Chapter Twenty-Four - Broken Trust

Jazz hurried through the base, nodding a greeting to the mecha he passed.

Normally, the former investigator would stop to chat. Right now, he had other things on his mind.

Like searching for Prowl.

Who turned out to be in a rather important meeting.

Jazz had already decided he wasn't too fond of meetings.

Pacing back and forth in the hallway outside the newly designated meeting room, Jazz muttered to himself.

"Of all the times ta call a meeting Ori- Ah mean, Optimus. Dat's gonna take some gettin' used ta."

Finally, the door opened and the mecha that had been present began to exit. The short investigator moved between them, looking for Prowl.

He found him quickly. The Praxian did not look impressed when he saw Jazz.

"Jazz. Where were you? You were supposed to attend," Prowl remarked, crossing his servos.

Waving him off, Jazz grabbed his servo, pulling him along. "Not now, Prowl. Yell at me later."

"Where are you going?" asked Prowl, trying to reclaim his servo. "Jazz. Why are you so worked up?"

Jazz halted, making Prowl almost run into him. The former investigator turned to face his friend.

"Aurora Star just commed me. The transport we put Steeldust on was sabotaged," he replied worriedly.

Prowl's optics widened. "Is Steeldust alright?"

Shaking his helm, Jazz began to pace again. "They don't know. First responders didn't find any sign of him. The crash was pretty bad. Aurora said there weren't many survivors found.

"Apparently, the mecha responsible mugged the passengers and offlined any who protested. Then, they blew up what was left of the transport. They left the mecha they'd dragged out of it alone after that."

"So they think he escaped then?"

"That's what it seems like. Enforcement is still looking into it." Jazz stopped, looking at the floor. "He has to have escaped."

Prowl stepped closer, placing a hand on his friend's shoulderplate. "Steeldust likely made it away undetected. Since he does not yet have a comm, there's no way we can contact him. However, he will most likely keep heading to Aurora Star and Aftershock's home."

"Ah hope yer right."

An alarm blared through the base.

The two black and whites exchanged a look before running off to investigate.


Steeldust lifted the lid of the dumpster and peered out.

The mechs that had been chasing him had passed right by his hiding place, and were now gone.

Picking up his bag, the youngling crawled out. After looking himself over, he flicked off a few pieces of trash that was stuck to him.

"Good thing it was mostly empty," Steeldust muttered, grimacing as he realized he now smelled like the dumpster.

Walking stealthily in the opposite direction, away from the mechs who had made the transport crash, Steeldust kept a sharp optic and audio out.

He wasn't sure how many mecha had attacked.

Less sure how many mecha that had been on the transport were still online.

Steeldust shuddered. If he hadn't been by the open window and fell out when the transport lost control...

He very likely wouldn't be wandering around.

"What do I do now?" he wondered to himself. "I don't know what part of Praxus this is."

Steeldust was supposed to be going to live with Aftershock and Aurora Star until Jazz returned from the Autobot army.

But now he was lost.

Steeldust looked down at his hands and servos that had taken the brunt of his fall. His hands were okay, just bruised and scraped. But his right servo had got cut by something and there was a nasty looking gash. It had mostly stopped leaking now that he'd found something in his bag to tie around it.

It still stung though.

He was lucky his injuries weren't worse.

"If-I-was-older-and-had-a-comm-then-I-could-call-someone-to-come-get-me. Or-if-I-had-an-alt-mode-I-could-just-drive-myself."

A map of the city might be nice too. He didn't know this part of Praxus.

He figured he'd just have to walk until he found an adult mecha that could help him. That shouldn't be too hard.

Right?

After walking for about a breem, Steeldust stopped.

"What-am-I-doing? I-don't-want-to-go-live-with-them. They're-nice-and-I-like-them-but-I'd-really-rather-just-stay-with-Jazz," the youngling said to himself.

An idea came to Steeldust. A crazy idea.

"Maybe, if I find Jazz, all by myself, then he'll realize that I'll be okay staying with him!"

