To say he loathed someone wasn't saying much. Starscream loathed most everyone that wasn't a member of his Trine. Even his wingmates weren't exempt from his contempt. But they provided protection, watched his backpanel, and Warp and TC had managed to get him out of muck enough times to earn his, what was still, capricious respect.

He truly despised those that interfered with his trinemates, or otherwise took them away from his side. The human female had been on the top of that list. Until given a moment to truly contemplate, the Supreme Air Commander understood and remembered that Thundercracker had already been nurturing some well-hidden but hardly mistaken descent toward the Decepticon cause.

The Seeker had given the human too much credit. She didn't change Thundercracker. Alexis only illuminated the path that TC had been heading toward all along, pushing him toward life-altering inclinations sooner than what he would have done on his own.

Thundercracker had always held a wretched but highly present honor code. Starscream never bothered objecting since their goals, or that of Megatron, were still obtained. But through the mega-cycles the incidents of interference and unease had been growing, the subtle shows of intolerance building, as TC actually showed signs of highly misplaced mercy.

The Supreme Air Commander should have known something wasn't quite right when he realized that Thundercracker only terminated when necessary. But he knew his wingmate could enjoy it, knew TC could relish a good hunt, as he had both felt and seen it. He managed to ignore TC's indiscretions because TC was uncommonly rational, highly balanced and capable, efficient, and as was required to be a member of his Trine, a master of proficiency in many areas.

And while he was the same TC, he was so much different. The female may not have changed him, but she did influence him, had more power over TC than Starscream had ever managed, kept the Seeker at her side, made him want things that were never meant for any of them. She was poison, a virulent strain of goodness that needed to be purged.

Which made his liking her all the more confusing.

Starscream abhorred confusion.

Despite Starscream's time-frame that had been halved thanks to Thundercracker's ingenuity with search algorithms, and Josh's tenacity at having The Pit exposed, he had not only found what he had come for, but had it stored, backed up and ready to be analyzed.

He now knew all the locations of where Megatron stored his resources and troops. Knew what mercenaries he was currently utilizing and what jobs they were on, knew everything Megatron knew of the Autobots, knew what he had planned next, nothing momentous, which was disappointing, if not unsurprising.

What data he browsed through before transferring to his secured location was highly rousing. Was even more than he had been prepared to find. He felt empowered, unstoppable, felt… like he was being forced backwards.

The hover-train rattled and shook as it strained against the reversing course without deceleration, smoothing out so quickly that if one hadn't been paying attention, they would have never noticed.

Collecting his things, he made his way to the dining car. Josh entered on the other end. Both seemed to notice Thundercracker and Alexis at the same time. TC nudged the female awake. He ignored Starscream and her brother who seemed to freeze. Josh directed a solid frown at his wingmate before being turned in his direction with more force.

"We are reversing course," Josh spoke up, his words tight, his gaze not leaving his sister.

Alexis stretched and then moved past Thundercracker to look out the window. Her leg pushed past and then lingered against TC's knee, her hand comfortably close to his wingmate's.

"I can't tell," Alexis let them all know.

"We are being taken back. If you want to know why, if you don't already know," he breathed with accusation and spite, "you should ask your brother," Starscream spoke snidely, watching the siblings carefully.

Alexis swallowed hard. She turned around and slid out of the booth. Confusion was written on her brow, her tone grave and cautious. "What have you done, Josh?"

The male human looked at TC and then Starscream before addressing his sister. His tone was resolved, was triumph. "I informed the Autobots of what is going on here. They have probably…."

Starscream interrupted, tired of the male's voice. Yes, he had let it happen, knew what was to occur. That didn't lesson his frustration from the interference. He knew the brother despised him more than he feared him, a misfortunate mistake that had festered and led to this. "Started fighting the resident Cons. Which accounts for this train reversing course from a remote override, a security measure."

Josh scoffed, his words still directed at Alexis even though they were meant for him. "Fight? What fight? There are only a few Decepticons that I have seen, taking this place will be nothing."

