Elita's spark froze as Megatron stepped into the doorway, followed by two seekers. The warlord scowled as he surveyed the room. He seemed at once larger, more intimidating, and crueler than she remembered. Had he always been like this? Or had he had changed just as much as Orion since that fated orn when they'd appeared before the Council together?

"Where is Orion?" he growled.

This had been a trap, to catch Orion, hadn't it? It was a relief that he wasn't here… but Elita was. If they killed her, he would almost certainly die as well, so in a way, Megatron had caught Orion, he just didn't know it.

"And the guards are dead," one of the seekers said. "No, just unconscious. Maybe the Prime escaped."

"And left his precious friends behind?" Megatron onlined his cannon, looking angry. "I said where is he!" He shot one of the unconscious guards in the helm.

"He didn't come with us," Elita said quickly. "What are you doing? Don't kill—"

Megatron shot the second guard, scowl deepening. "Coward. Letting his subordinates put themselves in danger for him," he shook his helm. "I always overestimate him. Well, now what, Starscream? Your plan has already failed."

The lighter-colored seeker looked suddenly nervous. "My Lord, Megatron," he said. "We… uh… we don't necessarily need the Prime. Just someone high enough in the chain of command to be well-known, and recognized…"

Elita met Megatron's red optics for a moment, horrified. He'd just offlined two helpless guards as if it was nothing.

He smirked at her, as if amused by her shock, and then turned away to look into the next cell over.

His optics widened. "You!" he hissed. "I thought you were dead."

Prowl. Primus, no… if he killed Prowl…

"Who is that?" Starscream asked.

"The assassin lied," Megatron growled, then vented a sigh. "I suppose you'll do, though. Get them all out of their cells."

"Yes, Lord Megatron," Starscream went straight to Prowl's cell while the other seeker started at the end.

Prowl would do for what? What was Megatron planning?

Elita watched, as the tactician was dragged from his cell and thrown to the ground. He made no move to stand, which didn't bode well. Elita wondered if bringing him had been a mistake. He was obviously not as well-recovered as he claimed.

Eventually, he shifted and made as if to roll onto his side, but Megatron planted a pede on his upper back and pressed down hard. Prowl gasped and Elita winced in sympathy.

Megatron leaned farther forward. "You might be good at board games, but you're pretty pathetic when it comes to anything else, aren't you?"

"Leave him alone, you glitch," Moonracer growled.

Megatron turned to look at her, but didn't remove his pede from Prowl's back.

One of the seekers—the purple one—opened Elita's cell and pulled her out. She stepped away from him and stood, feeling like she ought to do something, but not sure exactly what.

"Fair warning," Megatron said, still looking at Moonracer. "You're all expendable except for him." He pointed his arm cannon down at Prowl. "And I am already in a bad mood, so I would think twice before opening your lip plates again." He removed his pede from Prowl's back and the tactician moaned softly. "Come," Megatron said, and turned to leave the way he'd come in.

The seekers had to drag Prowl to his pedes. The expression on his faceplate was shockingly calm, but he wouldn't meet Elita's optics, and he stumbled twice before they got to the door.

They definitely shouldn't have brought him.

Elita remembered suddenly that Ironhide was still out there. He might be able to help them. And then she remembered he'd given her a key.

She'd left it in the cell. Stupid, stupid, stupid. If she had that key she could maybe get the stasis cuffs off and… And then what? She was learning how to fight, but she probably couldn't take down two seekers, and she definitely couldn't overpower Megatron.

They were led down a hall and crowded into a small room. The seekers dropped Prowl to the ground and then went to lock the door once everyone was inside.

"Sit down," Megatron said, waving his glowing arm cannon. Elita sat down near the door, and Moonracer followed her lead. The others sat as well, with two of Elita's mecha helping Prowl get to a kneeling position.

Elita shuttered her optics for a moment, trying to come up with a plan. Now that they weren't in the room with the cells, Ironhide probably wouldn't be able to find them, so she had to get everyone out on her own…

But what could they do? They were all stasis-cuffed, and the seekers and Megatron were armed. The door was locked so they couldn't run for it either.

