AN: Happy Holidays everyone, I'd like to explain myself again, but if you feel like skipping to the story then go right ahead. Lots of stuff has happened to me as I was in the process of writing this chapter, and while most of it was minor, there was one event that occurred in my life that greatly hindered my ability to write. I hate to use this as an excuse for the wait between chapters, and gong about it as a way to receive pity makes me feel sick, but I feel the need to express it here. Last month a friend of mine named Mike died in an accident and since then I have had great trouble writing, drawing, or doing much anything at all. To say I've gotten over it would be a lie since even now I'm having trouble typing this sentence, but with this I just want to give my condolences to anyone else who's lost someone recently and let them know that I understand just how difficult it is to function with something like this on your mind. As for Mike, I do not want to dedicate this chapter to him, it just isn't good enough for him and he deserves so much more. Now I finish this sentence in hopes that all my readers experienced a happy Christmas, Chanukah, Kwanza, or whatever you celebrated this year, and that regardless of it, you got to embrace your family.

Wing's Journal

'The riot was a success… ish. We managed to topple one of the Hectagon, resulting in massive loss for both the Senate itself, and their publicity, after all, if the Senate can't protect itself against a riot, then how can it possibly stand up against proper threats? It was a good thing that one of our own was in contact with a Journalist for the Iaconian Times; you ever read an article by Grand Slam? Well, he managed to bend the truth just a little for our own benefit. What seems like a clean, successful, riot was actually a bit more like a slaughter than the editorials made out, in fact the Senate defended itself rather well, machine-gun turrets, mortars, snipers, we almost didn't stand a chance, almost. Despite suffering great losses, we managed to bend the story so that less faith would be placed in the Senate, making it look like they have been too busy covering up their money-spending scandals than to actually focus on civil issues. But now as I stare at the dead rioters, and count the remaining senate buildings in Iacon alone, I wonder whether all this death is worth it.'

Soundwave

To-do list:

1. Find the "Novacon" on-board

2. Kill "Novacon"

3. Hunt down and remove Autobot stragglers

4. Replenish fuel

5. Discuss the fates of the captured Autobots

6. Paint walls from purple to black

7. Fix the hole at the bottom of the Ark

8. Douse Triggerhappy's head-flame

9. Find galactic trading outpost to register banking deposits.

10. Find Megatron

There it was, rusted and unpolished, and displayed in violet holographic typing, was the improperly tiered objective set at the very bottom of the to-do list.

"Find Megatron", the sheer lack of detail and urgency in the four-syllables left a burning rage tucked neatly within Soundwave's chest. He was aware of Slipstream's character and knew perfectly well that she enjoyed a good joke to cheer the mood, her sarcastic comments and –to his chagrin- her puns helped remind him of this one too many times. But even Soundwave wasn't so single-mindedly loyal that he wasn't aware of what this list was.

A joke.

He wasn't a complete stranger to humour, the only things that kept him from being as social as the likes of Thrust or Misfire was the importance of his work, his brutal cynicism, and the desire to maintain his higher position. Tasks like that of which involved Triggerhappy (which he admitted left him somewhat perplexed), made it obvious that the numbering was not to be taken seriously, but what left Soundwave with this aggression was the unintended accuracy that this list displayed. Slipstream had promised Soundwave directly that she had only been acting as commander for temporary reasons, which she would only stay as long as it took to locate Megatron. But no, in no way had she ever even considered tracking Megatron after the matter. This was what made Soundwave so uncharacteristically furious, not the numbering, not the ridiculous goals, but the lack-thereof. Slipstream was an impressive commander, but she lacked the vision and determination that Megatron had, she had secrets, secrets that both scared and disgusted the Decepticons on board, she was not fit to lead, and the failure of goals two through four proved this. This joke however, wasn't funny; it was a bastardization of Megatron's name. The one Decepticon, willing and able to guide the Decepticon cause properly and effectively.

'Get in damn it!'

Demolishor's voice bellowed from down the hall as he and Triggerhappy shoved Grimlock's swollen and beaten body back into his cell after his skirmish with Needlenose and Spinister. The Dinobot tried to roar in defiance only for a pathetic "Ahh" to escape his vocalizer. Keeping one optic fixed on Grimlock as he flopped on his side, Demolishor punched a code into a keypad causing a flash of laser bars to seal the Dinobot inside alongside Blaster, Rewind, Eject and Steel Jaw, (Ramhorn had suffered damage and was resting in Blasters chest cavity at the time).

Demolishor and Triggerhappy snickered in triumph as Soundwave felt his brow continue to crease, these were not proper Decepticons, and this was not an army that signified freedom, liberation, or power. He sensed Ravage's presence and looked down upon the approaching feline. The Black Panther's metal shoulder blades rotated partially in a cool and rhythmic pattern as he walked towards his master. Along with Laserbeak, Buzzsaw and Overkill, Ravage was one of his more quiet soldiers, he had theorized that this was because of their beastial chassis, but with Slugfest's chatty demeanor, Soundwave became unsure. He sniffed and muttered in a low accented growl.

'You worry.'

Soundwave turned from Ravage and back to the to-do list.

'Negative.'

Ravage grinned, knowingly, 'Please Soundwave, our minds might as well be linked; you worry about the Decepticon cause just as I do.'

Soundwave crossed his arms, willing to admit that much. 'Indeed, I do worry about the Decepticons, what we've become, what we will be remembered as.' His optics went over the list for the umpteenth time that hour, 'but for now all we can do is wait for Slipstream's agenda to unfold, otherwise all we can do is… is…'

Soundwave whipped his head to the northern corridor, optics widened, and spark spiking.

'What? What's wrong?' Ravage urged.

'Not wrong Ravage, right something is very right!'

Confused, the Black Panther followed close behind the Decepticon as he trekked through the dark corridors.

'Being cryptic isn't like you Soundwave, what has got you so worked up?'

'I'll tell you when we're in private.'

Ravage's nostrils pulsed as he thought over whatever Soundwave's reasoning could have been.

'Very well.' he muttered before going completely silent.

Soundwave had already had a mental link towards Megatron, and while it was never as strong as it was with his tapes, he could feel his presence ringing in his ears like unlike it had ever before, he was close, very close. Megatron was near.

Wheeljack

'…after Wreck Gar committed… suicide, I was told that Huffer had made contact with you, it was around then that we met up and well, here we are.'

Wheeljack's fists clenched and unclenched and he tried to sort his thoughts, he had always thought that receiving a headache based on a failure of understanding was non-existent, and just an excuse that stupid people made to change the subject, but at that moment, the overload of information seemed to be the direct source to the irritating migraine that quaked his helm.

He shut his optics and breathed in slow breaths in hopes of calming himself down, 'Okay, so Silverbolt's dead, Razorclaw's dead, the Protectobots are dead… The Dark Energon in Megatron's blood merged with the Matrix Energy from the spacebridge-'

'Yeah.'

'-and created a miniature black hole- otherwise known as a space consumer, which, upon being sent thousands of years in the past, had all this time to grow in velocity, managing to draw enough metal to create a small planet...'

'Yes.'

'And right now this space-consumer has grown to a point where in time it could very well distort the universe.'

Jetfire nodded.

Wheeljack let his head drop; resting it as he finally came to a conclusion.

'Alright,' he sat up, nodding, 'Alright, I think I've got it now. Ratchet believes all this?'

Jetfire remained slumped on his stool, unmoving, 'Yeah, yes, he has gone through several autopsy's on the way here, says he has no doubts at his point.'

Wheeljack stood up, 'So that's it then, we've really lost on this?'

Jetfire made no attempt to reply.

Realizing this, the engineer turned to leave, 'I guess we can only hope to bump into Perceptor again, see if he can finally fix this, for now though, I'm heading back to my lab. I'm lucky that the ship Blurr picked happened to be outfitted with the proper equipment for me to work on my ongoing projects.'

Preparing to move through the passage from the Broadside to the Velocitron (aptly named after the planet it came from), the call of his name froze him in his tracks. He turned to Jetfire who stared at him with a stern look.

'Don't do it.' He said with a sharp tongue.

