Summary- Rodimus finally gets word from the decepticon sister division. Viianta's peace is interrupted. Skywarp makes decisions without approval.

AN- No CW for violence, but there is threat of violence and anticipation for it.

It was bound to end eventually.

Despite knowing this, it still came as a spark-stopping shock when Rodimus barged into Tailgate's shop in a state of hypomanic alarm.

The rest of them paused mid-gesture. They'd been visiting in the lobby, since there'd been no customers and Tailgate seemed ready to assume none would be showing up...All of them but the Prime, at least.

Hot Shot froze with his energon vase halfway to his intake.

Red Alert ceased trying to get at a cut on the colorful autobot's frame and looked at the doorway instead.

Kup's words cut off from the story he was currently telling his audience- something very over the top and unlikely and probably embellished and so overall was a story any variation of Starscream would find familiar.

Tailgate paused his own stream of questions about the story.

And Skywarp, where he was huddled against the corner between a bench and a wall, didn't really need to freeze up to give his attention.

Kup responded to the interruption first. His easy storytelling attitude was gone quickly enough to be startling.

"What is it?" the old mech greeted the Prime.

The rusted autobot took just a brief moment to respond before the answer came in professionally clipped panic.

"I got a broadcast from the decepticon division," Rodimus said. "They're dead."

Oh.

While some of those present (mainly: Hot Shot and Tailgate) didn't seem ready to panic as if they didn't see how this related to them, the others went even more quiet.

"It was an emergency broadcast," the Prime continued. "Sent postmortem, or very close to it. Their outpost tried to fight off the scouts, but they were outnumbered."

Did that mean-

"We have to get out of here. This whole planet has to evacuate."

The reactions were predictably wild in upset. Skywarp barely caught on to his own warp before it had finalized and sent him teleporting far out of there. It was a natural instinct to want as far away from the scene of discomfort as could be, as if that distance would keep him hidden safely away from the reality Rodimus was explaining here. The fact that it wouldn't was all that anchored him in place. As hard as it was to sit in fear while the danger was explained, it was better than running without knowing what he was running from.

It was a new rationalism. Hardly any more pleasant than hiding, but Skywarp had determined as best he could (which, for one unsure as a base state, was not much) that it was better to at least know what to be scared of rather than leave the unknown up to imagination. He'd flown for some time through space in a state of not knowing and, when he finally did reach other people, found out then that the last few years had been spent fighting some horrifically powerful foe. In hindsight, it left him to quake. He could have run across the lumen purgatio while flying in low power and been burned away without even realizing he was dying or what was killing him or a dozen other things.

So no- the warp sequence was not allowed to finalize on his watch. He wouldn't separate from the group he knew and then find out in a few cycles that they had flown offworld without him. No, no, bad things happened alone, he wouldn't be alone again, he wouldn't give himself up to whatever dangers wanted to pull him apart while alone.

"There are scouts in this sector," Rodimus guessed. "They take orns to travel between systems, but Viianta is still far from safe. We've got to go find the presence that the decepticon division found, see if we can keep them occupied while Viianta's populace takes the regional spacebridge to Cybertron."

The presence that killed the other squadron?

It sounded like suicide and Skywarp was not one for that.

But it wasn't like he could blend with the populace and go hide on Cybertron. He wouldn't know anyone there. He'd be surrounded by strangers, crowded in by them, again, and no no no-

"The sooner everyone gets off, the better. We'll try to hold whatever scouts may be here off until allied forces arrive, but we all know there...there isn't much they can do."

The dread washing over him again almost led Skywarp to teleport away. There was hopelessness at play here; a hopelessness based in the fact that it was over before it had started.

Why were they even going to go investigate?

What if they all died?

He'd die with them. He didn't want to die!

(but he wanted even less to be left alone without them)

Evacuations went about as smoothly as Skywarp would assume that sort of activity to go.

In other words, it was pandemonium.

People were panicking. They'd listened to Rodimus, of course, because Rodimus was a Prime. Even this far away from the commonwealth, that rank meant something. The presence of Kup next to the rusted mech helped give more weight to his news broadcast. Kup was a seasoned war hero from more than just the Great War. The two together were believable to the autobots of Viianta, most of the aliens who had respect for autobots, and enough of the miscellaneous neutrals and decepticons to give them all cause for panic. Those that didn't believe it were loud as well, which just meant extra noise.

That's what this was.

Noise. Just a whole lot of sound. Panicking sounds, unbelieving sounds, sounds of denial, sounds of spark-deep fear (and wasn't that familiar?); the city had been uncomfortable before when it functioned as normal, but he found it worse now.

There were many large transport ships meant for colonizing and whatnot. Those sort of transports could carry literal populaces. Skywarp couldn't help but think about being one mech on board, not knowing how to find anything in a ship the size of a moon, trampled or crushed by crowds, trapped within all that metal and the vacuum of space beyond- he was rather glad he wouldn't be on board one.

He'd be on the little (in comparison) autobot ship. The one heading back to explore where the missing division had died and sent their warning from.

...he was so fragged.