If Megatron wanted to kill them, there would be no way to stop him.

Elita had never felt so helpless. When she had gone out on that battlefield, she'd been scared, but she'd been with both of her sisters, and they'd been in control of the situation. She glanced at Moonracer, who was glaring at Megatron in a way that could mean trouble. She tried to catch her sister's attention, hoping to silently encourage her to behave.

Megatron had offlined two unconscious guards. He probably wouldn't need much provocation before he started shooting the members of her party, and Elita didn't want to lose any of them.

"Here's how this is going to go," the seeker designated Starscream said. "First, you're going to send a message to your Prime, asking for his assistance."

Elita frowned. That… why would Megatron want them to do that?

"Of course, we don't want you giving the wrong impression of the situation, so we've written you a script, and we'll record it beforehand, so if you mess up, you can try again."

Elita had a bad feeling about this. She watched as they set a datapad in front of Prowl so he could read it. She wanted to know what it said, but she wasn't close enough. Prowl looked confused for an astrosecond, but then a light dawned in his optics and he looked up.

"No," he said simply.

"You will," Megatron said. "Or I will kill the rest of your associates one by one." He pointed his arm cannon at Dion, one of the mecha from Elita's department. Dion ducked his helm and looked at Prowl with wide, frightened optics. "You have three astroseconds. One…"

"Prowl, just read it," Elita said.

Prowl wouldn't look at her. "This asks them to send in the army. It would be an act of war."

"Two…"

That would do more than irritate the seekers—it would enrage them. The majority of them might even side with the Decepticons over something like that.

Megatron fired.

"No!" Elita said and tried to get up, but the purple seeker shoved her back down.

Moonracer's engine growled, but she didn't say anything.

Dion's lifeless frame scraped against the wall as he tipped sideways and slid to the ground. The femme sitting next to him, Harmony, started crying quietly.

"All right," Prowl said. "All right, I'll read it."

Elita shuttered her optics. Dead, he was dead. Primus, had that just happened? This had to be some sort of bad dream. She felt Orion reach out, felt his worry tainting the comfort he was trying to send her way.

She might be about to die. If she died, Orion would as well. She could only imagine the horror he would feel as her spark went out, how it would hurt him. At least they probably wouldn't be separated for long, but the Autobots would be doomed.

Prowl started reading from Starscream's datapad. His voice was as calm as ever—how could he be so calm? An unreasonable anger filled her emotional core, and she wasn't even sure if she was angry at Megatron for killing Dion, or Prowl for being so calm about it.

Dion…

She tried not to look at him, but he was almost directly across from her, lying on his side, facing her. The damaged half of his helm was up, and energon oozed down what was left of his faceplate in thick rivulets. His one remaining optic stared in her direction, dark and empty.

She shuttered her optics, trying to banish the image, barely paying attention to the message Prowl read aloud. She got the gist of it, though. It claimed the seekers had allied themselves with the Decepticons and that Elita's team needed immediate troop support to help them escape. Because it was from Prowl, they would listen and do what he said.

It would be a terrible mess and they would probably never earn Vos's forgiveness, forget about trust.

And as soon as this was over, as soon as Prowl was finished talking, Megatron would probably kill them all. He didn't know it, but he would be killing Orion as well. They needed to find a way out of this before that happened, but she couldn't think of anything.

Prowl finished. Elita looked up.

Expectant silence stretched out as Starscream took the datapad back.

"Send the recording," Megatron said.

"Yes, milord," Starscream said.

They were all going to die.

"Done."

"Now," Megatron said. "While we wait for your friends to show up, I need you to make another recording."

The purple seeker snickered and Starscream sneered as he set the datapad back down in front of Prowl. "Just change it where it ought to have your designation instead of the Prime's," he said.

