Introduction: This takes place during chapters 40-41 of Revolution, when Vos fell.
Air Raid wasn't surprised when Silverbolt pulled away from the city and commed the others to follow him. They were breaking rank—breaking the rules—which would really bother 'Bolt under normal circumstances.
But these were no longer normal circumstances.
Air Raid followed his friends until Silverbolt stopped and turned around to face the city again, hovering in the atmosphere.
"What's going on?" Fireflight asked. "Are they really going to…"
"We're trying to find out," Slingshot said. "Silverbolt?"
"They wouldn't bring down the city," Skydive said.
"Especially unprovoked," Air Raid added. "There's no way the Prime would do that."
Silverbolt was flying a little lower than everyone, probably on the comm.
"Silverbolt?" Air Raid said. There was a faint hint of frustration coming over their trine bond, though he couldn't tell if it was from Silverbolt or Slingshot.
"I'm getting nothing," Silverbolt said. "They won't talk to me."
Then a voice came over the open channel."Autobots retreat from Vos. Get out of the city's airspace. Disregard the message that was broadcast across the city—that was not an authorized message. Thank you."
"Did everyone else get that too?" Silverbolt asked.
"I did," Air Raid said.
The others all bobbed in the atmosphere, signifying that they had also received the order to retreat.
"But that was commander Prowl's voice before, wasn't it?" Fireflight said. "When they threatened to destroy Vos."
"I'm sure there's some explanation," Silverbolt said. "Let's get out of here."
Air Raid got a comm. from Dawn. It was the second one since they'd been sent to Vos. This time, he answered her.
"Air Raid! Finally. What's going on? Are you attacking the city?"
"No," Air Raid told his sparkmate over the internal comm. "We're not attacking the city. In fact, we've just been given orders to retreat."
"So you were attacking the city?"
"No!"
"I told you this was a bad idea." Dawn said.
"You were on board with it when I joined the army. Don't worry—everything will get sorted out."
"That army of yours just threatened to knock Vos out of the sky! That doesn't sound like something you can just 'sort out' 'Raid."
"It's not going to happen. Besides, they're saying it wasn't them."
"You need to come home," Dawn said. "And you need to tell your trine and your friends to come home too."
The others were trying to get his attention.
"Look," Air Raid said. "I can't talk right now."
"You'd better not cut the comm."
"I'll comm. you back as soon as I can. I love you."
"Air Raid!"
Air Raid cut the comm.
"…even paying attention? Air Raid!"
"Sorry," Air Raid said. "Dawn kept trying to contact me."
"We should follow orders and get out of here," Silverbolt said. "The Autobots have opened groundbridges for us to—"
"I'm not leaving Vos when it's possibile the city's in danger," Slingshot cut in. "I've got a femme and sparkling there. Air Raid's bonded too."
"I know," Silverbolt said. "But I don't think anything's going to happen, if the Autobots are retreating…"
"Unless there's some sort of bomb they've planted," Slingshot said.
"Are you honestly suggesting that the Prime would sanction the destruction of an entire city-state?"
"Maybe not," Slingshot said. "But it wasn't his voice making that threat, was it? It was that Praxian, the one who directs battles. He always sounds so... I don't know, cold and emotionless. He might—"
"No! We can't jump to conclusions," Silverbolt said. "Just stay calm. There's no way any of the Autobot commanders would attempt to destroy a city-state."
"Twenty astroseconds left," Skydive said quietly.
"I'm comming Rapidflight," Slingshot said. "I'm going to tell her to take Crosswind and leave the city, just in case."
A lot of seekers seemed to be leaving the city. Air Raid saw them rising from the surface as little winged specks.
He counted down, holding as still as he could in the atmosphere, watching.
Nothing would happen. Nothing would happen. It would be fine.
Zero.
And he watched as several silent domes of fire bloomed out of his home.
Fireflight gasped.
Air Raid could only stare, shocked.
He barely noticed that one of his brothers had lost consciousness.
"Slingshot!" Silverbolt shouted and Air Raid turned to see him diving down through the air after the third member of their trine, who was in freefall.
Air Raid snapped out of his stupor and shot after them, knowing immediately what must have happened, but pushing that thought off to the side for now. He could feel Dawn's horror over their spark bond. She was still there, at least. She was all right.
Silverbolt sent him a comm. "I can't catch him without transforming,"
"You want me to get ahead of you and catch him instead?"
"No, just please don't drop me."
When Silverbolt got close enough, he transformed and grabbed Slingshot's unconscious frame which had fortunately reverted to root mode. Slingshot must have automatically transformed when he'd passed out. Air Raid sped up and dove beneath them, then slowed down so Silverbolt could grab on to him. The weight of the two other seekers forced him to run his engines at full power, and threw off his balance. He shifted to compensate.