He moved into the male's space, forcing Josh away from his sister. "Stupid human, what you can see and what actually is, are highly separate entities."

Alexis turned her attention toward her brother. She did not look pleased. The female abruptly left the room, coming back to the dining car with her pack and Josh's.

"Then we need to get off. We need to make sure our parents are safe." She threw Josh's bag at him, then pointed behind him. "Pull the emergency brake," she ordered. Alexis put her own backpack on, checked her staff and pulled out her departed husband's gun, put a cartridge in it and placed it in a holster along her upper thigh.

She checked something on her Vildan band, frowned tightly. "Put your helmet on, the oxygen levels are much lower outside," she commanded of her brother. He nodded his head, and did as he was told.

It seemed that Thundercracker was not the only one capable of efficiency. Watching the small human as she ordered and prepared and became resolved in her actions was electrifying, made Starscream want to be at the receiving end of her focus. And with the way TC's mouth parted and his breathed hitched, he knew his wingmate was thinking something even more wicked than he.

The train halted. A quick argument took place of who was going only for all four to get off. Starscream knew why TC was going, and while his reasons were similar as his, they were not the same.

The tunnels were dark and cold and dry. His skin itched and his chest burned, both which he eliminated with a quick re-programming to his holo-form. Josh took the lead, Alexis not far behind with Thundercracker, none waiting for Starscream.

Alexis though, kept looking behind her, her mask's light penetrating his area as she stared at him before quickly turning back around.

Sharing comms, they were able to communicate, yet no one really spoke.

"Thirteen hours," Starscream informed them, sounding off every hour on the hour, so that none forgot. They had been walking for three hours already, had slowed their pace twice, and if they kept slowing down their expected arrival time would be even farther off than Thundercracker had originally calculated.

The Supreme Air Commander didn't need to go. But he wanted to go. He was having far too good of a time watching Thundercracker, feeling Thundercracker, deciphering his emotional output and guessing his thought processes. He could have forced through their link, stole every thought and desire, but he didn't need to in order to know exactly what was going on with Thundercracker.

For a femme TC hadn't taken to his berth, she was a master of keeping his trinemate's attention.

Alexis was such a small thing, a curious thing, a foolish individual with highly irritating ideals. That didn't stop him from observing her. He'd watched her for extended periods before, but not for several hours at a time. Starscream had been far too busy before.

But now, now…

He wanted to spark her. To touch her. He wanted to show his trinemate how ordinary she was, prove how quickly fascinations fade, prove how much time he had wasted on something so common. He'd felt his own energy pass through the femme before, remembered it quite vividly, and while it had been fascinating, it had been so wrong.

So terribly off.

And yet… yet…

His heart raced as he looked at her back. His hands formed into fists when TC stopped the female from tripping.

She was accident prone too apparently.

And squishy. And soft.

So fragging human.

She was 30% expired, so close to death.

And she made his insides tingle and tighten, made him want to grab her, place her against the nearest wall and own her as TC watched helplessly.

Yes, that would be delightful.

"Twelve hours," he announced to the group, his voice tiny and grainy.

TC was becoming agitated. He had Alexis slow down her pace and move farther away from Starscream. The Supreme Air Commander barked out a laugh at that. He felt TC. TC felt him. Highly satisfying, some times more than other times.

"We'll take a break in thirty minutes," Josh communicated, mainly to his sister.

"Why wait thirty minutes? You are obviously exhausted now." Starscream's tone was snarky, judgmental and rough. "At this pace we should make it to your parents just in time to hear a dirge performed."

The light from Josh's helmet descended on him. They both halted as the two waited for his sister and Thundercracker to catch up, who weren't even visible. Josh spoke tightly, "What is that supposed to mean?"

"What did it sound like?"

"Like you shouldn't be speaking to me or my sister."

"Is that an order, fleshy?"

"It is a preference." Josh stepped closer, but smartly maintained a distance. "Why are you still here, anyway?"