Elita watched again as the Praxian silently read over the datapad, but this time his calm mask broke, and his expression morphed to something like horror. "Primus beneath," he said. "You…" he looked up at Megatron with wide, shocked optics. "This is an empty threat. You couldn't really…"

Megatron's cannon fired up and he pointed it at Harmony, who was sitting in between Prowl and Dion. She was still weeping quietly. "Read it."

"Prowl," Elita said desperately. He had to do it. She couldn't watch anyone else die.

He finally met her optics and she could see the weight of this decision in them. He couldn't refuse without allowing Optimus to die, but he did not want to read that message.

"You have three astroseconds. One…"

"All right," Prowl said. "Don't kill anyone else, I'll read it."

Megatron lowered the cannon, and Prowl started reading.

"Attention, Mecha of Vos." His voice was calm again, almost expressionless. "This is Autobot Commander Prowl. I speak to the Council of the city, as well as all seekers. We have attempted to communicate with you, but you have blatantly ignored all of our requests. This is unacceptable. We now demand that you cease all communications with the Decepticons and ally yourselves with the Autobots. You have ten breems to contact us and negotiate. If you fail to do so, we will bring your city down out of the sky. I repeat, cease…"

Elita gasped, cutting him off, then looked up and met Megatron's optics.

"The next person besides Prowl who makes a sound dies," he said. "Try again."

Prowl took a deep, shaky vent and started again. This time, the rest of the room was silent as he spoke.

It didn't even matter whether Megatron intended to make good on the threat. After this outrage, Vos would almost certainly side with the Decepticons.

Prowl got farther in the message this time, but messed up on what sounded like the last sentence. He looked up at Megatron, who glared at him.

"My apologies," Prowl said. "I'll try again."

Megatron raised his gun and aimed for Harmony. She screamed and ducked out of the way, crashing into Prowl as Megatron fired, missed, then fired again. Elita tried to look away, but she wasn't fast enough.

The room descended into silence again.

"No more mistakes," Megatron growled. "Elita's next." He pointed his cannon at her. She wanted to run, or hide, but she forced herself to be still long enough for the anger to catch up. He was killing her friends. He had killed two already—along with the thousands who'd died in Kaon, Tarn, Slaughter City, Tesarus... Why? There was no reason for his murders, no excuse, no explanation. She glared at him and he met her gaze and grinned, still pointing his weapon at her.

How had they misjudged this mech so badly? How had they ever thought he was good?

Prowl started reading again. Elita didn't look away from Megatron until the tactician was finished.

"Skywarp, go make sure our mecha are in place for the detonation," Megatron said. "And Starscream, prepare to broadcast that recording across the city as soon as the Autobot soldiers show up."

Detonation?

Primus beneath, he really was going to destroy the city, wasn't he?

The seekers left. Elita looked at Prowl, hoping desperately that he had a plan. His helm was bowed, and Harmony's offline frame was still leaning against him, dripping energon on his shoulder.

He didn't look like a mech with a plan.

"Thank you, Prowl," Megatron said. "For your valuable contribution to the Decepticon cause. Regretfully, I no longer have need of your services." He raised his arm and pointed the gun at Prowl.

Prowl looked up. He was smiling.

Megatron looked surprised, just for a moment, and then a plasma blast hit him in the side of the helm. He roared and stumbled to the side. Elita turned around to see Ironhide standing in the doorway that the seekers had gone through.

Megatron pushed away from the wall and returned fire, but Ironhide was already in the room. He dodged and fired at Megatron again.

Megatron aimed his cannon at Prowl's helm and stillness returned.

"Ellie, you and the others get out of here," Ironhide said.

"No one goes anywhere," Megatron growled. "I might survive another shot from your cannon, but I doubt your little pet enforcer will fare so well."

Ironhide narrowed his optics. "Not if I shoot you in the faceplate, you won't."

Prowl shifted slightly. He was no longer smiling.

Ironhide fired, and Megatron did as well, dodging Ironhide's blast as he did so.

They charged at each other. Ironhide deflected Megatron's blade, but then tripped over Moonracer and hit the wall.

