Secrets At Home {TFRID}

-9-

For the past few hours, Fixit had been continuously watching the scanners, waiting for something, anything, to happen. However, much to his relief, there was nothing. As long and teedious this job was, it was an important one that required the upmost concentration, meaning that he couldn't afford to stop, or else he could miss something that would later threaten the team.

This is how he protects them.

Suddenly, he received an alarm that the Alchemor's scanners had detected one of the registered signals. Every Decepticon that had travelled on the Alchemor had one in case of an escape, Shadow Raker was originally exempt from this because he came to Earth by his own means, but since his capture, Fixit had registered his signal into the system.

That was the signal which had been picked up.

The signal wasn't too far from the scrapyard, only a few miles away, he could alert the team and they would have plenty of time to catch him.

He rolled away from the holographic screen and reached for the button which triggered the klaxon, however, he was stopped by something strange.

The Mini-con could no longer hear the quiet alarm, so he turned back to face the screen. He had turned just in time to see Shadow Raker's signal disappear.

"Huh?" he said quietly, rolling back over to ensure that it wasn't a trick his optics were playing on him.

It wasn't.

It was there, and now it's gone.

He was gone.

It wasn't uncommon for signals to come and go, usually they appear as they move in range of the current sector being scanned, and then fade away once they moved out.

But it didn't fade away, it was too abrupt, meaning that something had happened to him.

Wishing to waste no more time, the Caretaker hurried back over to the klaxon and activated it, staring at the ground ahead of him in a determined manner as he watched the team rush over to his call.

"What's the story, Fixit?" Bumblebee asked him, same as usual.

"There's some unusual activity in sector three, Lieutenant, and it's to do with Shadow Raker."

At this announcement, the whole team was shocked. Drift let out a quiet growl as his Mini-cons clenched their servos, trying to hide the feeling they both shared, as if their sparks were going to beat out of their chestplates.

"What kind of unusual activity?" Strongarm piped up in question, trying to break the tension.

Before he answered, Fixit stretched out his servos to enlarge the holographic screen, allowing the whole team to view what he did. "The scanners detected him here," he told them whilst pointing to where the signal had originally been, "But then it went offline."

Sideswipe's optics widened at this. "Does that mean he's..."

"Not necessarily, it could mean a number of things, like perhaps he figured out that destroying his symbol will deactivate his tracker, or he's in an enviroment that messes with the scanners," he explained, only to recieve a few confused and fearful faceplates in response.

"We need to locate him before we lose him for good, we can't afford any surprises," Bumblebee stated. The leader knew how big of a threat Shadow Raker was from Drift's past, so they couldn't lose track of him, or else bots could get hurt.

Drift nodded to this. "His ship is still on Earth from the last time we battled, perhaps he returned to it for supplies and weapons."

"Good thinking, Drift, we'll split up," he ordered. "Strongarm, Grimlock and I will head to sector three whilst Sideswipe, Drift and the Minis will return to his ship, report anything you find."

The Autobots split up into their respective groups. Drift held out his forearms and allowed his students to transform onto them. He glaced down at them, he didn't want to bring his pupils back to that horrible place, he didn't want a repeat of what happened last time.

"Autobots, let's rev up and roll out!" Bumblebee yelled with an inspiring pose, pointing towards the exit.

As soon as he said that, every member of the team transformed and drove away, with Drift and Sideswipe splitting off from the others.

~~

Drift was the first to transform once the ship came into view. It was exactly how his former master had left it after landing with Jetstorm and Slipstream on board.

It made him shiver, knowing that this ship had been used to transport Mini-cons against their will.

His Mini-cons.

What also startled him was the reminder that he and his students, along with a few others, had tried to travel in a ship like this, only on a smaller scale.

Sideswipe noticed his colleague's fear, placing a servo on his shoulderplate. "I get that this place has you spooked, let's just get in and get out."

Drift glanced at him with a nod.

"If Shadow Raker has returned here, then he would have thought ahead and booby-trapped the entrance we used previously," Drift stated. "So we shall take the main entrance instead."

"Isn't that kind of obvious?"

"Sometimes the most obvious choice, is the best one."

The teen merely shrugged before following the older bot towards the entrance of the ship. The hatch was closed but it wasn't locked, so they were easily able to pry it open with their blades.

For some reason, the interior had the same eerie atmosphere as before, only this time...it felt more severe.

Drift looked down at his forearms again, tilting them towards the ground as he deployed his students. The pair landed in front of him and immediately pulled out their weapons. It was evident that they didn't feel safe.

But can you blame them?

"We will head to the bridge, and stick together, Shadow Raker will attack us one by one if we split up," he ordered both them and Sideswipe.

"Yes, Master," the Mini-cons replied in unison, only a nod was earned from Sideswipe.

The four kept their weapons drawn, ready to engage if needed. Drift was able to spot the majority of the traps from their previous visit, so it didn't take the group long to reach the bridge.

But what they did...the view really surprised them.

Many of the panels from the controls had been removed, exposing the wiring which was sending out random bursts of electricity. There were traces of energon on the surface, almost creating a trail throughout the room. Not much was usually stored on the bridge, but whatever was there before was now gone. Like it had been taken.

"This doesn't make sense..." Sideswipe trailed off as he stared at the scene. "The entire place has been...looted..."