After all, if he could make it across two city-states on his own, then he should be able to make it in a war. Besides, he already knew how to fight. At least a little anyways.

Possibly more than some adult mecha did.

Steeldust narrowed his optics, mouth setting in a grim line as he pulled the strap of his bag higher onto his shoulder.

That's what he would do. He would go find Jazz and Prowl. Prove to them that he wasn't just a little helpless youngling to be left behind. That would convince them.

He was sure of it.

Grinning, Steeldust turned and found a building he could climb. With a quick look at the stars, he got back down to the ground and ran.

Heading east.

East to Iacon.

Little did the nine-vorn-old know, it was going to be a long and dangerous journey.


A decacycle later, Steeldust had made it out of the main city and through most of the rest of Praxus.

After almost losing his bag several times by various ways, the youngling went looking for a medic who would be willing to give him an upgrade that included subspace pockets. And treat his servo.

He had finally found one in a lower caste section of the city. The mech was glad to fix the young one's servo. However, he was hesitant about the subspace pockets, since Steeldust was a few vorns younger than most medics liked when performing that upgrade. But the speedster managed to convince him with the help of most of his remaining credit he had with him.

Steeldust then had stopped for a few orns to recover. The upgrade hadn't been too bad on his frame, but it still had worn him out. He'd hung out in an abandoned building not far from the medic's clinic, just in case.

He was glad he didn't ask the medic about an alt form upgrade too, though even he knew he'd have to wait a few more vorns yet.

Once he felt he could go on, Steeldust sorted through the few belongings his bag carried and placed them in his subspace. Perhaps, some orn, he could come back for his stuff that was at Aftershock and Aurora Star's.

After that, Steeldust moved on, leaving the bag where it was.

He wouldn't need it anymore so there was no point in taking it.

Once reaching the border, Steeldust glanced over his shoulder.

In the distance, he could just make out the skyline of the city. Between it and him, there were a few variations in the landscape.

"I wonder when I'll next see Praxus," Steeldust wondered aloud.

He'd taken to talking to himself, more than he ever had before. There was nobody else to talk to, so why not.

"I'll have to come back and see Blue."

With one last look, Steeldust sped across the border and into Altihex.

Jogging at a fair pace, the navy and black moved steadily on until the offcycle neared. At around this time of the orn, he would begin to look for a place to spend the offcycle, figuring it was safer to travel by orn.

Finding a crevice that went through the next layer of the planet, Steeldust slipped down in. Allowing his night vision to adjust, he soon found a place to recharge where he felt would be safe.

The youngling stretched before crawling into the small hole and laying down.

"I-wonder-what-everybody-else-is-doing-now," he thought as he listened to his surroundings.

The offcycle creatures had begun to come out as the solar cycle ended.

Above him, he could just barely hear the chirping of some tiny nocturnal creatures. Somewhere else, there was light skittering, possibly a retrorat or petrorabbit.

"I-wonder-if-anyone-misses-me-or-realizes-that-I'm-missing."

Steeldust rolled over onto his side, faceplate facing the entrance to his burrow. If it weren't for the fact he wanted to hear anything or anyone coming, he'd listen to music.

Instead, he had to settle for the chirping song above ground.

Which wasn't actually that bad Steeldust decided.

He could do this. He'd made it into Altihex with only minor challenges.

"One more city-state," he told himself, as he began drifting off into recharge.

In the distance, a cyberwolf howled.

Steeldust was suddenly very awake. He jumped, hitting his helm and doorwings against the walls of his hole.

Another cyberwolf answered, followed by a few more.

Forcing himself to relax, Steeldust muttered to himself, "They're-not-close-just-their-voices-carry-a-long-way. And-besides-they-can't-get-down-here. The-crevice-I-came-down-is-too-small."

With that thought, Steeldust shifted to be more comfortable and tried to recharge.

It wasn't that much of a problem, he'd traveled all orn and was tired.

Soon enough, the nine-vorn-old was out, lulled to recharge by the offcycle creatures.


