In an abandoned warehouse there was a group of decepticons including Steeljaw, the leader and his subordinates: Thunderhoof, Underbite, Fracture and Clampdown. Steeljaw was coming up with a plan to subdue the Autobots while everyone was listening intently ready to settle their scores against them. What they didn't see was a mech peeking around a corner, spying on the group. The mech wasn't impressed with the plan Steeljaw was relaying to his team. It almost seemed childish. Naïve. Stupid, that was the best word to describe it. He was mostly amused, but annoyed as well so he decided it was time for him to intervene. The mech stepped out from the shadows to reveal the colours of black, purple and gold details. He was quite a large bot with spikes poking out of his arms and red optics to complete the ensemble.

Steeljaw picked up faint sounds of footsteps from his sonar ears and turned around to face the black and purple mech who was smiling, like he was plotting an evil scheme. "Who are you?" Steeljaw demanded.

"A fellow decepticon, like yourselves." He gestured to his decepticon symbol then to Steeljaw and his crew.

"What's your name, and what do you want?" Steeljaw asked, still apprehensive.

"I want to help you get rid of the Autobots that are residing on Earth, because they have an Autobot I have to settle a score with, and my name's Dromus." He explained.

At the Autobot base Sideswipe was listening to one of Jazz's stories about the war. Sideswipe was sitting on a self made chair, his right leg that was pulled up and hands behind his head, while Jazz sat on his new made berth that laid next to Sideswipe's. Jazz could tell Sideswipe was very invested in the story when his optics would brighten when something in the story included fighting, an awesome save or events that occurred in the Ark. Right now Jazz was telling him how he infiltrated a decepticon base to retrieve vital information, and put bombs in the vents as a fail safe, in case he was captured and the decepticons tried to get information from his processor, since he was TIC (third in command) and Head of SpecOps.

Sideswipe's optics brightened at that, "Whoa, you were TIC and Head of SpecOps?" He asked incredulously, sitting up and putting his leg on the ground.

Jazz blushed slightly, tilting his head to the side, "Yeah, I was."

"Awesome." He paused, thinking carefully how to ask, "You said you put the bombs as a fail safe, and you would set them off in case the decepticons caught you, wouldn't that mean you would be...killing yourself too?" He said the last part softly.

Jazz's smile slowly turned into a frown when Sideswipe mentioned 'fail safe' and sighed sadly, looking at the ground, shoulders slumped. Sideswipe was making Jazz take his time. He knew he should've said to not tell him if he didn't want to, but the curiosity was killing him. Then Jazz looked up and said "Yes. It would." He braced his hands on the edge of his berth, visor glancing at Sideswipe, lips in a straight line.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't've--" Sideswipe said, feeling guilty. But he didn't get to finish his apology when Jazz interjected.

"No, it's alright. That was just the dark side of my job. It wasn't always about the battles and victories. It was about doing whatever it took to win the war. And sometimes, that came at the cost of your life." Jazz said sadly, looking at his pedes.

Sideswipe directed his optics to his hands, wearing a guilty expression on his face, "I'm… glad you survived the war," He said with absolute sincerity. He lifted his head and chuckled, "Look on the bright side, if you didn't survive, you wouldn't have met me." Sideswipe gestured to himself.

Jazz smiled at that, "Heh, yeah." He looked at Sideswipe, "I guess you have a point."

"Don't I always." He said it like it was a fact rather than a question, crossing his arms, leaning back on his chair with a smug look on his face.

"I suppose so… kid." Jazz smirked, he turned his head facing ahead of him, and glanced at Sideswipe who was pouting which he found...cute.

Then Sideswipe stood up with a heavy sigh, "I promised Russell for a ride, so I gotta get goin'."

Jazz smiled, "Stay outta trouble."

Sideswipe put his hands on his hips, "You say that like I get in trouble all the time." Jazz tilted his head and smirked, making a face that what he said was true. Sideswipe groaned annoyed, knowing he was defeated, "Ugh, don't waste your vents, nothing's gonna happen." And with that he left to pick up Russell for their drive.

Jazz was left with his worried thoughts, "I hope you're right kid." Jazz sighed.

Russell enjoyed taking drives with Sideswipe. He thought and felt that it always made them closer, like brothers. Sideswipe felt the same too, he enjoyed hanging out with Russell and not just because he liked getting out of chores he had to do. Right now Sideswipe was driving on a open road to Russell's favourite park, which was only 10 minutes away from Crown City.

Russell was on his phone while Sideswipe was jamming out whatever the radio played, each tune better than the next. However, they didn't notice a dark purple car beginning to drive behind them. Russell looked up briefly from his phone to look at the rear view mirror. What he saw got his blood running cold. He quickly turned the radio off despite Sideswipe's whining, "Hey! It was getting to the good part!"

"Sideswipe I think cons are chasing us!" Russell yelled.

"What?" Sideswipe said unbelievably. "Ok, it seems there's just one, I can take him, but first I have to drop you off somewhere." Sideswipe explained his plan.

"What?! No, Sideswipe you can't take him on your own, there might be others!" Russell warned.

"Whatever! I need to get you out of here!" Sideswipe growled.

Suddenly, Sideswipe turned a sharp right into a forest. He transformed and placed Russell behind a tree and some bushes, to keep him hidden. "Well, hello Sideswipe" Someone behind him said creepily. Sideswipe quickly turned round to see a black and purple mech. He drew his Decepticon Hunter out that turned into a sword.

"Who are you, and how do you know my name?" Sideswipe demanded, even though he was slightly afraid of the intimidating mech.

The mech chuckled, "My name is Dromus. And that's all you need to know."

Then out of nowhere electricity shot through Sideswipe's body that caused immense pain. He screamed and groaned and fell to the floor, smoke producing from his body. He was unconscious. Russell gasped quietly and retreated further into the bush on his hands and knees. Dromus then picked up Sideswipe and carried him over his shoulder back to where Steeljaw and his crew were residing on foot. When he was out of the forest and Russell's view he quickly took his phone out and called the command centre.

In the scrapyard, Jazz was instructing Strongarm on how to improve her posture when facing a foe. Suddenly Fixit commed everyone to the command centre saying there's an emergency. They both ran there and waited for a few seconds for everyone to arrive. "What's the emergency Fixit?" Bumblebee asked with urgency.

"Russell called saying that Sideswipe has been botnapped!" Fixit exclaimed.

"Open a groundbridge to his coordinates." Bumblebee commanded.

Fixit did as he was told and a green vortex appeared. Everyone ran through to see Russell looking at us very worriedly.

"Russell are you okay?" Bumblebee asked.

"Yeah, I'm okay. Sideswipe hid me in some bushes behind a tree." Russell said as he pointed where he was hidden.

Clever kid. Jazz thought to himself. "Do ya know what the decepticon looked like?" Jazz asked Russell.

He nodded, "Yeah, he was purple with black and gold detailing and he had these weird spikes on his arms. Also he said his name was 'Dromus'."

Jazz's energon ran cold at that name. He thought he would never hear it again. Ever. His spark was pulsing fast against his chest with worry. He knew Dromus to be a torturer during the war, and if he went through the trouble to capture Sideswipe, then he must know that he's here. Jazz started to really worry now. He had to save him. Who knows what Dromus would do to him. He was going to need help in case Dromus partnered up with someone because he would've needed help to pull this off.

"I know who that is." Jazz revealed.

"You do?" Bumblebee wanted to clarify.

"Yes. And if we want to save Sideswipe we're gonna have to hurry."