Elita was pulled from her thoughts when Chromia commed her. She answered quickly.

"Hey—"

"Ellie, is Orion upset about anything?"

Elita frowned. "Huh?"

"Ironhide is, and it's a bit worrying. Didn't they just leave for their mission? Is Orion all right?"

Elita's spark sank, and she stopped blocking her bond with Orion. Fear hit her like a mass transit, overwhelming her for a moment.

Danger. He was in danger. "He's afraid… tell Mainspring to bridge them out of there! Now!"

"Already on it," Chromia said.

Elita took in a deep vent and let it out slowly, trying to stay calm. She had been worried, but she hadn't actually thought…

That had been so fast. There was no way for things to go wrong that quickly… unless the whole mission had been a trap.

She got up from her desk and walked toward the door, waiting anxiously for Chromia to get back to her.

She had just reached the main room when her sister commed her again.

"We can't bring them back. There's a groundbridge shield at the coordinates they just bridged to," Chromia said. "And it's the wrong coordinates."

"What?" Elita stopped. The other mecha in the room stared at her.

A trap. It must have been a trap.

"We could try sending mecha somewhere nearby and then go look for them, but—"

The alarms in the tower went off.

"Aw, pit," Chromia said, and cut the comm.

Elita shuttered her optics. She knew what that alarm meant. If this was a trap, of course Megatron would use the fact that Orion and Prowl were gone to attack somewhere. Frag it, she had warned them!

Was this how it felt to be Red Alert?

Red Alert.

She commed him. "What's going on?" she demanded. "Where are the Decepticons attacking?"

"We're all going to die!" Red Alert replied. "I knew something like this would happen! I knew it!"

"What?"

"It was a trap, wasn't it? We can't bring Prowl back here in time can we? They'll kill us all!"

"Red Alert," she repeated, feeling suddenly cold. "Where are the Decepticons?"

"They're here," Red Alert said. "they're here, attacking us and we have nowhere to retreat to."

Ultra Magnus burst into the room. "What's going on?" he demanded.

"Megatron is attacking Iacon," Elita said, momentarily relieved. She'd forgotten he was here. She'd been worried Red Alert would have to lead the battle again.

"What?" Ultra Magnus said. "We must bring Prowl back here."

"We can't," Elita said. "It was a trap or something, we can't bring them back."

Ultra Magnus stared at her for a moment, then nodded. "Where is Red Alert? He's the highest ranking commander here."

Elita shook her helm. "I don't think it's a good idea for him to be in charge right now."

"It doesn't matter what you think," Ultra Magnus snapped at her. "We have to defer to him to keep order through this crisis. If Megatron is really attacking Iacon, then we don't have time to question the chain of command."

Elita glared at him. She was not in the mood to be talked down to or dismissed. Maybe he wouldn't be much help after all.

But he was right—there was no time to argue. She could hear something faintly, over the blaring alarms.

Something that sounded like approaching jet engines.

She spoke over her still-open comm. with Red Alert. "Red, I need you to stop hiding in your office and evacuate this building."

"What?" Red Alert said.

"We can bridge everyone out, right? We don't need the bridges for anything else right now."

"I can't," Red Alert said. "I can't lead another battle, I can't do it again."

"Fine. Then defer command of the battle to me and just worry about getting us out of the tower! Now!"

There was a deep boom and the floor shook under Elita's pedes.

Then, the security chief's voice came over the P.A. and Elita got an invitation to a group comm with Mainspring, Ultra Magnus, Chromia, and Prowl's second in command.

"We're opening groundbridges in the center of each occupied room!" Red Alert's voice said. "Please make your way to the walls to make space for the groundbridges! Repeat, we're opening groundbridges in the center of each occupied room…"

Elita took in a deep vent and joined the group comm.

Prowl stared.

Some of the Elite Guard turned to point their guns at Jazz, but he seemed relatively unconcerned. "I got my finger on the trigger, so ya better not startle me. Put your weapons down."

The decepticons had finished filing into the cavern. They outnumbered the Elite Guard by about two to one.

