Breeze opened the door and ushered the three mecha in with their menagerie of symbiots, then glanced outside before shutting them all in the safety of her home. "Primus, it's been so long…"

"Thank you again for letting us stay here," Keepsake said as Breeze embraced her.

"No worries," Breeze flicked her doorwings and turned to embrace Cam as well. "It's so good to see both of you."

"Are you sure you don't mind?" Cam asked. "We don't want to put you in danger."

"I'm more than happy to have you here, and I'm sure I won't be in that much danger. Our Council has promised to stay neutral, no matter what happens, so Praxus is probably as safe as it gets. In fact…" she took in a deep vent and let it out. "You're not the only ones hiding from the war in this neighborhood. Come, sit down. Are you tired? You've been traveling, right?"

"Yes," Keepsake said, letting Breeze guide them into the front room to sit down. "We've been trying to find somewhere to move to, but, well…"

"You should have contacted me earlier," Breeze said.

"The Autobots were following us," Cam seemed angry, which was a rare emotion for him. "Ratchet came and tried to talk us into joining them, and then we couldn't shake them for decaorns."

"Oh," Breeze said. "How is Ratchet doing?"

"He's deceived," Cam said. "I'm not sure if he lied to us and helped the Autobots find us or if they're the ones lying to him, but either way, he's wrong about them. They aren't any better than the Decepticons. In fact, they're probably worse."

Keepsake sighed.

"I'm not sure if I agree with that," Breeze said. Why did he sound so bitter?

Cam looked at her with what was almost suspicion. "Have you heard some of the things they've uncovered about this Optimus Prime character?"

Breeze shook her helm, doorwings fluttering uneasily. "It's all silly. I bet half of it's made up, and I'm sure he's a good mech. He's just an idealist."

"So is Megatron."

"No," Breeze was hurt by the tone in his voice. "Cam, I've met both of them. I got to perform a mental examination on both of them. Megatron is…" Searchlight. He was Searchlight, but broken. They didn't know that though, did they? "I don't think he's really sane. Orion is completely harmless, in comparison."

Cam shook his helm. "Right. Then why did he send mecha to spy on us and follow us?"

Breeze frowned. "Are you sure about that? I can't imagine the Autobots wanting you to join them that badly. How do you know he sent mecha to follow you?" That claim seemed beyond unreasonable. Even in these times, that sort of paranoia was a little much.

"Oh," Keepsake said. "She doesn't—"

"Right," Cam said, looking at Blaster.

She followed their gaze. The little mech was staring at her with wide, surprised optics, but then after a moment, he looked at his caretakers and nodded slightly.

She'd heard they had adopted an orphan, but had never met him before.

"We forgot to introduce you." Keepsake beckoned to the mechling, who stepped forward so she could put an arm around his shoulders. "Breeze, this is our youngling, Blaster…" Keepsake said.

"Very good to meet you," Breeze said, wondering whether this tied in to the idea that the Autobots were following them.

"You too." Blaster smiled cheerfully.

Silence fell for a moment, and Keepsake glanced at Cam one more time before speaking again. "Blaster is… he's like Soundwave."

Breeze cocked her helm to the side. Like…

Oh.

She looked at Blaster again. Like Soundwave as in you can hear this? She wondered.

"I can," Blaster said quietly and his symbiot cat came up and stuck its helm under his hand, purring gently.

"That's why the Autobots want him," Cam said. "That's why we have to go into hiding in the first place."

Blaster tilted his helm to the side. "I think the Autobots who were following us just want us to be safe," he said.

"No," Cam said. "Some of them might mean well, but they're…" he sighed. "I'm tired of this argument, mechling."

"I know," Blaster yawned.

"That's… amazing," Breeze said. "How did you find him?"

Keepsake and Cam glanced at each other.

"What?"

"Soundwave found him," Keepsake said. "Blaster wasn't originally a telepath either, but the government made him into one. He escaped from them, then ran into Soundwave, who brought him to us."

Breeze shook her helm. "Primus… that Council…"

"Well, we're happy to have him," Keepsake said. "He's a wonderful little mechling."

