Eddie pulled an injured soldier away from the blast and laid him down,
"Stay here,"
He heard two screams and looked to see Sunstreaker and Sideswipe kneeling down in pain,
"AUTOBOTS DOWN! I REPEAT, SUNSTREAKER AND SIDESWIPE ARE DOWN!"
Jolt was quick to run over to the two with Ironhide and dragged them behind cover,
"What happened? Where are you two hurt?"
They shook their head as their optics closed in pain. Jolt frowned and did a quick scan over them. As Eddie glanced back over to the battle, he noticed that all of the Decepticons started to retreat,
"They are retreating!"
Ironhide frowned,
"Why would they?"
Sunstreaker groaned,
"The bond,"
Jolt gasped as his scans came back,
"Oh no,"
Eddie looked up at him,
"What, what is it?"
Jolt shook his head,
"The pain is not from them,"
Eddie frowned as he saw the look of horror on Ironhide's face,
"What does that mean?!"
Sideswipe groaned,
"Th-They h-hurt h-her,"
Eddie walked up to the twins,
"Who is her?"
Jolt looked down at him,
"Eddie. It's...It's Mazikeen,"
Eddie took a step back in surprise,
"Maz?"
Ironhide nodded and put his servo down for Eddie to climb onto,
"We have to go. Jolt, you get Lennox and Epps, I will bring Eddie and the twins,"
Jolt nodded and ran away. Eddie climbed onto Ironhide's servo and was placed on his shoulder. Ironhide helped Sunstreaker and Sideswipe back up, and they started running toward the Medical Bay,
"Why would they retreat, Ironhide? What are you hiding?"
Ironhide sighed,
"Eddie, we never had meant to hide anything from you. We were told only the few that found out were to be the ones to know. Maze has been taken by the Decepticons."
Eddie felt his heart stop,
"Wh-why would they take her? How could they take her?!"
Ironhide frowned,
"I am not sure how they got her. Jazz and Ratchet will tell us...as long as they can,"
"Wh-What do you mean?"
They finally got to the medical bay and stopped when they saw the destruction. Sunstreaker and Sideswipe ran in and stopped when they saw Ratchet and Jazz still in stasis,
"Ratchet! Jazz!"
Ironhide and Eddie ran in at hearing them yelling and gasped at the state of the two Autobots. Eddie patted Ironhide's shoulder,
"Set me down on Ratchet! On his chassis!"
Ironhide quickly did so. Eddie fumbled around looking for the buttons,
"Come on, come on,"
Eddie pressed something and a bright light shone and wrapped Ratchet's body,
"Yes!"
When the light dimmed, Ratchet's optics slowly opened with a groan. He raised his servo and Eddie ducked before he got hit,
"Hey!"
Ratchet looked down and frowned,
"Eddie?"
Eddie smiled in relief,
"Hey, Ratchet,"
Ratchet glanced around and looked at the state that Sunstreaker and Sideswipe were in,
"By the All Spark! What happened to you two?"
Sunstreaker crossed his arms and narrowed his optics,
"Why don't you ask Jazz?"
Ratchet quickly looked at the Autobot and gasped,
"Primus!"
Eddie winced,
"Yeah, bring me over to him, I think Maz did the same thing,"
Ratchet quickly did so. Eddie felt around his chassis before pressing the button. The light was brighter with Jazz than it was with Ratchet and Eddie closed his eyes until he heard a loud groan. He opened them to see Jazz's optics looking around in a hurry,
"Wh-Where is Mazikeen?!"
Sideswipe sighed and sat down with his head in his servos,
"Sh-She really is gone,"
Sunstreaker shook his head,
"No. No. She is not! She has to be somewhere!"
They heard footsteps and looked to see Will, Epps, Jolt, and Optimus running in. Optimus took one look around and closed his optics in pain as he looked away. Will and Epps looked around,
"Where is she?!"
Jazz put Eddie down and bent down, grunting in pain, to their level,
"Will...Epps...I'm sorry,"
Will shook his head,
"She's around here, she has to be,"
Epps nodded,
"Did you look? Did anyone look?!"
They all said nothing as the two men looked around fast. They stopped after a few minutes and Will shook his head numbly,
"She...She really was taken,"
Epps shook his head,
"We got too distracted,"
Eddie walked up to the two,
"You couldn't have known. We don't know why Maz was taken. They must have somehow found out that she was their liaison,"
Will sighed and looked up at Optimus,
"Prime. Tell me something good. Tell me she can get out of there,"
Optimus sighed and looked down at Will,
"William. All those months ago, she was told that teleporting was something that she would never be able to control. Right now, that is the only thing that can get her out of there. I am truly sorry,"
Epps shook his head and pointed to Optimus,
"No. You don't get to play that sorry card right now! Prime, we stood by you for MONTHS! We call you our friend, hell! Mynx calls all of you her family now! There has gotta be something that you can do!"
He turned to the twins,
"What about that weird twin connection that you three got?! You can not just tell me that we failed our little sister! Mazikeen has been with Will and me since she finished her training! SINCE DAY ONE! We have never EVER left her behind. She has never left one of US behind! You can not tell me that you guys are giving up on h-"
Will grabbed his arm,
"Epps-"
"NO! Don't tell me that you aren't thinking the same shit, Will!"
Will shook his head and made direct eye contact with Epps,
"Bobby, we did not fail her. We fail her when we stop fighting. That is what Mynx has been telling us since our first fight together in our squad. No matter the losses. No matter the cost, we keep fighting. We will find our sister, she is counting on us."
Epps finally let a tear fall,
"Will, how are we going to find her this time?"