Several offcycles later, Steeldust found himself in a bit of a situation.

He'd come across a few mecha, likely wanderers. They seemed to be setting up camp for the offcycle.

Curiosity getting the better of him, the youngling snuck closer. His dark paint job blended fairly well with the growing shadows and he managed to get quite close.

Not close enough for his movements to be picked up by the flickering firelight though.

As he watched, he listened to the mecha talking to each other.

"Stupid Decepticons and Autobots. They've wrecked everything," one of the mechs snarled, dropping the servo-load of stuff he was carrying.

"Be careful," snapped a second one, shooting the first mech a dark glare.

The orange one threw out his servos, frowning down at the seated mecha. "What? Not like this scrap 'll break- "

"No! Be careful what you say."

"Never know who's listening," added the third mech, who'd been silent until now.

All three mechs were quiet then, peering out into the darkness surrounding their fire.

"Now that you say that-" the second one said slowly, shifting nervously.

"I feel it too." The third mecha got to his pedes, hand going to the weapon holstered at his waist.

Steeldust froze.

The mecha continued to warily look around, but didn't see the youngling hiding nearby.

Gradually, the group settled down, sitting around the fire. They were, however, watching what they said, talking in low tones. They were still wary, feeling like they were being watched.

Forgetting his fear of being discovered, Steeldust crept forwards. He couldn't hear what they were saying anymore and he wanted to know what they were talking about.

"Why-do-they-have-to-be-careful-about-what-they-say-about-the-two-sides-in-the-war?" the youngling wondered to himself.

There was a large rock just outside the circle of light from the mechas' fire. Steeldust made his way towards it, his pedes not making a sound as he snuck closer.

Something he had somewhat unconsciously learned from his guardian was how to move silently.

"I don't care what anyone thinks. This war is only going to make things worse."

"How do ya know that? They've already basically overthrown the Council. Isn't that in everyone's best interest? No Council, no caste system."

"Yeah. But what then? Do you think that every mecha will be willing to just give up the order the caste system provided? Besides, the Council isn't gone. Yet."

"The Council has already lost a few members, though I think we all know Ratbat ran away to hide in Polyhex."

"You think the little schemer has plans for Polyhex?"

"Pfft. This is Senator Ratbat we're talking about. If he knows how to do anything, it's scheming."

Steeldust twitched his doorwings. "What-would-the-Senator-want-to-do-to-Polyhex?"

He sat down, accidentally dislodging the metal gravel beneath him.

Three helms jerked towards his hiding place.

Instantly freezing in place, Steeldust's plating flattened tight against his frame. Doorwings hiked upwards as his optics widened. He pressed up against the rock, hoping he could somehow melt into it. Or blend in.

All was suddenly silent except for various nocturnal creatures in the near vicinity.

Steeldust held still, not even daring to vent. His fuel pump was hammering hard enough he thought he could hear it.

Astrokliks ticked by. No one said a word. No one moved.

Suddenly, a hand reached around the rock, clamping down over Steeldust's mouth.

Immediately, Steeldust began thrashing and fighting as another hand grabbed him, picking him up.

"Well, well, well," rumbled a broad, orange coloured mech as Steeldust was carried into the circle of light. "Look what we have here. Pretty young for a spy."

Steeldust managed to remove the hand over his faceplate by biting one of the mech's digits.

"Ouch! The little turbofox bit me!" the mech exclaimed, shaking his injured hand. He still held the youngling firm with his other servo, pinning him to himself.

"I'm-not-a-spy!" Steeldust yelled, still trying to wriggle free. "Let-me-go!"

"Feisty little thing, isn't he?" chuckled the second mech, a dark purple, medium-built flier. He stepped forward to examine their intruder. "What's someone like you doing out in the middle of nowhere all alone?"

"Maybe he's not alone," muttered the mech holding the youngling. He glanced around again warily.

The second mech shook his helm. "He's alone. There's no one within an orn's journey that has any younglings with them."