"Jazz…" Orion said, sounding horrified. "What are you…"

"Once a Decepticon, always a Decepticon," Jazz said. "Ya really thought all that time that I was on your side? Tell them ta lower their weapons, or ya'll have a smoking hole where your spark chamber was."

Orion looked down and was silent for a moment. "You should let the others go," he said. "They—"

"Ya got five astroseconds," Jazz said.

Ironhide was the one who gave the order. "Put your weapons down. Now!"

Prowl took in a deep vent and let it out slowly as the members of the Elite Guard dropped their weapons on the ground. He ran his battle computer, trying to think of a way out of this, until a Decepticon came and put stasis-cuffs on him. He winced as his mod shut down automatically.

Orion and Ironhide were also put in stasis cuffs.

"All right," Jazz said. "Now you three are comin' with me, and the Guard stay behind. I need six mecha ta help me bring these ta the boss, and the rest of ya stay here and clean up all this scrap." He waved his free hand at the Elite Guardsmecha.

"No!" Orion said. "Let them go, please. I'll come quietly—"

"Shut up!" Jazz said. "And let's move. I ain't got time ta negotiate."

"Come on, Orion," Ironhide said.

They walked toward the doorway, flanked by six Decepticon guards.

"One of these three makes any kinda move, shoot 'em," Jazz said. "Megatron don't care whether they're online or not."

Primus, this was bad.

They were marched out into the dark hallway, with the traitor taking up the rear. Prowl could hear the barrel of Jazz's gun clicking against Orion's plating as he urged them forward, around a corner, and up a flight of stairs.

He could also hear weapons fire and screaming from the room they'd left.

He tried not to think about that.

This was it, he realized as they reached the top of the stairs. They were going to lose this war. Not because Megatron had a bigger army or more powerful soldiers, but because Prowl was an incompetent idiot.

How had he let this happen?

Why had he let them close the groundbridge when he'd known immediately they were in the wrong location—far too close to the Decepticon base?

Why had he agreed to this stupid, risky plan in the first place? It hadn't made sense. He'd known Jazz to pull off impossible things in the past, so he'd just assumed that the mech knew what he was doing.

Now he understood.

Everything made sense now.

It had been so easy to trust Jazz. The mech was so stubbornly friendly it made you forget about his shady past.

But he'd always managed to escape from Kaon somehow, even though Soundwave was here. He'd been gone and unable to help when the Decepticon assassin had attempted to kill Prowl. And he'd only 'figured out' that the invitation to Vos was a trap after it was too late to do anything.

All of that could have been intentional.

Furthermore, Yoketron had warned Prowl not to trust him.

Prowl should have listened.

It was too late now. He, Orion, and Ironhide could probably beat a handful of random Decepticons in a fight, even wearing stasis-cuffs, but there was no way they could take down Jazz.

He had them outmaneuvered. Was there anything Prowl could do about it? He could beat Jazz in a by-the-book battle of strategy, but the mech was unpredictable.

They stopped by a set of double doors, where a couple of mecha were standing guard.

"Gotta talk ta the boss," Jazz said to them.

"Plans have changed," one of the mechs at the door said. "Didn't you hear—"

"I know, but there's something I gotta tell him. Something he'll wanna know."

Jazz's tone brought Prowl out of his thoughts. There was something urgent in his voice—desperate, almost. What could he want to tell Megatron so badly?

And what was this change in plans?

"Fine," the door guard said, and the double doors swung open. Prowl was shoved forward, along with the others, into Megatron's throne room.

But it wasn't Megatron on the throne.

Orion didn't recognize the mech sitting on Megatron's throne. He was black and green and quite a bit smaller than the warlord. He scowled at Jazz as they approached him.

"Did you miss the memo? I said I don't need you to bring them here." The green and black mech gestured to Orion, Prowl, and Ironhide. "Go lock them up somewhere until I'm ready to deal with them."

"Sorry, boss," Jazz said. "But we gotta little problem."

