Thundercracker heard the loud exclamations of relief when Clearsky landed among the other guards and they flocked around him, clearly to be reassured that their captain was okay and hadn't been hurt by the large dangerous-looking stranger.

"I'm okay. I'm fine. He might be huge, but he seems to be friendly." He heard the captain explain to reassure them and smiled a bit. The smile, however, soon stiffened as his thoughts began to wander.

If he still had been a Decepticon, the light-grey Arcwing wouldn't be this relaxed and friendly around him, instead Clearsky would have feared him, just as he initially had wanted him to as he entered the city. His dark past began to fill his processor as he remembered all the planets he had helped conquer and inevitably destroy in Megatron's unlimited conquest for power.

Staring down at Clearsky, he began to ask himself some serious questions about his own motivations throughout the wars he had participated in. He knew that most of it stemmed from his deep connection with his trinemates, but was that an excuse to mindlessly follow orders and participate in the slaughter of species weaker than him?

He had been following orders without thinking and had viewed most species the Decepticons encountered as inferior insects that deserved to die. The realization hit him hard and filled him with guilt. Mindless slaughter was something Skywarp did, not him, or he hadn't thought he did. Why hadn't he realized this earlier? Why hadn't he left earlier? Had his trinemates' betrayal been the desperately needed excuse for him to finally make the decision he should have made so long ago?

A light weight landed on his servo again and drew him from his troubled thoughts. He looked down and saw Clearsky standing there, little helm crooked to the side, studying him interested. His guilt tore at his spark as he stared into the calm and surprisingly trusting brown optics.

"So, what's your name?" The Arcwing asked.

"Thundercracker." He responded as he fought to not let the guilt drown him.

"A powerful name. I think it fits you, but of course I don't know anything about you and your people." Clearsky answered, his wings fanning relaxed. "Shall we leave?"

He decided at that moment, that he truly liked the man. Clearsky coped surprisingly well with all the strangeness of the situation. He recovered fast and seemed completely unafraid when he was certain that his life wasn't at stake. It was so rare to experience an inferior specie willingly reach out to him like the man in his servo just had done and in addition, without any sign of fear, wanting to leave with him to help him find the missing femme.

"Yes, but I do advice that you tell your subordinates to seek cover, since my take-off isn't gentle. I don't want them to get hurt." He answered, kneeling and letting Clearsky jump down from his servo at an acceptable height. He watched the other guards seek shelter inside the prison and when the door had closed behind them, he lifted the light-grey Arcwing gently as he rose again.

"For your protection, I suggest you travel inside me." He added to Clearsky's startled expression and saw only confusion at his words.

"Inside you?" The Arcwing asked, brown optics wide. "You can carry others inside you?!"

He was about to rhetorically ask if the man trusted him, but then refrained from it. They had just met, and their beginning hadn't been the perfect start of a friendship. He didn't expect such trust from the Arcwing yet. Instead he just transformed, slowly, to allow Clearsky time to follow the movement of his frame as he shifted into his earthen alt-mode.

When the transformation was done, Clearsky found himself seated inside a strange cramped room with glass as roof. Touching it, he felt a strange pulsation and instantly withdrew his hand.

"What is this?" He asked, puzzled, looking around.

"That is my cockpit glass. This form belongs to the last planet I visited. My natural transformation would not allow you any space and isn't as protected as this one. The natives of that planet are organics just like your people, but without wings. Instead they fly in these things. Inside me like this, you are able to breathe and guide me while I fly. The only thing I ask of you is to refrain from touching the interior unnecessarily." Thundercracker explained, his voice echoing all around Clearsky, and the Arcwing jolted at the sound, turning this and that way to locate the origin.

"Okay." Clearsky answered, still puzzled, and curiously touched one of the blinking things in front of him to examine it. It caused a shudder to reverberate through the whole room he sat in, and he heard something in the back create a large roaring noise of some kind that ended in a splutter.

Thundercracker shuddered as the Arcwing did what he just had asked him not to do. His engine spluttered at the ticklish touch and he had to take a moment to collect his wit before igniting his thrusters and take off. It was a strange feeling to have a passenger inside him, something he never had experienced before, but it was necessary if he wanted to get to the femme as fast as possible. For her, he could ignore the uneasiness at the situation and he listened seriously when Clearsky began to guide him in the right direction.

Banking to his right, he added full power to his thrusters and soon gained top speed. The sonic boom, as he broke the speed of sound several times over, reverberated all over the city, echoing back as it bounced against the wall of the volcano.

She might be in danger as Clearsky had stated.

He needed to be fast if that was the case.