'Don't do what?'

'Don't use the space consumer as a basis for some sort of super weapon to use against the Decepticons, and more importantly, do not use it for that little project you keep insisting on working on.'

Wheeljack felt himself growing cross by the stereotypical remark, 'I'm not like that Jetfire, I understand the significance of all this and I-I won't!'

But don't think I hadn't considered it.

The thought had been so honest and so fluid that Wheeljack could have sworn he had been speaking it out loud and brought a finger to his faceplate.

Jetfire stared at him thoroughly; his scientifically trained eyes examining every crevice of the Engineers face plate and optics.

'Alright,' he croakily sighed, 'I'll believe you.'

Wheeljack felt obligated to say more, but stopped himself, nodded as his head-fins flickered for a quarter of a second, and continued out of the Broadside and into the boarding passage leaving Jetfire alone.

The Velocitron's deck was filled with its usual familiar faces, Hound, Bluestreak, Trailbreaker and Mirage, though there was a feeling of lifelessness that dragged along with them. He nodded to the group who parted to allow him to join the conversation, something he was already hesitant about.

'Trailbreaker had just debriefed us on the situation,' said Bluestreak motioning to the black defense strategist.

'Twice,' Hound explained, 'First time round 'Breaker here tried to sugar-coat it, but Mirage called him out on it, forced him to explain it over.'

Trailbreaker put on a half-smile as he scanned the blue bot, 'It was quite a way to be introduced to a new face.'

'He's not the only new face,' said Bluestreak counting on his fingers, 'There's Blurr, Windcharger, Backstreet, Swerve… Oh and Dogfight too.'

Trailbreaker kept his head lowered, mouthing the last name, 'So Dogfight, he's a beast-former yeah? Turns into a… what, a dog?'

Bluestreak and Hound exchanged looks, shaking their heads simultaneously.

'A jet,' said Hound.

'What about a jet?'

'He turns into one.'

In a moment of pause, Trailbreaker opened his mouth and upon realization, snapped his fingers 'Oh now I get it.'

'You brought some neat folks with you, as well' noted Hound, 'Kup, Roadbuster, those five bots that were resurrected on Junk, Ultra Magnus…'

'We lost a lot more than we gained.' Trailbreaker's face stiffened, 'Silverbolt, Hotspot, First Aid, Airazor Air Raid… they bought us the time to escape.'

'So unreal,'

Eight optics all turned to Wheeljack, who reeled backwards sheepishly, 'I'm sorry, never mind.'

Hound extended an arm in Wheeljack's direction, 'No you're right, it is unreal, so many gone in such a short amount of time, it's difficult to fully grasp, it's-'Hound stopped himself and brought a digit to his lips in thought.

'You're used to it,' said Mirage, suddenly and deadpanned. It was then Wheeljack realized that Mirage had been silent until that moment, 'you- we have spent so long warring and have been subjected to so much loss, that you've all grown numb to death.'

His words sounded more cynical than sympathetic, though Wheeljack doubted anyone other than Trailbreaker was surprised about this given Mirage's typical attitude towards the war in general.

'No.' Bluestreak was running a hand across his faceplate, his optic peeking out from between his fingertips. 'It is difficult to accept that Hotshot, or Groove or- or Skydive are dead, they were a part of our lives and now they're just… gone. I don't know about any of you, but I feel it, I can feel the pain, I've felt that pain for decades now, and this.' he pointed a digit at the floor, 'this is just a reminder.'

There was silence once again in the circle of bots, a terrible silence that Wheeljack could feel was affecting all of them.

'So where is Dogfight?' he asked, 'Rather, where's everyone else eh? Pretty quiet for a ship that's supposedly filled with thirty or so Autobots.

'Most are in their hab suites right now' explained Hound, 'Jazz and Blurr are helping the Wreckers move their things from the Broadside to the Velocitron, Cliffjumper's probably with them too now that I think about it. Topspin and Cosmos are checking over the ship's controls, Scattorshot is explaining things to Stakeout, Beachcomber and a few others, Red Alert is guarding Barricade in the Prison deck, Pincher should be in the lab, Arcee is- she must be hiding somewhere around here, Gears, Huffer and Windcharger are mending the Broadside for further use, Backstreet's locked himself in his suite, and Dogfight's disappeared. Otherwise the gang's all here.'

Hound paused, and appeared to have noticed that he'd forgotten someone.

'I'm not sure about Jetfire either.'

'He needs some time on his own,' Wheeljack managed to say, 'What about Ratchet?'

'Best you not know.'

A loud bang reverberated throughout the room as the door to the main corridor slammed open. Grotusque had jogged into the room with the body of Repugnus draped over his shoulder and a look of terror in his optics.

'Please.' He said, holding Repugnus forward, 'he's leaking out he's- you need to help him!'

Wing's Journal

'We've grown in numbers, in fact, more are lining up just to get a taste of the sort of power we've got and it's only making our presence greater. There have been bots subjected to the 50/50 experiments around the planet but now that we have some of them willingly signing up… well we're now becoming an army. An army that's turning to me for leadership, heh, Wing, 50/50 subjects commander…. Doesn't sound right, the army name I mean, we need a proper one…'

Thundercracker

'Skywarp!'

Thundercracker sprang upright on his slab, screaming out his brother's name in anguish, the thought of him burning in his processor. Extended a hand towards an approaching Flatline, letting him know he was alright, he sat up, and massaged optic-lids. He determined soon enough that he was not within a medical bay, the fact that he last saw it transforming into a spacecraft and flew off with Skywarp and two Novacons on board had pretty much confirmed that. He was on a slab in the science, experimentation sec where large glass canisters filled with bubbling green and pink liquid lined the walls ahead of him while barbed and spiked steel stencils laid within a metal plate on the side table beside him.

'Please tell me you didn't cut me open or anything.' Thundercracker said uneasily, slipping off the slab and onto his feet.

'Don't worry,' assured Flatline, 'I only mended your head wound.'

Thundercracker blinked, 'Head wou-'

'Slipstream knocked you out.' Flatline explained, 'and I think she has something to say to you.'

Turning one-hundred-eighty degrees, Thundercracker found himself staring at an embarrassed Slipstream who stared back meekly.

'Oh Thundercracker, I'm so, so, sorry for knocking you out.'

The seeker could recognize Slipstream's façade almost instantly. She was sugaring him up, treating him like a child, he decided that he'd get nowhere from calling her out on this and leaped straight to the point.

'You were right to, I just wasn't using my head, Skywarp's gone and I didn't know how to deal with it.'

'You're right.' Her expression straightened, 'You weren't using your head, which is why I had to hit it enough to make you start using it.'

Thundercracker nodded obediently, 'I'll be heading to my post now, someone ought to fill out the excel charts for our Energon consumption.'

With a second nod, Thundercracker exited the science-lab, shutting the doors behind him.

'Good,' said Flatline, wringing his multiple hands together, 'now that he's gone we can speak seriously.'

Slipstream chewed on the inside of her cheek, still facing the door Thundercracker had exited, 'I hate speaking seriously.'

The remark had annoyed Flatline some, he was ready to respond to her with a, "Oh yeah? Well I hate you!" but after being conditioned to respect and fear the commanding officer, he couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead, he went on with his original plan.

'Needlenose said that he needed Skywarp because he was a Seeker, what does that mean exactly?'

The corners of Slipstream's mouth rose as she strolled to the exit. 'It means…' she smiled, 'It means that you shouldn't ask so many questions.'

Slipstream gave him a quick wink before exiting the room and leaving Flatline to himself within the cold, dark room.

Alone.

'Perfect,'

The black medical officer skipped to the nearest terminal, running his twenty digits over the holographic keys. A holographic image of Slipstream's body materialized in front of him which- with a few taps at the holo-keys- deconstructed itself into thousands of individual components, each labeled with multiple readings and statistics.

'Oh Slipstream.' He glanced over the readings, observing the multiple irregularities in her system, 'I don't need to ask questions to get answers.'

The mere image of Starscream with his back against the wall, arms crossed, and smirking his dreadful smirk was enough to make Thundercracker unintentionally groan in annoyance.

