A/N: This wasn't as fast as the last few, but honestly I'm surprised I got it out this fast considering the start of classes again. Enjoy. Review (please).

Pathfinder – Chapter 5

"Hey, Boss," Blindside spoke up.

"Yes, what is it?" Farsight replied, not bothering to redirect her attention from the small device she was tinkering with.

"The surveillance measures you set up caught something weird."

"Hmm?"

"Yeah, there was a one-on-one Decepticon/Autobot scuffle between… Breakdown and Bulkhead, I think?"

Farsight looked up from her work with a dubious frown. "How is it 'weird' that two enemies fought each other? I suppose the small-scale nature of the conflict is somewhat unusual, given the Decepticon preference for Vehicon cannon fodder and the Autobot preference for backup..."

"Well that's the thing," Blindside continued, interrupting her before she could get on a roll. "Someone else did show up – but it was a third party. Human. An organization or something, by the looks of 'em. Breakdown had Bulkhead floored, looked about ready to finish him off, and then the humans fired something at him that knocked him down and out."

"And then?"

"Then they took him," Blindside said, incredulity coloring his tone. The idea that one of the tiny natives of Earth had abducted a Cybertronian – much less a Decepticon, who likely wouldn't care about collateral damage – was almost ludicrous to him.

Farsight sat up, suddenly a little more serious than she had been at the start of their conversation.

"Do we know who these humans are, or why they took him?"

"Going by the data collected from the United States government database, they match the descriptions of an organization called MECH. They're led by a man named Silas, and their ultimate goal seems to be acquiring technological superiority," Blindside took a moment to collect his thoughts. "But, I uh, also noticed a few gaps in the information on them. The reports say that they were first encountered by an Agent Fowler, when MECH tried to seize a… 'Dynamic Nuclear Generation System' in mid-transport. What seems kinda off to me is that these guys seem to have a huge advantage over the average military forces – but they didn't succeed in nabbing the nuclear thing. And on top of that, they left pretty easily after failing. The only explanation given is that Agent Fowler called in some 'outside help.'"

Farsight nodded thoughtfully. "And what hypotheses have you come up with to explain these inconsistencies, Blindside?" she prompted him.

He began almost nervously. "…well, I looked up some more on this Fowler guy. There're huge parts empty in his recent files, and they're flagged to indicate that whatever's missing is all on hard copy instead of stored in the system – and there's a really high security clearance for accessing them," Blindside seemed to gain in confidence as he related his findings. "And when Fowler's been mentioned in reports by other guys, it's 'cause he's intercepted them from investigating strange signals, or given the order to evacuate an area. When I cross-referenced these instances with our findings of recent Cybertronian activity… This Fowler guy is definitely in on it."

"It isn't uncommon for the Autobots to cooperate with the locals," Farsight commented neutrally. "But getting to your point – you believe that this 'outside help' that Agent Fowler called in was the Autobots?"

"Yeah, boss, but more than that, I think that's why MECH's interest in the nuclear thing seemed so flaky – I mean, if they saw the Autobots in action… well, that's probably why they took Breakdown," Blindside concluded, sounding sure of his deduction, and vaguely disconcerted by its connotations.

"They wish to examine Cybertronian biology," Farsight stated evenly.

"Yeah."

A proud smile spread across Farsight's face. "Well done, my dear. You only seem to become more and more resourceful as time goes on."

"…thanks, boss," he replied, sounding almost bashful beneath his habitual bluntness.

The near-tender moment was brief, as just a while later, Farsight stood from her captain's chair and clapped her hands together decisively. "Well, then. I suppose I should get going."

"Going where?" Blindside asked, only his familiarity with her stopping him from being bewildered by the sudden shift.

"On a rescue mission for… Breakdown, was it?"

"…why would you do that?" he asked slowly.

"I suppose because I simply don't approve of MECH's actions," Farsight hummed as she leaned over the computer console. "May I have the coordinates of their little kidnapping?"

Blindside supplied them automatically, still somewhat confused. "And you don't 'approve,' why? It's not like you've got any problems with dissection."

Farsight smiled. "Perhaps if that were my primary motivation, I could see how you might think this uncharacteristically altruistic of me. I suppose if there was an overtly moralistic reason, it would be a certain sense of… solidarity – insomuch as while I don't particularly care what Cybertronians do to each other, I dislike other groups butting in where they aren't wanted."

Blindside felt concussed, and wondered where the partner he knew had gone – clearly she had been replaced by some sort of shifter. Farsight had never shown any sort of favoritism toward any species, including her own.

"More importantly, while I myself have no issues with the practice of dissection (as evidenced by our 'guest' in the laboratory), I am against what MECH would accomplish through such an examination of our biology," Farsight continued matter-of-factly. "From what I've seen of these humans, they have an intriguing potential. I wish to see how they will develop – particularly in relation to our own species, given our uncanny similarities. If MECH is successful in using our biomechanics to augment their own technology, these advances would eventually spread across their world, regardless of whatever monopoly they would certainly attempt to maintain. Ultimately, this would ruin humanity's natural progression and irreversibly contaminate the entire scenario."

