Chapter 5

Jazz could kill her later.

Without a second thought, Skywarp teleported to Thundercracker's side and clawed furiously at a black Autobot as he staggered backwards. She fired on the back-peddling mechs, baring her dentas as she positioned herself overtop of her fallen friend. His voice sounded light-years away as he moaned weakly. She could hear his struts straining as he tried to move and she pushed him down with a foot.

"Don't move," she hissed softly as she tried to contact Hook. His comm-link was cutting in and out of static which annoyed her, but when he finally snarled in answer to her hail, she almost cried in delight. "Thundercracker is in need of emergency transport," she told him quickly as she shot Cliffjumper backwards into Brawn with a loud "HA!" of anger.

"Give me a click, Skywarp; I have to dig Scavenger out from under a wall," Hook growled before his line went dead.

Whining impatiently, Skywarp ducked a laser and fired back. She could feel Jazz's angry attempts to get her comm. frequency, but she ignored him in favour of keeping Thundercracker pinned to the ground. His ragged vents were starting to make her panic and she split her attention between the confused and worried Autobots and her bleeding friend.

"Don't you dare die on me," she hissed as she reached down to push her hand into a large wound that was gushing energon onto the ground. "Don't you dare, Thundercracker."

His optics were already dimming, but he smiled weakly. He didn't answer and she felt certain that he couldn't talk around the energon anyways. The battle was still raging, Starscream's voice screeching in fury over something and wonderfully drew the Autobots away from her just as the Constructicons pulled up.

They transformed quickly, Mixmaster and a rather battered Scavenger beginning to move the rubble off of Thundercracker. Hook and Bonecrusher hoisted the heavily damaged Seeker onto Long Haul's flatbed, each whispering vitals to one another as if Skywarp wasn't there to hear. Her head was spinning with the information even though she struggled to make it seem like she didn't understand a word of it. She had spent too much time with Ratchet, too much time in the medical bay, to feign ignorance to the amount of medical jargon tumbling out of their mouths; Thundercracker was in bad shape.

"Can you clear us a path, Skywarp?" Scrapper asked as he helped Long Haul pull away from the fallen wall.

Skywarp nodded, knowing immediately that he was speaking of the Autobots rather than the debris. Without waiting, she took to the air and started blasting at the Autobots, clearing a large path for the Constructicons to the edge of the battlefield. Slag, she was more than willing to airlift him back to base herself if they got him stabilized!

As she circled lower, her spark stalled. The brothers were swarming over Thundercracker, shouting at each other before Mixmaster produced a pair of pads from his subspace and placed them over Thundercracker's chest. Her engines spluttered and died, sending her plummeting towards the ground as the Constructicons tried to reignite the dead Seeker's spark.

She pulled up at the last second, holding in her wail of misery. Starscream flanked her, keeping close in case she decided to plummet again. They gave the medics a wide berth to avoid drawing attention to them. They were moving again in no time, hailing Astrotrain for transportation while flagging her down.

"You have to keep your hands here," Mixmaster instructed as she landed beside the brothers and immediately was dragged to Thundercracker's prone form to keep two mangled halves of his leg together. "Don't let off pressure for a moment, got it?"

Skywarp nodded, not trusting herself to talk. The brothers milled around Thundercracker as Astrotrain made a beeline for the base. Her thoughts were filled with panic as she watched the line hooked up to Thundercracker's spark flutter erratically across the screen.

Thundercracker flatlined once more during the journey and Skywarp was almost in tears by the time they got to base. She was relieved of her duty as the Constructicons rushed Thundercracker into surgery and left her trembling in the waiting room.

"Skywarp?"

She jumped a little at her sister's voice, barely containing her need to fling herself into the brilliantly coloured arms and sobbing hopelessly. Instead, she followed Starscream back to her quarters and accepted the small cube of energon as the older Seeker started to write reports. No one disturbed them; no one even seemed to care.

"Star?" Skywarp called softly from where she had curled up on her sister's berth.

"Yes, foolish one?" Starscream asked without looking away from her computer.

"I…I'm scared."

"Thundercracker will survive," Starscream soothed.

"His spark extinguished twice."

"And the Constructicons revived him; Megatron's has sputtered out five times and he's still dragging his carcass around," Starscream replied as she rose from her chair. "Hook wants to speak with you anyways. Come, little fool."

Skywarp knew why she was being called a fool; anyone with optics would have said the same thing. It took a great deal of effort to drag herself to her feet and follow Starscream. Her wings were folded miserably against her back, not even bothering to put on a brave face as they approached the medbay. Thundercracker could be dead; what was there to be happy about.

"Took you long enough," Hook growled as they approached. "Come on, Seeker; stop dragging your feet!"

Skywarp did not have the strength to bare her fangs. She followed Hook sullenly, missing the depressed look on her sister's face. Hook led her through the waiting room and through a hallway to his office, by-passing the medbay entirely. That made her spark wail in misery as she dropped herself into the chair he indicated.

