Jazz glanced back at the door he had just exited. He had never seen so much negative emotion from Hound during all the vorns he had known the mech. To see Hound angry, annoyed, and as cold as he had been when he threatened Jazz; it just felt wrong to Jazz. Hound wasn't like that; he wasn't mean or cruel. He was the kindest mech Jazz had ever known and now Jazz was almost positive that he had been replaced by a Decepticon.

Jazz hurried as fast as he could to get to Prowl's office. When he got there, he knocked and then let himself in. Prowl's desk was swamped in reports and data pads and the tactician had just looked up from doing one. The SIC tilted his helm and said, "Jazz? What is it?"

Jazz met his mate's optics and said, "Somethin's wrong with Hound, Prowl."

Jazz watched as his mate frowned for a minute before tensing and nodding at Jazz for him to continue. Jazz spoke, "Ah was goin' ta see Smokey and Hound was dere havin' therapy and after Ah left 'e got upset with Smokey and stormed out. Ah followed 'im and asked 'im what some of de stuff 'e said meant. He got pretty nasty, Prowl. Ah think dat a 'Con might have replaced 'im or somethin' like dat."

Prowl frowned and then said, "Or it could be that he's just stressed, Jazz."

Jazz shook his helm, "Ah don't think so. When we was talkin' Ah could almost tell when 'e was pretendin' and actin'. He was doin' dat de entire time we were talkin' Prowl. And when Ah said dat Ah would find out what was up with 'im, his past and such, ya know, 'e threatened meh. Hound doesn't do that, Prowl!"

Prowl leaned back in his seat, his optics flickering worriedly. He finally said, "You have no proof though, that Hound might be a Decepticon. The truth is Jazz that he has only reacted in this way today. We have not had a battle for some time, so there is no way he would have been replaced."

Jazz leaned back against the wall and sighed quietly. Prowl was right. A lot of things just didn't add up. As Jazz was considering other possibilities Prowl spoke, "But be that as it may, I do think that you need to look into Hound's past, Jazz."

Jazz straigtened, his optics blazing in surprise, "But ya said…."

Prowl nodded his helm, "I know what I said, Jazz. But the point remains that we need to make sure that everything is ok with Hound. The only way to do that is look into his past."

Prowl paused and said, "Try to be gentle about this Jazz, this is a delicate situation."

Jazz nodded swiftly, "Ya got it, Prowler. Ah'll be careful."

Hound had pulled out one of his secret high grade stash bottles after Jazz had left and now was trying to drink himself into a stupor. He mumbled softly to himself, "Life isn't fair. Why did all of this happen to me?"

He groaned and allowed his helm to smack against his desk. He whispered, "I miss the Golden Age, it may have been horrible for the lower caste's but at least then I wasn't having to hide being a senseless murderer."

His rolled his helm to the side, gazing vacantly at the wall as he whispered, "Things were so much better then. When I still had my spark. When I was normal. When I wasn't a trained killer."

-Flashback-

Hound sat at his desk a cheerful smile crossing his face as he looked down at the card that had accompanied the basket of crystals his partner had sent to him. The crystals were a brilliant green color and the card that had been attached to the basket had said, "For the one truly unique mech on Cybertron".

He flushed gently, a smile curving across his lips as his said partner, Barricade, came up. The Praxian-framed mech grinned and asked, "So? How did I do? Do you like them?"

Hound stood up and said, "They're beautiful, 'Cade. Thank you."

Barricade grinned back and then flushed as he glanced down in embarrassment.

He said quietly, "I'm glad you like them."

A soft silence entered the shared office as the two mechs stared at each other, before a voice said, "Hey you two, stop making kissy faces at each other and get up here! Chief wants to talk to you both."

Barricade and Hound both looked away from each other's optics and glanced down in embarrassment at the floor. Then they both, still looking at the floor, hurried up to where the Chief's office was.

-End Flashback-

Hound had tears in his optics as he finally recalled that day with sadness. That had been one of the last times that Barricade had given him a gift and one of the last times they would ever see each other.

He shuddered softly as he heard a quiet knock to the door. Immediately, Hound straightened up and made his way shakily towards the door. When he opened it up, Blaster was there. Blaster's face was pale and worried and he finally managed to whisper to Hound, "Jazz is looking into your past, Hound. I…. I read his mind and he was thinking about it! When he looks into you he'll find the rest of us and then Tracks and I'll have to leave and Soundwave will find out and he'll kill…."

Hound reached out and gently touched Blaster's arm. He murmured, "That won't happen Blaster because I intend to destroy my files and then split and go off on my own."

Blaster had entered the room and Hound had closed the door behind him. Blaster spun around once he had said that and practically shouted, "You can't! We need you here Hound! What about the program? What about us?"

Hound gave a soft sigh and he finally said, "I'm doing this to protect the program, Blaster. I have no choice. I wish it didn't have to be this way, I really do."

Then Hound gently comforted Blaster as a powerful virus entered Teletran I and began to erase all his files.