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Chapter 7

Spindle practically swaggered down the hall toward his room. He'd just got finished telling Red Alert how Hot Shot had gotten upset about their lack of results and accused him of slowing down the search before storming off in a rage. Poor fool shouldn't let his emotions get the better of him like that. Get that worked up and you probably wouldn't even see the ledge in front of you until you fell into it.

One of the doors along the corridor—Blurr's he guessed—opened just in time for Sideswipe to come barreling out… and smack dab into Spindle.

"So enthusiastic to be back in my arms, huh?" Spindle chuckled wrapping his arms Sideswipe's waist to keep him from falling backwards.

To say Spindle was surprised when Sideswipe's response was to punch him in the face would be an understatement. As he landed unceremoniously on skidplate he could do little more than watch Sideswipe continue on to his room.

Sideswipe collapsed on his recharge berth after the door slid closed. 'Slag, I didn't just do that,' he thought to himself.

He couldn't believe he just punched Spindle in the face. He'd never raised a hand to Spindle like that, it only brought a worse response. If he'd been thinking straight—but he wasn't thinking straight. And there was a reason for that.

The search for Rad was being called off. Optimus thought Rad was dead because of that stupid PDA. Just cause it was so damaged didn't mean that the boy carrying it was too. Rad knew these cliffs better than anyone. There was absolutely no chance he would wander off path in the dark. Somebody would have had to—Sideswipe sat up straight.

"Spindle!"

"Yes?"

Sideswipe's head snapped toward the door. Spindle had snuck in while he was lost in thought. "You," Sideswipe hissed.

Spindle glared at him. "Yes me. The mech you just bowled over in the hall. The love of your life," Spindle growled.

"We both know all that love slag was bullshit, Spindle," Sideswipe growled.

"Somebody finally grew a spine," Spindle commented, obviously annoyed that Sideswipe wasn't cowering in fear of him yet. "You might want to watch how you talk to me 'Swipes. You never know what could be on the line," Spindle smirked.

"You have him. That's why we can't find him in the valley and none of the Decepticon alarms went off," Sideswipe rationalized.

"You always were the smart one," Spindle comment dryly. "Unlike your dearly departed brother."

Sideswipe's optics widened. "Su—Sunny?"

"Yup. Your brother met with an unfortunate accident about a week ago," Spindle said enjoying the crushed look that over took Sideswipe's face. He decided to add to it. "And another certain yellow idiot took a small tumble little over an hour ago."

Sideswipe froze. " Hot… Hot Shot?"

"Yes. I wonder what kind of end that other 'friend' of yours will meet. Maybe some friendly fire in the next battle? Or a rockslide? Heh, Maybe he'll just vanish without a trace," Spindle chuckled, watching pain and fear dance in Sideswipe's eyes. He loved that look. It made Sideswipe look even younger and more vulnerable. More innocent. Innocence was so rare on Cybertron. Sideswipe was a rare find for a mech like Spindle. Too rare to allow to escape again.

"Hmmm…" Spindle reached down and lifted Sideswipe's chin so there optics met. "Or we could leave before anyone else gets hurt," he whispered softly.

Optimus groaned in frustration. When he sent Sideswipe and Highwire away he had expected to find Rad's body almost immediately. But so far this valley had not turned out the body of his young friend.

He'd been prepared as he was going to get to find what, judging from the condition of the PDA, was going to be a gory sight. But with every passing moment Optimus found himself becoming less prepared than he thought. The humans, Rad especially, always seemed so full of life. Now, with every second that passed without finding Rad's body, Optimus' imagination came up with a new image of what what the boy would look like drained of that light that Optimus noticed at their first real meeting. If he could just find Rad, he could lay those images to rest and only be haunted by one, instead of the thousands that plagued him now.

Slaggit, if his mind conjured up another picture of Rad staring at him with lifeless blue eyes, Optimus knew he was going to lose it.

"Frag," Optimus hissed banging is fist into the rock formation behind him. A boulder shifted slightly revealing a small puddle of red…blood Optimus realized. He slowly moved forward to peer around the rock to glimpse the source of the blood.

"Optimus," Red Alert's voice came over the comm. link. Optimus jerked back taking a few deep breaths.

"Yes, Red Alert," Optimus answered, closing his optics and leaning his head back against the canyon wall.

"Hot Shot's missing sir. He disappeared after arguing with Spindle. He's also not answering his comm. link," Red Alert said.

Optimus banged his head against the rock a few times. "Have Sideswipe and Blurr look for him."

"That's not possible, sir. Sideswipe is also missing."

"What?" Optimus sat up straight. "How? I sent him back to the base with Blurr."

"Blurr says that he has reason to believe Spindle might have done something to him. Blurr claims to have witnessed Spindle assaulting Sideswipe the day of his arrival. Also Spindle went missing around the same time as Sideswipe."

"When did everything start going to hell around here?" Optimus asked, wondering at his luck that his whole unit was falling is such a short amount of time.

"When Spindle joined us, sir," Red Alert answered.

"That was a rhetorical question."

"I know but I felt it needed an answer sir."

Optimus sighed. "I'm heading back to the base now. I'll assess the situation fully once I arrive."

"Umm... Sir?"

"Yes, Red."

"May I asked… Did you find anything?" Red Alert asked, slightly unsure.

Optimus looked at the mangled carcass of what once must have been a coyote. "Nothing, Red."

"Good. Red Alert out." Red Alert closed the communication channel. Optimus looked at the coyote again before striding away, anxious to leave this place behind, hoping against hope that if he had to return it would be after either finding all his missing men alive or at least getting answers to their disappearances.

AN: R&R

Brigg: That is the closest I've seen you get to writing angst.

Xandra: What the hell as everything else in this story been?

Brigg: Compared to the stuff that goes through your mind daily this is pretty cheerful.

Xandra: Shut up.