Hook sat down slowly, moving datapads out from in front of him with practiced ease. "Thundercracker is stable," he stated calmly. "So you can vent again, Skywarp." His optics followed every little movement as she barely contained her delighted squeal. "And now I need to talk to you about personal things. Would you like your final upgrade?"

Skywarp stopped mid-squeal and gave Hook a blank look. "Would I like what?"

"Do you really think you fooled me or my brothers?" Hook shook his head. "Really, Skywarp, we've been repairing you every time you so much as ran into a wall and dinged your armor. You think we would not have noticed you were still a femme under that hologram?"

"Was hoping…," Skywarp swallowed nervously. There was no point in arguing with Hook; he had that terrifying "I know what I am talking about" look on his face, the same one that Ratchet had, and she did not dare try to tell him otherwise.

"So I will ask you again; do you want your final upgrade?" Hook snorted.

It was tempting to say yes. Wouldn't that just show Ratchet up? To return to base as a mech and strut around in front of him to show that the Decepticons were more than willing to give her the upgrades? But that was the catch, wasn't it? It was the Decepticons doing it; what if they implanted something into her that made her loyal? What if they tampered with things that they should not and left her crippled or worse? No, it was not worth the risk, especially not the risk of looking different than she did at the moment and having a very angry Megatron boring down on her for not being a mech all along.

"No," she grit out as she stood up. "If that is all, I'm going to go check on Thundercracker."

"Skywarp, go home," Hook sighed.

She didn't respond, heading for the door to the office. He was bluffing. There was no way that he….

"Don't you think that sticking around because you fell in love with a Con is a bad reflection of your capabilities?" Hook called gently. "Skywarp, how much longer do you think you can go before someone else figures out that you are a spy?"

Skywarp paused at the door, not because she believed a word of what Hook had just said but because she was exhausted.

"Skywarp," Hook sighed heavily before she heard him rise from his chair. "Go…."

"What the slag do you know about me?" Skywarp laughed. "Me? A spy? You're really stretching there, Hook. Does Megatron give you a higher wage if you parade mechs to him and claim that they are spies?" She went to push the door aside, but Hook's heavy hand landed on her shoulder.

"The other Bots can keep you safe, Skywarp," he growled softly into her audio. "What do you think will happen if you do become trined with Thundercracker? You can't keep secrets from him and you'll drag him into madness because he can't betray you. Is that what you want?"

Skywarp's mouth ran dry and she twitched her head left and right in response. The large hand travelled over her spinal unit like a parent's would and Hook nuzzled her head.

"Go home, kid," he murmured. "Save yourself the grief."

Skywarp nodded numbly before she went to see Thundercracker.

When Skywarp left the medbay, Thundercracker was back in stasis and resting. Her dermas tingled pleasantly from the weak kiss her trinemate had given her, but it only worked to drive home Hook's orders. She had to leave before things spiralled out of control.

She had just hit the stretch of hallway that was dark because of bad circuitry when a hand grabbed her shoulder and pinned her against the wall. She recognized the burley frame and stiffened as the familiar red visor burned into her optics. Soundwave's hands settled easily onto either side of her head and his bulk was close enough to ensure that she could not teleport without drawing him along with her.

Trying to stave off the fear, she grinned weakly. "H-heya, Soundwave; what brings you here?" she asked as evenly as she could.

"Fact; you were not on the flight path that Starscream assigned," he growled, his voice dipping beyond the normal monotone to a frighteningly low tune that made her gut clench in confusion. "Where were you?"

"I don't know what you're…," Skywarp tried to say before Soundwave punched the wall beside her head.

"Where were you, soldier," Soundwave demanded with a frighteningly savage roar that made her wings slam themselves against the wall in a desperate bid for freedom.

"I was on patrol!" Skywarp wailed, fighting the instinct to dig her claws into Soundwave's face and drive him away from her. "Honest, Soundwa-!"

Her voiced was muffled as hot dermas captured hers. She could only stare as Soundwave's face came far too close to hers and his visor glared down at her. Sharp dentas rolled over her dermas, plucking at them hard enough to make her whimper in pain. He growled, low and dangerous as he repeated himself.

"Where were you, Skywarp?"

She couldn't see his optics, but what she could see of his face made her head spin in aroused delight. It was perfectly crafted; strong jawed, straight nosed, and deliciously chewable dermas. Her hands moved on their own accord to his abdomen, playing with the warm metal as his dermas pulled back just enough to show the sharp dentas.

"I was on patrol," she whispered as her spark pulsed eagerly. "Soundw-."

"Liar," he growled before kissing her again, letting her draw close enough to lean on him before he pulled away and let her stumble.

She blinked after him as his facemask slid back into place. He turned without a word and vanished down the dark hallway. She rested a hand on her abused dermas, whimpering softly before she raced to Starscream's room. She had to leave soon!