"LET. ME. GO!" Steeldust yelled, jerking violently with each word. With one last jerk, the youngling threw his pedes up and brought them back hard.

The mech holding him grunted in pain as two heels hit him in the tank.

But he didn't put the youngling down.

"We won't hurt you," said the second mech. "Why are you out here by yourself?"

"I'm on my way to find my guardian," hissed the speedster, pausing from trying to escape. "I didn't mean to spy on you, I was just wanting to know what you were talking about."

"See?" The second mech said, spreading his servos and shrugging. "Just a nosy youngling."

The first mech furrowed his optic ridges, folding his servos. "Where is your guardian?"

"If-you-put-me-down-I'll-tell-you."

Steeldust was suddenly on the ground in a pile of limbs.

"Oof!"

"Why'd you drop him? You could've broke his pedes!"

"He's fine," the third mech said, gesturing with a hand to the youngling. "See, look. He's getting up."

Steeldust untangled himself and got to his pedes. Sending a glare up at the blue mech who'd dropped him, he turned his attention to the other two.

"My guardian went to Iacon to join the Autobot army."

Silence.

The orange mech vented heavily and went to go sit down. The others followed him.

Steeldust tilted his helm. After a few kliks, he followed and sat down on the ground near the three mechs.

"Did I say something wrong?"

The purple mech looked down at the youngling sadly. "You got left behind and decided to follow, didn't ya?"

Steeldust nodded. "Yeah, I mean, I'm sure that if I manage to get there by myself, it'll prove that I- "

The first mech held up a hand, interrupting him.

With a shake of his helm, he said, "Look, youngling. You should have stayed where you were put. It's dangerous to be out here alone."

"I-made-it-this-far. All-the-way-from-Praxus, partway through the city itself," Steeldust said defensively, jabbing a digit towards himself. "And I couldn't stay where-I-was put cause-some mecha attacked the transport I was on. I got lost and now all I want is to find my guardian!"

The third mech turned his helm to look at him. "And how do you know your guardian is still in Iacon. It's a war. Mecha move around to different battlefields. Or get offlined."

With a shudder at the thought of Jazz being offlined, Steeldust grimaced.

"Then Jazz will find me. He's good at finding things."

"How long did you say you've been lost?" inquired the second mech.

"Almost two decacycles."

The three mechs shared a look.

"Does your guardian know you're lost?"

"Well, I think he should. The mecha that I was supposed to be staying with must know that I haven't got there yet. They probably told him," Steeldust said, optic ridges furrowed.

"Then if he's so good at finding things like you say," began the blue mech. "Why hasn't he found you?"

Steeldust's optics widened a fraction.

Why hadn't Jazz found him yet?

"Sorry, youngling. You might just be on your own," the first mech said slowly.

Speaking up quickly, the second mech gestured to the fire. "You can stay with us for the offcycle, youngling. Then, next orn, we will bring you with us. We're meeting with another group of wanderers to join them. Safety in numbers, you know. They have families with younglings that you could perhaps stay with."

"Okay. Thank you, " muttered Steeldust, staring into the fire as he rapidly thought.

Surely Jazz knew he hadn't made it to Aurora and Aftershock's. So why hadn't he found him yet? This was the shortest way from Praxus to Iacon. They should've crossed paths by now.

As Steeldust laid down to recharge by the fire, now sure the mecha wouldn't hurt him, he had an awful thought.

"What if- What if Jazz isn't looking for me?"


Steeldust resisted the urge to roll his optics at the question he'd just been asked.

In the past few orns since he and the three wanderers had joined the larger group, Steeldust had been asked why he was alone so many times.

The question was starting to get old. Fast.

With an annoyed twitch of his doorwings, the nine-vorn-old looked back up at the femme who'd asked it this time. In a as polite a tone as he could muster, Steeldust replied, "Well-about-two-vorns-ago-my-creators-were-offlined. I-was-found-by-my-guardian-who-adopted-me. He-left-to-join-the-Autobots. I-had-lost-contact-with-my-brother-until-recently. He-doesn't-want-anything-to-do-with-me. The-transport-I-was-on-to-get-to-where-I-was-gonna-be-staying-got-attacked-and-robbed. I-escaped-and-am-heading-to-Iacon-to-find-my-guardian."