"And he's not going to join that false Prime's army," Cam said.

"Cam," Keepsake said with a disapproving frown and that tone of voice that suggested she might send him to sit on the front steps if he kept this up.

Of course, that thought brought back memories. Breeze's doorwings drooped a little as she thought about Searchlight.

"Look," Cam said. "If Optimus is actually worthy of being a Prime, why is Soundwave a Decepticon? It doesn't make sense, unless he saw through Optimus's lies and decided to go with Megatron."

Breeze looked down. She knew why Soundwave had gone with Megatron, and it had nothing to do with Orion Pax telling lies.

Oh, Primus, now Blaster knew. She looked at the mechling. Please don't tell them. It will only make everything worse. I wish I didn't know…

Blaster met her optics and nodded solemnly.

They still miss him too, don't they?

He nodded again.

"What?" Cam demanded.

"I'm not going to argue with you," Breeze said. "But I do disagree. Soundwave's… different now."

"Have you talked to him?" Keepsake asked, looking hopeful.

Breeze sighed. "I've tried. He never answers me, though, no matter how many times I try to comm. or message him." He probably knew that what he was doing was wrong, and he didn't want to give her the chance to talk him out of it.

She'd given up after a while. There was something she wanted to tell him—something she'd been researching—but she wasn't really sure if she should explain it until she had evidence that it would work.

Maybe she should try again, though.

"Well," she said. "Let me show you where everything is. You'll all have to share a room—I hope that's all right."

"It's fine, of course," Keepsake said.

Breeze showed them to the room she'd prepared for them, and then gave them a brief tour of her apartment before excusing herself to go to her own room. It was surprisingly painful to have Keepsake and Cam here. It seemed every time she thought she was done being sad about Searchlight, something would remind her and all the emotions would come back again.

She sat at her desk and turned on her datapad.

It had been a while since she'd reached out to Soundwave. She should do it while she was thinking about it.

She typed up a message. [Hello again. I hope you read this even if you don't answer. I want you to know that I'm still your friend no matter what, and that I miss you and worry about you. Please talk to me, Soundwave.]

She hesitated a few astroseconds, then sent the message.

Then she set the datapad down on her desk. She'd check back in a few joors, but probably…

The datapad pinged softly.

Breeze looked at it, hardly daring to hope…

He'd answered.

Three words.

[Can't talk now.]

She hurried to type a response. [Will you talk to me later, then?]

She had barely sent it when the entry request chimed. She looked up, wondering who it could be. She should probably have Keepsake and Cam and Blaster hide in their room.

She glanced back at the datapad, but Soundwave hadn't answered yet, so she left it there and went out to the front room where the others were.

"You three should…"

"It's your friend," Blaster said.

"Hmm?" Breeze said.

"The one who's hiding from the war. You thought about him while you were talking earlier."

Oh.

"Is it safe for him to know we're here?" Cam asked.

Breeze hesitated. "I think so," she said. "You might recognize him, too, though I don't know if you'll remember him very well, and he's… well…"

She should get the door.

She crossed the room and opened it. "Good orn, Wheeljack. Come in."

The mech stepped inside and she closed the door behind him.

"I've got guests, as you can see," Breeze said.

He looked at them. "Oh," he said dully. "Searchlight's creators."

Cam nodded, and Keepsake sucked in a quick gasp.

"What?" Wheeljack snapped, looking alarmed.

"Nothing," Keepsake said, with sorrow written across her faceplate. "I just remembered—we met you a few times, before…"

"Yeah." Wheeljack crossed his arms, emotionless again. "Breeze you should turn on the news."

The news? "Why?"

He didn't answer.

Her comm. was connected to her holoscreen, so she ordered it to turn on and start playing a news feed.

Smoke and energon filled the frame in the top corner of the screen, and the news anchor's discourse was accompanied by sirens wailing quietly in the background.

"Primus beneath…" Keepsake breathed.

Orion's comm beeped insistently, dragging him out of recharge. He checked his internal timepiece as his optics came online, and then rolled onto his back and looked up at the ceiling. Thirty-one joors. It was the middle of the off-cycle. Did Prowl have to comm. him in the middle of the off-cycle? It was hard enough already to get sufficient recharge.

