Coming online took a very long time. Prowl's processor activated first, but it was sluggish and running on low power. He tried to figure out what had happened while he waited for everything else to power up, but thinking was exhausting.

Slowly, systems diagnostics started to pop up in his processor. He was coming out of stasis. Medical stasis. Something had happened to him.

His energon tanks came online, and he discovered that his lethargy wasn't because he was out of fuel.

Then his pain grid woke up. His spark chamber felt like it had been yanked out and used as a lobbing ball.

Yes—something had definitely happened to him.

But what? He accessed memory files, searching for the most recent ones. He had followed Mainspring into Jazz's office. Mainspring had said there was something there Prowl needed to see. Red Alert had commed him and asked him if he was all right.

And then something had hit him from behind.

Mainspring? Had Mainspring attacked him? He could think of no other explanation and he had left his back exposed to the mech. He hadn't heard any weapons powering up, so Mainspring must have stabbed him. The pain was concentrated right over his spark, which made sense. Spark damage would explain why he still couldn't even online his optics—why even thinking was so difficult.

But thinking was also important at the moment. Operating under the assumption that Mainspring had tried to kill him, they were in a lot of trouble. Mainspring had very high security clearance—the only Autobot secret he didn't know was that Orion and Elita were bonded.

Prowl would have to re-think many of his strategies…

But if Mainspring was a traitor, why had the Decepticons lost in Slaughter City? Prowl's strategy had only worked because the Decepticons hadn't realized what he was doing. Mainspring had been the one to organize the scouting trips to find defensible locations in Slaughter City.

How could he be a traitor?

If Mainspring wasn't a traitor, did that mean there'd been someone else in Jazz's office?

Finally, Prowl's optics and audios came online. He seemed to be lying face down on something—probably a medical berth.

His doorwings were picking up the sound of another engine in the room, so he wasn't alone.

He suddenly realized he didn't know if he was safe or not. He tried to force himself online more quickly, but his systems weren't responding properly. He lifted his helm slightly, and was rewarded by a spike of pain in his back and a warning in his processor informing him that his motor functions were only at 8%.

"What are you doing?"

That was Ratchet's voice.

Prowl tried to raise his helm again, and activated his voice box. "Ratchet…?"

"Hush! Don't talk or try to move, you could kill yourself."

"Mainspring… is he all right?"

"What?" Ratchet said.

"I assume he's not really a traitor," Prowl muttered.

"I said be quiet," Ratchet told him. "There was a mechformer impersonating him. Stabbed you in the spark chamber—I said don't try to move, you idiot!"

Prowl heard Ratchet approach the berth, and felt a light pressure on his back. He gasped as the pain intensified, but then it backed off, until the only thing that hurt was his spark itself—a dull, draining ache that somehow went deeper than physical pain.

"You suffered severe spark damage," Ratchet explained. "If you move too much you could offline. I think you'll make a full recovery, but you'll need to stay on this berth for several more decaorns at least."

Prowl shuttered his optics. "I can't. I have work to do."

Ratchet snorted. "I don't think so. I'm going to make sure all of your systems booted up properly, and then you are going to power down again."

"How long was I unconscious?"

"It's been a decaorn."

Prowl checked his internal timepiece to confirm that. He would be so far behind on everything… and what if there was a battle? He needed to be ready in case the Decepticons attacked. "You should have woken me up earlier. What if there was a battle?"

"I couldn't have woken you up earlier without offlining you." Ratchet snapped.

"Has Optimus returned?"

"Yes."

That was a relief. "Has there been any significant Decepticon activity since I was last online?"

Ratchet was silent.

"What?"

"We can discuss that next time you wake up."

"Wait," Prowl said, and tried to lift his helm again, but he was too weak. "What happened?"

"You need rest," Ratchet said. "Not more things to worry about."

"I can't rest until I know," Prowl said.

"I will put you back into stasis if you don't shut up and lie still," Ratchet said, and Prowl could feel the medic scanning his helm. "I think everything's working normally, thank Primus…"

Trying to move had sapped what little energy Prowl had. He wanted to insist Ratchet tell him what had happened, but he could already feel himself shutting down again. And though the pain wasn't too bad anymore, he couldn't fight the exhaustion.

"Hey, mech," Jazz said.