Starscream laughed, following his Seeker companion who desperately tried to outpace him.

'Now tell me how you really feel.'

'I don't have the patience for you Starscream,' Thundercracker said, his voice rising 'and because you are no longer a part of high command I don't have to be patient with you.'

'What?' Starscream reached out to his brother pleadingly, 'But Slipstream- and the sparkling- and the body in the closet, what about our plan, our team up?'

'That will have to wait, and you know it, with the Novacons return we can only assume what they'll do with Skywarp.'

Starscream nodded, 'The Acroplex codes.'

Thundercracker stopped, turning to face Starscream directly. 'Exactly, you, me, Slipstream, Silverbolt, Jetfire and Skywarp are the only ones who have the codes in their memory-banks, and you know what they'll do with them once they're recovered from Skywarp's mind.'

Starscream didn't appear amused, 'But they need at least two of us to speak the codes simultaneously for them to work so why should we worry?'

Thundercracker felt ready to unload a barrage of insults and guilt trips upon the seeker regarding Skywarp, but instead, he swallowed his rage, and explained to Starscream further.

'Well think, why would they only take Skywarp?'

'What do you mean?'

'If they needed two of us, then why didn't they take two, they could very well have taken me as well, but they didn't. Why?'

Starscream brought a digit to his chin and put his mind to work, 'Oh, well chances are they'd already have Silverbolt or Jetfire with them, or had a better chance at catching one and going for the other later instead of risking it in a fight.'

Thundercracker stared at his feet, 'We have to do something about it.'

'It is necessary for us all to, y'know, not die.'

There wasn't much else for Thundercracker to say to Starscream. With no ways of solving any of the problems running amuck on and off of the Nemesis, all Thundercracker could do was place his faith in someone else, anyone else.

'Starscream, did you ever hear the story about the Senate's Messiah?

The Seeker scoffed, 'You mean the legend? Ah yes, the legend of the super-powerful-Cybertronian built with non-existent technologies, held under keep until our darkest hour… So what?'

Thundercracker sighed, 'Nothing, never mind, just me keeping my hopes up I guess.'

Starscream eyed him pitifully before continuing his stroll, 'If such a thing existed I would have had it in my possession years ago.'

'Sure.' Thundercracker said, beginning to notice a trend around them. 'Hold on… I said hold on!'

The red seeker span towards Thundercracker, annoyed, 'What?'

Open mouthed and with his arms extended outwards, he gestured to the corridor around them.

'Look around and tell me you see.'

Doing just that, Starscream's upper lip curled, 'Nothing.'

Thundercracker smiled, 'Exactly. Where is everybody, we had an army on board for the past week, now everything is… quiet, like there's only a couple dozen of us on board.'

'You didn't know?' Starscream stared at the ceiling, 'The Constructicons, Stunticons and Barricade haven't transmitted back, and neither have Razorclaw or the Predacons, people have been assuming that they fell to the Autobots.'

Thundercracker backed away, and clung onto the back of his helm, taking a moment to let his mind wrap around this new information, 'Oh my God… that's- that's most all of us, who does that leave? Quake, Demolishor, Triggerhappy, Ramjet… there's so few of us left now.'

Starscream grinned as he ventured away from the blue seeker, 'Our "Leader" Isn't who she says she is, most of us are dead, the remaining are a bunch of losers, we have Novacons ready and willing to destroy us, and I have the lowest rank on the ship.' He chuckled, 'And they say the Decepticons are winning…'

Ratchet

Pink liquid seeped between the cracks of his fingers as he panted. He was looming over the repaired body of Megatron, his silver chest-piece put back together piece by piece and sealing the tiny speck of light orbiting his spark, his sleek yet massive build was undented and repaired, and despite his thinner, mal-nutritional look, it still managed to awe Ratchet, it was no wonder he was able to affect so many people with his mere presence alone.

'He looks thinner doesn't he?'

Ratchet turned to Fixit, whose optics glossed over the large Decepticon.

'A little, I was just thinking that actually' Ratchet admitted, staring at Megatron's face, 'he looks peaceful…'

'He looks like he could wake up and crush my head with his finger-tips.'

'He won't' the medical officer assured, 'the space consumer has nullified most of his nervous systems, even if he was awake, he wouldn't be able to even open his eyes.'

Fixit shrugged, 'I suppose… so why do I still feel uneasy?'

'Well space consumers do have a tendency to distort space and time around them when they climax, and with one this close up to you it isn't unthinkable that it will make you feel just a little off balanced.'

'01001110 01101111 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100011 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100111 01100101 01100100.'

'You're right Fixit, it doesn't feel like there have been any distortions quite yet, but for all we know, it could be happening right this second.'

Ratchet stepped away from the slab, his optics still fixed on Megatron, 'I knew Megatron once, before he became a murderer, before he became the sickening spawn of a glitch he was today, back then he was a labour worker, a music lover, and a poet.'

'A poet?'

'Yeah.'

Fixit stared at Megatron, his optic lids fluttering, 'Sorry… who are we talking about?'

'Megatron.'

'Right, But who was the poet?'

'Megatron.'

'What about him?'

'He's the poet.'

'Who's the poet?'

'Megatron.'

Fixit frowned, staring at the Decepticon overlord.

'Wait… what?'

Ratchet scowled and dragged his hand over his faceplate, 'Ah, forget it. All I'm saying is that he looks so… humane like this, like he's the same he was way back when. Putting the multiple body upgrades aside of course, the face is the same though.'

'Less angry maybe,' Fixit said, 'but I still feel uneasy looking at him, he's one of the most influential Cybertronians in history, and he's just, here.'

Ratchet rubbed the back of his neck, none of them were safe, a ship of thirty or so Autobots, each one of them dying to kill Megatron in his sleep. If only he wasn't the only thing keeping the space consumer at bay, for now at least.

'Does he scare you?' Fixit asked.

The surgeon shook his head, 'No, no I've never been afraid of Megatron. I've been held at gunpoint by him, I've been held at gunpoint by all of them: Starscream, Shockwave, Obsidian, Scarab, Strika, Blackout, Soundwave, Trannis, Straxus… I've been able to hold my cool against the worst of them, so why should I be scared now?'

'Well for one, your hands are trembling.'

Ratchet glanced at his aching servos to find them rattling like a cyber-snake, 'I don't know,' he swallowed, pressing his tongue against the roof of his mouth, 'I think- I think that now that you mention it, so much has happened over the years that I forgot how to be scared.'

Wheeljack

Placing his welding tool on the side table and dusting off his hands, the engineer moved away from the newly mended Repugnus and pulled off his welders mask. He beamed at the fidgety Grotusque prompting the Monsterbot to smile back briefly.

'No fear Gro- er… gru…' Wheeljack snapped his fingers as he tried to recall what the bot's name was, 'Mr. Monsterbot, your buddy here just had a ruptured fuel pump, didn't take long to mend so everything's all-'

Wheeljack stopped himself, turned to the crumpled body of Repugnus, and back to Grotusque

'Actually that's a lie, he's still pretty bad off, I don't have a medical degree like Ratchet so I uh- really don't know how much of him is salvageable, but eh- he'll live.'

Grotusque's head had been lowered, already greatly disappointed from the obvious absence of Doublecross, 'I wasn't expecting to…' he quickly raised his head to lock eyes with the engineer, 'But thank you, it means a lot that you could do what you did.'

'Thank Pincher.' Wheeljack said, motioning to the black bot fiddling with a plethora of machinery and liquids in the back corner of the room. 'His knowledge in organic matter is what really saved him, otherwise I wouldn't know jack about what else to do about it.'

'Right,' Grotusque smiled at the scorpion, 'thanks Pincher.'

The chemist didn't seem to notice, or care for the Monsterbot's thanks as he continued to stare at the green vial in his hands.

Wheeljack drifted towards a navy-blue holo-screen that floated above him. Creeping his digits greedily across its surface. He had yet to see what the science room was capable of and desired to see as much as he could and as soon as possible.