The past few decaorns had been less eventful but frustrating anyway. Orion was still stuck on Alpha Trion's trial, and Yoketron wouldn't let him attempt it more than once an orn. Furthermore, Elita had been different lately—not exactly distant, just… she no longer seemed upset about the broken bond.

He was worried she might have moved on, and while part of him was happy about that, another guilty part of him was devastated, no matter how hard he tried to tell himself it was for the better.

He would get over it eventually, he supposed. And it wasn't like she was going anywhere.

Prowl commed him again.

Right. Orion hoped this was something important. He opened the internal comm. channel.

"Prime, the Decepticons are attacking Slaughter City."

Orion sat up. "What?"

"We're already deploying our soldiers, but we need you in the command center."

He bolted off of his berth, just as someone pounded on his door.

Pit. He took it back. He wished Prowl had been comming him about something trivial.

He tried to shake the numb feeling of recharge from his processor as he opened the door. He expected to see Ironhide standing outside, but it was just one of Red Alert's guards. His spark sank as he realized his friend was probably heading for the battlefield.

Along with all of their soldiers.

Orion nodded to the mech and walked quickly down the hall. Red Alert sent him an invitation to a group comm, and he joined and listened in as the head of security directed traffic around the base, making sure everymech knew where they needed to be. As frustrating as he could be on an ornly basis, he was amazing in a crisis.

Orion made it out into the central room, which was a hive of activity. Mecha were setting up portable screens along the walls, and chairs in the center of the room where the other commanders were gathering. Orion walked toward Chromia, Elita, and Prowl, and joined the group comm. that all of the heads of departments were communicating over as well, leaving Red Alert's so he could focus on what his other friends were discussing.

His helm filled with chatter. Ironhide announced that he was heading to the groundbridge station. Prowl reported that he'd already sent several units of ground troops to head a Decepticon contingency in the central sector of Slaughter City. Chromia let them know that the groundbridges were running smoothly and at full capacity. Elita mentioned she was talking with the Slaughter City Council.

Orion realized he really wasn't sure what he should be doing right now. He sat down next to Elita, who shot him a quiet smile, but looked distracted. Prowl was sitting on her other side, optics shuttered, hands resting on his knees.

Screens lit up all around the room—some displaying maps with moving dots, and others video feeds.

Red Alert, who was pacing nervously nearby, muttered something about security footage.

"Orion," Prowl said over the comm. "We're ready to engage the enemy, but I need the go-ahead from you."

Orion took in a deep vent.

"Orion!"

"All right," Orion replied. "Proceed."

He watched as more colored dots blinked into existence on the main map in front of him, some purple, some red.

"Prowl!" Ratchet shouted over the comm. "We can't set up triage so close to the fighting."

"Yes you can," Prowl said. "You won't be close to the fighting for long, and that's the most defensible spot in the vicinity. You'll be fine. Elita, I told you I need command of the Slaughter City Council guard and enforcement."

"The Grand Councilfemme's not sure she wants to fight," Elita said. "She's thinking about surrendering. Orion, can you try to talk some sense into her? She's not listening to me."

"Okay."

Orion accepted the comm. transfer, half paying attention to the preliminary casualty report Chromia sent them. Mecha were offline already.

"Optimus Prime," the Councilfemme said. "You can't hold the city. You should get your soldiers back out if you want them to survive. We're going to surrender."

"We can hold the city," Orion assured her. He wished he was more confident about that, but the dots on the screen were overwhelmingly purple. "We're prepared for this."

"No you aren't. You don't know just how many of them there are," the panicked Councilfemme said. "We don't stand a chance—Slaughter City's not defensible enough and you don't have enough soldiers There are ten thousand of them here already and they're still pouring through groundbridges."

"Please…"

"I know we asked for your help, but it's too late. I'm contacting Megatron to tell him we surrender. You should get your soldiers out of the city."

"No."

"There will be fewer casualties if we don't fight. If you really care about your mecha, and the mecha of Cybertron, you'll fall back."

