Sideswipe found Skids and Mudflap approximately fifteen minutes later. First he noticed the awkwardly swerving tire tracks on the dirt road. Then he heard Skids' cries from over the edge. Without hesitation, Sideswipe transformed, and jumped off the ledge, head first! Sideswipe kicked at the cliff's side and flipped his body around in mid air above the twins! Gracefully, he glided over the twins' heads and spun his wheel-feet around in a perfect dismount! He turned around to see their faces. Just as he'd expected, they were stunned! In the back of Mudflap's processor, he wondered how Sideswipe could fall from the same height that they did, pull off such an impressive gymnastic routine, land on his wheels, and not have a scratch on him. "It's easier when ya jump." Skids assured his twin. "He jumped an' we fell. Heck, we was pushed!" Sideswipe walked over to where Skids and Mudflap huddled together.

"You two...are going back to base this instant." Sideswipe joked as if he were lecturing them.

"With pleasure!" Mudflap blurted. He stood up to help Skids into Sideswipe's arms. Together, Sideswipe and Mudflap helped Skids to stand up. He leaned on both their shoulders to hold himself up. Sideswipe put one arm behind Skids' knees and prepared to lift him. But he was interrupted by Mudflap. "Hey! Easy with 'im!" Mudflap looked like he wanted to take back his words as soon as he said them. Sideswipe would have said some smart remark back to him, but to Mudflap's surprise, he shrugged it off. Sideswipe knew now just wasn't the time.

"Then we'll lift him whenever you're both ready." Sideswipe sighed. Mudflap gave his twin a questioning look. Skids responded with a fake smile, despite the pain he was in.

"On three, okay?" Mudflap privately asked Skids. But Skids was already tiring from standing so long. He was ready now!

"THREE!" Skids answered. Mudflap was surprised by this, but followed through with Skids' order.

"Now!" Mudflap commanded Sideswipe. Sideswipe put his arm behind Skids' knees again. 'Here it comes!' Skids thought. Sideswipe did just as he was told, and lifted.

"Ahhhhhh!" Skids shrieked. He was sure his legs had detached this time! He jerked his upper body up immediately to look! Lucky for Skids, his legs miraculously held on with whatever was left of those wires! Relieved, Skids laid back in Sideswipe's arms cried. Mostly because of the pain, but also because the dreadful ordeal was almost over! Sideswipe smiled at Skids and at Mudflap who was right at Sideswipe's elbow, comforting his brother through their bond.

"C'mon. Let's go home." Sideswipe said as he started walking and carrying Skids away. Mudflap followed close to Sideswipe's side, never taking his optics off of Skids. They walked along the rocky cliffside, still staying close to the road. The silence was uneasy. Mudflap finally decided to say something.

"Thanks again Sideswipe. We really owe ya big time. Thanks s'much."

"Mmm hmm." Skids muttered. Sideswipe and Mudflap looked at Skids. His optics were dim and starring out into nothing. He must have been drifting in and out of recharge as Sideswipe's walking gently rocked him. Sideswipe grinned. 'If Sunny could see me now," he thought. 'man would he freak!' Mudflap also had something on his mind.

"Sideswipe?"

"Hmm?"

"Why'dja do it? Really. Why're ya here?"

"Think of this as an apology for being such a kick in the after burner to you guys." Mudflap was shocked.

"You 'pologize to us? We messed with you an' Sunstreaker e'en more!"

"Yeah we were all acting like glitch heads, weren't we?" Sideswipe smiled at Mudflap. But Mudflap wasn't quite ready to return the friendly gesture. Not yet.

"But why ya really here? You jus' decided dat t'day was a good day to come clean?"

"I'm here because you were right. If it were Sunstreaker, I wouldn't have thought twice about coming. But I had to come for you guys because I know what you're dealing with as a twin. I know what its like when your twin gets hurt. All the physical pain they feel is duplicated into all of the mental pain you feel, and the whole time...you're doing your best to hide it and stay strong for both of ya. It would have been so wrong and selfish of me to leave you guys in that situation."

"So? You really sorry?"

"Twins have to stick together Mudflap, whether they're related or not." Mudflap didn't understand this at first, but nodded anyway.

"Yeah, well I'm sorry too. Dunno why we kept fightin' afta all dis time anyway."

"Forgive and forget?"

"Deal." Mudflap agreed. He smiled back this time. It felt like a giant weight was lifted off his shoulders. "So?" Mudflap continued hesitantly. "Where's Sunstreaker?"