'Still,' he continued as he worked, 'if there's one bot here that needs medical attention, besides the obvious of course, it'd be Magnus. The only thing keeping him alive is those stasis pods, and until Ratchet can fixyou know who, he'll be like that for a while.'

Wheeljack caught a glimpse of Grotusque's grin from the corner of his optic.

'I remember him, 'the Monsterbot reminisced, 'Magnus, he dragged me to my cell when I was placed on death's row, he's got quite a grip.'

He paused.

'It's also where I met Repugnus and Doublecross.'

Wheeljack made no attempt to question him on the subject, instead focused on the vessel's equipment lists, his mind however, wouldn't wander like he wanted it to.

Grotusque stared at him as he spoke, 'Doublecross, Is he dead?'

Wheeljack didn't know. He was on Velocitron at the time with Grotusque and Arcee. But even if he did know whether Doublecross was dead or not, he'd have no idea how to break it down to him. He couldn't even remember the last time he broke the bad news to someone; he had spent so many years cooped up in his lab while the likes of Optimus Prime, Ironhide and Kup took the front lines of battle that he had all but forgotten how to deal with friends dying, and with so few willing to meet him while in the middle of an engineering session, very few days without incident would happen to anyone but him. He wouldn't have to answer Grotusque however, as Jetfire did it for him.

'Yes.'

The Autobot leader was leaning within the doorway, looking like a mess. His retinas were dull and his crumpled body made the stasis locked Repugnus look fresh off the assembly line. Blinking his weary optics, Jetfire turned and exited the science vessel leaving Wheeljack feeling angered by the display. The Decepticon symbols on his wings seemingly glowing brighter with every step he took away from the watching Autobots.

Wheeljack's hands dropped clenched at either side as he faced the lamenting Grotusque.

'I'll be back in a bit,' he said tailing Jetfire, 'there are just a few things I need to take care of first.'

Jetfire

Jetfire felt as bad as he looked. He had heard the phrase "A weight off my shoulders", but if he ever had the feeling of a sort of heaviness on his shoulders, it was now, and he knew specifically what this weight was exactly. To him the weight was made up of the bodies of Silverbolt, First Aid, Hotspot, of Air Raid and Airazor, of everyone who had suffered because of his own stupid decisions. And he knew, that he these weights would never be lifted.

'Jetfire!'

It was Wheeljack. The engineer stumbled briefly before placing himself in front of the Air Commander, blocking his path within the corridor.

'It seems to me that you've been trying to hide.'

He really didn't feel like expressing himself, not now, and not to Wheeljack. It irritated him.

'Honestly Wheeljack, after all that's happened, how can I not?'

Wheeljack took no time to respond to Jetfire's question,

'By healing,' He watched as Jetfire's expression twisted and continued, 'It may take long, longer than we may ever know, but all wounds heal, even emotional ones, and with that we press forward. Because that's what we do, what we have todo. It's how we've managed to survive for this long, and if there is anyone who needs to heal the fastest right now, it's you.'

Facing away from one another, Wheeljack had decided to wrap up and turned to leave.

'You've screwed up, you've really screwed up in fact, terribly, dreadfully, and I bet you have no idea how you can live with yourself now.'

Jetfire grimaced in response to the criticism, but knew it to be all too true.

'But you can live with yourself; all you've got to do is, well, heal. Stand up, smarten up and get the Autobots back on track and ready to deal with any problems we might face, do that and just maybe you'll make up for your mistakes.'

Wheeljack nodded one last time, and made his way passed the science bay, continuing down the corridor.

'You're different.' Jetfire called to him.

Wheeljack sighed and turned around, walking backwards to face Jetfire.

'Tell me Wheeljack,' Jetfire continued, 'is the mad scientist persona an act, or is- whatever you are now the fake? Who's the real you?'

Wheeljack laughed uneasily. 'To be perfectly honest Jetfire, I have no idea. I am honestly clueless as to what kind of bot I am.'

'If you don't know who you are, then do you at least know where you're going right now?'

Wheeljack grinned beneath his faceplate, 'Why I'm playing a big game of hide and seek you see, you're not the only one who doesn't like to show their face around here anymore.'

Jetfire felt himself smile. 'I guess I really shouldn't be surprised…'

Blitzwing

Blitzwing took in the view of the cosmos as Astrotrain rocketed further towards their destination. Sparkling cyan space dust parted behind them like a wake while several asteroids bounded passed them at great speeds. This of course was an account of Astrotrain's own rocket power rather than the asteroids rate of travel, though regardless of everything moving around them, the stars stayed fixed in the sky. Blitzwing's hand dropped from the plexi glass window as he turned towards Shockwave who was sitting in the pilot seat with his arms draped over his knees.

'Are you uh- are you feeling alright Shockers? You look a little… emo.'

He didn't answer.

Blitzwing shifted his weight as he stared at the ceiling. 'It's a little uncomfortable y'know? To be inside another Cybertronian I mean? I guess it's understandable to feel sick in here after all.'

'Well isn't that rich?' Astrotrain's voice reverberated throughout the entire ship, though it made sense to Blitzwing given that Astrotrain was in fact the ship itself.

'How do you think it feels to have a couple of Cybertronian running around inside of you? It's disgusting and awkward and- It's hard just to focus on flying with your voices echoing throughout my head!'

Blitzwing scoffed, 'Well sorry princess, not everyone can be an awesome, epic spaceships like you!'

'What did you just call me?'

'I called you an awesome, epic spaceship, what're you gonna do about it?'

'Shut up!'

Shockwave's voice alone had managed to silence the triple changers indefinitely, his hand had been massaging the outer rim of his optic as if he had been deprived of proper rest.

He pointed a single digit towards the front-view monitor.

'Kickback and the others… we're approaching them now.'

Not far, the figures of Kickback, Shrapnel and the Combaticons drifted above a massive, derelict ship. Vortex appeared to have spotted the coming Astrotrain and fired a flare into the sky.

'Huh,' wondered Astrotrain, 'that ship is massive, how hadn't that appeared on my sensors?'

'Cloaking technology,' said the seated Shockwave.

Astrotrain hovered over the group of Decepticons below and opened his back hatch for them to board where Blitzwing greeted them there.

Vortex and Blast Off boarded first, activating their rockets to propel themselves safely inside of the purple spaceship. Onslaught and Swindle were next, the former carrying the wounded Brawl, grappling on to the railing for support, last were Kickback and Shrapnel who carried a limbless and mangled body with them. The body was without a jaw, instead a jungle of wires spilling from underneath his upper row of teeth. His stomach was barely together as it had been nearly all hollowed out except for the important wiring connecting to the fuel pump and spark casing, and his optics remained a dull, flickering blue.

'What the frag is that?' Blitzwing shrieked.

'Dinobot…' Kickback said as the rear hatch closed, 'denied his right to be one of us, so we showed what happens to errors when they cross us.'

Just as Blitzwing prepared to turn away from the mess that spread across the metal floor, he spotted a shred of movement within Swoop's shattered optic.

'By Primus he's still alive!'

'As Shockwave ordered…' muttered Blast Off in disgust.

'As I have ordered…' All optics darted to the lanky, one eyed, purple figure standing in the bay's doors. 'Did I order you to do this to the Dinobot?'

Each one of the Combaticons made way as Shockwave walked passed them and towards Kickback, with a single swift movement, Shockwave grabbed Kickback by his throat holding him above his head. The tighter his grip the more he squirmed and sputtered in agony.

'Do you truly believe you can do whatever you wish all for the sake of fun Kickback?'

Kickback tried to speak, but with his vocal processor constricted beyond the use of proper audible words, he could only manage the jittering of a primal Insecticon.

Shockwave let go and Kickback dropped to the ground where he hacked and coughed into the floor.

'You are not to create your own rules Kickback. I am your master. I create the rules, and for all of our sakes, you will obey them.'

Kickback nodded hastily as he crawled pathetically back into his corner.

Satisfied, Shockwave counted the seven other Decepticons present within the room and stared at the ceiling.

'Astrotrain set a course for the Nemesis.'

'Nemesis…' Onslaught brought a hand to his faceplate, 'Then Megatron and the others… are alive?'