Orion stared up at the map of the city. Fewer casualties was a good thing. This femme probably knew Megatron would kill her and the rest of the Council like he had in Tarn. But she was willing to surrender for her mecha.

Then again, Megatron probably wouldn't stop with the Council. And he certainly wouldn't stop with Slaughter City.

"Your Honor," he said. "Giving more power to a tyrant will not prevent him from killing. Surrender will only save lives if there is no chance of winning. And even then-"

"But you can't win."

"Listen to me," Orion said. "If retreat becomes necessary, we will retreat, but do not surrender to Megatron yet."

"Orion," Prowl said. "Are you making headway with that Councilor? We need all the help we can get from within the city."

Orion hesitated. "Prowl, we can win this, right?"

"Of course we can," Prowl snapped. "It'll be easier with help, though."

"If Megatron answers me, I'm going to surrender," the Councilfemme repeated.

"No," Orion said. "We can help you. We can't afford to let your city fall into Megatron's hands, and neither can you. Captured civilians are forced to join his armies or work in the mines. Their lives will only be temporarily prolonged if you surrender."

She was silent.

"On the other hand, if we win, you can retain your freedom."

"How can we trust you?" the Councilfemme asked. "We don't even know who you're working for or how you rose to power."

Primus, not those rumors. "Your Honor," Orion said. "I swear to you I only want to help. And I promise that we won't lose. You have my word as a Prime. They may have more soldiers than we do, but that does not mean they will win. We are fighting for more than they are, and we have resources they don't."

Silence on the other end.

"We need you to work with us," Orion said. "Please. I know you're hesitant to trust me, but your alternative is just as bad as fighting and losing…"

"Very well, Prime," the Councilfemme sounded subdued. "We will hold off on surrendering… and I'll give you command of my guards and all the enforcers in the sector."

"Thank you."

"No… thank you, Prime. Some mecha say the Iacon Council chose you, but I hope for all our sakes that Primus had a hand in it too."

Orion hoped so as well. "In either case, we are grateful for your help. May I transfer you to my representative again?"

"Yes."

"Elita, you can take her back," Orion said over the group comm. and passed the conversation to her again. Then he checked the latest report Chromia had sent and looked at the screens again. Both sides had groundbridged directly into the central sector of the city, at multiple locations, and there were no concentrated fronts, just groups of red and purple dots. There was a lot more purple than red, and though they had only activated the groundbridges a few breems ago, Chromia's casualty estimate was already in the hundreds.

If they won, it would be at a heavy cost.

On the other hand, if they lost then the war was over.

He hoped fervently that Prowl knew what he was doing. He could understand why the Grand Councilfemme had been reluctant to trust them.

"Prowl?"

"Don't distract me," Prowl snapped.

Orion watched as Autobot soldiers broke into smaller groups, scattering among the thickening sea of purple dots.

Someone sat down on his other side, and he turned to see that Mainspring, Mirage, and Jazz had come in.

"That don't look so good," Jazz said out loud, staring up at the screen.

"Do you need the codes for the group comm?" Orion asked.

Jazz shook his helm. "I think I'd just be in the way. I don't have anything ta contribute."

They sat and watched for several breems. Orion listened as Prowl, Elita, Red Alert, Chromia, and Ironhide talked back and forth. He was grateful every time he heard Ironhide's simulated voice over the comm.

If they lost, Ironhide would probably be killed.

"Orion…" Elita's simulated voice was hesitant.

"Yes?"

"We're getting a comm. from… Megatron."

Orion froze. He had all but given up trying to get in contact with the former gladiator. "Let me talk to him."

"Here."

Orion took in a deep vent.

"Hello, Prime."

"Megatronus," Orion said. "Stop this madness."

"If you surrender, I will… consider it."

"We do not need to have a war."

He heard a quiet laugh.

"Mecha are offlining each other out there. Why do they have to die, just because you're angry at me?"

"You think this is about you?" Megatron demanded. "I didn't think you were that conceited. Well, I suppose it's partly about you. You and your Council. But no matter. I commed you to offer you a chance. Surrender, and I won't slaughter all of your soldiers."

Orion didn't respond.

