Nebula was asleep, she knew it. But, in her mindscape something sparks. Suddenly, she can get in contact with her mom.

/"MOM!"\

/"NEBS?! LITTLE STAR, ARE YOU OK?! WHERE ARE YOU?!"\

/"I'M FINE FOR NOW, BUT THEY ARE TRYING TO EXTRACT DIA FROM MY SPARK'S CORE. THEY'RE GOING TO KILL ME!"\

/"WHERE ARE YOU?!"\

/"WE'RE DOCKING ON ONE OF HAWAII'S UNINHABITED ISLANDS TOMORROW MORNING, AT AN ENERGON RESERVE."\

/"WE'LL BE THERE, MY SWEET. WE'RE BRINGING YOU HOME!"\

And just like that, the connection is broke. Nebs slumps in her sleep, completely exhausted. Stormcharger holds her close, and sighs in relief that the connection worked.

Back at base, Beta darts into the main room. "I know where she is!" The team jerks around, Optimus being the fastest of them. "Where?!"

Beta quickly explains the message to them. Optimus visibly lets out a sigh of relief. "Then, we will be there to meet them. Rest, everyone. Tomorrow, we go to battle."

*The next day*

Nebula wakes up in Stormcharger's grasp, the wise CyberNinja had decided to get a little sleep while he could. The femme stays still, not wanting to disturb his rest. She hears the troopers prepare to land the and a few more clinking some things around. Knowing they will be coming in soon to break her again, she prays to Primus and the thirteen that her family comes before that.

*On the island*

The team bridges in and sees that the mining is already well underway. Even Ratchet showed up, with Raf back at base, he didn't have to manage the GroundBridge. And, he was ready to gut these cons for taking his niece.

Since Beta was the stealthiest, she was going onto the ship to get Nebs back while the rest hold off the cons and keep their attention off of the ship. And, boy, was Beta ever ready to spill the energon of any bot that got in her way. She had heard the terror in Nebula's voice as she told her about the reserve.

Beta runs to a boulder and waits for the rest to distract the miners. Optimus gives the signal and they storm in, guns blazing. Troopers drop down from the ship and Beta makes her move. Running, she climbs the lift and slaughters any con in her path.

When she breaks into the ship she sees no cons around, so there was no way she was threatening one to lead her to her daughter. She does the next best thing and runs in a random direction, hoping she will find the cell quickly.

Back in the cell, Stormcharger had woke up and was now trying to keep Nebula calm, as the clanking got louder. All at once, cons swarm in and restrain Stormcharger and chain Nebs to her post, both of them shouting and trying to reach one another. Nebs locks the doors to her spark, so Dia can't feed off of her fear and, soon to be, agony. The cons laugh and pull out a sword. A downswing later, Nebs shrieks. They had cut the cords(tendons) of her wing, leaving it limp and void of feeling. The cons cackle and take out whips, energon prods, spiked metal and a cube of dark energon to throw on her wounds to make them burn, even a small sparkling sized shard of tox-en to rub them with.

Beta hears screams and frantically turns her head, trying to figure out where they came from. She decides on a path and runs.

Nebs wails in complete and utter agony, Stormcharger being forced to watch as they tear all of her plating to shreds, not just her back, and forces dark energon and tox-en deep into them. After a long time, one of them stops it, before turning her to face them. "They said break her. How about we emotionally break her?" He approaches her, reaching down to her lower paneling. Nebs optics widen considerably as she thrashes, weakly, the effects of dark energon and tox-en setting in. Stormcharger bellows. Then, Beta busts down the door. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO MY DAUGHTER?!" She screams, before slaughtering every con in the room. Nebs slumps in her shackles, exhausted and relieved. Beta sees Stormcharger and runs over, removing his chains before hugging him. "I thought you were offline."

Stormcharger chuckles. "It takes a lot more than that to offline me." He then looks over at the femme hanging in her chains. "Your kid, though, I don't think so."

Beta spins around and runs over to her. "Nebula. Little Star, look at me." She kneels before her and cups her chin.

Nebula looks up with pain-filled, unfocused optics. "Momma?" She groans.

Beta undoes her shackles and Nebs falls forward, Beta catching her in her arms. She holds her close, seeing the blue, purple, and green energon covering her plating. The mother's spark breaks as Nebs whimpers pathetically in agony, her wounds steaming and turning nasty colors, and her wing sparking and hanging limply. Beta lifts her up carefully, wrapping her legs around her waist and her helm on her shoulder.

With Stormcharger by her side and Nebs in her arms, Beta runs out and heads back to the lift. Nebs passes out from pain and the relief of being back in her mother's arms. Beta holds her securely and carefully as she reaches the lift. Stormcharger climbs down first and provides more cover so Beta can climb down with Nebula. With the added fire power of the CyberNinja master, the cons are quickly defeated, and Beta climbs down carefully, cradling Nebula with the upmost care.

Optimus runs forward and waits at the bottom for Beta. When she steps off the lift, the sight of his princess mortifies him. He steps forward and cups the back of her helm, looking at Beta. "I got there just in time. The cons that did this were about to rape her." She says, quietly.

Optimus's optics widen as he strokes the back of her helm gently. But, the team doesn't get much of a break as the ground starts to rumble. The volcano they were standing on was about to erupt. It had grown unstable from the fighting that had just finished. The warship drops the lift and leaves really fast, leaving the team in the cave.

"Get into the ocean. The magma can't get us there." Optimus bellows. The team breaks into a run and dives off the cliff into the water, then getting away from the island, Beta being the last one to jump.

When they hit the water, Nebs snaps awake and grits her dentae trying to keep in a scream. Sea water got into her wounds and made the burning so much worse, mixing with the dark energon and tox-en. Beta holds her close as the team watches the smoking mountain blow its top, releasing magma, smoke and ash into the clear blue sky.