Chapter 2

Once she was sure that the information had been passed along safely, Skywarp headed for the rec room to grab some breakfast. The room was full of relaxing soldiers, most of them ignoring her even when she flopped onto Thundercracker's helm and whined that her friend never stayed online for very long. Rolling over on the couch, she grinned dumbly at him as he coolly sipped his energon.

"Must you always make that complaint?" he asked calmly as she tried to steal his energon cube from him and he held it out of her grasp. "You know that humans have shorter attention spans than you."

"But he's my friend," she whined loudly as she kicked her feet miserably. "Don't get why he can't stay on longer."

Thundercracker, a testament to his patience, did not shove her off the couch. Instead, he just shook his head and returned to his energon cube. Not one to ever let a subject die; at least, not in her role as Skywarp the Annoying Decepticon; Skywarp rolled over and started patting at Thundercracker's chest, whining a little bit more without actually saying anything. His dark red optics shifted down to focus on her for a moment, the apathy present with as much intensity as ever, but there was a flicker of fond amusement in their depths.

"Go get yourself fuelled, Skywarp," Thundercracker stated calmly before giving her a gentle shove towards the edge of the couch. "Starscream wants us up in the air as soon as possible. We've got patrols to do."

Obeying, Skywarp got up and retrieved a cube of energon. Optics burned into the center of her back, making her wings flutter a little in uneasy. There was something about the feel of the optics following her that made her feel…something negative that she had no word for. Her optics roved over the mechs filling the room, taking note of the few that were bothering to give her a second glance.

Astrotrain, Dead End, Thrust; the usual group that just liked to know where everyone was at a given time. A little paranoid, perhaps, but it paid to be in this sort of environment. Sipping on her energon slowly, still scanning because that feeling was not going away, she headed back towards Thundercracker. Then, there was a painful ping on the inside of her processor and she immediately whipped around to find Soundwave looming over her.

How was it possible for a mech that big to move so fragging silently?

Controlling herself so that she did not squeal in fright; the vocalizer could not handle deepening a femme's scream beyond a certain point and she had an insanely high-pitched scream; Skywarp hopped back a few feet. Chest heaving in fright, she stared at Soundwave for a moment before she bristled indignantly.

"There are better ways of getting my attention than scaring the ever-looking slag out of me!" she snapped as her wings bobbed furiously behind her.

Soundwave was silent for a few moments, his gaze possibly sweeping the room behind that red visor of his. While it agitated her, Skywarp tried to keep her thoughts focused on Soundwave sudden appearance and not to let her mind wander onto other things that concerned her. Soundwave was in front of her, he had snuck up on her, and it made her very, very angry.

"Status?" he asked with barely any infliction in his tone signalling what he wanted a status update on.

"Well, I'm refuelling before I head out on patrol," Skywarp snorted as she downed the rest of her cube and tried very hard not to think about how wonderful it would be to bounce the cube off of Soundwave's head and get it in the disposal shoot. It would be glorious….

"Focus," Soundwave growled before he stepped closer. "Assault on a superior officer will result in brig time."

"I didn't touch you," Skywarp grumbled before resting the cube on her hip and waving a hand over her head. "Are we done here? I'd rather not listen to Starscream complain about not getting out on patrol as soon as possible."

Soundwave glared at her for another minute before he nodded and brushed past her. Tossing the cube into the disposal shoot and making a soft "swish" sound effect, Skywarp skipped out of the rec room. She waited until she was around the corner from the room before she released a large burst of air from her vents.

She hated dealing with Soundwave, especially when there was an audience nearby. If it was just she and him, she could easily dance around him and pretend that she did not have a clue what he was talking about. But the others were not so easy to brush off. She had to give innocent, logical answers in order to stop them from getting curious as to why Soundwave was looming over her.

If she didn't know any better; which she did because she was still online and functioning; she might have thought that Soundwave knew about her real allegiance. At least if Soundwave had not pegged her as a spy yet it meant that no one else did either.

With a quick shake of her wings to get the last of her disgust at having Soundwave staring at her, she skipped off to start her patrol of the coast.

xXxXxXx

Knocking on Starscream's door was a little nerve-racking, if only because it was late and her trine-leader could technically be deep in recharge. Skywarp, however, wanted to talk to the foul-tempered Seeker before anything else happened that orn to really, really make her want to see the older soldier.

An annoyed "enter" reached her before she carefully pushed the door open. The interior was dark, the only light source a computer screen in the corner that was partially blocked by Starscream's chassis. Blinking a few times, Skywarp slipped inside and closed the door behind her, smiling a little nervously as she reached over to turn the sound-proofing system on.

