Jaws opened her wings nearly 20 feet from the ground. It almost brought about some serious whiplash, though she kept most of the momentum, skimmed the ground with her claws and shot back up into the clouds.

She wasn't done with her air based acrobatics, she spun tucking in her wings, spreading them to level again. She pulled up into a loop and dropped again, remaining on her back for a few seconds before shifting her weight and opening one of her wings, flipping right side up.

Oh it was an amazing feeling, her wings slicing the the air, the world rushing along far beneath her. The ocean became visible below and grew ever closer. Jaws adjusted her wings and slid over the water kicking up a stream of water.

Bee had been hanging on tight, though despite the wild ride he never felt like he was on the verge of falling. His training in combat seemed to have honed his balance.

His com beeped, Bee tapped Jaws, "Slow down a little." He tapped his com, "Need something Ratchet?"

"Bee we need you to supply back up, the team has encountered more resistance than anticipated one the mission." Ratchet responded.

"Ok, bridge us back." Bee replied.

They waited for a portal but it didn't show, "Ratchet? Bridge?" Be asked

"Bumble Bee your telemetry data doesn't make sense." Ratchet sounded confused.

"What do you mean?" Bee asked enjoying the view.

"It says you are airborne." Ratchet explained, sounding uncertain.

"Oh that... that is actually true." Bee responded, almost laughing.

"How?"

"Well... the predacon flies." Be answered.

A ground bridge portal opened above the cliff not far from them. Jaws landed and headed for the portal but...

"I'm in the base alone, can you leave the predacon there?" Ratchet asked, hesitantly.

Bee sighed, then turned to Jaws, "Stay, I'll be back later. You can explore if you want." He turned and transformed, driving off through the ground bridge. The bridge closed leaving Jaws all alone. Her ears drooped, she didn't like being left alone. Well no use in just sitting around. She stood and turned to see just where there was to go. Woods, a good a place as any.

She wandered into the forest in no particular direction for a while. It got a bit darker, as the star that circled this world dropped in the sky. Being outside again was wonderful, and old habits took over. She wasn't quite sure how far or long she walked but when she was finally snapped out of her trance it wasn't by anything good.

A faint sent invaded her nostrils, it was energon. She was a honed beast, a creature capable of detecting things she was attuned to miles upon miles away. What really caught her attention was that she recognized this energon, it was Bee's. Her ears flattened back, refined energon had a much stronger smell than unrefined. If she could smell it it had been spilled.

Someone was messing with a member of her pack, that wasn't going to fly. She growled and took off running. She couldn't fly, she'd loose the scent that far up, she had to stay on the ground. Her talons turned the dirt, her shoulders knocked trees from her path like they were nothing but reeds. Nothing would stand in her way!

Suddenly, directly in front of her was a deep gorge like a gaping mouth hoping to swallow her. She put more energy into her speed and jumped. Her talons caught the edge of the other side and she felt it start to slip. She dug the talons in on her hind legs, scrambling for a foothold. Feeling a surge of energy she carved out her own and climbed up. Feeling all four feet on the ground she continued to thunder in the direction the scent indicated.

Predaking had managed to haul the Autobot scout outside visual range of its cohorts. He began to toy with it, snatching it in his mouth and shaking it, his teeth cutting into the scout's plating, it was paper thin compared to his own. Predaking could taste the Autobot's energon and see it on the ground, he had splashed it everywhere.

He dropped his temporary toy as he heard something headed his way. It was big, best to finish the Autobot then investigate. Bee braced for the final blow but just as it should have come there was an ear splitting crash.

Jaws collided with Predaking, head on. She knocked him a good distance away from Bee, then shifted in a battle stance and faced the cloned pred.

"You." Predaking snarled, almost sounding surprised.

"Yah me." Jaws growled. The duo started to enter a circling pattern, forming their own combat arena instinctively, a silent indication that neither had any intention of running from this fight.

"You defend the enemy?!!" Predaking roared, clearly both offended and disgusted.

"No, I defend my pack!!" She roared, then they charged. Despite her size she charged with her head unusually low, she got her head beneath Predaking's neck putting herself in perfect position to attack! She gore his chest plating to pieces with her horns!

"I don't understand! I faced you before and you were weak!" Predaking roared, he was staggering now, he was heavily weakened.

"Yes, then I was. I've had time to get back on my feet!" She snarled, as they clashed again, sparks flying. As Predaking tried to slash and bite Jaws returned the blows 5 fold, his jaws and claws were not honed by hundreds of years of hunting other preds.

