Cold had settled in the state of Oregon, signifying the – official - end of the summer. There were no more leaves in the trees anymore, and the small tufts of grass that still clung stubbornly on the ground were glistening with shiny droplets as evidence that it had been raining the previous night. The Ark was no exception either as the sun that currently shone showered the Ark dotingly, making its orange plating glisten under the golden rays. It made quite the picturesque image, one that Sunstreaker would have been glad to draw if he hadn't been sent on patrol.

In fact, all the Autobots were focused on their duties at this time of day. Or rather… almost all. If anyone entered Smokescreen's office, they would have seen that the former gambler wasn't working on any reports. Even so, he kept his optics glued on the screen of his computer, because he was watching something a lot more important.

"I don't understand. How could you let this happen? Why?"

Smokescreen pursed his lip components momentarily, taking in what Faera said. The particular footage was courtesy of the humans back at the powerplant, and it was part of a larger amount of data of the battle that had taken place just a week ago and which the security cameras had recorded. Smokescreen had said that he had meant to study the battle, so the director of the power plant handed him the footage freely. Of course, what the blue Datsun had left out was what exactly he meant to study.

"You're a Sadjen. You're stronger than this. I taught you better than this!"

Smokescreen jotted down Faera's words in a datapad. It was a misfortune that the chip that translated her body language in her beast form couldn't convey emotions, but there was nothing for it. Besides, what words could tell, her eyes told only too clearly. That was also in the case of Ebon, even though he had no chip to translate his growls and hisses as he regarded his fellow Sadjen.

"Ebon…" she stepped closer, the look in the female creature's eyes softening. "We don't have to do this. We can end this right here."

The sound of a Cybertronian transforming rang through the air, and Smokescreen heard Starscream's voice, declaring that it was time to retreat. Both Sadjens looked up in the sky as the Seeker's engines reached their ears, and then they looked at each other.

"Ebon, no," Faera said, a gentle rumble coming out of her throat.

Ebon didn't listen to her. With one final snarl, he fled and joined the Decepticons once more.

"Where have I failed you?" Faera cried, watching Ebon go.

The male Sadjen didn't bother answering or looking back at her, though. In the end, all that was left in Faera to do was to go find Bumblebee, Mirage and Jazz, her head bowed. And that was when she walked out of the range of the camera as well, so Smokescreen couldn't see anything else.

Deeming that he had seen enough, the blue Datsun turned off the recording and sat back, lost in thought, for Faera's behaviour was intriguing. She was willing to fight, yet she never passed up any kind of opportunity to talk to Ebon, trying to convince him that they shouldn't fight. Considering that the Sadjens were trained in warfare and never shied from battle, Faera's reluctance could be regarded as uncharacteristic cowardice. That would certainly be the case if she were still back in Sherba, her home planet.

Still, Sherba was no more. It was gone, along with the rest of the Sadjens, making Faera and Ebon the last of their kind. A proud race of warriors who made a living by fighting in order to protect their home and carry on their legacy to those that would follow in the generations to come. But if those two died there would be no more Sadjens left. Even if they fought and either of them killed the other in battle, there would be no real victory for them. Smokescreen supposed that Faera understood that, and that was why she preferred not to fight.

It was a shame Ebon himself didn't seem to understand that, though; just as he didn't understand that, in spite of everything, Faera didn't hate him. And if he did understand, he probably considered it worse. It could mean he was merely being pitied and, consequently, he was looked down on as pathetic and weak.

The sound of the call button rang throughout his office, cutting Smokescreen off his musings. The former gambler turned off the monitor and held up the datapad, schooling his features to a relaxed expression.

"Come in."

The door opened, revealing Red Alert behind it.

"Am I bothering?"

"Not at all," Smokescreen said, placing the datapad aside as if it was an unimportant read. "Can I help you?"

"Prowl wants to talk to us concerning the defences of the Ark," Red Alert said. "He's expecting us in his office."

Smokescreen's clouded in a frown, but nevertheless he stood up. "I thought we had settled that matter two weeks ago."

"Temporarily," Red Alert pointed out as both Autobots walked out of Smokescreen's office and then down the corridor. "I've been watching the Dinobots through the cameras and, frankly, they seem to be bored while on patrol. And when the Dinobots are bored, you can be sure trouble will follow."

"You'd think trouble would follow even if you saw Spike holding hands with Carly," Smokescreen teased. Even so, he had to admit Red Alert had a point. The Dinobots were quite the force of nature that needed to be kept under control at all times or they would be destructive. Teletraan-I had paid the price more than enough times.

Speaking of damages…

"How are the repairs on the remote cameras coming along?"

"Too slow for my liking," Red Alert replied.