Then the sound from the explosions hit, followed a few astroseconds later by the shock wave. Silverbolt cried out as Air Raid was tossed backward.
"Sorry!" Air Raid said. "You okay?"
He knew Silverbolt was still hanging on, because he was digging his fingers into Air Raid's plating quite a bit harder than necessary.
"Fine," Silverbolt said. "Oh, Primus…"
The others caught up to them.
"What happened?" Skydive said.
"He just passed out," Silverbolt said. "We need to take him to a medic."
"Comm. base and try to get a groundbridge," Skydive said.
"No!" Air Raid said. "We can't call the Autobots."
They all turned to look at the city, which was now above them. They could hear the screech of twisting metal as it twisted and tilted.
"It's screaming…" Fireflight said softly.
"Take us down." Silverbolt's voice trembled. "Please, let's get down to the ground."
Air Raid dropped.
"Not that fast!" Silverbolt gasped.
"Sorry." Air Raid slowed. The rest of them kept pace with him as they drifted down gently toward the ground.
The city fell with them, slowly catching up and passing them. Powerful winds pulled at Air Raid, dragging him down, then sideways. He had to fight hard to keep control. He could still feel Dawn's distress over the bond—still see his home sinking out of the sky beneath him, but he tried not to think about it. He had to get Silverbolt and Singshot to safety. Right now, that was all that mattered. Don't think about Dawn, or Rapidflight and Crosswind. Just get his brothers to the ground and hope Slingshot didn't offline.
The city hit shortly before they reached the surface, and Air Raid thought he felt it in his spark. He was worried for a moment that something had happened to Dawn, but he could still feel her over their bond, and the pain in his spark faded after a moment.
The impact when the city hit the ground sent out another shock wave and a cloud of shrapnel and dust in the distance. Air Raid kept an optic on it. They'd have to take off and fly away before that cloud got here.
Air Raid landed on the smooth ground and waited for Silverbolt to let go of him. He probably had some hand-shaped dents in his armor now.
He transformed as soon as it was safe.
"What happened to Slingshot?" Fireflight asked.
"What do you think?" Air Raid snapped.
Fireflight sucked in a shaky vent, optics widening, and Skydive stared out toward Vos with a hollow, lost expression. Air Raid knelt down as Silverbolt laid Slingshot face down on the ground. The trine leader put a hand on Slingshot's back and shuttered his optics.
"'Bolt?"
"I know he's online, and I can tell he's got a spark pulse," Silverbolt said quietly. "I'm not sure if I can feel his engine though, or if I'm just shaking." He removed his hand, and Air Raid tried, holding himself as still as possible.
He could definitely feel a spark pulse, and there was the faint vibration of an engine as well. "His engine's still going. It seems pretty weak, though."
"We need a medic," Silverbolt said.
"There aren't any medics anywhere around here," Air Raid said. "We'll have to fly all the way to Doradus."
"Try to wake him up," Skydive said. "If he wakes up, he'll probably survive, but if you let him go too deep into stasis without a medic, he'll offline."
Silverbolt nodded and rolled Slingshot over. "Okay," he said, then lifted him a little by the shoulders and shook him. "Slingshot! Slingshot wake up! Come on."
Air Raid commed Dawn.
She answered immediately "'Raid! Are you all right? Where are you?"
"I'm on the ground," Air Raid said. "Slingshot passed out, which means Rapidflight's probably…"
"Oh… Frag it, no…"
Air Raid took in a deep vent. "Are you all right?"
"I'm fine. 'Raid, where are you? I'm coming to find you."
"Wait," Air Raid said. "We're on the surface, and the dust cloud's going to hit us in a breem or so. Even if I sent you coordinates, we'll probably be flying again before you get here. Just go with the other seekers for now. We'll catch up."
"I'll wait for you."
"No. We haven't decided what we're going to do yet."
"What do you mean you haven't decided? You can't go back to the Autobots—they sank Vos!"
"I know," Air Raid shuttered his optics.
Silverbolt was getting more desperate, half-sobbing as he shook Slingshot and pleaded with him to wake up.
"I'm not leaving without you, 'Raid."
"You'll be fine, we'll all be fine." Air Raid said, trying to sound like he believed it. "We'll join you as soon as we can, I promise."
Silverbolt gasped, and Air Raid cut the comm. "What?" he asked out loud.
Slingshot stirred. His helm straightened, and Air Raid saw his optics flicker and light up.
"Slingshot…" Silverbolt said.
Slingshot stared past him for a moment, up at the sky. "They're gone," he whispered.
"We need to leave," Skydive said. "I don't want to be here when that dust cloud hits."
