Dominant

Labored breaths claimed the tactician. They escaped his vocal processor in synchronized gasps, materializing through the deathly quiet with an eerie foreshadowing.

Lying on his back, blotches of energon blood oozed from the tactician's body orifices. With his hands desperately trying to push himself upward, Prowl's optics locked perilously with the Seeker's. Suddenly, a pang of renewed energy over took his body.

"Murder never escapes punishment, Thundercracker…"

Grinding an angry foot down onto the Autobot's chest, the tacticician's shoulders hit the ground with a dull thud as heated incidienary missiles raised themselves to the prisoner below him.

So close…

"TC?"

Leaving the fragmented memory behind, Thundercracker blinked at the voice reaching out to him. "Huh?"

Skywarp cocked his head to one side and gave his best friend an overtly concerned glance. A gentle hand glided onto his left shoulder. "You okay?"

Trying to shake off the distant memory, Thundercracker nodded.

"Yeah…I'm fine…"

The purple Seeker shook his head somewhat, reading the troubled response like an open data pad.

"He's not dead, TC…."

"I know…"

"He should be….but he's not."

Looking away from his best friend, Thundercracker's memory circuits played it over again…prey to the hunter….Dominance and power there for the taking….all under his very thumb….

Sighing somewhat, Skywarp reached out his right arm and nudged the Seeker in his side. Crimson optics turned serious.

"You shouldn't punish yourself for something that's supposed to be done."

Thundercracker turned back to the purple jet in front of him as low murmurings rumbled out. "How can I not?"