As the dust cleared and Predaking lay in a heap Jaws stood above him victorious. She turned her head up and roaring, this match was won. Jaws took her front foot off of Predaking, and with a surprising amount of energy he sprang up and ran. She considered following but the scent of Bee's energon filled her nose, she couldn't give chase now.

Bee tried to stand but was torn up, and would have wound up back on the ground had Jaws not caught his arm with her horn. She carefully pulled him to where he could lean on her.

"You have to get out of here girl." Bee instructed weakly, trying to push her, to get her moving.

What was he doing? She had come to rescue him, why was he telling her to leave? She looked at him quizzically, but before he had a chance to explain Optimus was driving up, "Scrap!" he was going to get in trouble.

Jaws could feel his worry, he had tensed, and still seemed stressed. She growled at Optimus, just a little, she was still a little on edge. Plenty of adrenaline still in her system from the last fight.

"I heard the roar, why is the predacon here?" Optimus asked.

"I told her to stay miles and miles from here. Honest, I don't know how she got here." Bee answered.

Optimus seemed to take him as his word and walked over to help Bee to the ground bridge that must have already been open and waiting. But Jaws growled, and it wasn't quiet and uncertain this time, she gave him a clear view of her teeth. Her tail coiled and her paw raised protectively.

"Easy Jaws-" Bee winced and held a servo to one of the larger injuries, the exertion was wearing off and the pain was closing in. He blacked out and fell.

Jaws stopped and looked down at Bee, he was leaking, a lot. She whined nudging him desperately trying to get a reaction. Nothing. She couldn't help him, could the large bot? She looked from Bee to Optimus. She wasn't sure.

"You can trust me, he's my friend." Optimus assured, he spoke gently. He needed to keep the predacon calm if he hoped for her to believe him. "I know you're protecting him, you've done very well, but I need to bring him back to base, there we can help him."

She was hesitant, staying locked in her defensive stance for a second, before stepping back. Letting Optimus take Bee. Once he started heading for the ground bridge she followed. "No Jaws, you need to stay here. I'll come back soon." he promised, disappearing into the portal.

She watched it close and whined, left behind again. But that was no longer her primary worry, Bee was hurt, bad. He was going to be ok, he had to be ok. The orange and white one had helped her, he could do the same for Bee, she was sure of that. She just had to find a spot and wait for the large bot to come back.

She took up a spot not far, adjacent to a pile of rocks from the mining operation. It provided cover, and she could keep her optics and audio receptors open for any cons, should they return.

Meanwhile on the nemesis:
"The she-beast defended the Autobots!?!?!" Megatron thundered.

"I was unable to defeat her... she was too strong, she fought in ways I have never seen." Predaking's gaze fell on the floor. He was currently not a great match for the predacon that had seemingly joined the Autobot ranks.

"It seems you have never fought your own kind." Megatron taunted, "We must find a way to level the playing field in your favor." turning his mind now to more practical things.

"She only came to the aid of one of the Autobots. Perhaps that is the weak link." Predaking suggested attempting to compensate for his failure. Megatron accepted the idea but he was no longer focused on the beast solider.

And at Autobot HQ:
Be had finally come to, Ratchet was patching the larger injuries he had sustained. "Where's-..." his head hurt, "Where is-" he realized that the others were the in room as well, "am I?" he tried to cover his tracks. "What happened?"

"You were hurt, Optimus found you and brought you back." Ratchet explained.

Bee started to try and stand, edging painfully towards the edge of the medical table.

"Ep! Yep! You can hardly stay awake, let alone stand! Lie back down." he ordered.

Bee was tempted to fight him on this but Ratchet was right, he was exhausted, no way he was going to make it to the ground bridge controls, let alone through a bridge. "Where's Optimus?" Bee asked.

"I'm here," Optimus had been speaking with Magnus, he walked over.

"Where, um-" he didn't know how to ask without giving it away, the team still didn't know about the beast that had been living in their basement.

"Ratchet, could you...?" Optimus asked, nodding to the other occupants of the room.

Ratchet nodded and turned towards the bots, "Alright, everybody out, Bumble Bee needs rest." no one argued with the medic and they departed.

Once the room was clear, "Where's Jaws?" Bee asked, he couldn't clearly remember how the battle had ended.

"She is at the site of our last mission," he answered.

"Can I-" he winced, "Can you bring her back?" she could have sustained injury, or more cons could have arrived, or Predaking could still have been lurking. There were too many variables and she was alone.

