The relic hunts continue. Breakdown and Optimus run afoul Dreadwing; and, with him, Starscream.

AN- Opener is a flashback in the RID 2015 timeline Knock Out traveled from.

One last trip down.

The planet was so blue beneath the ship. Such a different shade of the color than the electric living energy of Cybertron's surface.

Cybertron. The planet that was supposed to be home.

The ship went down.

They found each other easily. Arcee had parked outside the Nevada Unit:E facility and the ship decloaked. And Jack was at work inside the facility. He had been there when she hailed their comms and requested permission to land.

Of course she had permission!

Jack tried not to question how odd it was she was asking. Or why she had flown over instead of taking the bridge.

The two partners took a drive to the empty desert the old base used to be at. Jack had asked why she had come.

There was no mistaking that something was wrong.

Arcee had laughed and the bitter betrayal in the sound made his heart ache.

"I wanted to see if I could swing by. Stick around a while." She looked out over the desert. "Think your mom would pitch a fit if I set up camp in your garage again?"

No matter how odd the question seemed, Jack answered normally. "Of course not! We'd both love that, in fact, it's just...why?"

The cybertronian looked down at the human with an expression that revealed exhaustion behind the mirth.

"'cause the planet I fought so hard for doesn't want me around."

And that needed far more explanation. She spoke up about the political state of her homeworld and the people she'd been pulled away from by an unfriendly council.

It wasn't like Jack could exactly blame her for coming back.

"So you want to stay with us?" he asked. "As in, permanently?"

The two-wheeler shrugged. "I don't really have anywhere else to go. Besides, I think I've missed out on too much of my junior partner's progress in the career field. Isn't that right?"

Well, he really would've loved having her around during graduation and all but...

"Are you sure you want to though?" he said instead. "Are you sure you want to settle down on Earth?"

"I thought about pulling a Wheeljack instead," Arcee smirked. "Travelling around. Seeing the sights. I was considering following A...Airachnid's trail. Looking for any survivors she left behind. Just, you know," the two wheeler side and threw some dirt into the breeze. "Doing what I can to help people like me. And people like you; she went after you twice and I-I'll always feel responsible for the trauma she put you and your mother through."

Jack thought of a forest at night. Of heartrending terror. Of a survival kit that was shockingly helpful.

And of his mom, wrapped up in the air, acid and claws getting closer and closer.

Except things ended well for the two of them.

They had not gone so well for his partner.

"Would you want to go?" she asked him. Jack startled; he hadn't even absorbed the offer before he had asked a shocked "What?"

His surprise made her give a dull laugh.

"Yeah. Guess not."

Woah...

New York was huge. And he'd gone to a planet with buildings made for people the height of telephone poles. This city took Jack's breath away.

Miko was mocking him for it.

"Of course," she teased, "It's no Cybertron."

Alright Miko, hah hah. You win.

They putted out of the alley and Jack had to wonder about how empty the streets seemed. With the size of these buildings and the city itself, he expected a million people crowded everywhere.

Maybe they'd seen the Nemesis floating overhead and ditched town? Probably not. Although that would make New Yorkers rather genre savvy to the fact that aliens always attacked their city and the big pointy purple thing in the sky earlier was probably not human in origin.

Put two and two together and...

"Alright 'Face'," Arcee spoke up from her altmode to bring the focus back to the job.

He supposed they really did need to focus on what they were doing.

The four of them found a construction zone in the eerily quiet city and slipped down.

For a while, they prowled together. The teens moved quick to keep up with the steady pace of the two scouts. The autobot guns lit up the tunnel enough for Jack to see the subway rails.

And for him to see where Bumblebee was stepping.

"Bumblebee, don't move!" he told the yellow mech. Pede still in the air, Bumblebee turned to buzz quizzically at him. Unfortunately, without Raf, Jack had about as good a chance understanding the vernacular as he did understanding any of Ratchet's schematics. "The third rail. It carries electricity to power the subway trains. One touch and zap! You're fried."

He could tell Miko was glaring at him without even looking. The other teen huffed and crossed her arms.

"Pft. Must've learned it on TV or something."

The girl sure was surly about him interfering on her 'turf' (ie the urban landscape). Honestly, Miko...Jack shook his head.

"It's not a competition, you know," he said to her. Miko looked at him with the same pout.

"I know," she conceded.

Huh. That was almost too ea-

"But I'm still winning."

Uhuh, and there it was. Jack shook his head with a silent laugh and followed her down the tracks.

The bots, still a good few feet in front of them, turned to look down one of the forks in the subway tunnels.

"Drilling." Arcee kept her gun pointed forward and moved with more caution.