Shockwave shook his head, 'Negative, I have recently interacted with the Decepticon Razorclaw, and he has confirmed to me that Megatron is still missing in action. Slipstream has taken command since then.'

'Slipstream?' Swindle scoffed, turning to Blitzwing, 'she's in charge? I thought she abandoned us years ago.'

The triple changer shrugged in response.

'So that's our next step then?' inquired Onslaught as he massaged his chin, 'Join Slipstream's main attack force?'

Shockwave paused for a moment and observed the face of each of the Decepticons knowing that each and every one of them was aware of what was coming next.

'We are going to take over the Nemesis.'

Blitzwing nodded and readied his gyro-blaster, 'If we're planning a take-over then we're going to need all the firepower we can get. Vortex, Blast Off, there are scatter blasters and concussion rifles in deck 4, Swindle, we'll need your subspace weapons that Shockwave told me about.'

Onslaught folded his arms as the rest of the Combaticons plucked the walls for weapons 'Taking over the Nemesis… it's not an easy task. I was the one who checked over the weaponry before we launched, getting in will be a challenge on its own.'

'You misunderstand,' said Shockwave, 'We need not to conquer the Nemesis with guns or firepower, but with something as simple as negotiations… and connections to the ones willing to help.'

Wheeljack

'Come on now, get out from under there!'

Trailbreaker was yelling at a table.

Or at least that's what it looked like from Wheeljack's perspective, it would have been precisely what he'd thought Trailbreaker was doing had he not received a call from him earlier abut Arcee hiding within the lounge.

'What did the table ever do to you?' Wheeljack joked.

Trailbreaker craned his head to the engineer and smiled, 'Its Arcee, she's kept herself under there and won't come out.'

Wheeljack sighed and squatted to get a proper look under the metal table, 'Arcee? What are you doing under there?'

'Go away!'

Wheeljack briefly turned to Trailbreaker and smiled, 'Well that's not very nice.'

'They hate me.' Arcee bemoaned, 'The Autobots, after what I did… and Sideswipe, now that he's back he- he's going to find out and he's going to- I don't know what he's going to do, but I can't face him, not like this.'

Wheeljack sighed a second time and stood up, 'Well Arcee, I really can't say I cared about what you thought you could do or what you did, and I'm sure people will be over it anyway… so just come out and-' He shook his head and sighed a third time, '-just don't make me say the same speech twice in one day.'

There was no response.

Trailbreaker stared at the engineer. 'Wow, do you ever have a way with words.'

Wheeljack glanced at the table for one last time and trekked away, the black defense specialist trailing behind him.

'Well she's got to get out of this funk herself,' said Wheeljack, 'and even then, I've got nothing to do with it.'

Trailbreaker looked behind him briefly before closing the lounge doors behind them, 'You're a little too blunt I think.'

'But that's the kind of person I am… geez I may not know who I am, but I do know who I am not, and honestly Trailbreaker?' he looked back at the table briefly before continuing back to his lab, 'I am not the kind of bot to come to for emotional support.'

The defence specialist shrugged, 'You won't see me trying to change who you are.'

Wheeljack winked at him, 'I wouldn't know where to start.'

Wing's Journal

'Sentinel has declared war. It really isn't all that much of a surprise given where we now stand, but when comparing ourselves to the Autobots well… we may outsize them but they outnumber us ten to one. Fortunately however, more and more bots have been signing up and volunteering to convert with the 50/50 formula, the miners, and the empties, everyone who is being wronged by this senate. And you know what? Lots of bots are getting the right idea that we are the correct way to live, that we can only properly evolve if we all are infused with the 50/50 formula, once all become one….'

Skywarp

Skywarp was sitting behind the pilot's seat of the NMMB (Nemesis Mobile Medical Bay) piloted by Spinister. He wasn't cuffed anymore, though he wondered whether the pair of Novacons had cared, or if they had simply forgotten. He hadn't really been treated like much of a prisoner since his capture; but then again he had barely realized what had happened during the event, the last thing in his mind being that of Thundercracker's face just before jetting away from the Nemesis. Now he was sitting behind a couple of Novacons who since then had always appeared to have been average Decepticons.

'Ah Crap!' Needlenose cursed, slapping himself in the face.

'What is it?' asked Spinister dully.

Guess they found out about the whole no-cuffs thing. He thought.

'We left the game system back on the Nemesis!' the Novacon complained.

Spinister groaned, 'Whatever, we can stop by a space-mall and buy another when we reach there.'

'You don't understand, all my achievements… all those games, they're irreplaceable. Oh God I can just imagine Quake playing over all my save files right this minute.'

'Fine!' Spinister punched at the controls, 'We'll buy you a space-tissue at the space-mall while we're at it.'

Needlenose brought up his head and stared forward, 'what's the deal with things in space having the prefix of "space" in it, we know it's in space, why remind us?'

Skywarp cleared his throat to announce that he was going to speak. 'Well if we are dropping by the space-mall can we at least drop by Spacey's? I'm famished, and besides, I hear that their menus for mechanicals are top notch, their space-duck sandwich is especially-'

'Oh shut up Skywarp, how are our passengers in the back doing?'

Skywarp cursed Spinister under his breath, and peered in the window separating the medical bay from its cockpit to its main room.

'Uh… they seem alright, Octopunch looks kind of chill I guess, and I think- oh, now Stranglehold may or may not have just vomited over Snarler and... yep. They're all fine.'

'Good.'

It was then Skywarp decided that if he didn't ask now and while he was comfortable, then he may not have the proper chance to later.

'So, Novacons, the biologically enhanced super-soldiers of the past… I fought you all once, long ago.'

'We know,' said Needlenose.

'And I take it we've both killed people that the other knew at some point.'

'Skip to the point.'

'What do you want with me?'

Needlenose scoffed, 'Oh you'll see.'

There was a short moment where the only sound heard was the hum of the ship's engines and the annoying yelling coming from the back hatch of the ship.

'And after I "See", that's when you kill me right?'

'That'll be up to the others,' said Spinister.

Skywarp rolled his optics, 'Others, of course there's others.'

'Now, for the last time, shut up.' Spinister's optics lowered as he tried to drown out the noise, 'and tell Silverbolt to stop kicking, I can hear his muffled yells from the trunk and it's distracting me.'

Jazz

Mirage was sitting at his monitor within the Velocitron's main bridge. Several data screens lined the front of the ship in a large semi-circle creating a large crescent of light in the front of the ship. Sitting in adjacent terminals were Blurr, Windcharger, Gears, Huffer, Inferno and Topspin. Mirage nodded to Jazz through the monitor's reflection and continued his work.

'How are things coming along?' asked Jazz.

'I still haven't been able to make contact with the Decepticons. It's not a manner of distance though; it's more or less that they've placed a few walls between them and everything else, cutting themselves off from the outside. I guess something happened there that made them want to lock up.'

Jazz folded his arms, staring at Mirage's reflection, 'Then I imagine you've heard the news.'

'That there's a chance that the universe will blow? Yeah, I know about it, to be honest I never liked it all that much anyway.'

'We can stop it.' Jazz said assuringly, 'Ratchet's slowed down the process, and if we get help from the Decepticons then maybe we can seal the thing before it blows a hole in the fabric of space.'

'Which is exactly why I'm trying to contact them now' Mirage said, jerking his arm up in annoyance, ',and maybe- I don't know, maybe if we find a way passed this, then perhaps we can finally put together a truce.'

To Mirage's faint surprise, a creakier, grizzled voice came to his reply instead of that of Jazz's 'In all my years I've spent in this damn war, I've never heard of such a more impossible thing.'

Both heads turned to find Kup, standing firmly above the Spec Ops agent and twisting the Cy-Gar in his mouth.

Jazz motioned Mirage to stand with one servo and shook Kup's hand with the other, 'Mirage, this is- stand up- this is Kup, long time war veteran since the ages of Nova Prime if I recall.'

Mirage stood up and shook the older mech's hand cautiously, 'the pleasures all mine.' He said flatly.