After Steeldust finished his by-now-well-memorized-speech, he sat silently beside the femme, awaiting her response.

The femme just sat there, not sure if she should ask the youngling to repeat whatever it was that he had said. She had never met someone who could talk so fast.

Mulling it over, she realized she probably got the gist of it by the emotion and tone. With a quick nod, she said, "I see. I am sorry for what you've been through."

With that, the femme got up and hurriedly walked away, casting one last look over her shoulder.

As she continued off, Steeldust couldn't help but smirk. Mecha could keep asking him to tell his story, but he would just keep making it really brief.

Not that most of them understood what he'd said anyways.

Steel had decided that that was fine by him though. He wasn't planning on sticking around long, why get to know anyone? Or let them get to know him.

And it was somewhat amusing to see mecha's reactions to his speed. Both how fast he moved and how fast he talked when he wanted to.

As he sat in his corner of the cave, Steeldust remembered the orn he'd caught the petrorabbit at school. He smiled at the memory of Prowl's reaction when he was told.

He missed the enforcer.

Narrowing his optics, Steeldust got up, heading to find some supplies. If he had anything to do with it, he'd be in Iacon soon.

Then, he'd find Jazz and Prowl.

See if they still thought he should stay in Praxus.

The navy and black youngling made his way to the part of the cave where the wanderers were keeping their supplies. Some of it had been stolen, Steeldust was quite certain.

But like Gasket and his group of mecha had explained when he was with them, sometimes it was necessary. Gasket didn't like it, but they did what they had to to survive.

The wanderers weren't really that different.

"And-I-guess-I'm-not-either," Steeldust thought as he hesitantly grabbed a few cubes of energon and a small dagger from the pile. After putting them in his subspace pockets, he snuck back out into the main cave area.

This offcycle, he would leave.

From observing the sentries that guarded the camp the past few offcycles, Steeldust had figured out exactly where he could escape without their notice. There was one blind spot in their surveillance.

As grateful as he was for the group's care and help, Steeldust was ready to keep going.

Though, after talking to some of the mecha here, the youngling had some doubts.

"Do-they-even-want-me-to-find-them? Of-course-they-do. Why-wouldn't-they?" Steeldust frowned at himself for thinking like that.

"But-they-did-leave-you- "

Steeldust paused, stopping to look around him.

This group of wanderers was almost like a big family, made up of smaller ones and a bunch of loners who had joined together.

Maybe he could, should, stay with them. They seemed like they would accept him. There were several younglings around his age that he might become friends with.

"No. I-already-have-a-family. I-just-need-to-go-find-some-of-them," Steeldust thought, shaking his helm. "Jazz-must-just-be-really-busy-with-war-stuff-and-hasn't-had-time-to-come-looking-for-me."

The youngling kept walking towards the area he was recharging in. He would stick around there until dark.

"Too busy to find you? He's your guardian, he's supposed to take care of you," said a small voice in Steeldust's helm.

After battling with the thoughts in his helm for some time, Steeldust got up.

It was dark now. Time to leave.

Despite the doubts that had been planted by the mecha who were skeptical or concerned about Steeldust's wishes to go to Iacon, the youngling was still going to try.

He couldn't accept that there was a possibility that Jazz didn't care about him anymore.

It couldn't be true.

Steeldust refused to believe it.

Maybe Blurr didn't care, but Jazz did. He didn't leave him on purpose because he wanted to.

No one noticed the slim figure sneak past the mecha on sentry duty and run off into the offcycle.

Steeldust didn't look back. He kept his optics and pedes directed to the southeast.

He was going to Iacon. He was going to find Jazz and Prowl.

No matter what.


"Maybe-I-should-have-stayed-with-the-wanderers!" Steeldust said to himself as he ran.