All very deserved caution. That much had to be clear when they turned another corner and saw the purple figures of decepticon troopers. The vehicons spun away to point red gun barrels at the bots. The bots tensed up and pointed back.

Miko tried to run forward and catch up.

But that wasn't gonna happen on his watch.

"Wh-hey!" she stuttered and looked searingly at the hand on her thin arm. Jack didn't let up in his mission to tug her away from the soon-to-be-a-battlefield.

He knew what to expect from Miko by now; and running out there into danger seemed right up her alley.

The key word there was 'danger'. And Jack would rather neither of them got hurt today.

Even if it meant putting a pause on the 'not a competition' that he was currently winning.

Really, he was almost glad for the snowstorm. It made a lot of noise. Better to hear the wind blow than just silence.

Breakdown would feel the instinct to fill a silence. Since his only conversation partner was Prime at the moment, he really would rather...just no. No talk. Not with the autobot leader.

Rather unsurprisingly, Optimus did not talk much either. The Prime motioned in the direction of the triangulated coordinates.

"Be on your guard, Breakdown," he said and the blue mech found it odd to be directed so personally.

But with such a small unit, he supposed the bots could get far more personal with each other. On the warship, most didn't bother getting to know the name of every single fighter. Even Breakdown, who tended to spend more time talking with the vehicons than he did officers, didn't know most of the army's designations.

It had been a few vorns since he'd been in a unit small enough that the commander spoke his name so personably.

He had really thought Knock Out was trying to avoid units like that.
Yet here they were, on his orders.

"We can expect that the decepticons also have travelled to these coordinates," Optimus continued patiently.

"'Kay." Breakdown shrugged.

Oh, he would never show that sort of disrespect to lo-to Megatron. But no matter how intimidating being near the autobot leader was, Optimus Prime was no warlord.

His plating crawled at his neck when he realized Optimus was still looking at him. Breakdown felt the instinctive need to draw his head closer to his body; he squashed down on the instinct and fell back on his other reaction-

Which unfortunately tended to be looking for a fight. That wasn't going to work here either.

"I am here to work closely alongside you," the autobot leader said. "An evaluation, if you will, on both our parts."

That didn't sound reassuring at all.

"Your partner informed me of your decision to follow his steps into the autobot faction," Optimus went on. "But that he was the one to tell me rather than yourself has given me the impression you are still unsure about your place among us."

Breakdown tried to think of something to say.

"This mission is our first chance to work together without the others. I would like us to take this opportunity to determine what role you would be best suited for in the future," the Prime finished. "Now is the chance for you to inform me of what you hope to find among our small unit. Please do not be hesitant to do so."

The snow blew around them. Frost had already built up on both their painted plating.

"...yeah. Okay."

And with that they finally started to move through the snow.

Since they had bridged a good mile from the coordinates, both of them transformed to drive. Through the storm, it was hard to see what shapes lay in the distance. But soon enough, a dark blue and gold blob joined shapes of purple and silver; and that was not exactly a mistakeable sight.

Optimus transformed first. The Prime looked out at the decepticons that had not seemed to notice them yet. Breakdown joined him in rootmode.

So, Dreadwing. It had been a bit. Last time Breakdown had seen him was when the seeker was telling him not to chase after Airachnid alone.

He had to wonder, if he had listened to the other con, would he be stuck in this predicament with the bots?

There was a tall silver shape with the others. If he had to bet, he would assume it was Starscream. And the officers had vehicons with him. So far, Breakdown had fought against the squishes that had tried to pull him apart and the insecticons that Airachnid had gotten herself.

This would be the first fight he'd have with actual decepticons.

It made the still-very loyal part of him twitch in discomfort.

"We will approach with caution. Expect a fight."

It was a fight Prime probably could win even without Breakdown. With him? Easy prey.

But Breakdown hadn't really ever fought vehicon troopers before. Not seriously at least. Not to the death.

"Wait," he spoke up and drew Optimus's full attention. It was rather eerie how the Prime himself could narrow all his focus on one bot.

And Optimus waited.

Alright, well that answered one question Breakdown never would have asked.

"What if we trap them?" he finally continued. "Knock Out and I do that sometimes. He'll go get all the attention and then I'll strike from the side."

Optimus nodded.

"A worthy plan. If you can drive to where the troopers and Starscream are holding up from above the ridge, then by all means surprise them. But," the bigger mech grew more solemn, "there is the chance that you will be seen or heard."

Breakdown shrugged. "I'm not scared of a fight," he countered and Optimus let out a little hum. He had the feeling that hum was judgemental in some way.

How did Knock Out stand talking with this guy? It didn't make sense to him. His partner didn't like being judged last he'd checked.