Starscream smiled, shook his head with bitter indulgence. "Because you are incapable of making me leave."

"You might be surprised."

"Then surprise me, human. I could use the fleeting entertainment."

Josh frowned, gave him a look that could have had several interpretations, none very flattering. "But you aren't exactly human, are you," the male spoke with sound reason, more than the prepossessed violent organic should have been capable of. "You have far too many advantages." The male suddenly smiled, a gesture that was off putting. "But give me enough time and I will figure out…"

"How to do nothing with even more efficiency?"

He expected that to rile the male, but he was obviously gaining a tolerance to the Seeker's verbal attacks, to his presence. Josh's attention turned toward the approaching pair.

"Do you hear that?" Alexis had stopped walking, her head tilted to the side. She placed a hand on TC's arm. Starscream's eyes narrowed and his mouth suddenly tasted bitter. Thundercracker remained predictably placid.

"Do you?" the female asked again.

"I don't hear…" Josh began to speak.

"Quiet…" she requested.

Starscream sensed it more than heard it. His scanners had already registered the anomaly and had compensated by activating the antigravs in his boots.

The sound she had heard increased as the oxygen from the tunnels was pulled and sucked out, whining as the atmosphere was drawn away. Unlike TC and Starscream, the siblings had no preventative measures from the vacuum of escaping air. Wind danced around and grew, rustling through the tunnel, increasing in pressure so quickly that the pair went from being pushed back to being pulled off the ground.

"Josh!" Alexis screamed out, reaching out for her brother even though he was too far away.

TC grabbed the female, pushed her into a small gap in the wall, protecting her from the worst. She actually fought against him, trying so hard to get away. His wingmate firmly pressed his body against the female's, the sound of his quickening heart vivid to Starscream's advanced audio receptors. A fit of enmity came. His blood rushed with a fury that caught him unaware from a desire to be in TC's place.

"Josh!" she yelled through the comm, actually whimpering. "Josh!"

Starscream's attention slowly drifted away from the female and to the male. Josh had managed to grab hold of a post, but his grip was loosening. The air whipped and pulled, the tunnels violently depressurizing, creating an undercurrent of rushing wind that was more than a match for anything that stood in its way.

In moments, Josh would let go, that was inevitable. The human would be sucked out of an inescapable air lock, cleared out with the rest of the rubbish, all because of a security measure that he had in part instigated. It was a well deserving fate, an irony.

Alexis pleaded with Thundercracker to do something. Then began to struggle all over again.

Josh's grip gave way. The human flew beyond and past them. Alexis screamed.

A thick cord shot and wrapped around the male's outstretched arms. Moments later, decompression complete, the flying human dropped awkwardly to the ground, still breathing, still very much alive.

"Eleven hours," Starscream proclaimed. No one seemed to hear.

"One hour," Starscream informed the far from animated group. He was ready for the trip to be over, to be out of the tunnel.

Josh being injured had slowed their pace dramatically, even after his dislocated shoulder was seen to by Thundercracker. He also had a broken wrist, a broken finger, and he had his life.

Strangely, since the whole incident, they allowed Starscream to walk with them, no longer discarding him. He found that odd and unnecessary, found it uncomfortable, if not for the female who was paying more attention to him, and not just from shooting daggers at him, or imagining, what he was sure, was his painful death.

Close and confined with one another, he deliberated just ending his holo-form and completing what he had come for. But he had grown too curious about the parents of the siblings, of the female. He wanted to see whom they fought so hard to get to.

They reached the end of the tunnel. The hatchway was locked.

Starscream tried first to open the hatch, and failed. Thundercracker tried next and longer, but also didn't succeed. Their codes were refused. Something about their holo-forms was preventing them from doing anything further, they didn't have time to figure out what.

Taking a panel off the wall, peering inside, TC had the female take her small toolkit out of her pack, then gave her instructions on what to do. At some point, the female continued on her own.

