AN: Like it so far? Hate it? Confused as all hell? Leave a review and tell me what you think. I'll reply to any questions I can and take any suggestions into consideration. If you're a guest reviewer and you have a question, I'll just answer it in an author's note on the next posted chapter or something. Thanks for reading! -Mal

Slipstream was bored. Not only had Soundwave's refusal to stop talking about his duties as an "Agent of Primus" successfully ruined her sly plans to get laid the previous night, but apparently now her boyfriend thought it was a fantastic idea to spend their lunch outing talking about the situation with her "traitor brother and his boyfriend". She sighed. "That's great, Soundwave," the femme murmured non-enthusiastically as she leaned against one hand and stirred her tea. This whole thing had changed him and she didn't like it, but she found herself too afraid to say anything about it. A brother involved with Unicron and a boyfriend involved with Primus. What was a femme to do? Perhaps she should have just given the whole "being single" thing a shot. She frowned into her tea. Single had never looked good on her. That's what Starscream would have said. The femme sniffed. Primus, she missed her brother. It was only then that she noticed Soundwave had gone silent and looked up. The telepath was giving the femme the coldest look he could possibly muster.

"You must block him from your thoughts, Slipstream."

Slipstream just stared at him. "He's my brother, Soundwave."

The mech grabbed her by the wrists then, startling her, before staring her directly in the eyes. "It does not matter," he murmured, "Starscream is a traitor to Primus. Nothing but pain will come to you if you allow him to remain in your spark."

The femme just glared and pulled back from him, standing and grabbing her things. "This "Agent of Primus" thing has changed you, Soundwave, and not in a good way. If you think I'm going to sit around and listen to the way you keep talking about him, much less tolerate you THREATENING my brother, you're wrong!" She turned away from him and started walking off. "I'll find my own way home!" And with that, he was left to his own devices.

Unbeknownst to him, however, Starscream and Powerglide had been watching from not that far away. Starscream in particular did not seem impressed.

Powerglide seemed more concerned for the femme than anything else. "Does she seem hurt at all?" he asked, watching Slipstream walk off.

The Seeker just crossed his arms. "Thankfully, Slipstream is tougher than that. It does not, however, make me wish I had my body any less so I could snap Soundwave's neck for grabbing my sister in such a manner." He did seem rather irate about it. But he eventually sighed. "She'll probably go back to base and vent for a while before watching one of those sappy human movies she enjoys so much," he said flippantly, "then she'll, I don't know, eat some ice cream or something. He'll come back home..." the Seeker sounded bored, "they'll have...ugh..."makeup sex", and all will be well with the world again. This is all provided he simply stops being an asshole." Which seemed unlikely at this point. Though Soundwave's apparent change in character did give him an idea. "Clearly, Soundwave is out to get us. We should find out who else is...WAS as well...in life, rather."

Powerglide raised an eyebrow. "You mean..."

"Who orchestrated our fight, yes." Starscream turned to him. "We may not have much time before Primus finds us, and..."

Powerglide blinked. "And?"

The Seeker grinned, eyes flashing an unusually fiery red for the briefest of moments. "I know just who can help us exact our revenge."

The "official" story going around base was that Starscream had apparently suffered a psychotic break due to the alleged suicide of his lover and the overwhelming amount of stress he'd been under. He was now being kept on lock down, and was no longer fit for duty. The Prime would see to it that he would be honorably discharged when the time was right. The unofficial add-on that was going around was that Starscream had also snapped and murdered Ironhide. And the story people only whispered to each other when no one in the chain of command was around was that Starscream was also possessed by some kind of demon. Knockout didn't know what to believe anymore. None of the higher-ups were saying anything and the room that the Seeker had been kept in had been stripped and cleaned out before anyone could get in to have a look. And Ironhide's body... The former Decepticon shuddered as he remembered the sight of it. Charred and decapitated. Maybe the demon story wasn't so ridiculous after all, because he didn't know WHAT could do that. The redhead stared down at this energon cube before pushing it to the side, feeling the pit in his stomach growing again. Slag, he felt guilty. Despite how he might have hated them before, he was starting to miss seeing Starscream and Powerglide now. Plus, her brother being gone made Slipstream unhappy, and Knockout hated Slipstream being unhappy. He pulled the cube towards him again. "Fuck," he whispered into it. "Starscream...I'm so sorry..." He was just about to drink some when he blinked, staring at the liquid and seeing both the Seeker and Powerglide in the reflection. Knockout turned around in shock, but saw no one. Clearly, his guilty conscience was creeping up on him. It was then that he decided that he needed to talk to Sunstreaker and set the record straight once and for all. The medic downed the cube and stood, heading off to find the blonde twin.

The two flyers had, in fact, been standing behind the redhead and observing him. Starscream cocked his head. "That was interesting. You're certain it was Knockout then?"

Powerglide shrugged. "Like I said, I was too pissed off to watch the whole video. Whoever it was, I saw from behind and had red hair. Plus, he's been hanging with Sunny, and you did just hear him say he was sorry."

The Seeker nodded. "You're right. It just strikes me as odd that I don't remember doing anything with him." In any case... "He knows something though. They both do. We should follow." He took his partner by the hand and they made their way through the base, following the mech that very well may have ruined both their lives.