"Surely you can't imagine that you'll win. I have you outmaneuvered. You have two choices. You can surrender, or you can watch all of your mecha offline."

Orion looked at the screens.

"I'm not planning on taking any prisoners this orn."

"And if I surrender? You'll stand down and let them go?"

"Naturally."

"Will you give me your word?"

Megatron just laughed again.

"And if you did," Orion said. "I wouldn't believe you."

"That's right."

So it had all been a trap. Megatron probably didn't care about Slaughter City. He had just wanted Orion to send his forces in.

"Prowl?"

"Three breems, Prime," Prowl said. "Be patient."

Orion stared up at the screen in front of him, spark pulsing heavily. It almost looked like they didn't have three breems before they'd be overwhelmed.

"Are you ready to lose?" Megatron asked. "I'm surprised. I thought you'd last a little longer. Taking the rest of this planet is going to be painfully easy. Almost boring."

Three breems. That must mean Prowl had some sort of a plan, right?

"Are you going to surrender? We can start working on some terms."

Orion stared at the screens, trying to see some sort of pattern, but he really couldn't.

"You'd better hurry or it will be over before we even start negotiating."

"Prowl, could you use some help from the citizens?" Elita asked over the group comm. "We're getting a lot of mecha in the city who want to help. They don't all have weapons, though."

"Orion!" Megatron's patience seemed to be running out.

"I will not surrender at this time," Orion said. "It was good to speak with you, though. We miss you here. If you ever change your mind, you'll be welcome back in Autobot…"

Megatron cut the comm.

Orion sighed, glad that had worked, but also a little sorrowful. A small part of him really did wish Megatronus would join him again. But he had more important things to worry about right now.

"Yes, we can use them, but not yet…" Prowl sounded stressed. "Ironhide isn't listening to me. He's going to get himself killed if he doesn't get back where he's supposed to be."

Great. Orion opened up a private comm. with the commander. "Ironhide, what are you doing?"

"Trying not to get us all offlined."

"You have to do what Prowl says."

"That slagging enforcer doesn't know what the pit he's doing!"

"Yes he does. Do what he tells you to."

"I'm the one with experience here. He's leading us into a trap. He's going to get all of my mecha offlined!"

"If you can't trust him, we're going to lose this fight and if we lose here, we've lost the entire war! Do what he says! Now!"

"Prime…"

"Whether or not you trust Prowl, do you trust me?"

"Gah! Fine!"

Orion took in a deep vent. He was shaking.

"Thank you, Orion," Prowl said.

Orion watched on the screens as most of the little pockets of Autobots throughout the sector were surrounded, chased into tight corners, and blocked off.

The three breem mark came and went.

Nothing changed.

Most of the groups of Autobots stayed where they were, though a few were still apparently being chased. Orion watched them as time crept by, until none of the Autobot soldiers were traveling.

"Primus beneath," Mainspring said, and Orion glanced over at him to see him staring at the screen. "How did he…"

Chromia spoke over the group comm. "Um…" she said. "Don't know how to tell you all this, but the estimated casualty report for the past five breems was… three, so the total casualty estimate is still right where it was before, in the mid five hundreds."

"Wait, what?" Elita asked.

"Three casualties in the last five breems," Chromia repeated. "And only one confirmed offline. No, make that five, a couple of injured mecha offlined in triage."

"Elita," Prowl said. "If the Slaughter City civilians want to help, I'm going to need their individual comm. codes."

"You don't want them to make groups?" Elita said, sounding slightly dazed. "You can't comm. all of them at once."

"Would you kindly refrain from telling me how to do my job?"

Silence fell over the comm. for an astrosecond, and then Prowl spoke again.

"Perfect. Thank you."

"So," Mirage whispered from the other side of Mainspring. "What's going on?"

"They all must be in places the 'Cons can't get ta them," Jazz muttered. "Hey, Mainspring, how do we know where all the 'Con soldiers are?"

"It's not as reliable," Mainspring said. "But we have cameras, and multiple mecha helping to update the maps."

