Finally, the new chapter of "Immortal Star" after waiting for more of a year!

First off, I must thanks Naphtali who beta-reader this chapter for me.

This story has been stopped for so long due several reasons. Personal problems have been the most notorious reasons, and it means struggles with my personal life and a nasty skill disease. Besides that, I also needed to take a break of "Transfomers" fandom. Don't take me wrong, I still loving TF, but I think I would be around the fandom as much as before.

Well, this episode is a open door to the end of the story. Enjoy!

Chapter-9

"The True behind All Truths"

He honestly had no idea what do. Optimus, the Prime of the Transformers' species, the Matrix's Keeper and, in a way, one of the few communicants of Primus or Vector Sigma to some degree… At least, it was under Skyfire's standard ideas because he was on a completely different level from everyone else.

The big white flyer never really took interest in Primus' Cult. Being a scientist, he knew mechanical life forms weren't typical around the universe, but a very rare thing. Machines aren't created by chemistry for example, but by somebody who created them. The Transformers believed the reason of their existence was a god like being called Primus who, among other theories, lived as a spirit in Cybertron, and talked with "its" creations through the Matrix and Vector Sigma. And, like many of the other religions across in the universe, Primus had a nemesis, Unicron.

But Skyfire, being agnostic minded himself, wasn't really fond of those beliefs. Of course he felt Cybertron was different than the rest of the planets and worlds he had been to in the past… but he couldn't help it: Cybertron was his home!

However, Prime held one of the most important social ranks in Transformers' society, something similar to being a Spiritual Leader or Primus' Oracle, even. And, on a personal level, he was somebody that Skyfire respected a lot, even if he wasn't certain that he could count Prime as a friend, at least not on the same level that Perceptor or Wheeljack were.

That was the reason for his current mental struggle: he respected Prime, and he would help him for certain… but he didn't understand why Prime has asked for such a thing, why Optimus has asked him to arrange for a meeting with the odd seeker. The mech was strange enough to attract their attention, but he didn't understand the urgency of Prime's command. Of course, he wanted to fulfil Prime's wish… but he had no idea about how he could find the seeker with blue optics again, or how to contact him. And that wasn't the only problem, the rest of D-cons could find out, and surely, they wouldn't be pleased.

He had to find a way to contact with the seeker--alone. And he wasn't sure how to do it, till he had an idea.

The only problem was that it perhaps wasn't a good one…

KA-BOOM!

A sudden explosion shook the Ark and thick, pink smoke began coming out of Wheeljack's laboratory. It wasn't strange really, since Wheeljack's inventions tended to be ominous; others were just incredible, but they usually finished in a similar fashion. This time, though, the explosion wasn't the worst of it, but the thick, pink smoke was: it was turning everything it touched a similar shade of pink. Carly ran out of Wheeljack's laboratory and coughed noisily; her hair wasn't blonde anymore, but pastel pink, her blouse was as well, and she seemed to be annoyed by this among other things. To show her indignation, Carly began yelling something about Wheeljack's crazy experiments, and the bad accidents, before complaining about her current hair colour.

But she wasn't the only one complaining about the situation: Carly wasn't screaming until after the explosion, therefore Tracks couldn't have been wondering why she was screaming until after it had happened and now he was suffering the consequences of that decision.

Shortly thereafter, Track's loud scream shook the Ark once again, and everyone around could have sworn they saw something dark blue and pink running by the Ark corridors than pleaded.

"Sunstreaker! Help get this stuff off of me, HELP-MEEEEEE!" In all actuality, the golden Lamborghini was the only one who could sympathize with Tracks, perhaps because both Autobot cars shared the same passion for looking pretty.

Naturally, the rest of the A-bots went to find out what in the name of Primus was happening this time…

The scientist Autobot crew was the first ones in coming out, after Carly, and they were followed by Wheeljack, whose chest had been turned a funny pink colouring.

"May I ask what happened here?" asked Prowl coldly, the rest of people there watching the show half amused, half surprised.

Wheeljack brushed his face with his right hand as he tried to get off some of the pink colouring from his faced mask, and later, he waved the same hand without any result.

"I'm sorry." He excused himself, "It was my mistake… I'm really sorry." His tone reflected true regret, but nobody was sure if it was because of what had just happened, or because of some personal defeat due to his faulty experiment.

"What in the name of Primus were you doing, 'Jack?" asked, his tone was a mixture of sarcasm and patience.

