Author's Notes- Hello all. This is the tenth chapter of Praise and sorry for the long wait. No interfacing but a lot of plot so I hope you like it.

Special thanks to Iwanita, peppymint, Kitt SummerIsle, Prototron MJ Tornada, ennui deMorte and, AquamarineRagDol (the site cut the link you wanted to show me in your review), poisonouswaffle'n-stuffs and Random Reader for reviewing, all those who alerted and favourited and Kibble Beast for betaing Imperfections.

Italics- thoughts/memories/link speak of trines and gestalts.

Bold- comm speak.

Warnings- Slash, mentions of past character death, violence and transformer swearing. In this chapter- OOC Prowl.

Anything recognisable is from the movies, the video games or the books/comics. Set after ROTF and Issues begins directly after the end Imperfections.

Unbetaed.

Disclaimer- I don't own Transformers or its characters.

I hope you all enjoy it.

Chapter Ten- One Pit of a Ride

Starscream stormed forward prompting Octane to step back, servos raised in a gesture of surrender. 'I swear I didn't hurt him, I just found him in a closet and he warped away from me!' The fuel-tanker could see by how angry and protective the trine leader was acting that the youngest Seeker had already been found. 'I came straight here to get you sir!'

The SIC stared intently into the triple changer's optics for a moment, going so far as to cup his friend's chin and tilt it up to make sure he could see clearly, before slowly nodding and releasing Octane. Ire tamed for the moment he asked dangerously quietly, 'do you know anything, anything at all?'

The triple-changer bit at his lower lip component, carefully ignoring Megatron's gaze that felt like it was searing through his frame to his very spark, and shook his helm. 'I'm sor- oh! There was one thing, it probably had nothi-' Seeing the dark look which suddenly crossed Starscream's faceplates Octane hurriedly overrode his almost helpless babbling and quickly burst out, 'Motormaster was chasing me down the hallway from the direction Skywarp was.'

He stared at the beings as they danced through the air, though his optics were entranced despite himself and his core programming by one and one alone.

The youngest flier, in the same colours as him, flicked out more playfully and mischievously than his elder more serious brothers. Some moves seemed to directly challenge them to chase or mirror him to see if they could complete his manoeuvres as well as he could.

Twirling, wings flicking upwards parallel to his arms as he span, the Seeker's joyful giggling was almost audible.

Something unfurled in his spark, similar and yet very different to what he felt when he normally looked at his brothers. Normally his programming would overwhelm the tiny flame, temporarily dousing it with waves of hate he couldn't control, and was never taught that he should try to.

This time however, the little flicker held out longer than normal in light of the vorns he'd last seen the lithe frame. He supposed, in his more rational moments, that he got this… glitch in his spark due to the inherent weakness of his brothers and the connection they had to him.

Anger spiked for a moment before it diminished in the face of his obsession back flipping in the air, interfacing panel framed in the dark sky for half an astrosecond, and lust built in its place.

The massive mech's servos clenched in his lap as his processor imagined fondling the fine metal of the Seeker wings; only the image was warped in his helm to be more like crushing than lovingly caressing.

The show was over much too soon and the Elite Trine stood in formation, hovering in the air, to bow to Megatron before leaving the army's sight altogether.

As always, once they left the Decepticon Lord's presence, his gestalt broke the line and hurried on ahead to get away from him. He didn't care though, he never did.

Wandering away, he locked himself in his gestalt's quarters.

Megatron curled Starscream into his lap as a fine constant tremor ran through his flier's frame, anger and anxiety battling for dominance in the smaller mech's spark. Thundercracker had curled up with Skywarp in the tyrant's berth and was recharging unhappily.

Stroking a wing soothingly, the Warlord slowly eased his lover into a peaceful shutdown, crooning reassurance and praise to him until his second was still, light ventilations of air stroking the Decepticon Lord's metal.

Sighing softly, Megatron carried Starscream into their berthroom and tucked him in with his brothers.

Nothing could truly be done until the youngest Seeker woke up and confirmed what had happened to him.

Sliding back into his chair, the former gladiator's optic ridges furrowed as he remembered the look on his Air Commander's faceplates when Octane had mentioned a closet, the flash of understanding which suggested another of the trine's, another of Starscream's secrets was being threatened with exposure.

Still, it had not been the time to question the matter.

The Warlord would have dozed off in his armchair had in not been for an incoming comm from his CMO.

My Lord, Hook greeted sombrely when Megatron opened the line, I regret to inform you that the Stunticons will be out of commission for at least a decacycle.