And he didn't know why the medic acted like Breakdown should be liking this. Like he should be gushing and celebrating, 'oh, I get to be an autobot, oh a badge, whee'; Knock Out was supposed to know that Breakdown didn't like feeling judged. Especially not by a commander. Lo- Megatron was an exception, if just because Megatron so obviously judged everyone. His criticism after Breakdown had lost an optic had hurt. His mocking about Breakdown not being able to do the jobs given him hurt. Of course they did. And in hindsight, it deserved to; he had failed to get the polarity gauntlet and he had failed to kill AIrachnid.

But the Prime...he wasn't judging everyone. He was nice to his scout and nice to old Bulkhead and soft and weak and it made it so much worse when he turned those blue optics Breakdown's way to question his every move with a mere 'hm'.

"Be careful."

Wait. Breakdown's optic narrowed. That wasn't the response he'd thought he had read in that blue state. He wasn't sure whether to take those two words as an insult to his skill or feel honored that it seemed to matter to the commander.

"Um, boss," he spoke up again. As he had last time, Optimus stopped his movements transform and waited. "So, about the plan. You're expecting a fight, but the only big threats over there are Dreadwing and Starscream."

"They are both exceptionally dangerous foes," the other said plainly. Breakdown barked a laugh.

"Well, yeah, though I could take 'Screamer easy. But the others are all just troopers," he said. When that didn't seem to receive the response he thought was appropriate, Breakdown rolled his optic. "I happen to like alot of my troopers. Sure, we bust heads and all when they mess up a simple op, but-"

And then Optimus was standing in front of him and had set a servo on his shoulder. Breakdown was so surprised at the contact that he failed to shift away.

"I see."

And that was all he said. Prime stepped back and transformed. His engines rumbled and the semi started forward slowly.

Breakdown stood there a moment with his mouth hanging open.

He quite truly did not know how he felt about what had just happened.

But he did realize that his makeshift plan would fail if he didn't get moving. The blue mech transformed as well and drove for the snowy ridge.

"Funny," Wheeljack said as he piloted. Sitting in the one and only passenger seat, Ratchet braced himself for a comment that was almost guaranteed to not actually be funny. "First he calls me in to watch you during that spider debacle," the wrecker cast a glance at the seated medic, "'now Prime thinks you need backup here, huh?"

Ha ha. As he'd suspected, the humor part of the comment was lacking.

"If you must know," Ratchet argued, "Optimus still feels strongly that you need my supervision."

The pilot looked away with both brows raised at that.

"Oh," he said and it oozed disbelief. "I'll be sure to be on my best behavior then, doc."

Ratchet groaned. Enough with the nickname already-

No respect with these wreckers, he swore. Bulkhead always destroying tools he needed, Wheeljack always giving him grief; no respect at all.

"P-le-ase," the medic blustered in protest, "Don't call me 'doc'."

It seemed that biting the bait only made Wheeljack's little smirk grow.

"Whatever you say," the wrecker looked lazily at him again and paused before adding, "Sunshine."

Oh, for crying out loud.

Ratchet threw his servos up in grumbling defeat.

"We are on a mission of grave importance," he said. "Trying to keep weapons of mass destruction away from decepticon servos. Would it kill you to take this seriously?"

"Relax," the other waved at him calmly. "No worries, doc. I've got your back."

For the love of-

"My name is not doc," or Sunshine or any of the like, Ratchet shot back. "And I don't require anyone watching my back! I proved my metal during the war for Cybertron."

And he had. He was a field medic who'd spent countless vorns on the battlefield; sometimes for medicine and sometimes to fight. Optimus knew he was fully capable. Younger, sprier mechs could do very well to learn it.

And Wheeljack wasn't even young. Just endearingly aggravating like young rookies tended to be, that was all.

The wrecker shot something back about his battlefield prowess that felt very sarcastic to him. It made Ratchet grumble in defeat again.

This mech would be the death of him yet.

Unfortunately, that seemed to be far less like sarcasm when Soundwave and Lazerbeak began to fly behind the Jackhammer.

The commander finished driving up and approached the already armed seeker.

"Optimus Prime," Dreadwing greeted with a frown. "I will request only once that you surrender the relic."

From the top of the ridge where Breakdown lay, he could hear the Prime's response.

"I was going to request the same of you, Dreadwing."

Without being in the middle of combat or conversation himself, Breakdown was able to think uninhibited.

And currently he was musing over the fact that both Prime and Dreadwing tended to speak painfully slowly. They wasted so much good potential battle time just by making sure to enunciate each word.

Down below, it looked like hostilities had already erupted. The sounds of clashing drifted up the howling wind (the same wind that's noise concealed his sounds of transformation on the ridge top).