"Well… I was trying to…" the engineer began to explain, but he was cut off by Carly.

"We were trying to find out what made those blue samples of Transformer armour change their colouring like that." The female human explained, "But things went horribly wrong… and now my hair and my blouse are PINK! And tonight I was supposed to have a date with Spike! I can't meet him looking like this!"

Prowl listened to her, ignoring her last comment, his gaze turned back to the engineer. If Prowl were like everyone else, perhaps he would have suppressed a smile, the way some people behind him were trying to do, but instead his face remained.

"Wheeljack?" he asked "Do you have something to add to Carly's explication?"

"It--- It was a technical failure…" he began, "I was also trying to create a radar, a tracking device for locating the energy signature of the owner of those samples, but…" the mask faced Autobot with shining blue ears didn't know how to continue.

Prowl continued to glare at Wheeljack before turning his gaze to Carly (who was still upset by the recent catastrophe and Ratchet. The A-bot Second in Command knew there was something more going on here, but he wasn't sure if he should find out. Was Wheeljack's current experiment by Prime's order? And, if so, why wasn't he informed about it? As second-in-command, Prowl should know what was going on; it was really strange that Optimus wouldn't say anything to him.

Standing at the back of the crowd, Skyfire realized Optimus' purpose with that order, but he wondered if Wheeljack's current task was truly a good idea.

He could just hear a little of the two Triplechangers' chat. They avoided him the way the rest of the Decepticon army did, and, in his current situation, he rather liked it this way. And so he passed by as the Triplechanger called Astrotrain explained to his companion, Blitzwing, something about a mech called Octane.

"I'm glad Octane finally gets awake and comes to Earth with us…"

"To this mud ball? I cannot find why it is so interesting!"

"Just think about it: what other alternative da'ya' think Octane'll get?"

"You're right…"

'Hmmmm, wasn't Octane the mech I saw in the TV monitor during my first reunion? The one who actually seems to like rounded fenmebots?' thought the blue seekers as he passed by along their side. Then, his optics widened as he noticed another mech that was coming towards him. He was a blue seeker, but his wings were golden-brown and his helmet was a cone. The incoming seeker was Dirge, he had worked along Starscream in the last mission but, normally they both avoided each other.

Starscream stopped as he realized the seeker was heading directly towards him, and waited for him. For some odd reason, he didn't like Dirge's proximity; putting aside his personal feeling towards his new wingmate, it seemed the Conehead exhaled a gloomy air than made him depressive no matter how he managed to do, plus there was the dislike Starscream had developed for certain Coneheads, lately.

Dirge stopped in front of him and looked at him coldly; as he did so, Starscream felt the gloomy air coming from the Conehead, it was like this mech was always in a depressive state, it seemed contagious.

"Starscream, our Mighty Leader requests your presence in his personal office right now."

"What? Mine?" the blue seeker wondered.

"Yes---And I suggest that you obey him." Dirge answered. His gloomy air covered his wish desire of to getting away of from Starscream.

The blue seeker grunted and he felt the desire to take out his wing-sword, he didn't like the way Dirge talked to him at all, but with the Triplechangers nearby, he didn't want to start a fight, either.

"Ok, just get out of my way!" he answered harshly as he passed by the Conehead.

Dirge said nothing, he just let Starscream go.

Fortunately, Starscream had had enough time to study all of the floors of Decepticons' HQ so he knew where Megatron's personal office was. As he walked towards that room, he gave Swindle a mental order to be quiet during his meeting with the D-con leader. Along the way, he didn't see his counterpart; the other Starscream should be recovering himself in his personal quarters- still.

Finally he stood before the office door's monitor, and pressed a button; as soon as he did, Megatron's face appeared in the screen and said laconically:

"Enter."

And the office's door opened with a fuss.

The office wasn't too dark, but the main source of light was placed just above the Decepticon Leader's desk and chair, as if it were a divine light meant to illuminate him and his "throne". In spite of the fact that the whole room was more modest than the Throne Room of the blue seeker's reality; this office seemed to be more pompous. Still, that wasn't what disturbed Starscream, it was the fact Megatron wasn't alone; he was accompanied by the mind reading guy, Soundwave.

Starscream grunted, he knew too well what it meant for Soundwave to be next to the Decepticon Leader, and he didn't like it. Besides, he knew Soundwave was a capable mind reader, and that going to help his current situation any.