"He didn't wanna come." Sideswipe felt a bit guilty for saying that in front of Mudflap. He couldn't help but feel like he was partially to blame for his brother's actions. At least now he had time to think. He had a whole mile to go for thinking of how he was going to convince Sunstreaker that they and the other twins could get along.

Sunstreaker, who was far ahead of Sideswipe, Skids, and Mudflap, grumbled to himself as he drove back to base. He revved his engine and stirred up dust in frustration. He tried distracting himself with music from a mixed CD. But every song that played reminded him of Sideswipe, and the thought of Sideswipe reminded him of where he was suppose to be. Sunstreaker turned the music off. While he had Sideswipe on his mind, he decided he might as well ask the humans at NEST's security check point if they'd seen Sideswipe go by already. When he pulled up, the gate was wide open and no humans were in sight. Sunstreaker drove cautiously forward. 'What could've happened here? Everything seemed okay when we'd passed through earlier.' Sunstreaker thought while reviewing the memory in his head. Suddenly he caught something in his memories. He stopped and played the memory back in reverse like video footage. One of the humans who saluted to him and Sideswipe, something about him was out of place. Sunstreaker just knew it! Then he became fully aware of what it was. The human's brown eyes flashed...red! Crimson red! Sunstreaker could pick out when each pair of eyes flashed red at least once! "Decepticons!" Sunstreaker exclaimed. Why hadn't he seen those eyes before? Why didn't he notice sooner? Sunstreaker transformed on high alert! He scanned his surroundings for any spying optics. The scan didn't pick up any living life forms. Only dead ones. A few yards away, the humans' dead bodies were tossed aside, just out of sight from the road. Sunstreaker felt saddened for the loss of the humans. But not sorry enough to grieve for too long! After all, besides the fact that Sunstreaker wasn't a big fan of the squishy creatures, he had to hunt down those Decepticons! Sunstreaker figured that the Decepticons must have been waiting for all Autobots to leave the base. And they were most likely still there ransacking the place, taking what was valuable to them and trashing everything else! That would have been the perfect chance to call for Prime and the others. A chance that fearless warrior Sunstreaker, did not think to take. He transformed again and took off like a speeding bullet towards the base!

Darkness was setting over the landscape. Mudflap dragged his feet. He'd had such a stressful day; he didn't have the energy to keep up with Sideswipe, and began to trail behind. Sideswipe often reminded Mudflap to pick up the pace, because he really didn't want to have to carry both of them. He never yelled at Mudflap for slowing them down. But when Sideswipe's patience started to run thin, he would roughly nudge Mudflap forward. Mudflap obeyed and tried to keep close to Sideswipe. But as hard as he tried, he simply couldn't walk as fast as he needed to in such a worn out and tired state. After a while, Sideswipe stopped nagging at Mudflap to go faster. It didn't take a mind reader to know Mudflap was pushing himself to the limit. What surprised Sideswipe was that Mudflap never asked to stop and rest. He wouldn't put his own physical health in front of Skids'. By the time they reached the base everything was pitch black. Moonlight illuminated the sky. But that was the only light that could be seen.

As the trio made their way inside NEST's main building, it occurred to Sideswipe that there were two possibilities as to how they found their way back. One, they stumbled upon a new route that went around the security check point. Or two, they walked straight through the check point without noticing it in the dark. Which was highly unlikely because the check point was always monitored by humans and they would never leave the gate wide open. Mudflap flinched from an unexpected noise coming from the dark. Sideswipe felt an uneasy sinking feeling in his spark, and decided to turn on a few lights. As soon as the lights came on, Sideswipe immediately switched them off! The place was wrecked from floor to ceiling! Nothing in sight was left in one piece! Mudflap huddled close to Sideswipe and his recharging twin in Sideswipe's arms. Being the leader of the trio, Sideswipe lead the way around the corner into the Autobots' recreational room. He ushered Mudflap under a transformer sized desk and laid Skids down against Mudflap's shoulder. The awkward movement aroused Skids out of recharge.

"Stay here and stay quiet." Sideswipe ordered.

"Sideswipe?" Skids whimpered sleepily.

"No worries Skids. You're brother's gonna take care of you til I get back." Sideswipe stood up and backed away.

"Wait Sideswipe!" Mudflap pleaded. "What's goin' on?"

"We have unwelcome visitors." Sideswipe revealed his arm blades as he added, "Many unwelcome visitors." With that said Sideswipe wheeled out, leaving injured Skids and dead tired Mudflap to hide, and if caught, fend for themselves.