Kup's optics glossed over Mirage's frame, looking over the blue, Velocitronian's facial and bodily language as he chewed on his Cy-gar.

'I don't I like you.'

Jazz could see Mirage smirk and felt obliged to stay out of either bots way; the meeting between these two had already given Jazz an unnerving feeling.

Mirage folded his arms and scanned the war-veteran from head to toe, 'War-born, covered in scratches, probably been awarded with a million medals for killing, smells like gunpowder and gasoline, yep, I'd say you're far from my kind of person either.'

Kup inched away from the two bots and peered over Blurr's shoulder, reading the results of their scans, a slight smile present on his faceplate. 'I take it you're a pacifist then?'

'I try to be, yes.'

Kup removed his Cy-Gar from his mouth and moved on to read Gears' results. 'Then I suppose that makes you a hypocrite because you're a warrior if I've ever seen one.'

Mirage's jaw tightened, 'It's just a means to an end, doesn't mean I enjoy fighting like Cliffjumper, or Dogfight or- or you do.'

Blurr raised his index finger above his head, 'Can'tspellpacifistwithoutfist!'

Jazz snapped his fingers in front of Blurr's face 'Oi, Leave the mindless quips to Bluestreak, a'ight Blurr?'

Kup brought his Cy-Gar back to his mouth and stopped at Inferno's terminal, 'Actually Jazz, something that's put me off-guard… you're handshake.'

'Yeah?'

'You were shaking, Mirage too.'

Jazz stared at the floor in distraught, 'It's the death. We've lost so many so fast that it's almost impossible to function let alone move on from it all.'

Kup's teeth gritted, 'I can tell ye a million stories about death, lad…'

Jazz jerked up his head, legitimately curious as to what Kup had to say about it, 'And do you still think about the people that died?'

'At my age?' he laughed in his old, creaky way and shook his head, 'It's hard to keep track of them all… you could say I've grown numb about it at this point.'

'And that, Kup.' Mirage waggled a strict finger at the older bot, 'I think that's one of the things I hate about you most.'

Kup shrugged disinterested as he turned to Jazz, 'have ye seen Jetfire anywhere?'

He shook his head, 'No, he's been keeping to himself I think.'

'I don't blame him' Kup sighed, 'he's the one who put Perceptor off with Ironhide and gave the order to abandon Silverbolt and the others, it ought to put a load on him.'

'I feel like you're sugar coating him,' lectured Mirage.

'I don't mean to do that…' Kup eyed Mirage's station wearily, 'I just think he needs to figure himself out on his own is all.'

Wing's journal

'Yes. Yes the death is worth it. We toppled another building and when I stood up there in front of everyone… God… they cheered me on, cheering my name. I only led the riot but I was still treated like a- like a hero! Don't worry though, I've been working on a better image, thanks to all the extra infusions I've done to myself, and by Primus the results have been astounding, I've got to be growing nearly as big as Scorponok by now. Now if only I could fix the name… anyways, it'll just take time and soon enough this war will break loose, and the damn snobs sitting around in their fancy houses will finally have their squeaky, wanting voices silenced. "More, more, more, eat, eat, eat, mine, mine, mine.' No more. We just need time…'

Soundwave

Slipstream faced the monitor, her index finger resting underneath her chin. They were on the Nemesis's bridge along with the rest of Soundwave's cassetticons.

'Tell me something Soundwave,' she pointed at the main-screen curiously, 'what is that flashing light all about?'

'It is a communications beacon.' He briefly looked down at Ravage, 'we are being contacted.'

'By who, I thought we blocked all communications so that the Novacons wouldn't be able to track us.'

'It's the Autobots, they've hacked passed all of my firewalls.'

Slipstream folded her arms, 'The fact that they've managed to come into contact at all ought to mean that they're not far away.'

'I'd say so,' said Frenzy, backing away from the group. Both optics locked on the front-view monitor.

Slipstream stared at the small Decepticon skeptically, 'You think?'

'I do.' Frenzy pointed at a white and grey shape on the monitor, 'Because if I'm not wrong, that's them, just a few clicks ahead of us.'

There was indeed a shape on the monitor, and the fact that it was labeled with an Autobot reading all but confirmed Frenzy's suspicions.

Soundwave nodded at the Cassetticon and turned to Slipstream, 'What do you suggest?'

Slipstream stared at the image of the Velocitron and Broadside, ships, attached by a single boarding cable. She appeared to have been going over the options within her head.

'We…' she stopped herself, shook her head, and brought her hands to the terminal, 'we'll send them a ping.'

Jazz

Amongst the irritating bell sound coming from Mirage's terminal, Inferno had been shouting at them from across the room. 'Guys, it's the Decepticons they- they've sent us a ping.'

'You mean they're replying?' asked Jazz, rushing to Inferno's side with Kup and Mirage in tow.

'I guess so, should we-'

'Ping them back,' ordered Kup.

With a few moments, both ships became aware of each other's presence, and both found themselves closer to one another. On the Nemesis, Soundwave felt the connection growing stronger; there was no denying it now.

'What do you think Soundwave?'

Slipstream was tapping a finger against the controls in impatience, her optics glowing a determined crimson. 'I am feeling the need to nuke them all to Kingdom Come right here and right now. We could do it if we activated all of our firepower… even if we may be low on subordinates what with most of them still repairing their injuries from Grimlock, we still have both the Nemesis and Ark's guns to turn them into nothing but dust, so tell me Soundwave.' She turned to him, her teeth gritted together, 'why do I keep getting this feeling that this is the last thing you want me to do.'

Stuck to the roof behind her came a chattering laugh, it was Ratbat.

'Oh Slipstream… how foolish you are.'

'Oh Ratbat… how ugly you are.' She mocked back, making an offensive hand-gesture in the cassetticons general direction.

The bat hissed from his upside down position and reeled back, 'I would mind yourself when speaking to a Senator my dear.'

'And I would shut the frag up when I'm in the room my… my bat.' Realizing that she had no idea where she was going to go with the comment, Slipstream snapped her fingers at Soundwave and furrowed her brow.

'Forget it, Soundwave, explain.'

The communications officer brought his arm over his forehead and leaned against the overhead railing, staring at the visage of the Velocitron.

'The Autobots. They have him. On their ship.'

Folding her arms, Slipstream inhaled deeply and stared into the middle distance. 'Megatron.'

'Affirmative.'

'How do you know this?'

'I share a link with Megatron…' he frowned, 'and I can tell what you're thinking even without any form of mind-reading capabilities, it is not in any way some sort of friendship that links the two of us together, rather, a proper mental link, established between the two of us decades ago so that if he were to ever get too far away, too far gone, then I could always retrieve him, bring him back.'

Slipstream raised a brow, 'and this link is telling you that he is on board right now?'

'That would be the correct assumption, yes.'

Slipstream stared at the front-view monitor, the mere fact that she had to think about it made Soundwave sick.

On the Velocitron, amongst the Autobots in the front bridge, trying to make sense of how to deal with the image of the Nemesis inching towards them, Jazz received a call. He brought the communicator to his audio-receptor and waved a servo at Mirage and Kup.

'Sorry guys, I've got to take this, I'll be real-'

'Bastards!' spouted Gears, 'they've got the Ark hung under the Nemesis's belly like some kind of- I don't know, some kind of Trophy like-'

'Gears! Hush- I'll be real quick with this.'

Kup and Mirage nodded in unison and turned their attention to the bemoaned Gears.

'Hey Jazz? It's me I'm in the lower decks of the ship.'

'Hey Cliff, did you find him?'

'Yeah… I found him, but- actually can you hear what he's saying right now?'

'What's he saying right now?'

'He's saying- here let me put the speaker up to him, just a sec….'

From the speaker came a mildly familiar voice that worried Jazz.

'My people are coming… my people are coming… can't you feel it Cliffjumper? They're coming, they're coming.'

'You see? You don't think it's-'

'I'm willing to accept the possibility Cliff… take Dogfight and bring him to Ratchet, get Fixit to do some scans on his mind; otherwise I'll have to get back to you on him.'

'Alright, I'll see what I can do, over and out.'