"Ah, Starscream" the Decepticon Leader greeted in an odd polite tone, "Please, sit down." He offered as he waved his cannon arm towards a chair in front of his desk

"Tha--thanks, sir."

The blue seeker did so taking care of his long wings; they could be an annoying thing in tight rooms; and it was one of the reasons that he, being a seeker, felt uneasy inside small spaces. Later, he looked at Megatron and, while trying to look natural, did his best to keep an optic on Soundwave as well. He also wondered what Megatron wanted to get out of this interview, but before he could figure it out, the Decepticon Leader spoke to him:

"So, tell me, Starscream… Could you explain more details about your universe?" asked Megatron in a rare, smooth tone.

"There's not much more to explain, sir." Starscream answered trying to sound sincere. "There are differences between our universes, but it doesn't mean Decepticons're being defeated in my universe at all.

"So… are the Decepticons winning this long war?"

Starscream sighed to himself: yes, it might be called 'Winning the war', but the adjective 'long' also was used in the sentence, and he wasn't proud of it.

Plus, how could he swear that the Decepticons were wining the war when he had used the last of his power to blast the Transformers' common nemesis? Starscream wished he could explain this to somebody, but he knew hardly anybody would believe him. If the Megatron of Starscream's reality didn't believe in him, even after having seen Unicron, it would be even less likely that the Megatron of this reality would, either. Starscream felt like he was following a death path.

"Yes, sir. As I explained to you, we could be powerful enough to get back to Cybertron and to reclaim our world."

A smiled formed on Megatron's lips.

"That's something I'm glad to hear." He answered, "Anyway, you say there are differences between our realities… I'd like to know some of those. Can you describe them to me?"

Starscream's blue optics widened; once again, it seemed to be an interrogation. That explained Soundwave's presence.

"Of course, sir." Starscream managed to answer as he ordered his thoughts quickly, "There are differences. Our HQ was on the borderline of the dark and light sides of Earth's moon, for example. Autobots had a hard time trying to discover it."

"You told me that, already." Megatron warned him.

"I--know, sir. What I mean to say… for example, our HQ was an accidentally crashed cybertronian ship and our troops are fewer than they are here."

"What does that mean?"

"The Earth mission wasn't dangerous enough to require as many troops as there is here." Starscream explained, trying to sound calm, "Therefore, only eight people were stationed here."

That news truly surprised Megatron, he couldn't believe than only eight Decepticons were on Earth in this Starscream's universe. It meant the mission on Earth was really easier than here! He cursed to himself his bad luck, and wished to get more information, in spite he had the feeling he didn't like what he was going to hear.

"Who're those Decepticons?" he demanded to know.

"There's me, Demolisher, Cyclonus, Tidalwave, Wheeljack, Thrust, Sidesways and of course, you, sir." Starscream enumerated, taking care of his words.

Neither Megatron nor Soundwave could avoid exchanging looks. None of those names sounded familiar to them, except for Thrust… and Wheeljack. It demonstrated than things were really different.

"Wheeljack?" almost shouted Megatron, "The Autobot?"

Starscream jumped in his seat, and secretly cursed his naive attitude: he had guessed that this reality's Wheeljack might still being an A-bot. Why had he ignored that fact?

Despite the sudden influx of ideas, Starscream ordered his thoughts.

"Ye--- yes, sir" he managed to answer, "Wheeljack is an A-bot deserter in my universe. He's now one of the most loyal Decepticons I've met, sir." The seeker explained trying sound more than sincere.

Starscream's words had a profound impact on Megatron; Starscream watched how the Decepticons' leader expression changed from angry, to surprised then, finally, to amused. However, Soundwave's big red optic just flashed: he was surprised by this information, but he was even more surprised when he discovered Starscream' statement was true.

"This is incredible… wish traitors in this universe were as loyal as they are in yours." He laughed and gave Starscream a meaningful glance. The blue seeker remembered his namesake was called "Traitor", and he understood it was a warning.

By Decepticons' and Autobots' standards, he was a traitor, too.

"It doesn't make sense." Soundwave's monotone voice interrupted suddenly, "Former Autobots cannot be loyal to D-cons' cause."

Starscream moved his view to the Officer with a puzzle look on his blue optics, but it was interrupted by Megatron.

"Shut up, Soundwave. I didn't ask for your opinion!" this order. "Now, who're the others?" Megatron demanded to know.