She turned to exit her ship. "Because Megatron would most likely not deign to help his subordinate, it is therefore up to me to do so, if I wish to prevent such an occurrence."

She paused, tilted her head, and started muttering to herself. "Though I suppose it would be interesting to see what a human could presently do with some sort of amalgamation of the two different technologies… Perhaps in a more controlled setting…"

Blindside was paradoxically comforted by his partner's return to an amoral prioritization of her own goals, and opened the ground-bridge for her.

Farsight emerged from the ground-bridge in the midst of the abandoned city, visor already scanning for MECH's trail. She already had a vague direction from the satellite imagery, so it would have been simple for her to follow them anyway – but the tire tracks, pressed deeper into the ground than usual by the weight of a Cybertronian body, seemed a bit obvious.

With a shrug, she turned into jet-mode, silently following the imprints without leaving any of her own.

Eventually the tracks met up with those of a railroad, and they both continued onward into the depths of a grim, concrete structure beneath a hill. The tunnel was large enough that she wouldn't even have to duck if she wanted to walk it in root mode. Before she could enter, she saw headlights, and a green car came speeding out of the tunnel, headed in the direction of the abandoned city she had just left.

Her eyes narrowed as her visor detected a faint energon signal coming from it. Presumably, they had already cut into their captive. That meant haste had moved up on the priority list.

She flew down the tunnel, keeping to the dark parts. Eventually, the tunnel ended with a large blast door. Farsight could get through it, but it would make a lot of noise – noise that couldn't easily be covered, even by the loud saws and drills she could hear on the other side. So instead, she scanned for alternate routes. All that she found was a smaller, human-sized door on one side.

Farsight frowned for a moment, contemplating her options. Then she sent a silent command through her commlink.

'Blindside, I believe this is where you come in.'

A quiet click sounded from the armor on her upper back, and a large section detached itself. Before it could fall more than an inch or two, it transformed into what most Cybertronians would recognize as a bolt-bat, and its flight capabilities kicked in. It landed silently on Farsight's shoulder, dark, almost black armor blending in with the tunnel's shadows – though the bright yellow optics somewhat ruined that effect.

'What's the job this time, boss?' Blindside asked, absently stretching his wings out. It had been a while since he had gotten the opportunity.

'Data collection and sabotage. Tell me once you are in, and then I will go in the loud way so you won't be interrupted,' Farsight instructed.

Blindside turned to do as asked, a tiny cable extending from his chest to open the door. He paused before actually entering. 'I guess you won't consider waiting 'til I can watch your back?' he asked, somewhat resigned.

Farsight shook her head. She knew him well enough to not confuse his concern with doubt of her skills, but she had successfully looked after herself long before she had met him.

He gave a mute sigh, and glided through the open door.

Farsight turned to blast door and contemplated the best way to remove it during the few, short minutes that ticked by before she was signaled.

'Boss, I'm in. And I mean in.'

The gleefully surprised voice of her partner came over her comm, along with a small data packet detailing the structure of MECH's information storing procedures.

In yet another uncanny similarity to her own species, Farsight had found that the humans increasingly documented almost everything. Upon realizing that one of their governments had some sort of alliance with the Autobots, she had half hoped that any and all information regarding their alien allies would be ensconced somewhere in their primitive data-net. Human encryptions, while at times surprisingly inventive, would be relatively simple to ease her way through (and it would be just as simple with any additional Cybertronian security measures, given the Autobots' seeming lack of a specialist in that field). However, she also supposed that if that were the case, Soundwave would have already found the Autobots' base and flushed them out.

Instead, as Blindside had discovered, whatever records they had on their alien allies were all on hard copy, written in the physical world rather than the technological one. It was surprisingly sensible. She could appreciate sensible people.

A cheery smile curled Farsight's mouth as she saw that MECH didn't hold to the same practices. She supposed that with their organization's emphasis, it only made sense that MECH would reject a seemingly more primitive option in favor of placing their faith in their technological supremacy. Their systems were all connected into one big conglomeration, presumably for the easy transfer of large amounts of data – but also allowing for Blindside, who was currently jacked in, to follow those connections outward. Barring any independent recording devices, they had everything.

'Wonderful, my dear. I suppose it shall take you some time to download the data, considering just how much they have left available for the taking. I'll keep them occupied.'

Farsight tilted her head and turned back to the blast door.

'I suppose bigger and faster would suit my purpose better this time.'

Her smile grew into a grin at the rare opportunity when it was more viable to just blow something to slag instead of sneaking around. She placed her forearms together, the quiet whirr of transformation as they combined into one large, powerful blaster music to her ears. She directed it toward her obstacle and gleefully fired.