Eddie put his hand on their shoulders,
"There has to be a way to track something from her,"
Ratchet sighed,
"If they are on their ship...then it is impossible, Mazikeen and I have been trying for the past month to find it,"
Eddie frowned,
"Well, you guys mentioned some sort of teleporting, what's that about?"
Will and Epps shared a look and sighed. They were about to start talking again but Phillip ran in with Tex in his arms,
"Help! Medic! It's Tex!"
Darwin and Tristan were quickly following him,
"Tex just collapsed after the Cons retreated! We don't know what happened,"
Ratchet frowned and knelt down in front of them,
"When?"
Darwin frowned as he looked at the small Cybertronian,
"When we were shooting at the Decepticons, they started retreating, and then Tex kinda just screamed-"
"B-But it was almost as if he was screaming over a loss, that kind of scream,"
Tristan nodded,
"Yeah, we all felt that kind of pain from him...is he going to be alright?"
Ratchet did a quick scan and sighed,
"Yes...he will...he just needs rest,"
Tristan looked over at the three other humans,
"Wait...Mynx was...Mynx was supposed to be in here, right?"
Darwin looked around,
"To make sure she was outta the fight in case the Decepticons wanted to take her cuz she was the Liaison,"
Phillip stepped back in shock,
"Lennox...where is she?"
Will sighed and ran his hand through his hair,
"Let's go outside and talk...we have to debrief everyone,"
Tristan frowned,
"And Tex?"
Phillip nodded,
"Yeah, he's a part of our squad too,"
Epps chuckled sadly and smiled at the three,
"Trust us, he knows already,"
Darwin sighed,
"Okay...let's go,"
Will looked up at Optimus as everyone left except for him,
"You have a promise to keep...and the first thing you have to do...you have to go talk to Sam. Because I know for damn sure that she had you promise to protect him. She told Epps, Fig, and I the same thing when we formed our squad. I intend to uphold my end of the deal, if you truly see us as friends...you would too. Because I see you as a friend now, not only because we have fought alongside for a while now...but also because...I know you are grieving too,"
Optimus nodded his head,
"I will speak to Samuel...do you have any words to tell him?"
Will sighed and patted his foot,
"Tell him...that his older sister would do anything to be with him right now. The only reason she ever went home was to see him and Rover. Take Tex with you too, might do him some good to meet his other Uncle,"
Optimus smiled sadly and nodded,
"Do not worry about Tex...we will help him through this as well. He is one of us...you are all our friends and we appreciate it. I am sorry that we failed you, William,"
Will sighed and smiled at him with unshed tears in his eyes,
"Optimus, you did not fail...we all failed to save her. I made a promise to her a long time ago, and I intend to keep that promise by saving her."
Optimus nodded,
"We will save her,"
Will nodded,
"We will,"
Optimus watched as Will left and he turned to see Jazz trying to stand up but both Jolt and Ratchet held him down,
"Jazz! You took serious damage! You have to stay down!"
Jazz shook his head,
"I'm fine! We have to start looking for Lil M!"
Optimus sighed and walked over to them and put a servo on Jazz's shoulder,
"Jazz, look at me,"
Jazz looked up at him and Optimus stared at him,
"We will save her. You are in no condition to start looking, you must heal in order to help Mazikeen,"
Jazz sighed and shook his head,
"Optimus...I was supposed to protect her...and I failed as her guardian,"
Sunstreaker shook his head,
"Jazz, you didn't,"
All of the Autobots looked at him in surprise. Sunstreaker crossed his arms,
"Sides and I...we know you did everything to save her. Tex will most likely say the same thing when he wakes up. She got taken right before they surrendered...but before she was, Sun and I felt a tug at our sparks, we stupidly ignored it cuz we wanted to make sure to protect the humans. I now know, that the pull was our sparks telling us Aero's heart was pulling at her to protect something...in this case, it was you and Ratchet. She stopped fighting as soon as you two were in stasis, they wouldn't kill her. They need her alive for the All Spark power. I think all of us would know if she were to kick the bucket. I see the looks on all of your faces, we all have a bond with her, just Sides, Tex, and me, we just have a stronger one...Tex I guess has the strongest one since he's in stasis just from all that pain,"
Jazz sighed and closed his optics,
"How...how do we help her,"
They turned to see the door opening again,
"By helping those she loves."
They saw the triplets walking in with the other twins. Arcee narrowed her optics at them,
"You have all done everything in your power to protect her. We all have. It is our turn to help the ones that she loves. That is what Maze would want. Trust us, it's a femme thing,"
Elita-One put her hand on Optimus's shoulder,
"Mazikeen will come home. William has said it himself, she always comes home,"
Chromia crossed her arms and nodded,
"Mazikeen is one of us, you all know something that we may not. But, she has been under our protection and will continue to be after she comes home,"
Mudflap smirked,
"So, let's give the cons hell!"
Skids nodded,
"Yeah! We can count on her to come back, we gotta be ready for when she does,"
Ratchet sighed and crossed his arms,
"As much as I hate agreeing with those two. But, we need to be ready when Mazikeen comes back, she still has Phoenix, I am positive of it,"
Optimus sighed and nodded,
"I will go talk to Samuel, everyone here has to protect the humans and make sure that no one gets harmed anymore,"
Elita-One smiled at him,
"We will make sure. Go see the boy,"
Jazz nodded,
"Tell him I'm sorry,"
Optimus smiled and patted his shoulder,
"You must go to Mikaela's home and bring her to Samuel."
Jazz glanced at him,
"Why me?"
"Mazikeen would want you to stay guarding those she cares about."
Jazz nodded his head and stood up,
"I will,"
"Autobots, roll out!"