"They're other high rank officials" Starscream started to explain, still confused by what had just happened. "But actually, I don't know who their counterparts on this universe are."

"And Thrust?" asked Megatron gravely.

"I know his counterpart, yet." Starscream answered quickly, "He's a Conehead, too, and he's--" The blue seeker realized this was the chance he was looking for, "He's a traitor, sir."

Of course, such affirmation caught Megatron and Soundwave off guard.

"Thrust is… what? A traitor? How?"

In Megatron's mind, all his troops were traitors in one way or another, but there were traitors like Starscream, and there were traitors like the Insecticons. Thrust never was considered a serious traitor, though. The red Conehead was always bluffing and loud mouthed, but this was nothing serious. Megatron knew that Thrust's lousy speeches weren't any real menace to Megatron or to his power.

But, wasn't this Starscream far different room the one that Megatron had always known? Then, perhaps, the other Thrust might be far different from the one he knew, too. It made some degree of sense. However, it might be actually this Starscream was a traitor, and he was just trying to make a move on him and blaming Thrust for that.

Megatron should find it out.

But, in his own way, Starscream had found how to tell Megatron what had been bothering him since he woke up on this reality, even before.

"Thrust is a traitor to all Decepticons, sir. He allied himself with Sidesways and they both tried to destroy us."

"Sidesways?" exclaimed Megatron, "Who's he?"

At this point, Starscream realized he had much more to explain than he had originally planned on. In fact, this might the chance he had been waiting for.

"Sidesways is a double agent, sir" he tried to put in clear, "He pretended to be an Autobot; later, he changed sides, and finally, we found out he had his own plans. He favoured both factions, so battles always were always matched."

"Incongruent" Soundwave interrupted, "Common Transformer could take advantage of the factions by favouring both equally."

Starscream glared at Soundwave, he was starting to develop a deep aversion towards the Communications Officer.

"Sidesways did take advantage of such actions." The seeker affirmed in low and harsh voice. It wasn't difficult for Soundwave to catch the menace in his tone. "Megatron, sir, Sidesways is a very dangerous and powerful transformer. He knew what he was doing." He made a dramatic pause as he tried to figuring out if his superior officers were able to understand what he was saying.

"I was fighting against him just before I appeared in this reality."

Megatron and Soundwave both fell silent; once again, Starscream didn't catch the Communications officer's reaction, but he noticed Megatron' serious expression, and secretly, he smiled to himself.

"Starscream…" the Decepticon leader began to say, "You were very damaged when we found you. And, some days ago, you told us your wounds were caused by a fight against the A-bots." His optics darkened, "Your current explication is different than the previous… why? Are you trying to lie to me?"

The blue seeker gasped and he tried to recover himself quickly. He felt as if he had lost the upper hand.

"N—No, sir". He went on to explain, "We, Decepticons, were fighting against the A-bots… but we found out the traitor Thrust had made an alliance with Sidesways and Mega—I mean, your counterpart, ordered me to capture them dead or alive."

"And…?" Megatron didn't seem to be terribly impressed.

"Eventually, I saw you—that your counterpart was fighting against the A-bot's leader and the traitors tried to interfere with you---the fight, so I tried to stop it." Starscream took a deep breath, "That was when I was caught by the blue beam that sent me to this universe, I think."

There was a pause of silence until Megatron looked questioningly to Soundwave.

"True." The indigo mech answered, "There was a fight between the factions' leaders' counterparts. Starscream interfered and he was caught by a blue beam."

Megatron nodded.

"I see." The Decepticon leader answered, "I understand now the consequences of Sidesways' actions. He could have eliminated us from the scene … and without me, the Decepticons would be lost."

Starscream nodded,

"Yes, sir. He's very dangerous." His blue optics darkened, "Sidesways has very dangerous…, I'm afraid I'm here by his fault… he might even be in this universe, too."

Megatron wasn't a fool; perhaps he was an egomaniac and megalomaniac, but he wasn't a fool. He knew Starscream was trying to convince him of how dangerous this Sidesways mech was; but it might be that the blue seeker was hoping to blame Sidesways for his own faults. Megatron didn't think this Starscream was capable of such a thing that was something more in the nature of the Air Commander. But in any case, the main problem was that Megatron didn't know anything about Sidesways.

"Do you think that Sidesways is in this universe?" he asked.

"I don't know, sir." Starscream answered, "But I think he's powerful enough to jump between different realities."