Throwing a quick glance over his shoulder, the youngling scanned behind him.

He whipped his helm around and ran faster.

They were still chasing him!

"I'm-glad-I-didn't-stop-to-recharge-somewhere! I-wouldn't-have-seen-them-coming!"

Off to his left somewhere, a cyberwolf let out a howl. The ones behind him answered.

Steeldust continued to run. He had no idea where he was going. He just had to outrun them.

About a couple breems after leaving, Steeldust had come across the pack. He'd been crossing a shallow valley when he happened to look up at a hill that bordered the one side.

A lone cyberwolf was standing there.

It hadn't noticed him at first, not until it saw a flash of movement.

Apparently making a run for it, hoping the giant creature wouldn't be able to see him, was a bad idea.

It had let out a howl, alerting and calling the rest of the pack to chase the prey that sped through the valley.

A terrified Steeldust had suddenly become so much more terrified when, just as he reached the end of the valley, three more cyberwolves appeared.

Right in front of him.

Letting out a shriek, Steeldust had hit the brakes. He tried to stop so fast that he'd tripped over his own pedes, tumbling helm over heels away from the predators.

It probably saved him from colliding with sharp denta.

From there, Steeldust had rapidly scrambled to his pedes, slightly dizzy, and bolted.

Since then, the cyberwolves had chased him.

Steeldust wasn't sure how many of them there were. What he did know, was that he didn't want to stop and chat with any of them.

Especially not over dinner.

Which, if he didn't lose them, he might just become.

Picking up speed, Steeldust became merely a blur to anyone who watched.

Which of course, was just the cyberwolves.

After a few kliks, Steeldust slowed down to a jog, venting hard. He didn't dare stop and cool down, simply looking over his shoulder to make sure he'd lost the pack.

Obviously, they were nowhere in sight, being left in his dust.

"They-can-still-sniff-out-my-tracks-and-follow-me-though," Steeldust thought. "I-gotta-keep-moving-just-in-case."

So the youngling kept on running.

Even when the offcycle ended and the solarcycle began, Steeldust kept running.

He entered the edge of a town halfway through the orn, intending to find a place to rest.

Finding an old building he could break into, Steeldust snuck inside and found an empty room.

He curled up on the floor in the far corner, facing the door. Within a few kliks, the tired youngling was in deep recharge.

Steeldust hadn't recharged well for over two decacycles now, and exhaustion was setting in.

The fear and running away from the cyberwolves had just added to that.


Jazz scanned the battlefield.

The battle was over. They had won.

For now.

Lifting a hand to his comm, the former investigator waited for an answer.

"Yes, Jazz. What is the situation?"

"The Decepticons retreated. We got several injured mecha getting prepared ta come yer way," Jazz replied, moving towards a small group huddled around some mecha on the ground. "Mind sendin' some additional transport out here?"

"Right away," the medic replied.

The comm was disconnected.

Jazz reached the group and stood just outside the circle. He glanced around, keeping an optic for any stray Decepticons that hadn't retreated or had returned.

Nothing but fellow Autobots to be seen.

A familiar Praxian made his way towards the former investigator.

Jazz noticed and strode over to meet him.

"Ah've already got my mecha watchin' for any 'Cons. An' a transports on its way fo' da injured ones."

Prowl gave a quick nod, optics surveying the scene around them. "Very good, Jazz. As soon as it gets here, we will all leave. I want you to make sure that there is a group that follows as rear guard. And tell them to watch the skies as well."

"Right." Jazz twitched his doorwings in annoyance. "Dumb seekers."

"Exactly."

Soon the Autobots were heading back to their base, leaving a small squad to bury the offline.

The Decepticons would likely be back to deal with their own.

As Jazz drove along with the rear guard, he wondered where his youngling was. He still hadn't heard anything from Aftershock, who had promised to send word the astroklik that Steeldust got to them.

It had been over two and a half decacycles.

Where could Steeldust possibly be?

