Author's Note: Takes place during the canon "Shattered Glass" story "Reunification: Part 2".
Thundercracker set the squad tracker to echo in his audios, the better to distract from the silence he moved through. It was unnerving even for the quiet warrior, his footsteps lost in the hollow wind and layers of debris, the bright rainbow hues of his armor equally lost in the dim haze. He felt like his choice to land for a stealthy final approach had been an almost needless tactic; even Whisper's boisterousness scarcely would have made a dent here.
Which made Thundercracker wonder even more why Dirge would come here, where there was naught but the ruined protoform hospital and other disused buildings to break up the desolation. Had Breakdown discovered something while investigating the signal they'd picked up here? Signs of an impending Autobot attack, perhaps? But surely Dirge would have told him if that were the case, instead of sneaking out and leaving his wingmate to track him down upon discovering he was gone.
Thundercracker shook his head as he surveyed the buildings he was approaching. He would just be glad to find Dirge. His wingmate's jokes and infectious laughter would be welcome as just the thing to make this place feel less dead.
In fact, the mere thought cheered him so much that he swore he could almost hear that laughter now. Yes... yes, it was there, rising over the wind. That laughter that was steady, and strong, and... high-pitched?
Almost hysterical?
Full of an unnatural glee, like that of a glitched protoform ripping the feathers off petropigeons?
Eeeeeeeeeeeeheheheheheheh...
No. No, no, that wasn't the right laughter at all...
He whirled around just in time for the arrow to fly through thin air instead of his wing, the whistle of its passing lost in the wind. He could see the arrow's owner then, her head lolling, limbs at strange angles, like a marionette held too close to the ground. But the way her optics looked through his, and her bow pointed at him steadily, showed her strings were under tight control. And that sound. That sound.
Eeeeeeeeeheheheheh...
He brought his arm guns up, a quick blast forming a bubble of silence around her. Yet even though the dampening field shimmered as usual, something was very wrong. Unlike the last time they'd met, she seemed untroubled by her voices being silenced, the vacuous grin never leaving her face. And her mouth was moving; no longer laughing, but forming soundless words. Words he could read on her lips—
"Yes, Master..."
He eventually recovered from his surprise, and primed and aimed his normal guns. But all just a moment too late, as her rapid-fire crossbow—which he swore wasn't what she'd had in their last meeting—sent a volley of arrows towards him. And when Thundercracker finally found a way to disturb the unnatural silence, with a nice thud as his body hit the ground, well. That was also just a moment too late.
Arcee moved forward and knelt by the body, her grin dreamy and distant as she admired her handiwork. She swirled her finger in the growing pools of yellow-green energon, painting lazily for long moments before finally speaking up. "So pretty. Always so pretty like this." She had no care that her words no longer reached her audios, as she knew that her new voice could hear, even from so very far away, and would never leave her. "Can I go make his friend pretty, too?"
"NO. HE IS NEEDED AS MY KEEPER'S CHARGE, JUST AS YOU ARE MY CHARGE."
"Ohhhh..." Her grin faded into an exaggerated pout. "But that's not fair...!"
"THERE WILL BE OTHERS FOR YOU."
She kept pouting, hands still smearing strange symbols onto the clashing armor. She babbled to herself soundlessly for several more long moments afterwards, before her master finally spoke up again.
"LEAVE THIS ONE TO MY MUTANTS NOW. RETURN TO MY CHAMBER."
"...yes, Master." She stood reluctantly and turned and walked away, hoping her new master would have another fight for her soon, and more shiny weapons. Pity, then, that she just barely missed seeing four otherworldly red and blue Cybertronians that could have given her a fight fleeing from the abandoned buildings behind her, the bubble of silence further masking their escape.
But the Vector Sigma Gestalt, well. It saw them, and her, and her convenient distraction, and through her master across the multiversal distance. It saw everything.
"OMEGA TERMINUS STEP OF RECALL PROGRAM: COMPLETE. NEXT STEP IN REUNIFICATION PROCESS: COMPUTRON. STARTING SEQUENCE PROGRESSION COUNTDOWN... MARK."