That, Smokescreen guessed, explained why the security chief was so nervous. "The power plants have suffered quite the damages as well. They had priority."

"I suppose," Red Alert sighed. "At least, one good thing came out of this whole mess."

"Really? What's that?" Smokescreen asked, intrigued.

"I don't have to worry so much about intruders through the crater anymore."

Now that was quite interesting.

"You don't mind having Faera there? She's not an Autobot, after all," Smokescreen pointed out with a small smile.

"She wasn't," Red Alert admitted. "But if Prowl and Optimus consider her good enough to join Special Ops, then that's enough for me."

"Because Jazz will take care of things should anything go wrong," Smokescreen said knowingly.

"Yes," Red Alert answered candidly. "He's even making sure things won't go wrong as we speak."

Smokescreen raised an optic ridge. "He's already started training her?"

Red Alert nodded. "He's training her as we speak."

Jazz trod carefully, sneaking behind a rock formation, and then came to a halt to dare at the clearing before him. He allowed himself a smile when he saw Bumblebee and Mirage across from him, on the other side of the clearing, and he would have waved at them if he didn't know that looks could be deceiving. He let out a small whistle instead, and waited for his partner to show up.

She appeared in her beast form, moving in a crawl up to Jazz and resembling a leopard stalking her prey in the savannah. Even though her black form seemed to stand out in the light-brown terrain she was traversing, she still made herself almost inconspicuous as she sidled up to the saboteur, maintaining radio silence as they had agreed. After all, they needed to maintain the element of surprise.

She looked up at him, cocking her head as she awaited his orders. Jazz pointed at her and then at his visor, signalling that she should scout ahead.

She didn't move. Her ears simply started moving about, trying to pick up any sound out of the ordinary, while her nostrils twitched as she smelled the air.

Good thinking, girl, Jazz thought. Don't show yourself unless you have to.

Finally, Faera returned her focus to Jazz and she scratched the ground with her claw twice; she was ready to go.

Jazz nodded his understanding, and both dared another peek over the rock formation. Both Sadjen and Autobot locked their gaze on the centre of the clearing, and they finally spotted their target: a small round sphere with a metallic plating that glistened under the sunlight. Jazz and Faera crouched again and exchanged a glance full of meaning, before the saboteur opened his communication frequencies.

- Mirage, you ready? -

- All set. –

Jazz held up three fingers. – Then go. On the count of three. –

- Got it, - Mirage replied.

Faera crouched, waiting for the signal.

- Three… two… one…"

There was the sound of rustling foliage, a sign that Mirage was moving in his invisibility cloak, while Faera lunged from behind the rock formation. As the sphere picked up the sudden motion, however, it whirred to life and started floating in the air, firing laserbeams at her. She dodged the laserfire without missing a beat, distracting the sphere long enough for Mirage to become visible and shoot it. As soon as the laserfire hit it, the sphere stopped working and set itself automatically on standby mode, ending the exercise session.

"Not bad at all," Jazz said, coming out of his hiding spot. "You two are starting to get the hang of it."

Mirage grinned broadly, while Faera picked up the sphere in her jaws to pass it to Jazz.

"Thanks," Jazz said, quite pleased, and he opened his communication frequencies. "Hey, Chip. You'd better set the difficulty level up a notch. This is getting almost too easy."

"Hold on to your horses, Jazz," Chip answered from the other end of the line. "Things are going to get really interesting."

Spike and Sparkplug looked over Chip's shoulders as the young boy started typing instructions on the console before him. All three were up a rocky slope, which gave them a bird's eye view of everything that was going on down in the terrain the Autobot Special Ops had picked as their training ground.

"Well, Chip? Is the experiment going as you planned?"

"Even better than I had hoped for," Chip said, looking up at Sparkplug. "Thanks for the help, Mr. Witwicky."

"No thanks needed," Sparkplug said with a smile. "I'm glad those spheres proved to be handy."

"They certainly work as mean battle simulators," Spike commented, pointing downwards to the terrain. "Look at this!"

Sparkplug and Chip looked in the same direction and couldn't help but watch the four Autobots battling three more spheres operating under Chip's command.

"Oh, wow," Chip commented. "I never thought Jazz could move that fast. It's almost like he's dancing!"

"Knowing Jazz, he probably is," Sparkplug replied.

Indeed, the saboteur moved with a sort of grace that none of the three humans expected a giant alien robot would have; he was able to avoid the laserfire without error, while the rest of the team fought sight by side in harmony, supporting their captain. Mirage offered his gunship skills, while Bumblebee offered the spy backup and Faera lunged at the spheres, distracting them.

"It's weird," Chip said. "Faera fights differently from the guys, but she's not getting into their way."

