A/N: This chapter corresponds with Rise Extra 21.

31. Trine

"Nova."

I couldn't look up, not at such blatant concern in Ramrod's voice. Or Torsion's voice, I couldn't tell which. Perhaps it was both, reaching out from the same Spark with the same feelings.

I had remained silent and unmoving as they cleaned my quarters around me, putting everything back in its place. Now all signs of the struggle were gone; it looked as though nothing had happened, but if nothing had happened, then Apis would be here, smiling at me, laughing…

Ramrod, or Torsion, or both, spoke again. "Nova, you know this isn't the Prime's doing."

I knew. Though my initial instinct had been to fly into a rage at Optimus and all the other Autobots once again, I had come to realize that he could not possibly be behind this. Optimus would never stoop so low, would never resort to such underhanded methods as to use a mech's bondmate against him.

If anyone even knew Apis was my bondmate. Torsion's coolly rational words had broken through my earlier fury; the Autobots had no way of knowing about her. About us. Only a few of the highest-ranking Decepticons knew. Apis had not been taken by Optimus, nor because of her relationship with me, which meant that neither her life nor those of our sparklings were in immediate danger.

"I know," I responded, the first words I had spoken in a megacycle.

There was a long silence. I could feel his optics on me.

"Nova…" This tone I recognized: it was hesitant, worried. By the time Ramrod continued, he seemed to have made up his mind.

"I'll go after her."

Now I looked up. Something had cut straight through to my Spark: I still had something to lose. He might not return. I could lose both of them.

"I have the best chance of anybody," he went on. "I know my way around the northern states. I have connections. I can find her, and get a message back, or bring her home myself if I can."

I opened my mouth to answer, but the words wouldn't come. If it had been anyone else, I'd have agreed at once. Why not? At the very least I wouldn't feel quite so helpless, having sent someone after her.

But this was Ramrod, and I suddenly realized that I didn't want him to go. I wanted him by me, always, so that I would at least have someone to hold onto, someone that I could see, could feel in my sensory network and know he was safe. I didn't want him to leave, even if it meant a chance of having Apis back.

"Why?" I tried weakly. "You… hardly know her."

His optics darkened, his mouthplates curving slightly downwards, and the expression made some part of my Spark shift suddenly. The look told me he had already made up his mind. He would go, and ignore any protest I tried to make.

"I'm not doing this for her," he said. He leaned down, a gentle hand turning my face upwards, and kissed me, then turned and was gone.

"You seem distracted," Skywarp commented after three orns. I drummed my fingers on the console where I had been trying to get some work done for the past two megacycles. I'd hoped that by focusing on my duties, I could distract myself from Apis's and Ramrod's absence. I could feel Apis in my Spark, but only the faintest prickle—she was too far away to deduce her location, or feel her emotions, or communicate with her. Nor had I yet heard from Ramrod, and I had begun to notice how often I looked around to find him and how often I wished to simply go to the training grounds and spar with him.

"Can't seem to concentrate," I said. "It's not sky-hunger, either, because we flew this morning."

Skywarp's smile looked far too knowing. He could smile because he, like I, knew that Apis was not in mortal peril. It would do us no good to wait in the command center and hope for news. We had to show brave faces, go about our business as though nothing were wrong. "I know the feeling. It's like when Screamer and TC would go away for a while and leave me hanging."

"Why would they leave you behind?"

"Well, usually they'd take their chance while I was in the brig for something or other. I don't know if you've noticed how much I like my pranks."

"I don't think anyone likes your pranks as much as you, Warp."

"Sarcasm. You must be feeling better. Anyway, they sometimes went off on their own and I was stuck behind. Even though I knew they never meant anything by it… okay, maybe sometimes they did, it's not like I never pulled pranks on them. Screamer was one of my favorite targets."