Elita didn't dare vent as Ironhide turned to fend of Megatron's next attack. "You're about to be surrounded," he said as he dodged, putting himself in between Prowl and Megatron. "There's Autobots swarming this place, and they know where we are."

Megatron raised an optic ridge. The side of his helm was all exposed wires and dripping energon, but he didn't even seem to notice. "Good," he said, then stepped out the door and shut it behind himself.

Elita looked to Prowl, suddenly worried, but Megatron's shot must have missed him, because he was still kneeling, looking up at Ironhide with a desperate, slightly dazed expression.

Ironhide went to the door. "Locked," he said. "Frag it."

"Ironhide," Prowl said. "We have to stop them. They're going to bring down the city."

"What?" Ironhide said.

There was a loud beep and then Prowl's voice was suddenly audible, repeating the message the Decepticons had recorded.

Ironhide's optics widened as it came to the part that threatened to sink the city. "What…" he said again.

The message ended.

"Ten breems," Prowl said. "We only have ten breems. That's not enough time…"

"There's no fragging way Megatron could sink Vos," Ironhide said, pulling a key out of subspace. "Elita, you left this."

"I'm sorry," she said, as Ironhide knelt in front of her.

"Are you hurt?" he asked.

She shook her helm.

"We have to get out of here," Prowl said.

The stasis cuffs fell from Elita's wrists, and Ironhide moved on to Moonracer. "I know," he said. "We're working on it. What the pit is going on, by the way? All I know is you weren't in your cells, and then a bunch of our fliers showed up and Megatron was in here…"

Elita glanced back at her two offline friends, fighting back horror. She had to stay calm—this wasn't over yet.

"They set it up," Prowl said. "They forced us to contact the Autobots for help, and now they're going to destroy Vos and blame us, so the seekers will side with them."

"And you just went along with it? That was your voice, Prowl."

Prowl nodded. "It was."

"Megatron was going to kill all of us," Moonracer said. "Elita was next. He didn't have a choice."

Ironhide shook his helm and moved on to release another of Elita's mecha. Moonracer got up and tried the door, but it was locked. Elita forced herself to her pedes, then watched as Ironhide released Prowl from his stasis cuffs and helped him up.

"You all right?" he asked.

"I'll live," Prowl said, and leaned heavily against the wall. "For at least ten more breems, that is. If we can't get that door open, then we'll go down with the city."

"Right," Ironhide said.

"Does that key work on this door?" Moonracer asked.

"Is there somewhere to insert or scan it?" Ironhide asked, walking over to join her.

"Just a keypad," Moonracer said. "Like we need a code or something. So... probably that key won't help."

"Here," he handed the key to Moonracer so she could free the last of the stasis-cuffed mecha, and she stepped out of the way as he rammed his shoulder into the door. It didn't seem to do much.

"Communications are still blocked," Prowl said. "Ironhide, do the other Autobots really know where we are?"

"No, I just said that to scare Megatron off," Ironhide said, "Though Tradewind's waiting for us, so we've got a way out once we get past this fragging door." He slammed into the door again.

Elita took in a deep vent and let it out slowly, trying to stay calm.

"We're getting a message from Vos!"

Orion looked over at Accord, who was running Elita's station. "Can I hear it? Perhaps we can talk to them and figure out what's gone wrong."

The mech nodded and turned back to his computer.

Something terrible had happened. Orion could still feel Elita's fear through the bond. None of them had been answering their comms, and the message Prowl had managed to send had been vague and not quite right. Orion still wondered if sending his soldiers in had been the right decision, but Elita, Prowl, and Ironhide were in danger.

"This is the Vos Council," a voice said. "We are not frightened by your empty threats, and we will communicate with whomever we please. Get your pitiful soldiers out of our airspace or we will kill them all."

Orion frowned.

"They've cut the comm. We can't reply," Accord said.

"Um… Prime, sir?" Said Hurricane, the mech Prowl had left in charge of his department. "Something's…" he trailed off, frowning.