"You wanted to talk to me?" Impactor seemed too large for Jazz's office. It wasn't just his size, either. There was something very present and dangerous about him that made him seem bigger than he was.

"Yeah," Jazz said. "I just wanted ta officially thank ya for what ya did for us in Tesarus."

Impactor crossed his arms.

"I know ya lost some mecha, so I wanted ta offer my condolences too."

"It's a war," Impactor said. "Sparks are cheap."

Jazz shook his helm. "I think in some ways, they're even more valuable in a war, ya know..."

Impactor nodded. "That's fair. Look, you don't have to call me in to thank me every time we go on a mission—it'll get old real fast. I told you the Autobots have my loyalty. My friends and I are at your disposal, so long as you need us."

Jazz nodded. "Well, I don't want ya ta feel like we don't appreciate ya. We wouldn't have an army anymore if it weren't for your mecha."

Impactor smiled grimly. "I guess that's true."

"Hey, did ya get my message last orn?"

"About coming up with a name for my unit? We're still working on it."

"All right," Jazz said. "But we gotta have a name for ya and I don't wanna give ya some random string of digits or whatever. Let me know as soon as ya come up with something."

"My mechs have been tossing around a few ideas," Impactor said. "Not sure they're appropriate enough for your high class command element."

Jazz shrugged. "Yeah. I guess that limits the options a little."

"We'll come up with something eventually." Impactor said. "Is that all?"

"Yeah. Let me know if ya need anything."

The big mech nodded, then got up and left Jazz's office. Jazz leaned back in his chair and looked up at the ceiling. He was itching to get back out in the field, but he was supposed to stay here.

In case the Decepticons attacked again and they needed him to help run the battle.

He was tempted to disappear for a decaorn or two so he could avoid that possibility. He didn't want to be in charge ever again. He didn't want to watch the death toll go up and try to have twenty conversations at once and make so many mistakes…

He worked better on his own.

Jazz's comm. beeped and he sighed and answered it. "Yes, Red Alert?"

"There's a femme here insisting she wants to talk to you."

"A femme?"

"Yes. I've seen her before. She was friends with Soundwave… her designation is Breeze, I think."

"Oh…" Jazz said. "Well, did ya let her in?"

"I don't think we can trust her. She could be affiliated with the Decepticons."

"I highly doubt that. Let her in and send her ta my office. I'll talk ta her."

"After what happened with Makeshift…"

"Look, I'm not gonna turn my back on her so she can stab me. If she's not really Breeze, then I'll be able ta tell pretty quick. Besides, she might have something important ta say." He hoped Blaster was all right. But since he wasn't even sure if she knew his mecha were keeping an optic on them… it could be something else. Jazz organized his desk a little, dumping everything that might have sensitive information on it into a drawer. Then he commed the mech who was watching over Breeze and the others in Praxus, to confirm that she had left, because if she was still there, that would be a big warning sign.

He checked his internal timepiece as he waited for an answer. The ornly meeting was in fifteen breems but he had time for a short conversation. Hopefully, she didn't have a whole lot to say. While an excuse to miss the meeting would be kind of nice, he had important things to bring up.

When Breeze came into the open doorway, Jazz let her in and gestured for her to sit across the desk from him. She entered, but stayed standing, frowning at him.

"Everything okay?" Jazz said. "Is the mechling safe?"

"He's fine." Breeze crossed her arms. "As I'm sure you know, since you've been spying on us."

Makeshift had known that they were keeping watch over some mecha in Praxus, and he might even know their designations. But Jazz had used video feeds to study the way Makeshift moved, and this femme was definitely not holding herself like Makeshift. "Ya know I wouldn't, if ya weren't in danger. Soundwave knows about Blaster."

"Soundwave would never do anything to hurt him," Breeze said. "Or Keepsake or Cam. Or me."

Definitely Breeze. She was so convinced Soundwave was a good mech. And she might be right, at the moment. But mecha changed, especially when they put themselves in the kind of situation Soundwave had put himself into.

"And that's not why I'm here," Breeze said.

"Okay," Jazz said. "Why are ya here?"

"Wheeljack's gone missing," Breeze said.

Jazz had heard about that.