"Nonsense." interrupted Soundwave. "No transformers is powerful enough for that."

Starscream's bue optics darkened.

"He can too!...I jumped from one place to another using one of his 'bridges.' In fact, that's how he escaped from us."

"How does he do that?" asked Megatron gravely.

"I already told you, sir." answered Starscream trying to sound convincing, "He's really powerful. He has many different skills and powers… Just remember the condition I was in when you found me!" Starscream said, his voice, having taken on a harsher tone, made him sound like his namesake.

"Congruent." agreed Soundwave without hesitation.

The Decepticon Leader kept silent. Starscream's explications made sense… if you believed in it. And his Communications Officer did. So…why?

"You have said that the Thrust of your reality allied himself with Sidesways… How did he do this? Why?"

"I'm not sure, sir." Starscream sighed, "But apparently Sidesways promised some type of reward to Thrust. Sidesways wanted the destruction of all trans—of all factions in order to be the ruler of our people."

"Is that all? Do you know anything else about him?" Megatron demanded to know.

Starscream felt uneasy. He knew that Sidesways was a Transformer reincarnation of Unicron. Sidesways had started off as some Transformer who was stupid enough to make a deal with Unicron before becoming Unicron's puppet, or if Sidesways was just an avatar of Unicron was unknown to Starscream. Whatever the case, he did know it was too soon to mention this to Megatron.

"I—we don't know where he came from. We don' know even know his true Cybertronian form. When he joined us his alternative form was an earthling vehicle, a motorcycle, I think." He paused, "But his most remarkable characteristic is that he had one face for when he was an A-bot and another when he was on our side."

This time even Soundwave' stoic expression indicated surprise for the first time that Starscream could ever remember. The same thing happened on to Megatron, although he managed to recover his usual angry-neutral facial expression.

"Two… faces?" he inquired in a sceptical tone.

"Yes, sir." Starscream nodded, trying to sound convincing. "That's how he tricked us. Some type of disguise… Actually, I think Sidesways hid his real face."

Somehow, in spite of the fact that Soundwave didn't understand all of the details; the Communications Officer knew this was true.

"Congruent."

"So…do you think this Sideways mech might be even more annoying than Prime?" teased Megatron.

"Yes, sir" answered Starscream, "Prime himself knew how dangerous Sideways was, too." His blue optics darkened, "He's a common enemy, sir."

Once again, there was a silence. Starscream knew they were evaluating his statement, and he truly hoped his superiors here would believe him. But at the same time, he tried to figure out a way to make sense to his story without mentioning Minicons and his personal alliance with the Autobots. It would be easier if the mind reading mech, Soundwave, wasn't here: he could find out that it wasn't entirely true. Therefore, he tried to make his mind in blank.

"Very well, Starscream." Megatron said finally, "We'll evaluate your story… You're dismissed."

The seeker jumped in his chair: he didn't expect such a conclusion. He could go now, after what he said? Why it was so?

"Sir…?"

"You can let go, Starscream." the Decepticon Leader ordered.

"Ok, sir…" And saying this, the seeker rosed to his feet and left quietly with a puzzled look on his face.

Once again, the automatic door opened with a fuss noise, and Starscream left Megatron's office without looking back.

Once the door was closed and nobody could hear them, Megatron turned towards Soundwave.

"So? What do you think?" this time, Megatron was truly asking for Soundwave's opinion.

"He's worried. He's speaks the truth. He's worried about the events than brought him to this reality."

"I don't care about that." Megatron spat back, "I care about whether he's telling the truth or not."

"Incongruent. He's afraid of Sidesways."

"Is that relevant or not?" scowled Megatron.

"Not enough information. I suggest watching him closely."

Megatron grunted. In any case, he should keep an eye on Starscream in order to find out the real problem.

"Closely, huh?" muttered the Decepticon leader, "I don't think he'd dare to do anything unusual inside HQ… I think I ought to grant him permission to go out of HQ."

"Agreed. We'll have a better chance to spy his moves and real behaviour." Soundwave answered knowing it also was his personal chance.

"Indeed." Agreed Megatron with a nasty smile, but soon it faded from his face as a sudden revelation occurred to him.

Primus! Why in the universe was he always forced to spy on "Starscream"?

As he left Megatron's office, Starscream tried desperately to gain control over himself. He knew that he had revealed something decisive about himself, and even for the rest of the Transformers species; he wanted to finish off Unicron since he knew too well how dangerous that creature was. And yet Starscream found that he was afraid nobody would believe him.