I could almost see and hear Starscream with us, whacking Skywarp's helm with an irritable screech of "Don't call me that!" The memory wasn't as painful anymore. Perhaps when I had begun to let go of my hatred towards the Autobots, I had begun to accept Starscream's death. It hurt, and it would always be strange not to see him there, but it wasn't impossible to let him go.

"Anyway, whether I deserved it or not, I felt awful without them there. I felt like I couldn't refuel, couldn't recharge, couldn't focus on anything, I missed them so much. It reminded me of the time before TC and I bonded with Starscream. When I first bonded with TC I felt like everything was right with the world, and that I wouldn't want anything more. It was perfect.

"But then… it was just a few orbits in that I started to feel restless. Incomplete. It was like sky-hunger, but not as easy to fix. I felt like TC wouldn't like me any more if he found out. Like I was somehow betraying him by wanting more.

"Of course, I could never hide anything from TC. I thought that was it, that we were finished, that he would kill me, stuff like that. But he surprised me, you know what he said? He said 'I feel the same way.' And he told me why."

Skywarp leaned against the console on his elbows. "We're Seekers, Nova," he said meaningfully. "We're designed for threes. We fly in threes. We mate in threes."

The meaning sunk in. "Apis isn't a Seeker, Skywarp."

"Nope. But you are. So tell me, Nova. How do you really feel about him?"

I gaped at him in shock, unable to process, speechless.

A sudden commotion saved me from thinking about it. "Commander Nova? We have a situation at the new refinery and we need you there right away!"

I dashed out of the sky entrance, Skywarp following just behind, all thoughts of Seekers and threes and bondmates banished from my processor.

A crowd had gathered at the construction site. The Decepticons parted to let us through and we reached the front, where the Constructicons were huddled together, arguing. They separated at my approach.

"Commander Nova, I'm glad you're here," Scrapper said. "When we were digging the sublevels—" In true Kaonese style, much of the new refinery was to be underground. "—we broke through into an old dried-out energon mine. It happens all the time, and normally we'd just shore up the hole and keep going, but…"

"But?" I prompted.

"But there was someone still down there," Scavenger put in miserably, and for the first time I noticed that Hook was attending to his gestalt-mate's injured arm and chassis. On closer inspection it looked like the armor had been partly melted, and some of his paint had been blackened.

"A Decepticon?"

"I don't know if you can talk this one into joining us," Scrapper answered.

"I'll see what I can do."

I gestured to Skywarp and he followed me towards the dark entrance to the sublevels.

"You're going in there alone?" one of the Constructicons called after us.

"Don't worry, I'm here too," Skywarp said.

Just before we entered the darkness I heard another 'con mutter, "How reassuring."

My wings trembled as we entered the tunnel. Kaon's underground levels I could deal with; those had been designed with the expectation of claustrophobic Seekers. But I would never like the dark, confining catacombs of energon mines.

I thought for a moment of Megatron, long before the War, laboring in one of these black, oppressive tunnels, never seeing the sky, never cycling fresh air, aware only of the arduous work and the subtle glimmer of unrefined and unstable energon crystals. The thought of living in a place like this made me shudder.

But as soon as I dispelled these thoughts, another dark, enclosed space came back to me and I stopped dead in the middle of the tunnel, a strangled noise unconsciously escaping my vocalizer. The part of my Spark that was Ratbat danced warmly, awakened by the unwanted memory.

For a horrible moment I was back in that tiny cell, my box, curled up with my wings scraping the walls and my internal-grinding hunger… unable to recharge… aching for Ratbat to let me out but all-too aware of what would happen to me when he finally did…

"Nova, it's okay." Skywarp's voice shook me out of the terrifying memory; his hands were on me, warm and comforting. "I'm here."

I calmed. We were still quite close to the surface, and these tunnels weren't so dark. I noticed a mysterious golden glow coming from up ahead, lighting the tunnel.

"What's that?"

"No idea."

Cautiously, remembering Scavenger's injury, we rounded the next corner. I heard Skywarp gasp out loud.