Jazz pulled the communicator away from him, stared at it for half a second, and returned it back to his belt.

Skywarp

The ship fumed, groaned, and came to a long stop as Spinister landed it into what Skywarp thought was either a small planet, or a space station. Hitting the ground in what appeared to have been a docking bay; a couple of Cybertronians came rushing towards the ship as its doors swung open. The first one was a red and beige mech carrying what Skywarp thought looked like a duster while the other was about the size of Quake and was both purple and beige with a widened mouth. Needlenose strutted out of the ship first being sure to make a grand entrance as he skipped his way onto the pavement below.

'Honey I'm ho-' tripping, Needlenose fell face-first into the pavement, swearing all the way. As the purple Cybertronian guffawed, the red one proceeded to wipe the duster across Needlenoses frame, sweeping the debris off of his helmet and faceplate, the Novacon cursed and swatted the duster away from him.

'Get the hell away from me Windsweeper'

The bot pouted and walked away, 'There are far too many germs in space… it's not my fault if you get space-diarrhea later.'

'We don't get space-diarrhea Windsweeper' said Spinister, exiting the ship with Octopunch, Stranglehold and Snarler in tow. 'We're mechanicals for Primus sake.'

Windsweeper made a nagging gesture as he creeped away from the group, 'Oh you have no idea how many diseases one can get as a mechanical… no idea.'

Spinister turned to the purple bot for support who spoke in a loud, booming voice.

'He has been that way ever since he went on the Outernet!'

'And I see you're the same as always Ruckus.' Needlenose nodded, pulling a box of Energon fries out from his belt. 'Oh yeah, we stopped by Spaceys while we were at it… you can have the rest if you want.'

Ruckus snatched the box from Needlenoses hands and held them close to his faceplate, 'Sweet!'

Pulling Skywarp along, Spinister pushed the stasis cuffed, Stranglehold, Octopunch and Snarler towards Ruckus, 'Set these three up for infusions, they're becoming one of us now.'

Snarler perked his head up as a greasy hand grabbed him by the back of the neck, 'Wait, infusions? I wasn't told anything about any sort of infusions!'

'Hahah!' bellowed Ruckus, 'Y'all are gonna have lots of fun with this… just don't take my Energon goodies!'

Needlenose chuckled and winked at Skywarp as he walked back towards the ship, 'Kids…'

The Seeker felt himself smile and stared at his hands, I remember when I was a kid. The next thing he saw were a pair of stasis cuffs tighten around his wrists. Looking up, he found himself face to face with Spinister, who, despite the faceplate, Skywarp could have sworn was smiling.

'You didn't really think I'd forget, did you?'

Skywarp rolled his optics, 'Alright, fine, fine, take me to your leader.'

'Yeah,' Needlenose called, dragging something out from the back of the ship, 'just gonna bring Silverbolt along.'

Skywarp craned his head from Needlenose to Spinister, 'Along for what?'

'The tour of course' Needlenose exclaimed as he dropped the heaving Aerialbot next to them. 'He's a little angry, but I doubt he'll bite, he's missing an arm, a leg, and a wing after all.'

Silverbolt was whispering something under his breath, and while Needlenose and Spinister didn't seem to hear it, Skywarp could perfectly make out the words, "Die. Die. Die," Repeated over again.

'Come on now,' Needlenose urged, 'I'll introduce you to everyone.'

As Spinister dragged Skywarp out of the docking bay and through the snaking ebony hallways, the Seeker had begun to question how he felt about the whole ordeal. He felt oddly calm; perhaps it was because he had sensed such little concern or aggression from either Needlenose or Spinister, or maybe it was because he had just gotten used to the feeling of danger over the years, either way he felt as though he should have felt angrier to know that these bots, the Novacons.

'Wait a minute; you're going to introduce me to everyone?'

'That's right.'

'The entire Novacon army.'

'Oh don't worry, you've already met half of them.'

Half? This worried Skywarp. Where had he met so many Novacons before? Were there more hiding aboard the Nemesis or did- were they-?

'Oh.'

He already met half of them.

'OH!'

Then, Skywarp did what he loved to do most. He laughed.

Spinister frowned at the Seeker's cheery nature, 'What. No really, what's so funny?'

Skywarp felt himself bending over in laughter, oil dripping from out of his mouth and off his lip as he guffawed in cynical pleasure.

'It's just- heh- there are only six of you! All this time when I thought you had an entire army under your belt, you're actually just a small group of stragglers!'

Neither Needlenose nor Spinister responded. Reaching the end of the hallway, Spinister tapped away at a passcode, opening the doorway into a dim lighted, gymnasium-sized room.

'Well? It's true isn't it? It's just you two, those others, the guy who you've got in charge and one other I presume.'

Emerging from the shadows came a tall, imposing, Novacon with a samurai, styled helmet, and a skull-like face. His armor was green, orange and red and seemed to replicate that of what a human would call a Japanese samurai, though the coincidence wouldn't have been noticed for another four million years. His figure sent a chill of unease up Skywarp's spinal strut, not due to his size or posture, but from the lack of light where his optics should be, they appeared to have been just a couple of dark holes in a strangely real looking skull.

Skywarp smiled at him, 'And I suppose this is your so called leader then, yeah?'

'This is Bludgeon,' Needlenose gestured towards the much larger Novacon, 'and no, he is not our leader.'

'We have only one.' Bludgeons voice was low and chilling, as if the metallic skull replacing his face was talking from beyond the grave, 'he always has been… and he always will be our leader.'

Skywarp's grin began to fade, 'No. He's not alive, I watched him die, the- Silverbolt' he turned to the Aerialbot in question who was kneeling beside Needlenose, '-Silverbolt had hacked into those codes, the- Acroplex it was, the Senate's main system, he activated their hidden weapons and dropped a bomb that disintegrated him, I was there, I remember.'

Spinister tilted his head to the side, 'And you refuse to say his name…'

'I- it's been a custom ever since… his name it's- saying it at all is treated as an offence and the- the rule kind of just… stuck.'

'Well todays your lucky day!' exclaimed Needlenose, 'because you're going to be saying it, here and now.'

With a snap of his fingers, the lights brightened revealing a massive object at the far end of the room. Light reflected off of it like a mirror, and within his own reflection, Skywarp could see fear.

'Say it.' Bludgeon urged, 'say exactly what you see.'

'I see…'

'SAY IT!'

'I-I don't know what I- I see a giant metal egg!'

Wing's Journal: Final Log

'I can feel it, my mind, those hundreds of infusions; they've affected my brain module as well. I can see everything so clearly now and it's beautiful. I feel so calm I… I know about it now. …What is "it" you might ask? Well… everything of course. I know things now that the old Wing would never know, things that make me feel happy, and sad, and wonderful! My mind is evolving, changing into something fantastic and new, and I know precisely what it means now to bring on change…'

Within the Velocitron, Wheeljack tidied his science lab, scuffling away sheets of paper and forgotten plans as he prepared to close down for the night, or was it day? You could never tell with space. A light knocking coming from the doorway behind him brightened his spirits however. It was Jetfire, standing tall and determined.

'I think I'm ready.' He said, nodding.

Grinning, Wheeljack lifted up a hand-held blowtorch and beckoned him over, 'It's about time.'

'Power… it all relates to what affect you have on the people and how they see you, if you do not have the voice for it, then you'll never lead, even if your goals are pure, you'll never accomplish them. If you appear weak to the people, then that is how you'll always be, it's a sad fact, but how true it is…'

Inside the Velocitron's medical bay, Ratchet watched his patient, and for a split second, could have sworn he saw Megatron grin.

'We are a pitiful existence, basing ourselves off of material possessions and pre-established facts instead of looking towards the future and what it holds…'

In another area of the ship, Sideswipe felt himself being watched, and looked over his shoulder to find Arcee ducking away.

'But to change that… we need to follow the current laws, become bigger…'

Within the smaller, tighter cellblock, Red Alert stared at his prisoner, Barricade, and raised a brow as the Decepticon yelled out in pain.