The former investigator refused to accept the possibility that Steeldust was offline.


Steeldust trudged through the dark Altihexian landscape.

He was glad for his night vision. The offcycle was dark, and there weren't any stars out to light or guide his path.

The nine-vorn-old had left the main city last offcycle, keeping to the outskirts of it to travel faster.

Now he was back in the mostly unpopulated area of the city-state.

Suddenly, as he crested a small rise, Steeldust came to a halt.

There were mecha, dozens of them, laying on the ground all over the area.

"Why-are-they-not-together? This-is-the-strangest-camp-I've-ever-seen." Steeldust thought, furrowing his optic ridges. "And-I-don't-see-anyone-on-sentry."

Flicking his doorwings, he crouched, then edged closer to investigate.

"Who-are-these-mecha? They're-so-quiet. And-why-does-it-smell-weird-here?"

Steeldust neared the closest mecha, ready to bolt if he woke up.

"This one must be a Seeker," the youngling thought, noting the large wings on the mech's back. "Wonder-what-he's-doing-here. Don't-Seekers-like-it-in-their-own-city-state?"

Suddenly, Steeldust's optics widened as he noticed something. He took a sharp intake, scrambling backwards a few steps.

There was a pool of energon underneath the Seeker.

Whipping his helm around, Steeldust looked at the mecha who were close by. Now that he was closer to them, he could see that there was energon by them too. And in various other places on the ground.

"What- What-happened-here?" Steeldust whispered fearfully.

He crept forward again, moving closer to the Seeker. Maybe he could help them, or run and get help.

But one look at the Seeker's dark optics and the hole in his chest told Steeldust otherwise.

He was offline.

After investigating a few other mecha, Steeldust realized that all of them must be offlined.

"Why?" The youngling scanned the horizons fearfully, trying not to purge his tank. "What-happened-to-them-all?"

"Holes-in-their-chests-or-helms. Marks-that-look-like-knife-wounds-maybe. Dents- "

Steeldust backed away in horror.

"The war-" he said in a whisper, wide optics darting from mecha to mecha. "They were fighting and- They were offlined."

"Which-side-were-they-on?"

Steeldust had noted that all the mecha he'd taken a closer look at had some sort of symbol thing on their plating. They must have all been on the same side because the symbol or whatever it was was the same.

But which side wore it?

"Jazz- "

Steeldust didn't want to see if Jazz or Prowl were here.

But he had to look.

Carefully making his way across the battlefield, Steeldust looked for familiar doorwings and black and white paint schemes.

As he reached the last mecha, Steeldust vented out a sigh of relief.

They weren't there.

"But-" Steeldust glanced back, a sorrowful expression on his faceplate. "Some mecha knew them. They belong to someone."

No matter what side they were on, surely someone would miss them.

Seeing the tracks of what looked like it could be a large transport, Steeldust decided to see where it had gone. They seemed to possibly head towards Iacon.

Maybe, he could find someone who could tell him where the Autobots were. Maybe, the trail would lead him to Jazz.

With images of what he saw forever seared into his memory banks, Steeldust resumed his journey with a new perspective on the war.


As soon as Steeldust reached Iacon's border, he lost the trail amidst other tracks.

"Well-at-least-I-made-it," he muttered. "On-my-own."

What excitement and determination Steeldust had had in Praxus when he started on his journey was now different. The excitement of making the journey by himself was gone. He was still determined to find Jazz, but unknowingly perhaps, his purpose had changed slightly.

Steeldust wanted some answers.

The trek from Praxus to Iacon had changed him. He'd learned and saw some things about the world. Some of his opinions on things had been changed.

And he'd gained some that he'd never had before.


Only one more chapter in the story, friends...

Credit Song: Something Wild - Lindsey Stirling

However, when I was editing this chapter, I had Sam Tinnesz's song "Wolves" stuck in my head. That one kinda works too.. ;P Two credit songs? Hey, why not.

Thanks so much for reading and for sticking with this story!

Thanks for reading!