There was a Seeker on the ground, seated in a crouch, and the light came from him. He was the source of the strange glow. His golden armor radiated heat and light. He looked up at us through optics as gold as his armor.

"Stay back," he said, getting to his pedes. This wasn't merely a show of false bravado. His voice held not a trace of fear; it was matter-of-fact, even businesslike. "You don't know what you're dealing with."

"Who are you?" I asked.

He ignored my question. "Where are my wingmates?"

"Y-your…"

"Acid Storm. Hurricane. Where are they?"

Hurricane? My optics widened as I remembered my former wingmate. Then this must be…

Sunstorm noticed my surprise and took an aggressive step forward. I remembered Starscream's story about the Seeker who had gone mad in a mine like this; it was no wonder that Sunstorm seemed unstable after all this time. I was surprised that he wasn't worse. "Where are they?"

"They're dead," Skywarp answered, and Sunstorm whirled on him. Although his words were blunt, his tone was sympathetic. "Didn't you feel it?"

"We never… dead?"

"You weren't bonded? You'd have no way of knowing, stuck down here."

"You… you're lying!" Sunstorm's shriek made me wince and lower the volume of my audios. He lunged for Skywarp, who dodged him.

/Draw him towards the surface. I know what will help him./

/Are you insane?/ I commed back, moving hastily out of the way as Sunstorm swiped at me. I felt the heat as his claws barely missed my armor; clearly his touch alone had done the damage to Scavenger. /You want to unleash him on Kaon?/

/Trust me!/

I had to—he was trine.

We fled back up the tunnel, careful not to leave Sunstorm's sight. He followed, still screeching and trying to attack. I hoped that Skywarp knew what he was doing. The fleeing Autobots had obviously left Sunstorm in the mine for a reason when they fled Kaon. I didn't want to see what havoc he could wreak with his touch that could melt cybertrate plating.

Skywarp and I barreled out of the tunnel, shouting for the others to clear the area. Sunstorm burst out behind us and froze. Slowly he turned his head, tilting it upward to stare at the sky spread out over him.

/Hold your fire,/ I commed to some overzealous soldiers who had raised their blasters. I didn't think that attack remained on Sunstorm's agenda, not with the way he stared at the sky he hadn't seen in centivorns.

Sunstorm's thrusters started up with an eager roar and he took off. I motioned to Skywarp and we followed the golden Seeker.

/Didn't the Autobots disable his thrusters?/

/They were probably too afraid to go near him./

Sunstorm was fast, but I was Starscream's creation. I kept up with him, flying just behind. My Spark pulsed faster. My programming knew this.

I caught up with him ahead of Skywarp and reached out unthinkingly to stop him. "Sunstorm, wait—"

My hand closed on his arm and I flinched, expecting burning pain, but it didn't come. His armor was indeed hot under my hand, but not hot enough to damage me.

Sunstorm gaped, as surprised as I. "How are you…?"

"I don't know."

The joy of flight seemed to have calmed him. For the first time I could clearly see his face. I reset my optics in surprise; he was almost identical to Starscream. He remained silent as Skywarp caught up to us.

"They really are gone?" he asked at last. I nodded.

"I flew with Hurricane for a time. I saw him go down. We haven't heard from Acid Storm, but…"

"It's been too long," Sunstorm finished. "I understand."

He lapsed back into silence, his expression mournful. I glanced at Skywarp.

"I'm Skywarp and this is Nova. You, uh… you fly well."

"Thank you."

"I mean, you fly like… like one of my old wingmates. Do you…" He looked back at me and I nodded. I had noticed it too—not only did Sunstorm look uncannily like Starscream, but flew like him as well. This was a chance to mend something that had been broken. "Do you want to fly with us?"

Sunstorm looked stunned, then pleased and grateful. He looked up towards space, optics offlining. I wondered what he was doing.

"Primus has answered my prayer," he murmured reverentially. "He sent me you."