"Rough orn?" Skywarp asked as she moved closer to her silent trine-leader.

"Incredibly," Starscream replied as he dropped the forced screechy voice and spoke in the proper sophisticated manner that would befit any femme in the scientist line of work. "Judging by the fact that you are in here rather than crashed in your berth would indicate that you are just as ruffled as I am. Care to talk, little sister?"

"Thought you'd never ask," Skywarp sighed as she flopped herself onto her older sisters knees and let out a long whine. "Soundwave is everywhere, I swear!"

"You're just figuring that out?" Starscream teased as her fingers travelled lovingly over Skywarp's helm. "He's been doing that for as long as this war has been going."

"But I mean that every time I turn around he's right slagging there!" Skywarp huffed as she pouted. "Trying to refuel and he's looming over me. Stop in the hallway to scratch my wingtip and he's hovering near my shoulder; frag, I came in to land after my patrol and I almost ran him over! He's stalking me!"

Starscream was silent as Skywarp settled in to sulk on her lap. Blue fingers traced over black shoulder vents in thought and Skywarp immediately looked up to see what her multi-coloured sister was doing. Her dermas were pursed in an unusually thin line and her royal red optics were a few shades dimmer than they should have been; something was worrying her.

"Star?" she asked softly, tilting her head to the side curiously.

"He might be putting everything together," Starscream said at last, her voice barely more than a whisper. "You have to finish up whatever it is that you were sent here to do and get back to the others."

Skywarp might have felt worried and scared if Starscream did not keep playing this exact some card every time they spoke. Now it was just getting annoying.

"We've been over this," Skywarp hissed. "I'm not leaving until you do. Period."

"Then you'll be happy to know that I'm planning on packing up soon," Starscream replied with a small shrug of her shoulder.

Skywarp almost toppled backwards in shock. "What?!"

"It's getting too dangerous," Starscream growled, her optics flashing in warning; the sound-proofing might be on but that did not mean to forget about caution. "Megatron is starting to grow even more suspicious of me."

"He probably thinks that you're cooking up some new way to usurp him," Skywarp reasoned before grinning. "Pushing him off that hill was a lovely idea, by the way; too bad his anti-grav boots kicked in so quickly."

"Don't remind me," Starscream sighed unhappily. "You'd think he'd be easier to kill but I swear that slagger knows every time I actually try to assassinate him."

"Think Soundwave…?"

"Not unless he can tell from a few miles away," Starscream scoffed before resting her head on her shoulder. "But it's time to admit that I can't do this anymore. I'm getting too close to the other soldiers and should have jumped ship when I was given this position."

Skywarp almost opened her mouth to mention that Starscream was not close to ANY of the soldiers, but then she understood and bit her derma. Hard. Starscream was one of the best infiltrators around; she fragging taught Jazz everything he knew; and hardly ever slipped up. Now, without really saying it, she was admitting that she was slipping and falling victim to the only thing that they were not at all supposed to do.

"You going to be okay?" Skywarp asked.

"I will be once this raid is over with and I can stage my escape," Starscream replied with a small sigh. "I'll let you know when I come up with something, alright?"

"Aw, you mean no smoke grenades and laserfights with the Combaticons?" Skywarp teased as she shifted to rest her head back on Starscream's knee.

"You pull a stunt like that and I will personally rig your thrusters to explode," Starscream growled before turning back to her screen and continuing writing up some report.

Purring in amusement because Starscream would never sabotage her thrusters, Skywarp cuddled closer and just rested against Starscream's legs. If she could get away with it, she was going to crash in her sister's quarters and avoid another run in with Soundwave. Three times was enough of the huge telepath's presence for one orn.

xXxXxXx

Soundwave watched the screen carefully as Skywarp cuddled against Starscream's legs and received an affectionate pat on the head in return. His visor darkened as dark thoughts and feelings wormed their way through his core. Both Seekers were trouble on their own, but put them in a room together?

If only he could figure out a way to get a camera into Starscream's quarters that allowed him to record sound as well as footage. The blasted Seeker seemed to know wherever an audio recorder was and threw a righteous fit in front of Megatron whenever he confronted Soundwave about it. It was frustrating and even Megatron could not force his soldiers to comply to the surveillance in their private quarters.

He watched Skywarp's wings flutter for a moment, shifting in the inky darkness in a way that made it look like the shadows themselves were alive. His mouth tightened into a small grimace behind his facemask as he watched the affectionate exchange of wing movements between the Seekers. Their secret language that went along better than anything spoken and blast it all if he was too far away to figure out from their thoughts what was being said. But he did know one thing about those wings that sent a pleasant sensation through his spark.

Soundwave was going to make him suffer for excluding him; that was for certain.