"Right," Air Raid transformed. "Anyone have some rope you could use to tie Slingshot on my back?"
"Where are you?" Dawn demanded.
"Doradus" Air Raid said. "Where are you?"
"We're all going to Kaon," she said. "They have medics there—you should go there."
"We're Autobots," Air Raid replied. "We can't go to Kaon."
"You're not Autobots anymore," Dawn countered.
Air Raid was silent.
"You can't be serious," Dawn said. "Air Raid, they destroyed—"
"Look, we don't know what we're going to do yet," Air Raid said. "We want to be sure about it before we switch sides. Furthermore, my friends are arguing right now, and I need to back Silverbolt up. I promise I'll comm. you back as soon as I know what the plan is."
"It's not that hard. Get your indecisive afts to Kaon and they can argue there."
"I'll bring that idea up, all right?"
"Fine. Hurry, though."
"Love you."
"Bye." She cut the comm. this time. She was angry at him—he could feel it clear and strong through their bond. It would probably take a whole decaorn to get back in her good graces.
Of course, that was the last thing he should be worrying about right now.
"I can't believe you're even suggesting we go back to the Autobots," Slingshot hissed.
"Calm down," Skydive said. "I'm just saying we need to find out the facts. This doesn't make sense."
"Or maybe everything they say about that Prime is true. Maybe he is just power hungry."
By the time they'd reached Doradus, Slingshot had claimed he was feeling better, which was good because a lot of buildings had been knocked down by the quakes from Vos's impact, and the hospitals were full of injured Doradians.
They'd found somewhere to stay for the off-cycle, fortunately, but they'd have to wait to take Slingshot to a medic. He'd been surprisingly—almost frighteningly—calm about the whole thing, at least until now. Air Raid figured he'd been in shock.
"We were careful," Skydive said. "We checked our facts. We decided that the Prime was good and Megatron was evil."
"Well, we made a mistake!" Slingshot said, then shuttered his optics and leaned forward with a grimace.
"But…"
"Stop," Silverbolt said, and went over to put a hand on Slingshot's shoulder.
"Don't touch me," Slingshot snapped in a strained voice.
"You need to calm down," Silverbolt said. "You're hurting yourself. Please."
Slingshot's engine growled angrily, but he didn't say anything else.
Air Raid could barely imagine what he must be going through. He didn't want to imagine it. It could have been him, too. He could have lost Dawn.
"We aren't going to make any decisions right now," Silverbolt said, and Air Raid could tell that he was angry too. It was a quiet sort of angry, but it carried a lot more weight than Slingshot's pugnacity. "We need to be absolutely sure who is responsible for this. Imagine if we chose hastily and ended up helping whoever did this."
"Why would the Autobots—" Skydive started, but Slingshot cut him off.
"Why would the Decepticons do that?"
"Because they wanted to blame it on the Autobots?" Fireflight suggested. "And gain the loyalty of all the seekers?"
They all looked at him.
"That's what the Autobots are saying," Fireflight said quietly. "I'm listening to the news."
"That's ridiculous," Slingshot said.
Silence fell.
"Oh, it wasn't us, it was the Decepticons, they just wanted to make us look bad so they BLEW UP AN ENTIRE CITY that we just happened to be attacking at the time. But no, it wasn't us."
Air Raid wasn't sure what to say. Apparently, the others weren't either.
"Well," Slingshot continued. "I'd like to see them say that to my faceplate. I'd like to fly over there and make that Prime say it to my faceplate." He turned away, then, gripping the arms of the chair he was sitting in, shaking. "And it wouldn't matter. It wouldn't do any good. It doesn't fragging matter who did it."
Air Raid looked down. It was true… revenge wouldn't change anything.
"It does matter," Silverbolt said.
"Nothing matters."
"That's not true," Silverbolt insisted. "This sort of thing will happen again, and again if whoever's responsible isn't stopped. This war… we need to decide what to do. Even if the Autobots were the ones who destroyed Vos, we know the Decepticons are in the wrong as well."
Slingshot took in a deep vent and let it hiss out slowly through his vents. "So both sides are evil. That's what I'm saying, it doesn't matter!"
"Maybe you're right," Silverbolt said. "Maybe we should go talk to the Autobots. We'll see if we can speak with the Prime personally."
Silence again. Air Raid looked around the room, shocked to see Skydive and Fireflight nodding. "Are you crazy?" he said.
"Just show up at that noble's tower where they live?" Slingshot said. "Sounds good to me. I'm in."
"We can't do that," Air Raid said.
"If they're telling us the truth, then he'll be willing to talk to us. If they aren't, then…"
"They'll kill us!" Air Raid said. "Even if they're telling the truth, they'll probably think we're there to assassinate the Prime. They'll never let us talk to him!"