It was a bit weird that he wasn't limited to just himself in this panic. Then again, he knew well enough the value of safety in numbers. He'd been made amongst the other Starscream clones and they'd only stood a chance because there were multiple of them. On their own, they would have been doomed in Starscream's grand scheme and just survival in general. There was no saying how much of his fear for his fellow clones had been based in care for them and how much had been his own panic at the thought of losing that safety with their numbers.

The same ambiguity thrived here as well and honestly Skywarp didn't have time to consider it. He didn't want to anyway. That sounded like some sort of philosophy deep thinking and that in turn seemed dangerous. Somehow. Who knew how. He just assumed danger existed in everything.

They'd waited two cycles to watch the rest of the planet begin their panicked evacuations. Considering the size of these cities and the farms and ranches out in the more empty areas, he couldn't help but have the uneasy feeling someone would either not hear the warning or would not make it on a ship. Being left behind on a doomed planet waiting for aliens to come burn him away sounded absolutely miserable.

As they loaded into the ship, that line of thinking circled round and round. It repeated without pause, even when there were a hundred other worries circling around as well.

What would it be like to be stuck behind?

What would it be like to be abandoned, waiting for alien light and then death?

It couldn't be good, it just couldn't, there was no pity to be offered some fate like that-

He'd nervously gone to a very busy Rodimus and asked how to tell if everyone was off the planet. The autobot had looked a bit surprised at the question- perhaps just surprised that it was being asked by a decepticon, let alone a version of Starscream (who was, most likely, notorious on both factions for having zero empathetic capabilities present under all that manic ego)- but he said he didn't have time at the moment for a conversation.

Alright. Maybe he'd been too vague. In truth, as scary as it would have been for any faceless Viiantan left behind, he had a specific person to be asking about. Surely Rodimus wouldn't be busy if it was just one mech to ask about rather than a couple billion?

Rodimus still said he didn't have time.

Well that wasn't very thoughtful of him, Skywarp thought through an uncharacteristic flash of insulted ire.

But it wasn't about to be the end of the topic. He couldn't stay back. There'd be all kinds of unknowns, questions (did he make it? did he evacuate in time? where is he? is he dead?) and Skywarp hated panicking in anxiety over unknowns.

So if Rodimus wasn't going to play autobot and get the mech safe, he would.

While the ship was still loading up (Hot Shot had apparently thought it was okay to run off to a bar and stock up on 'goodies' first, which the other three were vocally not okay with), the clone warped away. His tanks dropped to an unhappy 49%. Skywarp himself wasn't that unhappy. He was busy experiencing subdued elation.

The warping had gone further and more directly than any of his earlier ones. This ability was perfect. He could get away from any danger and, now that he'd practiced for an orn or so, he could be assured that his getaway would go somewhere purposefully chosen because it'd be safer!

It still was a horrid drain on his tanks, but the elation at this offered safety (and at something else, something harder to name; that the ability was nothing like anyone else had; that he had a power he could hold unique over others; that he was more than the weakest of a bunch of clones, he could rub this in their faces, in the face of his creator even- it was a very Starscream attitude, though he did not have enough of a name for the pride to know it) made it worth it.

As such, he wasn't in his usual thrall of worry when he blinked into place in front of the doorway to a closed shop and knocked.

The worry came a moment later, as the signs of closure hit him and he started to wonder if the autobot was even there, if he was at his home, if he was gone, or trapped, or in danger, or-

The front doors opened, to his relief. Tailgate stood there, craning his neck up and looking at him in what seemed to be surprise.

"Skywarp?"

He was surprised, it was there in his voice. It seemed Skywarp's ability to read expressions was not as horrifyingly abysmal as it once was.

There was a stilted conversation- if it could be called such between the panic and miscommunication- over Tailgate's plans and safety and all the while he just thought of ships taking off and doors closing and being left behind here without the autobots he knew-

"You have to leave," he said, for what felt like the tenth time (seventh, in reality, but that was close enough).

The smaller mech's visor was bright.

"I know!" Tailgate replied. "But I still have to make sure everything is finished here before I go onboard."

So he had a ticket already?

What if they were boarding now?

Had Tailgate told him when takeoff was? (he had, but Skywarp didn't remember it any of the times the autobot had said it)

"You have to leave now," the clone repeated his statement with an additional embellishment.

Tailgate did not look impressed.

"I'll be safe," he shook his head. "I'm sorry we have to rush off like this too."

'Too'? Was that what he thought Skywarp was here for? To apologize for a separation when they'd only just been getting comfortable together?

"I'd have liked to have known you better. Maybe in another time-...But we'll both get offworld, so that's good no matter if we can't meet again, right? We'll be safe-"

Yes.

They would.

Skywarp leaned down to grab up the small autobot and then concentrated on Rodimus's ship's coordinates.

A moment later, 30% more of his energon, and he had blinked away with an unsuspecting guest in tow.

AN- Baby Cyclonus is still Baby Cyclonus and that guy (when based on IDW's version) is not exactly understanding of things like social norms (like not kidnapping people). Whoops.