"What?" Orion said.

"Well, a message was just broadcasted across all of Vos," Hurricane said. "It was Prowl, threatening to destroy the city if they didn't ally with the Autobots."

"What?" Red Alert said.

"No," Chromia said. "Even Prowl wouldn't…"

"Here, I got the message," Jazz said, sounding worried. "Something weird's going on here, mechs." He played the recording.

When it was over, the room fell silent for a moment

"Well, that's not good," Mainspring said.

"Yeah," Jazz said. "The 'Cons had ta have forced Prowl ta say that somehow. Chromia's right, there ain't no way he'd be that stupid. Frag, this'll alienate us from the seekers for good."

"Do you think Megatron could carry out this threat to bring down the city?" Orion asked, horror sinking deep into his core.

"I doubt it," Jazz said. "I don't know… pit, that would be really bad…"

"They wouldn't," Chromia said. "There's no way they'd do that. They want the seekers on their side, right? Not offline."

"Actually…" Hurricane said. "Um… the seekers can fly, right? So most of them probably won't offline if the city starts falling."

That was true. "Accord, send a message to Vos, explaining the situation, and also keep watching for Elita or the others to contact us." Orion said. "And Hurricane, call a retreat. We need them to know we don't intend to attack them." He was pretty certain that it was too late for any sort of diplomatic relationship with Vos, but he wanted to do as little damage as possible. He hoped Elita was all right. Her anxiety was mounting a little now, but she was alive, and seemed unharmed.

"So," Jazz said. "How are we gonna stop them from taking down Vos? According ta the message, we got about eight and a half breems."

"I don't think anyone in Vos is listening to us," Accord said.

"Keep trying," Orion told her. "Jazz, do you know anything about the layout of the city, or what the Decepticons would need to do to make it fall? Is there a way to stop it?"

"Uh…" Jazz said. "Let me get back to ya about that. We didn't think Vos would be attacked, so we didn't send anyone there ta scope it out."

"How long do you need?" Mainspring said. "We only have eight breems."

Orion could tell from the look on Jazz's faceplate that that wouldn't be long enough.

According to Thundercracker's internal timepiece, there was less than a breem before the Autobots were supposedly going to bring down the city.

He still hadn't found Starscream, but he was getting more and more worried about this situation. He certainly didn't think the Autobots would be stupid enough to make that sort of a threat. He also didn't think they'd be capable of carrying it out, but he was still very worried. Starscream and Skywarp were here, the Autobots were here…

He gave in and commed his trine brother, hoping against hope that Starscream would answer.

"What do you want, I'm busy!"

Perfect "I got a little sidetracked on my patrol…" Thudercracker said.

"Don't tell me you're lost."

"I'm in Vos."

Silence. "What! What are you doing here? I mean…"

"Do you have something to do with those threats the Autobot commander made?"

"What? I don't know what you're talking about! Get back to your mission."

"For a chronic liar, you aren't very good at it," Thundercracker said. "Where are you and what are you doing?"

"Get out of Vos."

"Starscream, you aren't going to help the Autobots sink the city, are you? You can't do that!"

"Don't question my authority! I am your trine leader."

"You don't even deny it? Starscream…" There were only a few astroseconds left.

"Did I say that? I never said that. The Autobots are going to sink the city. I have nothing to do with it."

"This is madness… Our city… our mecha will die!" They had to be bluffing. This had to be some sort of trick.

"Don't be ridiculous. Most of them will be able to fly out and escape. We're not even going to destroy all of the engines."

Andromeda's platform was near one of the engines that kept the city-state aloft. She and Tealwing were in danger.

"Starscream, which—"

There was a brilliant flash of light and Thundercracker swerved and grabbed hold of a platform just before the shockwave hit. A wave of heat washed over him with what seemed like physical force and he was almost thrown free as the noise of the explosion almost overloaded his audios.

Then it was replaced by the tortured shrieking of bending metal and Thundercracker felt the platform beneath him shift.