Silas smirked, very satisfied with himself as he overlooked his operation. The sound of saws and drills against alien metal was music to his ears. MECH was obtaining unprecedented intelligence, and he had already sent a lackey to plant a trap that would allow him to monitor, and with a bit of luck, obliterate any would-be rescuers.

The alien's eyes were like cameras. Or was it that human cameras were like the alien's eyes?

Either way, it was almost disturbingly simple to convert the feed in one of them into a two-way channel. If Silas permitted such emotions within himself, he would have been unnerved by the growing list of similarities he was seeing emerge between his tech and that of the alien. It was almost conspiracy worthy.

But the important thing was that, whatever the parallels, the alien's composition was distinctly more advanced – though the being himself was perhaps not more intelligent. What Silas was learning now, from just one of them… well, even if there was a conspiracy, he'd be well prepared for it very soon.

As if to spite his words, there was a sudden explosion, coming from the direction of the entrance. He turned to have one of his subordinates pull up the video feed. The only thing they got was static.

A chill went down his spine, but before he could order someone to investigate, a dark blur flew into the room, skimming over the captive Breakdown and straight toward the platform Silas was standing on. It transformed in midair, simultaneously landing and snatching up the leader of MECH into a chilled metal hand. The two guards on security detail opened fire, and were promptly whipped across the room by long cables emerging from the new alien's torso. They hit the wall with gruesome crunches.

Silas grunted in pain as he was squeezed none-to-gently, feeling a pricking sensation as the tips of its claws punctured his fatigues. The pressure, pain, and the threat of razor-points against his skin rendered him immobile. His subordinates froze in shock, completely unprepared for such a blitzkrieg.

The power tools slowed to a stop.

"Good, that's quite helpful," a jarringly cheerful voice emanated from the alien holding him captive. "That sound was actually getting on my nerves a little. Now, step away from the Decepticon and put your devices down and your backs against that wall, if you please. Defy me, and your leader here will be mangled like a hand in a gear mesh."

The mooks, faceless by design of their uniforms, looked toward each other and to Silas for a moment. In return, he directed a glare at the world in general, seething in frustrated impotence. With no instructions otherwise, they all reluctantly complied.

"You as well," she ordered, turning her head to gaze at the two extra who had been inching toward the computer banks.

They froze, and backed away slowly, climbing down the steps to join the others. Once they were all lined up, she pinned them all to the wall with another cable, which was lit up with enough voltage to knock them all out.

With them out of the way, she peered at the screens, but seemed to find nothing of interest and turned her attention toward the human in her grasp.

"You are Silas, then?" she asked, bringing her hand up so that he was closer to her face. "I've never seen a human this close before, but I suppose you are an outlier as far as appearances go."

Her head tilted to the side, and images streamed across the visor she wore. It was a disturbingly human idiosyncrasy.

"You look like several different fictional characters designed to entertain the children of your species."

Dead silence. Unfortunately for Silas, he could barely breathe with her grip, much less retort sharply like was his immediate reflex.

The alien seemed not to care about his reaction much. She took one casual step, and it was enough to carry her to the captive Breakdown's side. He stared up at her and the human in her grip, fierce despite – or perhaps because of – his ordeal; the missing eye made it more effective than it might have been otherwise. Her head tilted once more as she examined him, more readings flashing across the visor.

"Breakdown, hmm? Interesting. You've been Reformatted before, haven't you?"

Breakdown strained against the metal straps pinning him to the ground. "How do you know about that?!"

"Experience, dear," she told him. "Though I must say, whoever performed the procedure has done fine work. Cosmetically, it is nearly impossible to tell what took place – and as far as health and efficiency goes, I cannot currently detect any problems in your system, despite the fact that it is now supporting the greater bulk of a heavy-duty frame."

She smiled. "Fine work indeed. Was it that medic on the Nemesis – Knock Out, I believe? Tell him I said so when you return."

Breakdown stared at her in utter bewilderment. "…'When' I return?" he asked, wariness evident, choosing to ignore for now the implication that this stranger had been aboard the Decepticon warship.

"Well I didn't come here just to leave you," she said, as though it was obvious.

"Then why am I not free already?" Breakdown growled, his face scrunched in suspicion as he tugged at his restraints once more.

"That would be because you might attack me," she replied blithely. "And I have yet to finish with this place. If you will wait a moment longer, then both of us will be leaving."

Breakdown squinted at her, as though searching for a reason why he'd want to attack her in the first place. After a moment, it seemed to click.

"A Neutral?" he asked incredulously. "Why are you here?"

"Here in this dismal bunker aiding you, here on this tiny planet when I should be avoiding the war, or 'here' in regards to a metaphysical standpoint?" she shot back.

