"Prime do you have a moment?" Thundercracker asks, sticking his head in through the open door to the Autobot leader's office.
"Of course Thundercracker. What can I help you with?" the Prime asks with a smile at the blue seeker as he waves the seeker inside his office. Few of the autobots are as welcoming as the Prime, and Thundercracker accepts that after thousands of vorns with seekers as the enemies, it is hard for most of them to suddenly accept one as an ally.
"It is about Starscream…"
Starscream looks up when the door to the brig suddenly swooshes open, and curious he looks to the guard currently on duty. A shrug meets his inquiring stare and then the guard turns to the newcomers. Newcomers because he can hear several voices talk.
"I must protest Prime. I can't allow this!" Redalerts voice rises in volume as the group walks into the brig.
"And I must insist." Thundercracker's rumbling voice is calm but determined.
"But the security risk! And what if he turns on us?!" Redalerts voice sounds panicky, accusing and high-strung.
"Redalert." A deep sigh. "I know you don't trust me yet with my perceived past, but I am not that mech." Thundercracker argues exasperated. He has been there for months, has Ratchets word that he isn't that Thundercracker they have fought all the war, that they might have the same spark, but that the identity is completely different, and the security director still doesn't trust him.
"I agree with Thundercracker in this." The Prime breaks in, silencing Redalert for a moment. When it is clear that the red and white mech is about to make new protests Optimus raises his hand to stop the coming argument.
"I know about you reluctance, but with how Megatron has been acting, I fear that we will have Starscream in our care for a while longer until he stops refusing my calls to begin negotiations. Until then I am duty bound to make sure that any prisoner in our care remains healthy, both physically and mentally and Thundercracker has made a valid point." Optimus explains and he can see the building ire in the other.
They stop outside his cell and puzzled Starscream looks to Thundercracker who just sends him a small smile.
"I have been talking a bit with Starscream, and we have come to a little understanding. And if you don't trust him to not try and flee, just know that I have proved capable of incapacitating him on my own." At the last words the blue seeker sends Starscream a telling glance, and a wry smile forms on the tricolored seeker. He never could outpace the instructor during his time at the Academy, and the easiness with which Thundercracker had outmaneuvered him at his capture shows him that he will not be able to lose the blue seeker in a fair one on one fight in the air.
"Fraternizing with the enemy! He can't be trusted Prime! He could be a spy trying to free his comrade!" Redalert screams in protest.
Thundercracker shoots the security director a deadpan-look.
"I was the one to bring him in in the first place. Why in the Pit would I then try to free him?" The classic deep frown is there on the blue seeker's beautiful faceplate and Starscream fights to stifle the laughter threatening to escape his vocalizer. He had never realized how paranoid the Autobot Security Director actually was.
"Frag this is goooooood…" Starscream moans while he leisurely stretches his wings in his flight.
"I thought it was about time to get you out of there, at least for a short while." Thundercracker answers the joyous response from Starscream as he flies close by the tricolored seeker.
This close the sound and powerful thrumming of the blue frame is soothing on him, he can almost pretend that it is his trinemate flanking his right. Just for a little while he can escape reality and drown in memories of flying with both his trinemates. Distractedly he wonders what Skywarp is doing back at the Nemesis. The old Skywarp would have popped in and tried to free him, but ever since that day where they woke and Thundercracker simply wasn't there, the teleporter has been distant. They both remembered their blue trinemate while it seemed everyone else more or less just had forgotten he even ever existed.
To lose ones spark bonded like that… Starscream shudders when he remembers Skywarps broken state. His spark remembers the connection, but it is simply gone as if never existing.
Several blips on his radar/localizer draw his attention just as Thundercracker hollers him in a serious voice.
"Starscream we need to turn around." The blue seeker calls to him.
Ignoring the blue seeker for a moment he transforms and stares into the distance.
There!
A black and purple frame of a seeker is just visible among other frames.
It is the decepticons.
"Starscream!" Now it is a clear order and still he hesitates to comply.
When Skywarp is so close that Starscream can discern the red of his optics the seeker vanishes in a puff of purple. Emerging from his teleportation Skywarp unleashes the first attack on the blue seeker, anger and sorrow fuelling his rage.
Then the rest of the group catches up with the black and purple seeker and it turns into an outright beating with several mechs pouncing on the lone blue seeker. It is brutal attack and Starscream, completely torn just hovers and watches the harsh treatment.
It is first when he hears the soft "Star…" that he rouses from the trance-like state he had been in. Black arms hugs him close to a frame drenched in energon and swallowing hard he realizes whose energon is coating Skywarps frame.
"Thundercracker…" he croaks.