He had just tried to give to this reality's Megatron some clues about what was coming and he had tried to do the same with the Autobot's by giving that Skyfire mech a message for his Optimus. If in this reality the Autobots' leader also was the Matrix Keeper, he should also know what was at risk.

Starscream didn't know what the impact of his actions would be just yet, but at least he was trying to resolve the situation. Even if he couldn't save his world, he had a chance of saving this one. Somehow it was a comforting thought.

But right now, he could only wait and see what was going to happen…

Then, he noticed a certain suggestion made by Swindle.

"Hmmm, yeah… He's treacherous and mean, but perhaps I should check up on him now…" he muttered to his Minicon. "He is counterpart here, after all."

Shortly after that, the blue seeker went to his namesake's personal rooms and asked for his permission to enter. As he expected, the Air Commander was still inside of his personal quarters; Starscream had the feeling he would be there till he was fully recovered. The Air Commander took great care in what other people thought of him, and he simply did not want to be exposed wrecked and crushed like that in front of the rest of the TF's. It would make him even more vulnerable.

But this didn't apply to him. The Air Commander wanted to keep his counterpart close by at all times."

"Enter." He said in a rough voice; it sounded more like a command than a granted request.

Again, the doors opened fitfully, and the blue Seeker met his counterpart inside the main room of his quarters. The room looked different from the last time Starscream was here; light illuminated it and he could see more details of the Air Commander's personal quarters, including many personal possessions and a big round window through which he could see the Atlantic Ocean and oceanic wildlife such as whales, fishes and other invertebrate and primitive creatures. The blue seeker knew there was more to these quarters than just this one room; surely the Air Commander kept some interesting things and secrets hidden away.

Certainly, these quarters were far better than his…

In the middle of the main room the Air Commander waiting for him. He look better, a lot of better, than the last time Starscream saw him. Yet, he noticed his counterpart still healing and that he wasn't fully recovered.

Primus! Even his wounds after the fight against that Autobot Gestalt wasn't that serious. The blue seeker felt a chill on his wings thinking on how hard was the bass his counterpart got from Megratron, and how many times it could have happened before.

"Oh! You've come!" Starscream exclaimed, "I was waiting for you, anyway. But I didn't expect you so soon."

His namesake was about to reply when suddenly Swindle jumped off from his arm and placed himself between the two Starscreams. His master looked surprised by the minicon's actions but the other Starscream clutched for himself; somehow he was certain that the Minicon thing wanted his attention.

"I wanted to discuss with you the details of your upcoming demonstration." the Air Commander explained to his counterpart, ignoring the Minicon's beeps.

"I knew you wanted to…" Replied the blue seeker with a startled expression, "In fact Swindle says you must know too."

"I know… I'm starting to understand that 'beep' language of his." Starscream said his tone mocking, his counterpart was learning that this was usual for him.

He turned towards his Minicon.

"Why do you think that, Swindle?" he asked.

As an answer he received a succession of 'beep' sounds.

"Important? We both must to keep together? Why?" Starscream exclaimed. But it was his counterpart who answered him.

"I don't know… but whatever is it, it's clear your little pet thinks my last command must be granted." The Air Commander answered with a dangerous smirk on his face.

What surprised the blue seeker even more was knowing that the Air Commander was right.

"In two daysI'll be fully recovered." The dark faced seeker began to explain, "By that time I'll give you the coordinates where you'll show me the real power that your pet is able to give to you…. I want to test your power and learn why that thing is so important to you. Just wait for my orders. Understood?"

Starscream couldn't confirm or deny that; his Minicon was in complete agree with the Air Commander' statement. And he did not know why.

After the pink cloud incident and much to Prowl's surprise, Optimus had a very private meeting with Skyfire and Wheeljack. The Autobot second in command was worried and intrigued by that: usually Optimus didn't keep secrets to him, moreover, there never was a real reason to him for doing that, and now, Prowl, even if he tried to keep his usual cool expression, couldn't help feeling worried.

He thought that the next in the chain command, Jazz, might know something about why Optimus was being so secretive, but Prowl suspected that if h didn't know anything, then Jazz would know even less than him.

But Jazz had a natural sense of intuition that Prowl lacked.

"I don't know what is going on with Optimus and Skyfire." The Autobot with the big blue optic answered, "But I think it's related with the weird seeker that we fought back in Russia."