"And I think you know why." Breeze said calmly. "If you want to convince me that the Autobots are good, then maybe you shouldn't hunt down my psychiatric patients and tell them where to find the mecha they're obsessed with killing."

"Sorry about that," Jazz said.

"Sorry about that?" Breeze repeated. "What possible reason would you have for telling him? Did you want him to go after Shockwave?"

"No," Jazz said. "I just needed ta ask him some questions about Shockwave's research."

"You have other scientists, don't you?" Breeze said. "What about Perceptor? Why did you need Wheeljack? You should have left him out of it. He is not mentally stable, and now he's going to be dead before he ever has a chance to finish healing."

"Yeah… I could have handled that better…"

"You don't sound very concerned," she said quietly.

"I'll look for him," Jazz said.

"Are you telling the truth?"

Jazz had a hard time meeting her gaze even with his visor. "Femme, I can't explain the whole situation to you, but Wheeljack was the only one who could really answer my questions."

"What's done is done," she said sounding sorrowful. "Are you telling the truth about going after him? Or are you just trying to appease me?"

He looked down. He didn't want Wheeljack dead, but he had other things to deal with…

No. Orion had made him promise to care. He couldn't just blow her off, or ignore this problem. He took in a deep vent. "I'm not gonna lie and say it's my top priority right now. Ya wouldn't believe how busy I am, but I do promise I'll try ta get him back. I can't undo what he knows, though, so I can't promise he won't keep trying ta offline Shockwave."

Breeze sighed. "Okay."

"Also, there's something ya should know," Jazz said, suddenly worried. "I know ya think Soundwave's still good and all, but please don't show up at the Decepticon base of operations like ya showed up here. I have been there and I can tell ya they don't treat walk-ins very well."

From her expression, he knew she believed him. After all, she had met Megatron, back when they'd been running this thing out of Perceptor's house… she'd showed up right after they had to leave too.

"All right," she said. "But Keepsake and Cam and Blaster don't want to get involved in this war. Can you promise me you'll leave us alone?"

"That's not my decision," Jazz said. 'But I can try."

She looked down. "I guess that's all I can ask… I'm actually surprised that you even agreed to talk to me, since we were never friends."

More things to be guilty about. "I try not ta live in the past," he said.

Her expression told him she wasn't impressed and still didn't like him very much. Well, you couldn't win everyone over.

"I have ta get ta a meeting in about ten breems," Jazz said.

"I'll go then," Breeze said, then sighed. "Thanks."

She left and Jazz sat back in his chair. Sometimes he felt like he was still a criminal—just a different kind of criminal. Now he fought for idealists instead of crimelords which was a serious step up, but he still caused a lot of trouble for mecha. At least he was holding onto his resolve never to kill anyone again. But he wasn't sure how long that was going to last. There had already been a lot of killing on both sides of this conflict.

And of course, he had killed mecha, just not directly. Thousands of mecha in Tesarus had offlined or been taken as Decepticon prisoners because he had no idea what he was doing.

Now wasn't the time for regrets, though. There was too much to do. So he took a deep vent and got up. He had ten breems. He'd feel better after some energon and a friendly conversation with whoever was in the main room.

"Welcome to our ornly meeting," Orion said. "Before anything else, Elita has something she would like to bring up." He looked to her and she stood.

"I know I've brought it up in previous meetings, but there are several cities that haven't been willing to work or even communicate with us. One of those cities is Vos. This is unfortunate, as you know, because it would be nice to have the seekers on our side... But we just found out they aren't as neutral as we thought they were."

"What does that mean?" Ironhide said.

"Somehow, Megatron's opened up correspondence with Vos." Elita explained. "We don't know yet if they're working out an alliance, or a trade agreement, but the rumors have been confirmed..."

"They're talking ta Megatron now, but still not ta us?" Jazz said

"Exactly," Elita replied

The room fell into tense silence. Orion figured it was time to say something. "We do not know what their intentions are, or how Megatron convinced them to start corresponding with him. But I can't imagine them allying themselves with the Decepticons."

"It doesn't make sense," Jazz said. "Seekers like ta think of themselves as better than us, right? So why would they talk ta the slave gladiator, and not the Prime?"

"Maybe he's offered them something?" Mainspring suggested.

"The question is what do we do about it?" Ironhide said. "Because this doesn't sound like something we should just ignore."