What was going on? "Excuse me," Orion said. "Who are you? And where is Megatron?"

Jazz and the other mech ignored him.

"What kind of problem?"

"The big M's onta you," Jazz said.

"What!? But he—"

"Look, I know everything's goin' according ta plan, but I'm positive Megs knows you're gonna try and overthrow him. I know he knows."

The green and black mech sat forward on the throne, resting his chin thoughtfully in his hand. He had familiar-looking glyphs running up his arm, but they were so stylized it was hard to read them. Where had Orion seen those before?

"Ya gotta believe me," Jazz said.

"I believe you," the green and black mech muttered.

"So…"

"Hold on, I'm thinking,"

Orion wanted to ask again what was going on, but they would probably keep ignoring him, and maybe there were more important things to worry about. If this mech was working against Megatron…

But that didn't mean he'd be willing to let Orion and his friends go, or even make a deal with them.

Orion tilted his helm to the side slightly, trying to read the glyphs on the mech's arm again. Some of the guards in the room had a similar looking symbol branded onto them too. It was…

Quantum.

That was right. Jazz's old gang had joined the Decepticons.

And Jazz… but… Jazz had left Quantum. That couldn't have been a lie, could it? When he'd joined Autobot, he'd told Orion the whole story and had seemed so sincere about leaving his old life behind. Soundwave had vouched for him…

Then again, Soundwave hadn't been trustworthy.

Perhaps he and Jazz had planned to betray Orion from the beginning…

Orion looked down at his stasis-cuffed hands.

No.

He refused to believe that Jazz had been lying the whole time.

Jazz wasn't a member of Quantum anymore.

He looked at the black and white mech, spark sinking. Mainspring had said he was sure it was really Jazz, and Orion hadn't questioned it.

But he knew he could trust Jazz. If Jazz was a traitor, Megatron would already have won.

So that must not really be Jazz.

Orion shuttered his optics. He kept getting mecha offlined. His insistence on negotiating with Vos, his insistence on retrieving the Key to Vector Sigma, his insistence on fighting the war, his insistence on standing up to the Council in the first place...

He'd lost too many friends, too many soldiers, too many innocents. Mecha from Vos, Tesarus, Iacon.

The members of the Elite Guard he'd brought here.

Potentially Jazz.

He couldn't do this.

He reached out to Elita over their bond, and tried to send her an apology. She must already know, of course, that something had gone wrong. He'd felt her fear and anxiety mirroring his through this experience.

She had been right.

He should have been more cautious. He should have thought things through. The more he considered it, the more he was certain the mech who'd led them here was that mechformer who'd tried to assassinate Prowl.

Elita reached back through the bond, and suddenly he knew something else was wrong—something more than the fact that he was in trouble.

Megatron.

Of course, if this had been a trap, Megatron would be attacking somewhere.

But even as he realized that, Elita sent him a confident feeling.

Don't worry, she seemed to say. We've got this.

Orion un-shuttered his optics. For a moment, he was almost offended. What did she mean by that? The last time they'd tried to fight a battle without Prowl and Orion, it had gone terribly.

But then again… things were different now. They didn't have Ironhide, but they did have Ultra Magnus, and Prowl had a department and their soldiers had more training and experience.

Maybe they could fend off the Decepticons without him.

Or at least hold them off for a little while.

"All right," the black and green Quantum mech said. "We're still doing this, we just have to outmaneuver him somehow. I just have to figure out how he's planning to stop me and avoid it."

"But—" Jazz—or more likely Makeshift—said.

The door to the throne room slammed open and a gray and red seeker came in.

"Good orn, Blackangle," the seeker said coolly.

The Quantum mech froze. "Starscream. What are you doing here?" He said warily. "Didn't Megatron take you with him?"

"No," the seeker smirked. "He needed someone here who he could trust to oversee things."

Three other seekers came in behind him.

Blackangle stood.

Orion glanced at the open door, wondering if there would be an opportunity to sneak out. He had to get back to Iacon as quickly as possible.