Seekers screamed and flew past him, up toward the clear sky above, and Thundercracker understood.

The Autobots hadn't done this. This had been Megatron's plan. After this outrage, the citizens of Vos would certainly join the Decepticons and fight against Optimus. This was a strategy move, to turn more mecha in the world against each other. It was one of Starscream's favorite tricks to pull.

But it was so stupid—so wrong.

This wasn't the sort of thing you could fix. You couldn't put Vos back in the sky—it had been built before the Quintesson wars.

"Thundercracker, where are you?"

He didn't answer.

"I need you to send me your coordinates right now!"

Skywarp must have known about this too. How had Starscream convinced him to go along with it? Or had Thundercracker misjudged him as well? Were they both sparkless killers?

Thundercracker had killed too, in the battle for Tesarus. It had been easier than he'd expected it to be. Easier to kill, easier to forget about it afterward. He could still barely believe this was happening, but he could feel the platform sinking beneath his pedes, and he knew it was real.

There was nothing he could do to stop it.

Ironhide stepped back from the door, venting hard. He'd tried shooting at it, ramming into it, and typing in random strings of numbers in the keypad off to the side. The door was dented, scuffed, and burned, but still closed.

And they were running out of time.

He glanced back at Prowl, who stood leaning against the wall with his optics shuttered. Not helpful—of course, the mech was probably in a lot of pain, so Ironhide couldn't expect him to be helpful.

"Ironhide?" Elita said.

"How long do we have?"

Moonracer answered. "Five astroseconds."

Fantastic.

Ironhide backed up the length of the room and charged the door with a shout. He bounced off with a loud clang and nearly fell over. His helm rang unpleasantly, and his balance systems were glitching out, probably unhappy about him repeatedly crashing into the door.

It was dented more deeply now.

He had to get them out before it was too late. He backed up again.

"Ironhide, don't hurt yourself," Elita said.

If he didn't get her out and she died, then Orion would die too.

The ground shuddered beneath his pedes, and bright thunder split the atmosphere.

Too late.

Ironhide's spark sank. He felt Chromia respond with worry over their bond.

"Was that…" Elita whispered.

Suddenly, the floor buckled and tilted, and the sound of shrieking metal drowned out thought. Ironhide grabbed a pipe on the wall to keep from sliding across the floor, and shuttered his optics. The room was tilting, he could hear mecha screaming.

Then Elita's voice, breaking through the din.

"The door! Look!"

Ironhide raised his helm to see that the dented door had been further deformed by the twisting and tearing of the walls around it.

In fact, there was a narrow gap between the door and the wall. It was partway open.

Ironhide launched himself across the room, just as the floor tilted the other way. Once again, screeching metal filled his audios. He caught the door frame, though. He tried pulling it open, but it was stuck and didn't want to slide any further into the wall.

He wasn't going to give up, though.

The room was tilting farther now—the whole dome they were in was probably tilting. That was fine, for now. He could get more leverage that way.

As the room tilted past 45 degrees, Ironhide swung his pedes up into the crack in the door, gripped the frame with his hands, and pushed. Slowly—too slowly, the door bent open enough to get through. By now, everyone was standing on the wall.

"What the frag is going on?" Moonracer demanded.

Ironhide stuck his helm out into the hallway, which had become a long chute that led down to…

Clouds, sky, and the very, very distant ground below.

"This place," Prowl said through gritted denta. "It must have broken partway off from the rest of the city."

The whole room lurched downward, and several of Elita's remaining mecha screamed.

"Well, let's get the frag out of here before it breaks off the rest of the way!" Ironhide said, pushing back into the room. He dangled from the open door with one arm, and reached into subspace for a rope. "Tie this to something!"

He tossed it to Elita, who caught it and secured it to a pipe coming out of what had once been a wall, but was now almost at the right angle to be the floor.

Then he threw the other end of the rope out the door and reached down for Elita's hand. "We can climb down below the dome and hope Tradewind sees us."

