Oh, wow, it's been forever since I updated this story; I've been focusing on Colla IV. But today I find myself inspired to put another chapter of this story up.
Disclaimer: unfortunately, while one can buy Hasbro stock, one cannot buy the Transformers from Hasbro. So, also unfortunately, I do not own them.
Ch.6 As Good as Dead
"Six down, three to go," I murmured, turning the datacard Skyfire had given me over in my hands. I inserted it into my datapad. The screen blinked, and I accessed the datacard. There was only one file, the only file Skyfire thought we would need, I guess. It was labeled unnamed Seeker trine. I was fairly sure it would only contain information about the one remaining Earthbound trine, the one referred to simply as the Seekers. Of course I opened the file.
Starscream, Thundercracker, Skywarp, the three headings within the file read. My spark churned. I had to surpress the urge to wipe the whole datacard, but I forced myself to read, a faint hope clutched tightly in my mind. After all, there were sometimes duplicate names. And typos. Then I saw the accompanyin images.
Oh, Primus, it's them, I thought, and forced myself to read what they had become. Skywarp was seemingly dim, and brutal. Thundercracker had gone from a sweet, shy sparkling to a trigger-happy idiot who blindly followed his trine leader. Starscream…Starscream had become Megatron's ambitious, stubborn, foolish, and often cruel second-in-command. He was a treacherous sadist.
"What happened to you three? Are you even a trine anymore?" I whispered. I didn't see how any Seeker could undergo such a radical change and still remain tied to his trine.
Thundercracker and Skywarp are often seen together, but almost never with Starscream, the trine leader. They have split.
Those last three words sank into my spark like an energon blade into armor. They have split.
"Oh, Primus," I gasped.
Draft! The cry came, not through the comm system, but through my spark. My trinemates could feel my pain and anger and despair and whatever else I was feeling at that moment. Whatever it was, it wasn't pleasant. Still, we were a trine, linked…unlike the Seekers who remained free on Earth.
It's all right, I'm fine, I assured them. I repeated the words over and over, trying to calm myself and my sisters. Then I knew what I had to do. Skyfire trusted us to do our duty as Seekesses, where he and his fellow Autobots could not do as he was obligated as a Seeker.
"Updraft, locate Seekers Thundercracker, Skywarp, and Starscream," I ordered. The screen in front of me blinked twice to indicate the ship had understood and was complying. The ship would find them. And we would hunt them down – one by one if we had to – and capture them. Then we would escape this Mudball called Earth and return home.
I knew the Elders would probably order the deaths of all three Decepticon trines. I also knew that the cone heads and rainmakers could be reprogrammed, and it would hold, through their spark chords. But the trine I really wanted back, the trine I was desperate to save, could not be spared. The Elders would never in a million stellar cycles allow the second in command of the Decepticon army to live.
A split trine could not be reprogrammed. They were only connected by the thinnest of spark chords, and one or all three not connected to the others at all. They no longer cared about one another, and didn't get along. The duty of all Seekers and Seekesses was to hunt down and destroy a split trine, because they would go insane and wreak untold havoc on themselves and everyone around them.
No Seeker or Seekess could let a split trine live. The Elders would never let any of them live, but definitely not a split trine of monsters.
Either way, this trine was as good as dead. I grieved silently, but I knew they weren't the same sparklings I had known and grieved for when I thought them dead.
They had been my brothers, but they weren't anymore. Either way, by my hand or by the Elders' orders, their days were numbered. If only the Elders could be convinced to let us try the one cure for a split trine. But they would never allow it.
"Seekers Thundercracker, Skywarp, Starscream, located," the Updraft reported.
It was time.
Time to destroy the mechs my brothers had become.
Okay, so, that's chapter 6. I finally got to reveal their brothers' identities, and the mysteries of the datacard!
Please r&r, but no flaming, please. My Seekesses are many things, but fireproof they are not!