"Well, everything's fine here," Blackangle said. "So you can go."

"Is that so?" Starscream sneered, stalking closer to the black and green mech. "Do you really think I'm stupid enough to believe you? Did you really think Megatron wouldn't uncover your little plan?"

"Okay," Blackangle said dismissively, and then lunged for the seeker with a knife in his hand.

Starscream leaped back with an undignified shriek, and Blackangle pursued him. The other members of Quantum attacked the seekers Starscream had brought with as well and in moments, the throne room was in chaos.

Orion forced himself to look away from the fight, then nudged Ironhide and tipped his helm in the direction of the open door.

Ironhide nodded, and he and Prowl followed as Orion headed across the room.

But they didn't quite make it.

A small, black and white mech stepped in front of them, blocking their way.

"Where ya think you're goin'?" he said, pulling out a wicked-looking knife.

Orion hesitated.

"Ya know ya can't beat me, Prime." Jazz said. "Not even all three of ya, not even if ya weren't wearing stasis cuffs."

Only one way to find out.

Orion rushed forward. Ironhide called out a warning, but he ignored it, easily dodged Jazz's knife thrust and tripped him, sending him crashing to the ground. Before the mech could get up again, Orion kicked the knife out of his hand.

"Don't follow us," he warned, and then led his startled friends out of the room.

"What…" Ironhide said as Orion stepped over an unconscious Quantum mech who lay in the hall outside. "You… took out Jazz! Wearing stasis cuffs!"

"That wasn't Jazz," Orion said, then turned to the left, opting to go back the way they had come. "Come on."

"Wait," Prowl said, jogging behind them. "That couldn't have been the mechformer. He had Jazz's comm."

"That wasn't Jazz," Orion insisted.

They came to a T at the end of the hall.

"Which way?" Prowl asked. "If we go back the way they brought us, we'll end up in that underground cavern, not anywhere useful."

"We have to make a decision before someone comes after us," Ironhide said. "Come on." He shouldered past Orion and started running down the hall.

Orion followed, and Prowl came too, but skidded to a stop after an astrosecond.

"Wait," the Praxian said, doorwings twitching. "This way." He turned and ran the other direction.

Orion glanced at Ironhide, and nodded. They jogged after Prowl.

"We have to get these stasis cuffs off somehow," Ironhide said. "And get out into the city, so we can comm. for a bridge."

"I think something bad is happening with the army too," Orion said.

"Yeah," Ironhide said. "I can feel it. I bet Megatron's attacking somewhere."

Orion nodded.

They went around the corner and nearly crashed into Prowl.

"Hey!" Ironhide said. "Why did… oh, pit."

Just past Prowl, there was a mech sitting against the wall. Orion wouldn't have even thought he was conscious, except that he tilted his helm up slightly to look at them.

"Pit," Ironhide repeated. "You were right. What the frag..."

"Ya want those cuffs off?" Jazz asked quietly.

Orion stepped past Prowl and knelt in front of the smaller mech, who pulled a slender knife out of subspace, grimacing.

His visor was gone, and his faceplate was stained with energon and acid burn. The brand across it matched the one on Blackangle's arm.

"I'm so sorry," Orion said. "We should have realized… how did you..."

Jazz shook his helm and inserted his blade into the keyhole of the stasis cuffs with shaking hands. "No time," he said. "Megatron's attackin' Iacon, we gotta get you mecha back there."

"What?" Ironhide demanded.

"I got that idiot seeker ta explain their plan ta me," Jazz said. "They were gonna lure ya here, and then attack Iacon while ya were captured." He scowled at the lock. "Sorry I wasn't closer ta the throne room, I sat down ta wait for Starscream ta show up and distract Blackangle, but then I couldn't get up again."

The stasis cuffs clicked and then released.

Orion moved to the side, and Prowl knelt next, looking solemn. "You need a medic," the Praxian said.

"How d'ya figure that?" Jazz replied with the ghost of a smile.