Elita accepted his hand and clambered out the door. Ironhide helped Moonracer, and then the remaining two mecha from Elita's department.

Prowl came carefully toward him.

"You strong enough to climb?" Ironhide asked.

Prowl nodded.

"You sure? It's a long way down, and if you slip, you could take other mecha with you."

Prowl hesitated. "I know… but you can't carry me and climb down yourself."

Ironhide sighed. "How about I'll go right below you and stop you if you fall. Good?"

"Good." Prowl let Ironhide pull him up to the warped doorway The Praxian's faceplate twisted in pain, but he gripped the rope tightly and nodded for Ironhide to go. Ironhide climbed out the door and started sliding down the rope, watching carefully as Prowl followed him.

He could feel that the whole building was sinking now, albeit slowly.

The whole city was sinking. Shrieking and groaning and sinking out of the sky.

Everything lurched again, and the rope swung wildly, then slammed them into the wall. Prowl cried out, and slipped down the rope, but managed to catch himself before he crashed into Ironhide.

"We lose anyone?" Ironhide called down.

"No," Elita replied from the bottom of the rope. "I'm almost to the doorway!"

Then there was one final lurch, and Ironhide's spark flew up into his throat as he felt the rope go slack. Wind whistled past him as he floated away from the wall. He heard someone scream below him.

They were in free fall.

The dome had broken off completely and was plummeting toward the ground.

"Don't let go of the rope!" Ironhide shouted, then ignored his own command, released the rope and pushed off the wall. He drifted up past Prowl, but was too far away to reach the rope again. He had to wait until he was close enough to push off the other wall.

Someone shouted something, but he couldn't hear over the rushing wind. He pushed off, grabbed the rope, and then pulled a knife from subspace and cut it loose so they could take it with them.

Then he pushed off again, herding the other mecha toward the exit below them. "Get out! Out of the building before it hits the ground!"

He wasn't sure if they could hear him, but they seemed to get the message. They would still probably die, but there was a chance…

He watched as Elita managed to get out, and then hauled on the rope, pulling the rest of them toward the exit too. He kept a tight grip as she pulled harder, and then all of them shot free of the building, and were floating in a long, twisting line in open atmosphere.

But everything was wrong. The wind was coming from the left, and the ground seemed to be in that direction too.

It was a lot less distant than it had been before.

He could feel Chromia panicking. Was he about to die? If so, he should break his bond with her so his death couldn't kill her too…

The rope spun him around and now all he could see was blue.

And a big shuttle floating with them…falling with them.

He could barely believe it.

Tradewind opened her doors. "Hurry!" she screamed, loud enough to hear over the rushing atmosphere.

Ironhide reached out as they drifted closer.

Just a little closer…

He grabbed the side of the door and heaved himself in, then reeled everyone else as quickly as he could.

"Hurry!" Tradewind shrieked again.

He pulled Elita in last. "We're in!" he said.

The door slammed shut, and a moment later, the shuttle flipped nauseatingly around and then the back of it rose up to meet them.

Ironhide hit on his side, crushed under the weight of several other mecha. Gravity came back with such force that he couldn't vent for several astroseconds.

Then it eased off, and the shuttle leveled out.

Ironhide tumbled forward, then got to his pedes, waiting for his balance systems to figure out which way was down again. "Everyone all right?" he asked.

Elita got up and then helped Moonracer to her pedes, while Ironhide went to check on Prowl, who was sprawled dramatically on the ground.

"Is he…" Elita said.

"Unconscious," Ironhide replied. "I think he's alive, though."

"What happened?" Tradewind asked. "There's… there's no way the Autobots set off those explosions, is there?"

"It was the Decepticons," Elita said bitterly. "Take us back up."

"No," Ironhide said. "We should go back to Iacon."

"We might be able to help, somehow," Elita said. "There could be other mecha trapped…"

Ironhide looked out the window at the city above. A huge black spire fell right past them and crashed on the ground below, and Ironhide shuddered as he realized just how close that ground was.