Hundreds of yellow dots suddenly appeared on the map. Orion watched as they flowed together, congregating off to one side of the conflict, forming a heavy wall between the fight and the place where Ratchet and the other medics were set up. The purple dots near most of the Autobot groups had backed away or blinked out.

Orion saw it right before it happened.

Suddenly, pockets of Autobots were in motion again, flowing together into the empty streets to form one solid, concentrated line, chasing the already retreating and disorganized Decepticons toward the yellow wall, which had broken up into more of a yellow lattice, spreading in a wide band across several blocks.

Orion could barely keep up with what was happening on the screen.

Prowl commed him privately, and he answered.

"The Decepticons are probably going to mount a full-scale retreat in less than a breem. Should I let them go, or should we trap them? I can break them up into enough pockets that Megatron won't be able to groundbridge them all out, but it will mean more casualties on both sides."

"Let them go then," Orion said. There had been enough fighting for one orn. "Don't offline anyone you don't have to. We can take prisoners if anyone is left behind."

"Yes, Sir." Prowl said, and closed the channel.

Orion watched as the Decepticons were chased into the mass of civilians, who came out from behind buildings and surged into the streets.

The Decepticons didn't even seem to fight them, just turned and ran the only direction left to them. Prowl had groups of Autobots and citizens ambush them, herding them into a tight crowd in a massive public park.

Then Prowl spoke over the comm. "The Decepticons have opened groundbridges. They're retreating."

Orion vented a sigh of relief.

"Do you want me to let everyone know?" Red Alert asked.

"Yes," Orion said.

A moment later, a cheer swept the room, and Orion watched as the crowd of purple dots on the map got smaller and smaller and finally disappeared.

Mecha cheered again at that, but Orion barely heard them.

They had won.

"The Slaughter City Council wants to put up a groundbridge shield over the entire city-state to prevent the Decepticons from coming back," Elita said.

"Good," Prowl replied. "Tell her to go ahead."

"You can't do that!" Ratchet insisted. "We need to transport injured mecha back to Iacon."

"Can they put the shield up just over the central sector?" Prowl asked. "The edge of the entire city-state would be a bit of a drive for our soldiers, but they can be back in less than half a joor if they only have to drive out of the sector."

"I'll ask," Elita said.

They had won. Primus, had that really just happened? It had been so fast. He checked his internal timepiece and found it had been longer than he'd thought. More than two joors since the beginning of the battle.

He looked over at Prowl, who sat still as a statue, with his optics un-shuttered, but also dark.

"Prowl?" he asked over the group comm.

"What?" Prowl replied. "Can you shut everyone up?"

Orion stood and turned to face the room. He hadn't realized there were so many mecha here. Everyone was talking, laughing, crying.

"All right!" Orion said, raising his hand for quiet. After a few moments, the noise died down and he continued. "We aren't done yet. We have to get everymech home. Many of our soldiers have been injured or offlined, and we have a long orn of work ahead of us."

He didn't want to know how many they lost. He hoped Chromia's estimates were higher than reality. They only had about five thousand soldiers, so they'd lost more than a tenth of their forces for certain.

"Way to kill the party," Moonracer grumbled.

Orion commed Ratchet. "How are things going?"

"How do you fragging think? Do you have to get mecha hurt like this?"

"I'm sorry," Orion said.

"It isn't your fault. Just don't distract me. And if you can send me more medics, that would be appreciated, since we won't be able to shuttle anyone to Iacon as soon as that groundbridge shield goes up."

"It's going to be a breem or two," Elita said. "The shield takes a lot of power."

"Then let's bring some of our mecha home while we can," Prowl said. "Prime, are we good to activate the groundbridges?"

"Yes," Orion said.

The screen went dark, so he couldn't watch as mecha disappeared from Slaughter City. But he heard reports over the comms. Prowl was organizing their return—bringing some home, leaving others. Mecha with injuries returned to Iacon, and the rest stayed behind to sweep the streets, looking for the offline and injured. More reports started coming in. Once everything had settled down, hopefully they would know how many of the mecha who had stopped responding to their comms were offline, and how many were just unconscious.

They would need to have a meeting. Primus, it was still the middle of the off-cycle. There were still about six more joors before the sun dome would come on.