Prowl shook his helm. "How… how did they transfer your comm. codes to the mechformer so quickly? Doesn't it normally take quartexes, even if you can—"

"Sorry, mech," Jazz cut him off cheerfully, tilting his helm to the side and cupping a hand around the gaping hole where his left audio had been. "I'm a bit deaf at the moment, ya mind speakin' up?"

Orion's tanks churned as Jazz went back to working on Prowl's stasis cuffs. From his angle, he could see into the hole. They must have literally cut his comm out and surgically implanted it in Makeshift's helm instead.

And judging by all the jagged edges, exposed wires, and dried energon in Jazz's helm, they hadn't been very careful about it.

Prowl's stasis cuffs clicked and fell off.

"Thank you," the Praxian muttered, then got up and backed away to give room for Ironhide.

"So," Jazz said, sounding serious again. "The base is almost empty and I don't think ya'll run inta too much trouble, but let me walk ya through getting outta here."

"Don't bother," Ironhide said. "You're definitely coming with us."

"I'll slow ya down. It'll be better if ya drive."

"Shut up!" Ironhide said. "You're coming."

"You really think we'd leave you here?" Orion asked.

"Okay," Jazz said. "But let me walk ya through it anyway." He took in a deep shuddering vent and started giving instructions as he worked on Ironhide's stasis-cuffs.

He had a little more trouble with Ironhide's cuffs, but eventually, they fell to the ground.

"Orion," Prowl said. "Is the Key to Vector Sigma still here?"

Orion had completely forgotten about that. But after thinking for a moment, he realized he could still feel it. "Yes, but… do we have time to get it?"

"No," Ironhide said. "From how Chromia's feeling, don't think things are going very well in Iacon."

"And we gotta get out before Starscream and Blackangle stop fighting," Jazz said. "I'm sorry, Orion… I mean, we can try ta get it, but..."

It was so close… If they left without getting the key, this whole mission would be for nothing.

Orion heard running pedesteps, getting louder

He had to make a decision. What was most important right now?

"Orion?" Ironhide said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "Get up, we have to go."

Orion reached over and carefully maneuvered his hands under Jazz to lift the smaller mech from the ground.

"We'd better hurry, whatever we're doing," Prowl said.

Orion stood, carrying Jazz. "Let's go," he said, and started down the hall. "We have to get out of here. We'll get the key some other time."

They couldn't risk it now. It would be difficult to get out as it was. Sometimes you just had to cut your losses.

They ran around the next corner. Orion tried not to jostle Jazz too much. He was glad the mech had given them directions beforehand so they didn't have to stop and ask at the end of each hallway. Also because by the time they went around the second corner, he didn't think Jazz was conscious anymore.

"So," Prowl said. "The Elite Guard aren't in that cavern anymore."

"What?" Ironhide said.

"I'm talking to Captain Bulwark over the comm." Prowl said. "We can't reach Iacon, but we can still talk to each other. The Elite Guard fought their way out, and now that our stasis cuffs are off, we can all find each other. I'll have them meet up with us on our way out."

Orion vented a sigh of relief. He had thought they were offline.

This was good. Jazz was online, the Elite Guard were online.

"Ironhide, how badly does it feel like the battle in Iacon is going?" Prowl said. "If we get out of here fast enough, we might be able to salvage it."

"I don't know," Ironhide said. "It's not exactly easy to tell, just from Chromia's emotions."

Orion opened his mouth to contribute, but Prowl shot him a warning look.

Right. They were in the Decepticon base. The last thing he wanted to do was give Megatron any hints about his bond.

"Well," Prowl said. "If it doesn't feel like they've lost yet, then maybe we have some time. I did have plans in case Megatron attacked us, and I think my department has access to them… I don't know how well they'll be able to implement anything, though…"

"We can talk about it after we get out of here," Ironhide said. "Come on."

As Jazz had said, the halls were empty. Prowl did claim to hear fighting blocking their way once or twice, and had to take them on a few detours, but overall, things were going well.

Until they came to a dead end. A lone door at the end of a corridor led them into a small, empty room with no other exits.