Silence again.

"We could offer them something?" Chromia said. "Not that we have much to offer. What would Megatron have to offer?"

"World domination, maybe," Moonracer said. "I don't know if that would be appealing to them, though."

"If Vos sides with Megatron, we are doomed," Red Alert said. "We can't let that happen."

Orion nodded. If the seekers joined Megatron's army, that would make things very difficult. The chances of the Autobots losing would increase dramatically. But what could they do? "For now," he said. "Continue trying to open communications with Vos."

"Are they just talking ta the 'Cons, or are they sending mecha back and forth?" Jazz said.

"Reports indicate they're still just talking," Elita said.

"What if we offered ta actually send someone," Jazz said. "Have we tried that?"

"I guess we could try," Elita said. "But I doubt they'd agree to it."

"Could we just show up and demand to see them?" Ironhide suggested.

"No," Elita said. "The seekers are very particular about who visits their city. If you don't have permission, they just arrest you or kick you out."

"We don't want to offend them," Orion said. "That would be counterproductive."

"Aside from Megatron and Vos," Elita said. "Our relationship with many other city-states has been damaged because of what happened in Tesarus, but no one's cut us off. Oh, and the Iacon Council insists we should try to reclaim Tesarus."

Ironhide snorted. "Right. And while we're at it, let's storm Kaon too."

"That's all I have to report," Elita looked at Orion, who nodded, and moved on to Chromia.

"Recruitment's up," Chromia said. "Still going strong, but we're pretty sure Decepticon recruitment is up as well. Megatron's brutality is scaring some and inspiring others. And there are still rumors circulating about Orion being in league with the Council. Whatever."

She continued, reading off some numbers related to current resources and funds. After she was done, Orion turned the time over to Ironhide, then Red Alert.

"Well," Red Alert said. "Plans for the new base are going well. We'll be finished with the initial blueprints in a few more orns, thanks to that architect Mainspring found. I still don't trust him, but he's been very useful. Until then, we have to be more careful about who comes and goes here. Anyone who leaves and comes back could be Makeshift in disguise. We already have temporary security measures in place, but Perceptor and Ratchet are working on a permanent solution so we can track your life signals securely, and we'll know for sure if Makeshift is trying to impersonate you, because we'll also be tracking your location."

"And I'll also know if you're injured or offline," Ratchet said. "It should be useful for me, especially since some of us are foolish enough to insist on taking part in battles," he glared at Ironhide.

"I'm not sitting back and letting my mechs put their lives on the line without me." Ironhide said. "That's not going to change, medic."

Ratchet made as if to retort, but Orion put a hand on Ironhide's shoulder and made optic contact with Ratchet. "That's enough."

The medic huffed.

"Ratchet, how is Prowl doing?"

"He came online for a few breems this orn," Ratchet said. "All of his systems are functioning properly, except for his spark, of course, which is still badly damaged. I believe he'll make a full recovery, but it will be a while before he's ready to go back to work."

"Thank you," Orion said. From what he'd heard, Prowl's injuries would have killed him if Ratchet hadn't gotten there so quickly. Orion turned to meet Jazz's optics. "Were you able to find out any more about Makeshift?"

"Yeah," Jazz said, and glanced at Mainspring before speaking. "His cover story was good, cuz he's had it for vorns, and he actually did roll with a circus for a while. But when we looked closer it turns out he was working for some crime organization on the side—probably Quantum since Quantum's allied with the Decepticons."

"I'm sorry I wasn't more careful," Mainspring said. "I will learn from my mistake."

Orion nodded, hoping that Mainspring didn't feel too bad about it.

The meeting continued. It seemed like every orn there was so much news and so much to do and think about. Orion had an unreasonable amount of work to do, and then he also needed to go meet with Master Yoketron. He had attempted the fifth trial several more times, but without much luck. He just couldn't commit to completing it the way he'd been able to commit to the others.

Finally, after they'd gone all the way around the table, Orion closed the meeting. He asked Red Alert to stay behind, though. Something had been brought to his attention and he needed to discuss it privately with the head of security.

Red Alert watched everyone leave with a slightly nervous look on his faceplate, and then turned to face Orion.

"Red Alert." Orion tried to sound encouraging. "I wanted to thank you for all of the good work you've been doing."