Breakdown looked like he wanted to punch her with his hammer – or to be exact, like he was resignedly used to people being deliberately difficult, and she was someone he could actually hit for it.

Any further interaction, however, was interrupted by a distinct beep emanating from the computers. She turned, only to see a live feed on the screen. Staring back at her were four Autobots, including the looming figure of Optimus Prime. They looked somewhat confused at what met their eyes.

Farsight hummed and turned to look at the human in her grasp. "Silas, be a dear and tell me why there are Autobots on the screen."

She loosened her grip, and he gave a wet-sounding cough. "…given that they aren't his faction, I wouldn't know."

She tutted in admonishment. "That isn't what I asked you. Knowing the Autobots, they're on one of their little errands of mercy – and the fact that you were attempting to dissect one of our race likely only spurred them onward, given the potentially nasty consequences it could have for either side."

Farsight brought him up a little higher. "I asked why they were on the screen. Why would you have a channel of communication open to you? And from where?"

"…Breakdown's optic. I wanted to see who would come after him."

Farsight hummed again, not quite believing him entirely, but turning back to the Autobots.

"If you are here to rescue Breakdown, I'm afraid you're too late," she told them.

"Has Breakdown been offlined?" Optimus asked gravely.

"Oh no, he's quite functional – if missing an eye and greatly discomfited," she replied cheerily. "I just arrived here first is all."

"And as a Neutral, why on Cybertron would you wish to aid a Decepticon?" Ratchet asked tersely.

"Species solidarity, and all," Farsight said with a casual smile. "Plus, I figured Megatron wouldn't bother, given that the capture was carried out by what he might deem a 'lesser race' – and I assumed that you, understandably, wouldn't care. So why not me?"

Bumblebee and Arcee exchanged a look, and the two-wheeler arched an eyebrow at her. "You didn't seem to care much about helping Airachnid when she crashed," she pointed out.

Farsight beamed. "Yes, well. The spider isn't exactly the type to be captured and dissected by aliens, now is she?"

'No boss, just you,' Blindside said wryly over the comm. His tone switched to seriousness. 'I'm about done here, so I was looking into the recent orders he gave out to see if I missed anything – it looks like he sent out a booby-trap with Breakdown's optic. It's rigged to blow.'

Farsight blinked down at Silas and gave him a light shake. "That's a little rude, Silas. You didn't tell me about the explosives."

She turned to the screen. "You might want to get your soldiers out of there Prime, there's a bomb."

The Autobots glanced down and presumably noticed said bomb, because they retreated fairly quickly.

Unfortunately, something else happened fairly quickly, and that was Silas – in a more maneuverable after being shaken – finally reaching the alarm button on his belt. Alarms squawked irritably, complete with flashing lights.

Farsight frowned and dropped him. He landed with an unhealthy sounding crack from one of his legs.

'Are you finished?' she asked Blindside.

In answer, the bolt-bat flew into the room from a side hallway and folded himself into her back armor once more. Partner secured, Farsight quickly ripped the restraints off of Breakdown.

"They didn't have the time to do any serious damage. You should be battle ready if you play defensively," she told him. "Hence me not wanting you up before I could leave," she added thoughtfully, before transforming and taking off down the tunnel in jet mode.

By the time she exited the bunker, there were at least three helicopters in the sky, and twice as many cars on the ground – all painted that grating shade of MECH green. They quickly opened fire on her, which she dodged with a few aerial acrobatics; even if they had hit, their small, metal bullets weren't strong enough to do much, if any, damage. A few spins and loops, and she was behind the helicopters. She fired three precision blasts to blow their fuel tanks, and darted away from the ensuing fireballs.

When she scanned the ground once more, she saw Breakdown fighting, which was a given. The surprising thing was Bulkhead, fighting right next to him – and the two weren't aiming at each other.

Farsight didn't have to contribute much after that. She did take some potshots at the cars when they looked to be overwhelmingly outnumbering the two combatants, just to ensure that MECH wouldn't capture or recapture one of them. They did well enough on their own (though Bulkhead was perhaps unnecessarily avoidant of causing human death, despite these particular specimens nearly dissecting his rival while he was still conscious).

Eventually, someone ordered a retreat. Silas perhaps. All the green vehicles turned tail and ran off, leaving the two bulky Cybertronians on the ground to stare at each other with an awkward wariness.

Farsight dipped low for a moment, catching their attention.

"Do try not to get captured by humans in the future," she tutted. "I doubt anyone would care for the results."

Then she flew off at top speeds, unable to resist buzzing the incoming Starscream as she flew by him.

She and Blindside shared a chuckle at his very audible shriek of indignation.

'We gonna go after the humans, boss?' Blindside asked her a moment later.

'No, my dear. We got what I came for – and if I change my mind, then MECH will be easy enough to find, considering I injected Silas with a nano-tracker when I picked him up.'