"Skyfire did say that Sadjens attacked in numbers, so she obviously knows how to work in a team," Spike said.

"Yeah… But there are still some things that she has to learn," Sparkplug pointed out.

"Like what?"

The words had barely flowed out of Chip's lips when one of the spheres charged on top speed in Faera's direction.

"Uh oh…" Bumblebee said. "Faera, duck!"

Faera looked at the minibot in puzzlement, an action that cost her. The sphere crashed against her head, falling in pieces on the ground. She blinked at the impact, staggered on her feet a couple of times, and then she collapsed on her side.

"Faera!" Bumblebee cried. He hurried at her side without caring about the spheres that still flew about.

"Chip, shut them down!" Sparkplug said, and he rushed at the scene. He wasn't sure if he would be much help, but he still felt concerned.

Chip complied at once and, once the other two battle simulators were placed in standby mode, Spike helped his friend move down the slope.

"How is she?" the young man asked, still pushing the wheelchair.

"I don't know," Mirage said. "She shouldn't be-"

Mirage never finished his sentence. In that moment, Faera jumped as if nothing was wrong whatsoever and lunged at Bumblebee. The minibot barely managed to let out a surprised squeak as he found himself pinned on the ground, the panther-like creature settled on his lap and with a mirthful gleam in her eyes.

"Fooled you," she declared. If she had been in her humanoid form, she would be grinning quite broadly.

"Not funny," Bumblebee said in mock indignation. "I was worried."

"Come on, buddy. She even took Grimlock's punch without blinking. Do you think that would knock her out?" Jazz pointed out, chuckling; he had seen through Faera's charade.

"Fine, Jazz. Make it my fault, why don't you?" the minibot said. Nevertheless, he smiled at Faera, patting the side of her neck. "Still, you got me."

"Consider it payback," she teased, getting off him.

"Aww, take it easy on Bumblebee, Faera," Spike said, laughing. "At least you know what 'Duck' means now."

"And I won't be forgetting it any time soon," she declared, changing to her human-like form to relieve herself of the headache she was suffering from. "Sorry about the sphere, though. I suppose I was too hard-headed for it."

"Don't worry about it," Sparkplug said. "If anything, it means we should make them of sturdier materials."

"Does that mean we'll have to test them again?" Mirage asked, tilting his head.

"No, we got what we needed," Chip said with a bright smile. "Thanks for the help, guys. I really appreciate it."

"No problem," Jazz said, grinning. "We needed the practice."

"Besides, it's more fun fighting these than the Decepticons," Bumblebee noted with a nod.

"Speaking of which," Faera said, rubbing her chin in thought, "I should meet with Ironhide. We're supposed to leave on patrol in about half an hour."

"Time to go back then," Bumblebee said. In the next moment, he transformed to his vehicle mode and opened the door for the three humans. "Come on, guys."

Spike, Sparkplug and Chip settled inside Bumblebee, while Faera changed back to her beast form and picked up the broken sphere with her jaws. In a matter of seconds, Jazz and Mirage had transformed as well, and everyone headed back to the Ark. They were in a good mood, talking amongst themselves; so none of them noticed the metallic vulture flying over their heads, a black speck against a sea of cerulean blue.

Megatron was in the control room when he heard the familiar beep of an incoming transmission. After exchanging a glance with Starscream, the only other Decepticon in the room, he pressed the enter button to receive the message.

The monitor sprang to life, and the Decepticon leader watched the Autobots, the humans and the Sadjen interacting.

"So…" Megatron said, his upper lip curling in distaste. "Faera seems to have settled nicely with the Autobots. How delightful."

"You already know what must be done, Megatron," Starscream said. "She would have been under Decepticon control by now if I were in charge."

"Please, Starscream. It is a miracle you've managed to keep Ebon under control so far," Megatron retorted. "Besides, knowing you, you would have just charged blindly and got yourself ripped to pieces before you could even raise your null-ray and gloat. If we're to catch her, we have to make sure that she won't be able to fight back."

"And what do you suggest, oh cunning Megatron?" Starscream asked, raising an optic ridge.

"I don't suggest, Starscream. I order," the Decepticon leader said. "Now gather the Decepticons here. I must announce our new target of attack."

"As you wish, leader," Starscream said, bowing courteously, even though his optics narrowed.

Megatron, however, didn't bother himself any further. He simply waved his hand in a dismissive manner and he returned his focus to the monitor, watching Faera and the Autobots. A smirk formed on his lip components at the thought that, if his plan succeeded, he wouldn't only have the female Sadjen under his control, but he would also destroy the Autobots forever. Now that would be a very a welcome day indeed.

TBC...