'Stronger…'

On the Nemesis, Thundercracker sat himself outside the Decepticon's own cell block and beckoned the shying Snarl to sit next to him.

'And fly!'

Within one of the many warships in the Masters fleets, Snapdragon bowed his head to his commander.

'Luckily I can accomplish all of that now, I no longer need to focus on my silly laser pointer at the back of my car mode now…'

Within the Novacon's own spaceship, Bludgeon radioed Windsweeper to activate the warp engines.

'…now I can soar above the clouds… the earth quakes with my every step, thunder crackles with every shout…'

With the Nemesis in sight, Shockwave gave the order to Astrotrain to jet towards it at top-speeds only to find a bright white light flash between the Nemesis and the Velocitron.

'I am the one who will forever be remembered…'

And on the bridge of the Velocitron, Slipstream's hologram materialized before Jazz, Kup, and Mirage. She appeared impatient, as if she had expected to see someone else.

'Where is he…?'

When no one else would speak, Jazz cleared his throat, swallowed his doubts, and stepped forward, 'you mean Megatron… it's a long story, and a little unbelievable but-'

Slipstream grimaced and shook her head furiously, 'No, no, I mean Jetfire, he's ought to have found his way to you now hasn't he?'

'Oh.' Jazz massaged the side of his helm, 'He's- he's just-'

'He's just entering the room.'

Heads turned in unison to the bridge's entrance to find Jetfire, standing firm, polished and buffered with a pair of brand new Autobot symbols on his wings, replacing the Decepticon ones he had earlier. Taking charge, Jetfire nodded at Jazz to step aside and faced Slipstream. either servo clasped behind his back.

'Slipstream.'

'Jetfire' she nodded back.

'We have Megatron, he currently has a-'

'Space consumer around his spark, thingy that absorbs matter and damages space, yeah Soundwave has already read his mind.'

Jetfire turned to the others and nodded, 'Then you know what we have to deal with right now, what we all have to deal with now.'

'We can't help you.' She admitted, 'we're all out of bots that understand the mechanisms for it, from what I know you need to- wait, Perceptor, he assisted greatly in the study of the 50/50 formula, is he…?'

'He's not with us right now,' Jetfire's fingers dug into his palms, 'it was my mistake, we met up with Shockwave not long ago while he was… while he was trying to kill us. He wanted Ratchet and Perceptor to go with him to extract and demolish the space consumer; chances are he'll meet up with you soon.'

Slipstream faced away from the projector and massaged the back of her helm, 'Joy…'

She checked briefly to see if Soundwave was paying attention and brought a hand to her faceplate.

'Megatron stays with you.'

'Why-'

'Because that way we both have prisoners, you have Megatron, and we have Grimlock, your ship, and a few other bots, by keeping our prisoners, neither will be able to open fire on the other without killing the ones we want to save.'

Shocked by what he's heard, Jetfire turned to Kup and mouthed the name, "Grimlock" before turning back to Slipstream. 'This is the only way to ensure that we work together then.'

Slipstream nodded, 'Correct, it is with this stalemate that we'll be able to keep our focus on the proper threats, the space consumer, and the Nova- HOLY SCRAP!'

Warping between the two ships came the titanic, golden; spaceship that made the Nemesis look like the size of an escape pod in comparison, plastered on It was a faded, yet clear as day Novacon symbol.

'With power- my power, I now doubt that I shouldn't have any problems with appearances, yet it reminds me of something Pincher once said to me… my name.'

Within the dreadnought, Skywarp was on his knees next to Silverbolt. A voice screaming in his head to run.

'Say it,' ordered Spinister, 'the codes only work when spoken simultaneously, now hurry it up the both of you, activate the release code.'

Skywarp shook his head, 'It wasn't a bomb.'

'Oh it had the power of a bomb' Needlenose nodded as he circled the two, 'only it wasn't to release shrapnel, it was to seal material inside it.'

'Then he's-'

'He's inside.' Bludgeon confirmed, 'and you two are to open it.'

Skywarp shook his head with whatever power he could, 'NO! I won't let him walk again! Not after the people he's killed, he killed- he killed Casc- he killed my friends! And I will never, never, forgive him for that!'

Spinister chuckled, 'And I suppose that's where my abilities come in then.'

Pressing his fingers against the back of Silverbolt and Skywarp's necks, five needles pierced into either one, sending a thought, skimming their memories and finding precisely what he needed. And with a surge of power both Silverbolt and Skywarp's heads jutted up, their voicebox's working on their own.

'48 61 74 63 68 20 74 68 65 20 65 67 67'

Smiling, the three Novacons stepped back as the giant, egg-shaped object began to wheeze.

'Wing really is a silly one… and nobody is going to want to follow someone with a name such as that… oh. I can feel my mind finally willing to relinquish its rights so I better make this quick. My name, it must instill fear… and praise, yet still reminding people of what kind of bot I was before,'

'Now there's only one more step,' assured Needlenose, his optics narrowing as he stared at Skywarp, 'Say his name,'

Skywarp's optics tightened shut. His lips suddenly feeling dryer than he remembered, he was no longer the calm being that he was before, he wanted Thundercracker to be there with him, he wanted the real Needlenose and Spinister's to be there with him, and he wanted to stop being a terrified wreck.

'He's…' Skywarp tried to speak it, but only lengthened the inevitable, 'he's the oncoming storm, the child born from the inferno… crusted head of dead volcanoes.'

Bludgeon nodded, 'Yes, that's how the nursery rhymes describe him, but what is his name…?

'He creates thunder with every step, and devours those who he tramples in his way.'

'Say his name.'

'Your leader was a scientist named Wing who was wronged in ways I can only imagine… but after what happened, after the fall of Guardian Prime's rule, he changed his name, he became…'

Unable to speak any further, Skywarp gritted his mouth shut; he refused to say the Novacon's name, he would never say it. Fortunately for Bludgeon, Spinister, and Needlenose, Silverbolt would do it for him.

'Thunderwing.' The Aerialbot whispered.

'Thunderwing… tonight… not Wing… I am Thunderwing… tonight, goodnight, and goodbye.'

END LOG

And with Skywarp's words, the Egg split itself open, and a wave of steam emerged from within, blanketing the wide opened room with white. Creeping out came the large, menacing frame of Thunderwing, his beige and black body just as it looked as it did to Skywarp a thousand years ago.

And all he could do was scream.

Cybertron

It was the one place where no one would ever have thought, the one place in the Universe that Autobot and Decepticon alike, would never think to return in order to find him. It was the place they all wanted to return to, but never could. Cybertron, the home world, thought to be completely dead at this point. They were wrong. Among its three inhabitants was a Dinobot named Slug, gone mad after hours of torture by Shockwave, but this Dinobot was in reality the least important out of the three. The other two were deep within Cybertron's crust. One of them was wired to a massive metal cross, the other, watching and laughing. The former was without an arm, perhaps forever, and he could have sworn that he was going to lose his mind. To keep himself from doing so however, he hung on to something he knew he couldn't forget, his name. He repeated it in his head, over and over, but still, he felt his rage growing.

He repeated his name.

Optimus Prime

Repeat Journal entry loop... rewind... play...

Journal entry 001

'… Um… hello? Is this thing on…? Wait… why I would ask that, audio recorders don't speak… Do they? Anyways, I've never done this before. My buddy Drift told me that I should summarize my days here in the science vessel, something about doing so helps release my stress… somehow. Well anyways what to talk about, let's see… well my name is Wing, I was born from the Allspark in 2ndcycle 700 and placed in a rather regular laser pointer mode, well technically it is a hover car with a laser pointer appendage that got me in the science caste. They call it triple changing but in reality it is just my car mode facing the other way. Oh yeah, what I do, I work on the science vessel Harmonia where we search for more plausible and efficient ways to mine and find Energon, a rather boring job to be honest… but I suppose it's a living. To be honest there isn't really much else to say, my life isn't all that interesting and well… nothing has really been going on so I'll just end this here…'

END LOG

An: Hopefully you enjoyed this chapter, I'm unsure whether I'll be on a break now or not... but I'll try to get the next one in as soon as I can at my convenience.