They stopped.

"Did we take a wrong turn?" Ironhide wondered.

"Well, yes," Prowl said. "We had to go around a few things. But I thought I still knew where we were. We are close to the exit, I'm sure of it."

"Jazz?" Ironhide said.

Orion looked down at the black and white mech in his arms. Jazz's optics were dark and he'd gone completely limp. "He's unconscious."

"Well, wake him up," Ironhide said. "We need him to get us out of here."

Orion hesitated, then shook Jazz gently. "Jazz, wake up. We got lost."

The mech didn't respond.

"Jazz," Orion said again. "Please."

He couldn't hear the smaller mech's engine.

"Great," Prowl said. "Someone's coming."

Orion looked up at the doorway.

"Stay back," Ironhide said, and Orion stepped toward the wall, still carrying Jazz, while Ironhide shifted his arms into cannons and Prowl pulled a gun from subspace.

The seeker from before—Starscream—came in, followed by three others.

Ironhide powered up his guns.

"Don't bother," Starscream smirked. "You're outnumbered and you're about to be even more outnumbered when my reinforcements show up. Besides, you'll find me much more difficult to get past than that glorified lackey who led you into my little trap."

Prowl sent Orion an internal comm. "Let me talk to him, I have an idea."

Jazz twitched in Orion's arms, which was a relief, because it meant he was still alive, but at this point it wouldn't be helpful if he woke up.

"Wait," Prowl said, lowering his gun slightly. "What do you mean, your trap?"

The seeker grinned. "It was my idea," he said. "Megatron thinks he's winning this war, but really, it's all thanks to me. Sending Makeshift back as Jazz after we caught him the second time was my idea. Having him lure you here was my idea. Attacking Iacon while you were gone was my idea."

"Not everything could have been your idea," Prowl said, sounding dismissive. "What about Vos?"

"Of course that was my idea!"

"Destroying Vos was your idea?" Prowl sounded incredulous now.

"Yes! You think that idiot gladiator could come up with something like that?"

Prowl smirked.

"What!" one of the other seekers in the room demanded, rounding on Starscream.

"Um... oh, what am I saying?" Starscream backpedaled. "The Autobots were the ones to destroy Vos, everyone knows that. I meant it was my idea to invite the Vosians here afterward."

A purple seeker slipped closer to Starscream as the other two trained their weapons on him.

"Come now, friends," Starscream said. "You can't seriously believe what this Autobot just said. You know they've been accusing us of destroying Vos from the beginning."

"That came out of your voice box," the larger seeker said. "Not theirs."

Orion could hear pedesteps coming down the hall.

"Ah," Starscream said. "My back-up. They'll never believe you so you'd better—"

"Actually," Prowl said, subspacing his gun and crossing his arms. "That's my back-up."

Starscream barely had time to stare at him before the Elite Guard started pouring into the room.

"I think this is the part where you surrender," Prowl said. "And I get to arrest you for your crimes against Cybertron."

Starscream glared at him, then before they could do anything, he fired twice—at the two confused-looking seekers who'd been distracted by the Elite Guard coming in.

The final seeker in the room—the purple one—grabbed him and with a loud popping noise, they disappeared into thin atmosphere.

"What the—" Ironhide said.

Orion stared at the place they'd been.

"Pit," Prowl said.

"Sir," Captain Bulwark addressed Orion. "We've found a way out."

"Good," Orion said, noting that Bulwark had burn marks on his armor.

"Is that… the traitor?" he frowned at Jazz.

"It's complicated," Prowl said. "We can explain once we're out of here. You said you found an exit?"

Captain Bulwark nodded, then ordered some of his mecha to go ahead, before motioning for Orion to join them.

"Wait!" the smaller of the seekers Starscream had left behind struggled to his pedes, clutching at the wound in his chest. "Don't leave me here. Starscream will kill me."

Captain Bulwark glanced at Orion.

"Bring him," Orion said, then carried Jazz down the hallway, following the Elite Guard who led them out of the building and onto the dark streets of Kaon.