The Warlord sat up slowly, optics deepening to crimson, as he answered in a deceitfully measured tone, oh yes? And why would that be?

Motormaster has had one of his rages; his brothers have been left in quite a state. The Constructicon informed nervously, fearful of Megatron's reaction. Motormaster has been subdued and confined in the brig.

Not for the first time the Decepticon Lord found himself regretting the creation of the gestalt. While they were often useful, it was rather like having five giant sparklings on board that constantly needed coddling and supervision.

More trouble than they're worth.

Fine I'll deal with him shortly, focus on fixing the damage he's caused.

Yes Master, the crane's relief was almost palpable and the comm line disconnected.

Walking down the corridors alone, he froze in the rec room door, watching Skywarp, wings lowered in tiredness, retrieving some energon presumably to take back to his room. The young mech yawned, stretching his frame out for a moment, his two delicate appendages flicking upwards and rippling before returning to the Seeker's side.

Listening to the soft hypnotic humming of the flier's systems, he couldn't help but follow Skywarp across the room and out the other entrance that would eventually towards the Elite Trine's quarters once it had passed some private quarters and rooms, the Constructicon's area and the medbay. For a klik he walked along behind in silence but then the Seeker turned to face him, a curious look on his faceplates and wings rising slightly in sudden unease.

He paused and stared down at the smaller, but senior, mech waiting for the teleporter to speak.

'Are… are you following me?' The flier asked obviously knowing that, unless the massive mech was injured and heading to see Hook, there shouldn't be a reason for him to come down there.

Motormaster nodded without speaking, advancing on the Seeker until he had backed him against a closet door. Skywarp shivered as the Stunticon reached out to stroke his wings curiously. 'Don't,' the teleporter whispered, temporarily forgetting about his ability as the larger mech pinched sharply at a wingtip, drawing a frightened gasp of pain from him. 'Please.'

'Shh,' the gestalt leader murmured gruffly as he would when Breakdown tried to squirm fearfully away from him and his terrifying gaze before, accidentally, scratching through the fine metal beneath his servos. The Seeker keened in pain and Motormaster tightened his grip to stop the smaller mech running away, but this only tore a scream from Skywarp's mouth as sensitive circuitry was crushed.

Releasing the flier and shoving him away, Motormaster stormed off to hunt down his brothers, his temper rising at his own weakness and the fragility of the mech he was obsessed with and he was filled with the need to relief it.

As he neared the medbay he caught sight of Octane but saw no need to allow the weak and cowardly triple-changer time to get out of his way. As he chased the fuel-tanker down the corridor he briefly caught sight of the CMO alone in his medbay. For a moment their optics met and Hook sighed, standing to prep his tools even before the two mechs were past his domain.

Motormaster barely noticed that, as Skywarp collided hard with the door, his servo flew out and struck its release. He tumbled backwards into the dark confined space and the door, not designed to stay open long, automatically closed in his faceplates and sealed him in. Too terrified to think clearly after the damage to his wings and the sudden darkness, the flier froze up whimpering and unable to move.

Kliks later, the door slid open and Octane stared down at him with confused optics before extending a servo and murmuring awkwardly, 'are you alright?'

Skywarp finally remembered his ability as he blinked to clear his vision at the abrupt blast of light in his faceplates, and teleported away to find Starscream without uttering a word to the triple-changer.

Starscream woke up and stretched, looking to the side of him he expected to see his berthmate and was momentarily surprised when he saw his trinemates in Megatron's place. Recognition crossed his faceplates and he sighed softly before standing and seeking out his leader.

Megatron walked in as his Seeker entered the living area, trailing energon. The flier stared transfixed at his Master for a moment before crossing the room to press a kiss to the Warlord's lip components and leading him by the servo to their washracks.

Once the tyrant was clean to Starscream's standards they simply stood, holding each other while he filled his second in on what happened to his trinemate from the gestalt leader's perspective, and Megatron after a few kliks of being silently massaged by the warm spray, leaned down to whisper in his flier's audio, 'what happened to Skywarp little one? What did Octane remind you of?'

'It's… it's a trine secret so… so you mustn't tell anyone,' Starscream whispered barely audibly over the noise of the cleanser, 'near the beginning of the war on a planet neighbouring Cybertron…'

Skywarp had been captured.

Starscream and Thundercracker listened with foreboding to their superior's report, learning that an Autobot had crept up behind their brother while he was on a surveillance mission and attacked him with an electric prod, paralysing his systems and causing him to fall into temporary stasis lock.