When the spots of blue and gold and red disappeared into the snowstorm, Breakdown took that as his cue. The mech hoisted himself over the edge of the ice and slid down the cliff. Show and ice tore lose as his pedes skidded down the surface.

"-a stalemate would leave us whe... what?"

Starscream turned his head up as the ice clattered down and his face went comically exaggerated in surprised fear.

Pft, coward. Breakdown wasn't nearly on a track close enough to actually hit him.

The blue mech crashed down to his pedes and felt the shockwaves rush through him at impact. Then he straightened up and saw-

Two sets of guns staring him down.

The vehicons hadn't shot yet though. Small comforts, right?

"Hey-" he frowned at them. "Put those down. You don't want to try it."

From the way the two looked at each other for directions, they didn't.

Starscream shoved his way past them to look at Breakdown better. It was only now that the blue mech noticed that the gray seeker was stuck in cuffs.

Huh. Looked like he hadn't been let back into the cons. Tough break for Starscream.

"You! Breakdown!" the seeker waved his restrained claws at the grounder. "Release me of these shackles now!"

Always so demanding. Breakdown chuckled and shook his head.

No, that really didn't sound tempting. And it sounded even less helpful for Prime.

Optimus may make him feel uncomfortable and he may still not care much for being an autobot, but the cards had already been laid down. He had already picked his ally for this fight. And he wasn't about to add extra problems for said ally by letting this maniac go.

Starscream's optics narrowed at his indecision. One of the vehicons grabbed the seeker's arms to shove him back.

"Comma...Breakdown..." the other trooper started, obviously unsure.

He-. He really didn't want to kill these guys. Breakdown wished they'd just leave. But that wasn't a good move to have on a con's track record if they wanted Megatron to leave them be. Chances were low they would.

"Come on," the blue mech gestured with his hammer to the white wasteland behind him. "Get out of here."

That seemed to brighten the captive seeker's mood considerably. Starscream perked up and tried to push forward again.

"Yes, do. In the meantime," the red glare bore into him. "I do believe you owe me one."

Breakdown only then realized that he should've seen that coming.

"Yes," Starscream continued gleefully. "I remember quite clearly. You have a debt with me. And it is time to choose sides."

The troopers couldn't seem to decide which of them to point their weapons at. The seeker lifted his arms towards Breakdown in waiting with a cocky smirk.

This was all a bit much. Seemed like too many decisions to be making all right now but-

But he did owe that debt.

He stepped close and brought the servo that was not a hammer yet over the cuffs. They would be easy for him to tear right off. The vehicons lifted their guns and the weapons hummed.

Of course that was when Optimus returned from the storm.

Both troopers looked away to stare at the latest threat. With their guns off him, Breakdown crushed the middle of the cuffs and Starscream's smile grew.

The Prime lifted his own guns up. The ex-stunticon stepped away from the seeker to move near Optimus.

"Hey-" he started, looking between the stalemate that would break into shooting any moment. "What'd I say earlier?"

He turned to glare at the troopers. "Get out of here."

They didn't. But they hadn't shot yet.

Soon as they started shooting, Prime would shoot back and then it was done. Breakdown didn't mind smashing most opponents, but the drones on the Nemesis...He just didn't know. They were all pretty decent mechs. Scared, always worried they'd be the next to go, but personable and good listeners. Probably better listeners than his own partner was.

"And I thought we were gonna let them go," he turned to Prime accusingly. A beat passed. Then one of Optimus's guns turned into a servo; the appendage motioned passively at the waiting vehicons.

"Stand down," the commander stated evenly.

Of course, that never did work.

But this time it wasn't the vehicons faults.

Moving closer, Starscream looked between Breakdown and Optimus closely. Their postures. Their words.

It was too easy to decipher. And the seeker was no idiot; he deciphered it all quite fast.

"Oh, no." Starscream's optics were angry slits. "You did not let him in."

Optimus didn't immediately respond. Breakdown couldn't help but look smug.

A mistake on his part. One that joined the list right behind letting honor and scrap dictate freeing Starscream moments before.

The seeker turned his claws on the nearest trooper ferally. They punctured through his back and the red visor went gray. Too slow to react, the second fell to the same set of claws; Starscream jabbed them through the vehicon's helm and then tore past the body even as it was still crumpling to the ground.

For some reason, the seeker tried to sprint away over the ice instead of flying. Optimus folded down and drove after the running rogue. Only a nano or two behind, Breakdown followed. It was the Prime that reached Starscream first. He leapt up from alt mode and crashed down into the slight form.

Breakdown transformed when he reached them a moment later. He stood on the snow and watched the seeker trash and spit at Optimus, who had pinned him down easily.

It seemed to him that this was the angriest he had ever seen the volatile flightframe.