for their space bridge", Ratchet grumbles.

"And how exactly would that be a positive?", Arcee asks.

"We let them finish building their space bridge", Jack says confidently.

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

"No", Jack says. "So we can commandeer it. And send me to Cybetron."

"Woah", Miko says. "That's a pretty good idea."

"Oh, well, if Miko thinks it's a good idea", Arcee says, sarcasm filling her voice.

Jack speaks. "Nobody's saying it will be easy. But you've seized a space bridge before."

"We blew one up. That's whole lot different than seizing and holding one", Bulkhead says.

Bee buzzed something and Arcee agreed with him. "Bee's right. We have to find the thing first."

Miko then asked if it was in space since it is a 'space' bridge. Ratchet got real exasperated with that.

"The term 'space' refers to it's transport range, not it's physical location!"

Soon, the bots began to search for the space bridge and yet every day, everyone kept coming back empty handed.