Red Alert nodded silently.

"We couldn't do it without you. Without you, Prowl would be offline, and probably Mainspring as well. And who knows what else might have slipped past the building's defenses… you're irreplaceable."

Red Alert was looking at him like he knew there was a 'but' coming.

"In fact," Orion said. "You are too irreplaceable. Red Alert, you need to train someone to do your job, in case something happens to you."

Red Alert sighed.

"I know you have a lot of mecha who answer to you, but you don't have anyone directly under you, do you?"

"No."

"Not only is that dangerous—it must be exhausting to run the entire department by yourself."

"I know it's a problem," Red Alert said. "But I can't bring myself to trust anyone, especially not after what happened with Makeshift…"

Orion wasn't sure what to tell him.

"And no one can stand to work with me anyway," Red Alert said.

Well…

"So I don't know what to do."

"Is there anyone you trust?"

"You," Red Alert said. "You, Ironhide, Elita, probably Chromia… and I think that's it. I used to trust Mainspring, but even though he wasn't actually a traitor, I thought he was for a breem, and now I can't trust him anymore."

"Red Alert?"

"And I trusted Soundwave too, and look where that got us. So I don't even trust my own ability to determine who we can and can't trust. Almost everyone is probably loyal, but you don't know where the traitor is, usually, until it's too late."

"Red Alert."

"What?"

"You are right," Orion said. "It will be dangerous for you to put someone else in a position of power in your department. And you might not be able to trust them completely. But is it really more dangerous than leaving things the way they are? If something were to happen to you, we would have to blindly appoint a new mech or femme to your position."

Red Alert tensed.

"Please try to find someone."

"Okay," Red Alert said. "I'll try."

"I am confident you can do it. And I trust you."

"Thank you, Prime."

"You can go if you want. Thank you for talking to me." Orion smiled and Red Alert nodded and left.

Orion held back for a breem or so, thinking. Now he just had to convince Prowl to put a department together. That might be even more difficult.

Suddenly, he realized Red Alert had called him "Prime" and it hadn't bothered him at all. He hadn't even noticed. He was getting used to the title.

He wasn't sure how to feel about that.

I waited in the hall. We were going to leave as soon as Megatron and Starscream came back from visiting the mines. Vos had finally accepted our request to meet with them in person. The last time I'd been to Vos had been with Crescent. That was so far in the past that it seemed like another life. Another mech, not me. A sparkling.

Thundercracker glanced at me, then looked away again. He was standing across from me in the hall, waiting as well. He was different too. We hadn't talked at all since he and his trine had joined the Decepticons. We'd almost been avoiding each other.

We stood in silence for a breem.

Two breems.

Three.

"Hey," he said. Of all mecha, I wouldn't expect Soundwave to have joined the Decepticons.

I nodded.

"Been a while."

"Yes."

Mecha change, I guess. I mean, I'm here, even if it's just because of my trine. Primus, I really thought Starscream would change his mind, but we're still stuck here. I don't like how secretive he's being. He's got some sort of plan for recruiting Vos, but he won't explain it to me. And Megatron's about as messed up as they come. None of this is good. There's going to be more fighting, and this could turn into an all-out war… surely Soundwave can see that as well as I can… "You know… you probably should have walked away from this one too." Like he did back in school… but of course, this is different. That was mechling stuff. This is more complicated than that.

"I can't," I said.

Thundercracker nodded, thinking about Starscream and Skywarp and how he had to stick with them and try to keep them out of trouble. "Me either. Kinda rusts, doesn't it?"

I nodded.

"Real mecha are going to die this time, though. They've been dying."

"They were dying long befo-ore the war started."

Searchlight… of course… Thundercracker nodded. "True." He took in a deep vent and sighed it out. But before he could say anything else, Megatron came around the corner, followed by Starscream and Skywarp. Megatron was unhappy about the situation in the mines. They were still producing enough energon to support the Decepticons, but they were producing less than they should have been, even though they had enough miners.

Thundercracker nodded deferentially as Megatron walked past, though he felt no loyalty—only fear and disgust. We would have to be careful about him. Starscream and Skywarp were the only reason he was here. If and when Starscream decided to try and take over, Thundercracker would surely back him up.

And I would have to stop him.