"Yes, I can go retrieve her, you need to rest." Optimus headed for the ground bridge, but turned back, "You trained her quite well." He complimented before heading through the bridge.

"I didn't train her to do that," Bee muttered.

Optimus arrived at the sight of the prior battle, there was no telling where Jaws had gone off to, he needed to find tracks or something like it. He headed back to where the fight with Predaking had taken place and started to follow the discrepancies in the dirt. "Jaws!" Optimus called, she had to be around here somewhere.

Ears up. Head up. Had someone said her name? Oh, that was a smell she knew. Jaws yawned, prior to a mix of stretching and standing. The large bot had come back, for her it seemed. Then she froze, hang on, there was something else. That smell was... familiar too! Oh no! Not good!

Optimus called her name a few more times, but there was no response. Had she gone off hunting? Had the cons recaptured her? Worse case scenario, she was probably around somewhere sleeping, he just needed to keep looking. When out of nowhere then there was a series of blaster fire, one catching him very distinctly in the leg. He tried to stay on his feet, firing a few shots in response but falling any way. It wasn't a lethal wound but it would definitely keep him from standing.

He looked up, Megatron.

"Optimus, how fortunate. To think I had missed you earlier, we will have plenty of time now." Megatron reveled in his luck before charging in to finish it, but he didn't make it that far. As he was rammed with considerable force into the side of the mountain.

"Jaws!" She was still here!

She kept going, even as he already seemed unconscious, bashing him with her sizable paws, leaving genuine dents in his plating. Then she went to chomp down on him, this would take some work, he was tough. "Jaws! There is decepticon back-up in bound, we must fall back!" He called.

Fall back? Other decepticons? She stopped and listened, yes, she could hear it now, engines. She couldn't shred him and protect the other bot, time to withdraw. She turned and ran over, closing her claws around Optimus and bounding up into the air.

Once she was plenty high off the ground and sure she wasn't going to get caught up in the trees, she shifted Optimus to her back. She could hear the cons getting closer, they knew she was here. She started off, trying to make for somewhere she could make use of her ability to switch between air and land travel but Optimus was heavier, now that wasn't really the issue. He was not a flier, he didn't know how to ride a predacon, if he was Bee's size that wouldn't matter but he was larger and caused much more drag. So we're not running then, she decided, shifting her wings and swinging around.

"Jaws, we need to withdraw." Optimus instructed again.

If that were possible I would be, but I need to clear us some room. Instead of communicating all this in a way Optimus could understand there was a series of growls and rumbles ended by a chuff, and honestly he wasn't sure how to interpret it, but looking up they were headed straight for the vehicon squadron. There was no changing her mind then. He changed his servos to blasters and started firing, attempting to pick a few of them off before they got too close.

She built up some more speed, really looking for momentum, and outstretched her talons. The large bot picked a few off, and it was nice of him to help, but the cons didn't stand a chance.

The first she could reach she grabbed and tore in half. Another she clipped, hooking her claws in, pulling the trooper out of the air and ripping his wing off. She folded one of her wings in and spun, this gave her the power she needed to use her tail to full effect, slamming it into a trooper, spearing them on the spines that laced the end of her tail.

There were a few others she used brute force on, cutting them to pieces or tearing them to bits. Even Optimus got a few, but she was running out of patience for this. When it came down to it she finished the job in a blaze of glory. She unleashed a massive, continuous blast of flames. It melted the vehicons on contact, turning their armor to liquid, causing them to drop out of the sky like dead bugs. It only took so long until their weren't any left to drop.

With their pursuers dealt with she veered off and headed to a more sheltered location before touching down. Optimus climbed off her back gingerly and commed base, "Ratchet, we need a bridge." he requested. Optimus turned towards her, "You're an incredible warrior Jaws, I am glad to have you on our side." he complimented patting her shoulder plating.

Jaws looked down towards him, not such a bad bot to be pack mates with. She gave him a resounding chuff, same goes for you.

The bridge opened, and she helped Optimus through. Medical bay was waiting on the other side, with Bumble Bee. Ratchet began to attend to Optimus' wounds and Jaws rushed over setting her fore paws on the medical bed, looking down at her friend. Before reaching down and nuzzling him, looking for attention.

Bee opened his optics slowly, but focused them quickly, "You're back!"

She made a sound almost like a chirp, and wagged her tail.

"Thanks Optimus," Bee said, sitting up, scratching Jaws behind the ear.

"You're welcome Bumble Bee, she is going to make an excellent addition to the team." Optimus credited.