Prowl's optics came back online and he slumped forward slightly in his seat with a sigh.

"Prowl?" Orion asked.

Prowl looked up at Orion. His doorwings drooped in exhaustion, but he smirked. "I told you we would win."

"I shouldn't have doubted you," Orion said. "Though… I'm not sure how you did it."

Prowl sat up straight again. "I'll explain it later. I'm still helping with clean-up now."

Orion nodded. Elita commed him to let him know the Grand Councilfemme wanted to talk to him again, so he accepted the comm. and brushed off her thanks before talking to her about repairing damages to her city that had been caused by the fight, as well as dealing with the injured Decepticons who had been left behind in the retreat. They spoke for nearly ten breems before Orion passed her back to Elita.

The elevator door opened and Ironhide came in. Chromia got up and went over to meet him, but he ignored her and made a beeline for Prowl. Before Orion recognized what was happening, Ironhide grabbed the Praxian by the back of the neck and attempted to throw him to the ground. Prowl twisted out of his grasp and backed away, but made no further attempt to defend himself as Ironhide rushed toward him.

"'Hide!" Chromia said.

"Ironhide!" Orion tried to get in between them, but he wasn't fast enough. Ironhide slammed Prowl against the wall where the map had been projected. "Ironhide!" Orion said again, amid shocked exclamations from everyone else in the room.

"You got half of the unit I was in offlined!" Ironhide growled.

"Ironhide, let him go," Orion said.

"What the pit is going on?"

"'Hide, stop it."

"You slagging fool." Ironhide said. "You let us walk into an obvious trap! I told you." His grip tightened around Prowl's neck and the Praxian winced, but didn't say anything.

"Hide, what the frag!"

"Let him go."

Other mecha moved forward, but Orion put up a hand to hold them back and approached on his own. Ironhide could seriously damage Prowl in that position, and he didn't want anyone to provoke him further.

"Don't you get involved," Ironhide growled. "I'll talk to you later, Prime."

"Think about what you're doing," Orion asked calmly. "The battle's over."

Ironhide's optics narrowed.

"He's not fighting back. He's not running away. If you have something to say to him, you can do it without physically harming him. Let him go. That's an order."

Ironhide held his position for another astrosecond but then the anger seemed to drain out of him and he let go and took a step back. Prowl shuttered his optics and sank to one knee, venting hard.

"What the pit was that for?" Chromia said, coming to stand in between her sparkmate and Prowl.

"You should have been there to see it," Ironhide said. "He was deliberately putting us in danger."

"You have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." Chromia snapped. "We would have lost without him. And now you've come and made quite the spectacle of yourself."

"Why are you taking his side?" Ironhide growled.

"I don't care about Prowl, but you need to learn to control your temper."

"Control my temper?" Ironhide demanded. "Mecha offlined!"

"Yeah," Chromia said. "A whole fragging lot less mecha offlined than could have. Just calm the frag down!"

Ironhide glared at her for a moment, then turned and stormed from the room.

Silence fell as everyone watched him disappear down the hall. Then Orion heard mecha turning away again, probably returning to their comms with Slaughter City, apologizing for the momentary break in communications.

Orion looked back at Prowl. "Are you all right?"

Prowl got slowly to his pedes. "Yes," he said, though his voice was staticky. "Fine."

"Okay." Orion wasn't quite convinced.

He looked down the hall again. He should go talk to Ironhide, but it might be better to give the mech a few breems to calm down first. He commed Elita instead, to ask what else he could do to help with clean-up in Slaughter City.

Notes:

1. Yay, first real battle. Not that there was much in-scene fighting.

2. Someone in a comment asked about the whole randomly switching to 1st person when we're in Soundwave's point of view. I know it's weird and I'm sorry, I just have a hard time writing him in third person for some reason so it's going to have to be that way.

3. There have been a few spare parts chapters over the past few weeks pertaining to recent events. Chapters 28 and 29 are scenes with Jazz, and chapter 30 is about Elita going to talk to Yoketron in response to his message in the end of the previous chapter.

4. Thanks for reading!