Against orders, a cycle or so after sunset, the pair went out into the cool night air to rescue their third. Infiltrating the Autobot base was a relatively easy task; they killed each guard as they came across them before stealing inside by the back entrance.

They heard the commotion not moments after entering and rushed down the corridors towards it, sparing no one they passed and having the element of surprise on their side.

Rushing around the corner they found their brother cradled in a medic's arms glaring up at his comrades. 'You did fragging what?'

They babbled excuses down at the enraged mech.

'He's an enemy, sir…'

'We needed to contain him somewhere…'

'Come now Ratchet, be reasonable, he could have done Primus knows how much harm…'

Three shots hit home and they tumbled to the floor, sparks sputtering once before going out entirely. The mech blood of his fellow Autobots dripped down his faceplates and the walls behind him as he stared up at them. Despite this, when he spoke his voice didn't waiver though his optics were suspiciously blank, 'if you kill me I cannot help your trinemate, I presume that's what he is.'

Thundercracker looked to Starscream who stepped forward, nodding, as he disabled the Autobot's comm link, trusting- hoping that as no alarms had gone off the medic had not alerted anyone to their presence yet. Motioning with his gun, Starscream stepped to one side to allow Ratchet to stand and pass him. Pressing the weapon into the medic's back he hissed, 'move!' into the red and white mech's audio.

The medbay was barely a few steps away and Ratchet carefully laid his charge out on one of the berths, before taking a sedative off his table of tools. Starscream and Thundercracker growled in warning so he allowed them to scan it before slipping it into their trembling brother's energon vein.

Once their trinemate was still Thundercracker started forward and scooped up the smaller Seeker then slipped silently from the room.

Starscream, having yet to develop his classis null-rays, levelled his gun at Autobot's spark as he backed out of the room, Ratchet meeting his optics resignedly. Thinking of Skywarp and the protective way this mech had held him stilled the trine leader's servo however and he lowered this weapon. 'Just this once Autobot,' he nodded to the medic and left after his brothers.

They spark-merged with their brother when he woke up to see his memories of what had happened. Several Praxians had been put in charge of their brother and, purely out of racism towards not his faction but his make, had sealed their brother inside a stasis booth but without engaging it.

Skywarp had been left, in a pitch-black room, unable to move an inch and wings folded painfully tight against his back, for a whole orn and half a night cycle.

The experience left its mark on the Seeker, natural claustrophobia intensified beyond that of the average for their kind.

When Megatron had proposed destroying Praxus not long afterwards Starscream, then Air Commander of the entire army sent his fliers to do their Lord's bidding with unnatural glee swirling in his spark.

Megatron listened silently, stroking Starscream's wings reassuringly as his second spoke.

'He doesn't do well in dark confined spaces particularly if he's frightened to begin with,' the flier finished quietly.

The tyrant nodded simply and led Starscream back to his brothers. The Seeker curled in with them and slipped into an unsettled recharge.

Once his SIC's ventilations had evened out, Megatron went once more out into his main living area deep in thought.

Skywarp had a weakness, yes, but not one out of the ordinary, not one the Autobots could especially use against them. In fact, the rage Starscream had originally flown into (prompting Octane's swift exit) at the thought that someone had terrorised then confined his brother might even be advantageous for the faction if correctly channelled.

Motormaster knew to leave the youngest Seeker alone unless given permission.

Even Megatron knew that, even if the Stunticon's attentions had been 'pure', it was simply not done to begin courting or to initialise any kind of relationship with a Seeker (even a 'one night stand') without at least the trine-leader's permission, if not the approval of all three fliers. Not only had the gestalt leader harmed Skywarp, he had been disrespectful towards the flier's culture and family.

Starscream had hissed in displeasure when his berthmate had described to him what had taken place between the two mechs.

Megatron knew his second's protective streak would run high for quite a while to come, Thundercracker's too.

A small part of the tyrant was jealous of the closeness the three shared worried, despite Starscream's assurances, that the Seeker's brothers truly would take his Air Commander away from him.

It was a few orns later after that Megatron went through with his promised raid and it had escalated exactly how he'd hoped it would, the Autobots out in force; and, as most of their army had finally arrived it was more like old times. Mechs engaged with same opponents they'd fought for vorns.

With only a few exceptions.