A few more astroseconds, and Tradewind wouldn't have been able to save them.

"We'd better… get out from under Vos," Tradewind said.

"The seekers are fine—they can fly," Ironhide said. "And there's a whole swarm of them up there who'd probably be happy to kill us if they find us. We're not going back up there."

"Is it even falling?" Moonracer asked, craning to look up at it out the window.

"It's falling slowly," Prowl said quietly, and Ironhide spun to see him getting to his knees. "They took that into account."

"What?" Moonracer said.

"Did you not see how big Vos is?" Prowl snapped, then gasped and fell forward again.

"You lie down," Ironhide told him. "Tradewind, fly us out of here. I'm going to contact base and get us a groundbridge."

Starscream skimmed over the twisting, collapsing city, searching.

He'd heard the explosion through the comm. so he knew about how far away from it Thundercracker had been. And one of the explosions had been close to Andromeda's home, which was the most likely place to find him.

It was still a long shot, but Starscream felt lucky this orn.

Thundercracker wasn't answering his comm. which meant he was probably being stubborn. Most of the seekers had abandoned the city, but a handful of them had surely chosen to die with it. Thundercracker seemed almost stupid enough for that sort of thing, and Starscream could feel his resignation over the trine bond.

…There. A hint of dark blue among the silver spires.

Starscream flew directly down, comming the coordinates to Skywarp.

Thundercracker was going to owe him for this. The idiot should have just done what he was told. Starscream had been hoping he could use this to solidify his brother's loyalty to the Decepticon cause, but Thundercracker had ruined that now.

He was clinging to a platform, optics shuttered.

Starscream transformed, alighted next to him, and grabbed his wing. "Thundercracker!"

"Leave me alone!" Thundercracker said without un-shuttering his optics.

"Let go!" Starscream tried to pull him away, but Thundercracker kicked at him. "You're going to die, you fool!"

"You did this!" Thundercracker said.

Starscream slashed at his brother's back with his claws and Thundercracker finally let go of the pillar and turned around, glaring at him.

"Let's get out of here!" Starscream said.

"No! How could you do this!?"

"It wasn't me!" Starscream said. "Megatron insisted. He's the one you should be mad at. He's the one we need to stop. We can do that together, Thundercracker!"

"How stupid do you think I am?" Thundercracker shouted. "I know this was your idea!"

Starscream was running out of time. The city was going to hit the ground soon. If he couldn't convince Thundercracker to come...

It was tempting to abandon him. He would never be loyal now…

Then Skywarp came flying down to join them.

"What's going on?" he said.

Thundercracker bowed his helm.

"I won't leave you here to die," Starscream said, mostly for Skywarp's benefit.

"No," Thundercracker said. "Skywarp, were you in on it too? How could you do this? Our city…"

Starscream sent an internal comm. to Skywarp. "We need to get him out of here. Help me grab him."

"Okay," Skywarp said.

Starscream leaped at Thundercracker and grabbed him and Skywarp did so from the other side. Thundercracker struggled, but they slammed him into the pillar he'd been clinging to before, which stunned him long enough for Skywarp to activate his mod.

Starscream felt a sickening jolt, and then they were suddenly in open atmosphere, far above the falling city.

Thundercracker pushed away from them without a word, and Starscream let him go, then watched him transform and fly off in the direction of Kaon.

He and Skywarp transformed as well, and followed.

"What's up with him?" Skywarp said. "And what's he doing here?"

"He's blown a circuit or something," Starscream replied. "This whole thing has upset him terribly, and he's not in his right processor. Come on, let's get him back to base so we can calm him down."

"Okay," Skywarp said. "Did you hurt him, though? He was leaking."

"He attacked me!" Starscream said. "I didn't have a choice."

"Sure," Skywarp said sarcastically.

Beneath them, Vos hit the ground with a thunderous crash and Starscream felt something pierce him, as if a part of his spark was dying with the city.

But the pain faded quickly as he and Skywarp pursued their brother over the barren plains toward Kaon.