"How so?" asked Prowl laconically.

Jazz shrugged, "Because of the events that took place the night Skifire spent talking with that odd seeker. Perhaps Skyfire got some important information from that seeker and now Optimus is interested in him."

Prowl didn't say anything for a moment, before finally giving a brief answer. "I see."

Later, Prowl found himself thinking about something that he had never expected to be possible. He needed to keep a close optic on Optimus' at all times; Optimus was just acting weird, and Prowl was afraid of another Decepticons' plot .

In short, he needed to spy him.

Unaware of Prowl's thoughts, Optimus ran his secret meeting with Skyfire and Wheeljack. He would have preferred to talk about this matter with Skyfireonly… but he needed Wheeljack's assistance, too. The fact was that Optimus felt uneasy about what to do for first time now; he tried to double check his decisions and choices, but now it was his duty to meet the odd seeker and to find out what was going on.

"Wheeljack…" he began, "It's very important than your radar will trace and find out the location of that Seeker. I know you had… a 'technical failure' with the colour changing effect using the armour' samples we got, but I do hope that you will get it to work right."

"I've worked hard on it, Optimus." Answered the Autobot engineer as his blue 'ears' shined, "I'm convinced it will work properly… so long he isn't inside an enclosed space."

"Good. I don't want him inside the Decepticons H.Q" explained Optimus, "I must meet him in some private place away from anybody else."

Both, Skyfire and Wheeljack turned towards the Autobot's Prime in utter shock. Optimus, having expected this to be their reaction, found he should give them some sort of explication.

"I must contact that seeker, no matter the cost." He announced, "That seeker knows something extremely important… something that may affect every single Transformer in the universe, and as Prime, I must find out what he knows."

The other two Autobots fell silent, trying to assimilate Optimus' words.

"It has to do with the message he wanted me to give to you, doesn't it?" mused Skyfire in shocking realization breaking the silence. "He knows something that worries you even more than the war against the Decepticons…"

"Yes, Skyfire. It's very important."

Wheeljack was too astonished to say anything.

"I trust in your discretion in this matter." Optimus said to them both, "As soon as that seeker is located, both of you will come with me." Then, the big Autobot turned towards the even bigger white flyer than Skyfire was, "It seems he trusted you, Skyfire. I request your presence to ensure our meeting runs smoothly. Ok?"

"Of course, Optimus. I shall be there with you." Skyfire answered.

"Wheeljack…?" Prime asked the engineer.

"I don't know what's going on exactly…" answered the shining blue eared Autobot, "But I have a feeling this is really important… I cannot turn my back on you. So I'll be there, Optimus."

"Skyfire… Wheeljack… I'm very grateful for both of you."

Starscream received the news in awe; inside of himself he felt a deep sense of relief. But he just couldn't believe that Megatron would give him permission to go out of the HQ and to fly around Earth, but not to going back to Cybertron. Starscream, being a bird of prey by nature, this was welcomed news; he just couldn't be enclosed in the HQ, even if they were bigger than the ones he was used to.

But, why would the big silver-grey mech that was the Megatron of this reality give such a "gift" to him? The first orders were he could be there along he would be inside the HQ, not being allowed to make raids outside… But now, he could, well, flying around freely.

The blue and red seeker was surprised, but his desire to fly across the open sky was stronger enough to overcome this quickly; plus, in certain way, he also was grateful to this Megatron, who acted more understanding of him than the Megatron back in his reality… and even the Starscream of this reality.

He couldn't understand why the Decepticon leader had beat his counterpart so severely, nor why he had been called 'traitor'. The Air Commander did not say anything about that anymore, except to comment on the fact than he thought his punishment was totally unfair. It was something the blue-red seeker could agree with even if he did think there was some ulterior motive behind his counterpart's words.

The Air Commander seemed to have some nasty secrets all right.

But that didn't matter right now. The breeze and clouds caressed his wings nicely as he flew around the Atlantic Ocean… There he was truly free, only sky, clouds and the sea, nothing but open space to put his flying skills to the edge, just what he needed to feel happy. Starscream realized it was the first time in a very long time he could do such a thing. And it helped him a lot to forget his current problems; Megatron, Optimus, Sideways, the war, Unicron and his own counterpart were all far away from that open sky.

And even if he was being monitored, nobody could blame for doing that, and apparently, there wasn't any danger near him.

But soon it wouldn't be like that anymore…