Barricade caught sight of his eldest brother while grappling with Bumblebee and smirked widely. Finally managing to throw the scout of off him with a roar of his engines, he launched himself at Prowl with a roar of his engines sending them both crashing to the ground.

As the older mech struggled beneath him, trying to twist his arm around to shoot at the Decepticon pinning him, Barricade chuckled coldly.

'Hello brother, how is our dear younge-' A blast hit him in the side and he fell off of Prowl, to sprawl in the dirt.

A better shot now, Bluestreak's voice came over the SIC's comm line.

Prowl stood to glare down at his middle brother, vents heaving in anger and exertion. He was just gaining control of himself when the Decepticon's helm tilted to see Jazz fighting a few yards away; in Prowl's opinion precariously close to the former Lord High Protector.

'So your piece of scrap is in one piece now hmm?' Barricade grinned toothily, rising to his pedes. 'Such a shame brother, that that dirty Iaconian piece of slag-'

He was again cut off by his enraged elder brother's fist colliding hard with his faceplates. The normally calm Prowl shocking the Decepticon with his sudden violence, and the first hit was followed up with a flurry of blows that forced the younger mech to stumble backwards into an office block.

The Autobot SIC only stopped his assault when he suddenly realised that the whole battlefield had frozen and a keen of despair rent the air.

As Barricade tossed Bumblebee away, the younger mech flew through the air and, curling his body into a neat ball, landed on the ground mid-way through a graceful forward roll to end up on his pedes, unharmed and ready to aid Jazz in fighting Soundwave.

He wasn't given the time to turn to see where his previous combatant had stormed off to as the telepath's tentacles tried frenetically to bind his arms and legs.

However both Autobots were quick on their pedes and posing quite a challenge to the Decepticon TIC. Jazz was less battling Soundwave than dancing with him, and the younger Autobot followed his teacher's suit.

This resulted in a stalemate between the three mechs, none able to quite get the drop on the other.

That was until Jazz froze and suddenly dove away in between two buildings, apparently leaving his friend to fight on alone.

But even the Decepticon had paused to stare at what was going on in the centre of the battlefield and, for the following few kliks, Bumblebee and Soundwave simply stood together and watched.

Starscream and his trine watched as Megatron and Optimus wrestled in the centre of the city they had besieged. The Seekers kept vigil around the perimeter, stopping any more of the human forces from entering.

For the last five or six cycles in had been a free-for-all between the two factions, no human participants had made it past the first thirty kliks, as it should be.

This was what was familiar and even the Autobots seemed more comfortable; dropping some of their more delicate sensibilities now none of their fleshling comrades were at risk.

The Lambo twins had been reunited when the last lot of arrivals had reached Earth and there had been some Primus-damned Jet Judo before Starscream and Thundercracker had shot them off of their youngest, blasting them from the skies.

They were currently being tended to by Ratchet mere yards from furiously fighting leaders, Ironhide standing nearby to guard the medic as he worked and loudly cursed his patient's stupidity.

While scanning the terrain, Starscream felt his spark freeze.

Bluestreak, once he was sure his brother was alright, had hopped from building to building, office block to restaurant roof, quietly sniping and saving his friends when they were left vulnerable. And now the little blue mech was loading something suspicious into his gun.

It didn't look like a normal round of bullets but something the size, shape and even colour of a pebble washed up by the sea at the beach. Taking aim the Autobot fired…

… And Starscream dove.

Neither of the Air Commander's trinemates saw what their brother had done until it was already too late.

Que's virus designed to eradicate Megatron's, and the tyrant's alone per Optimus's orders, inner defences and break down his systems was entrusted to Prowl and his youngest brother as the best snipers in the faction. The antidote, just in case of accidents was carried by the Autobot CMO and the creator of both concoctions.

With the Autobot SIC distracted his student had taken it upon himself to try and take a shot at the Decepticon Lord.

It was a clear one when he pulled the trigger but instead of striking Megatron directly behind the spark which would have resulted in his deactivation within a klik, the quickest death possible when exposed to the compound the inventor had made, it collided hard with the Decepticon SIC's lower back.

Once the elliptical piece of metal tore through the Seeker's thin armour, lodging itself far deeper inside his frame and protoform than it would have done his bulkier leader, it exploded mercilessly wiping out the flier's firewalls and setting quickly to work eradicating his internals. Sweeping through his energon lines faster than even he could fly and burning all it came into contact with like lava…

Starscream convulsed on the ground for a moment, weakly gasping in pain, before he fell still and his optics flickered out.

Sorry, sorry, sorry.

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