Five minutes later, the hatchway slid open.

"Rivet." Was her only explanation of her exposed skills.

Starscream grimaced. He'd almost forgotten about that medic, but not how much he despised him.

The hatchway closed behind them, the small port filled with air. Alexis took her breathing mask off, took a deep gulf of air. Her skin was pale, her hair damp. Josh looked worse. But that didn't stop the male from rising to his feet and making a strained sweeping motion with his hand toward his sister.

When the male spoke it was with a tremor of excitement, "Ready to find mom and dad?"

"Yes."

"Then let's go."

"You are staring at me," Starscream spoke to the female who had hung back from TC and Josh, now walking alongside him. Her uncommon act of seeking him out left him with the feeling of empowerment. His mouth curved up, his eyes taking in her sensible boots and even more sensible clothes, a glimmer of sweat lingering on her neck and arms.

"I know," she replied, even managed not to frown at him. "I just... I wanted to…"

Alexis moved closer to him, she looked awkward and uncertain, as if unsure if she really wanted to say what she was trying to say. Suddenly she was touching his arm, then gripping his hand hard. Her chin lifted, her eyes sought his own.

"Thank you," she whispered, her voice overwrought with emotion. "You saved Josh. I never expected, would have never believed, that is…"

He stepped closer to her. For once, she didn't back away. Yes, he would take advantage of this for as long as allowed. He did deserve the attention. And the fact that Thundercracker was trying not to watch them was even more delectable. TC was possessive of the creature. More than even Alexis was aware of. He did not like Starscream near her. But as it was the female that approached him, TC didn't interfere, just allowed his rancid mood to project toward Starscream long enough for him to understand his disapproval.

"His death would have served no purpose."

His words were ill-chosen. The Seeker knew that when Alexis cringed, when worse, she let go of his hand. He didn't mean to say such a thing again, and her reaction was just as displeased as when he had first said it, only this time more unfavorable, as if she had time to think it over.

"As could be said about the many that you sent to their end." She bit hard on her mouth. Shook her head. "I didn't mean…" She sighed hard, visibly fought to calm herself. "What you did… it was… Unexpected, was good." She took two steps back, lowered her head and looked at the ground. "I didn't know you were capable of anything so…"

"Selfless?"

She flinched and nodded her head. Green eyes lifted back toward him.

He chuckled. "I'm not. Do not allow one regrettable act to taint your view of me." He frowned, his eyes wandering with purpose down her frame. "And I do expect payment for my services rendered, preferably from you."

By the purse of her lips she knew exactly what he was insinuating. By the roll of her eyes she didn't take him seriously.

"Do you always do things expecting something in return?"

"I do."

"That's… sad."

"Sad?"

She shook her head. "As in, thank you for saving my brother. But what you want has never ever been considered a form of payment by me."

"And what exactly do I want?"

He wanted to hear her say it. His skin bristled with anticipation.

"Something untoward, I'm sure," she spoke with accusation, the enunciation rolling off her tongue with gusto.

"Untoward?" He barked out a laugh at her word choice.

"Unethical?" She stiffened, then visibly bristled when she found he was still looking at her. He couldn't remember a femme that he had so much enjoyment just conversing with. Although he knew quite a few that knew exactly how to entice him just by speaking to him, using their effectual tones, their expertly chosen words, using just their mouths.

Alexis had such a pretty little mouth, a distracting mouth, had moments when her tone could dip just right or tremble just so, inciting a purity of lust. The female was unsullied, was far too virtuous, was so unaware of her own ability to rouse and to excite.

"Is that what you think of me?"

Alexis made an adorable little face at him, her mouth pressing into a provocative pout. "I try not to."

"And if you did?"

Her answer was swift, was infused with dark intonations, "I'd despise you."

He beamed at that. "Many do."

"That I have no doubt."

She smiled up at him. He grinned back.

Her mouth dropped open, her skin paled. Mumbling something unintelligible, Alexis scrambled back to Josh and TC.