"I'll try to do it the right way," Silverbolt said. "We're Autobot soldiers. Surely we can figure out a way to get an audience with him. And if not, maybe we will just show up. We'll be careful, and leave if they attack us. But I want to give them a chance." He looked at Air Raid in a way that clearly said 'I need you to back me up on this.'
Air Raid hesitated.
"You don't need to come if you don't want," Silverbolt said. "I could go by myself."
"No," Slingshot said. "You could not."
"But I'd rather have all of you with me, so you can help me decide if they're being honest." He was still looking at Air Raid.
"All right," Air Raid said. "I still don't like it, but I'll go with you."
"Thank you," Silverbolt said.
Explaining this to Dawn was not going to be fun.
Better to get it over with, though. Air Raid commed her, ready for an argument.
They had taken a groundbridge to Iacon. They had flown up to the tower. They had talked to the Prime.
And now, they were sitting on the roof of the Autobot barracks. They had talked about it a little, but though none of them wanted to say it, they all knew what they had to do.
You could fake humility, you could fake remorse, you could fake regret and sorrow and sincerity, but you couldn't fake everything. You couldn't fake how much the other mecha there had been genuinely, personally worried for their leader's safety. You couldn't fake how the Prime had come in looking like he hadn't recharged in a decaorn, and how fervently he had begged Silverbolt's forgiveness. You couldn't fake how exhausted and miserable everyone in that room looked, or how that femme, Elita One, had put herself in danger to stand between them and the Autobot guards. None of them had made excuses for what had happened, but they'd all insisted that the blame lay with the Decepticons.
Their story made sense too, after all, even if at first it seemed unlikely. The Decepticons had planned it very carefully and had done everything they could to make it seem like the Autobots were responsible for the attack.
It wasn't the sort of thing the Autobots did, and there was no way anyone could think threatening Vos was a good way to negotiate with them. The Autobots just weren't that stupid.
Of course, Air Raid wouldn't blame anyone for thinking otherwise.
He wasn't sure whether he could convince Dawn about it, but he had to comm. her and let her know what he and his brothers had decided. And he ought to do it in his own voice. He took a deep vent and activated his external comm. then waited for her to answer.
She responded quickly. "Air Raid? Did you get in to talk to the Autobots? Is everyone okay? I'm still mad at you for doing that."
"We're fine," he said. "And yes, we talked to the Autobots."
"So when are you going to get here?" she asked.
Air Raid wasn't entirely sure what to say.
"Air Raid?"
"Well…"
Silence fell.
"You are coming back." Dawn said. "Right? You… you wouldn't betray us like that…"
Air Raid took a deep vent. "Dawn, we've decided to stay with the Autobots."
"I can't believe it,"
"We talked to them, and we've looked at both sides of the story…"
"You traitor! I should have known! I should have guessed it as soon as you refused to come to Kaon. You were planning this the whole time! I bet you were the ones who told them how to sink the city!"
"What! No! How could you—"
"This whole time I've been staying up, waiting for you, hoping against all hope that it wasn't true, and you hadn't… but I knew deep down."
"No, you have to believe me…"
"Shut up! You're either coming back to me, or you're a traitor! If you care about me—if you care about what happened this orn—you'll leave your glitched friends and come home!"
Air Raid looked at the others, who were all pretending not to eavesdrop. He shuttered his optics. Sometimes he hated doing the right thing. "I can't," he said. "I think some orn, you'll understand…"
"Oh no," Dawn said. "I understand perfectly."
Air Raid felt horrible. "Dawn, please…"
"You've made your choice, so don't come back. Don't ever come back! I don't want to see you ever again!"
"I'm so sorry…" he said, but she had already cut the comm, and probably hadn't heard him. He sighed and leaned back in his chair.
"That didn't sound good," Skydive said.
"It wasn't," Air Raid said. "I don't know if she'll forgive me for this one… she's not stupid, though, I think she'll figure it out before too long."
Silverbolt nodded. "I'm sure she will."
Suddenly, pain erupted in Air Raid's spark. He gasped, stumbling forward.
"Raid!" Silverbolt said.
Burning, shattering, blinding pain. He screamed as he sank to his knees on the rooftop. A few moments later, someone, probably Silverbolt or Skydive, had their arms around him, holding him as he trembled and fell silent and fought to stay silent as waves of every kind of agony washed over him.
His bond was gone. She had broken it. It was over, just like that. His beautiful, impulsive femme thought he had betrayed the seekers, and she didn't want him anymore.
Suddenly, for the first time in a long time, surrounded by friends…
He felt completely alone.