"Booooring."

"Mute it."

"Mute it? Mute it?! This is all your fault!"

"My fault? You didn't have to stay!"

"If I go, you come with me."

Silence.

"Are you saying you staid because I wanted to stay?"

"Oh, don't think yourself so important. I just wanted to see what was so interesting, how was I supposed to know they would cancel patrols?"

Dinobot doesn't answer, conceding Starscream that semblance of victory.

It's been days since the Predacon managed to get on the Axalon, sure that the Maximals' time on Earth was coming to an end, and unwilling to stay secluded—more like roaming the area almost aimlessly as he tries to learn how to interact with the world—when the chances of Megatron attacking are growing with each nanoklik.

And, as always, the Decepticon came along, even though he can—and has done so before—drag Dinobot wherever he wants to.

It was a weird and extremely uncomfortable sensation, to feel himself tugged somewhere by his very spark.

Starscream explained, once the warrior stopped shouting at him, that he wasn't really pulling him around by his spark, but by its very center, its laser core, because, as ghosts, they are only spark.

That didn't reassure Dinobot any, but at least he now knows that if the older mech didn't want to be in the Axalon, he could've easily left the Predacon to truly die or tugged him along when he left.

But he didn't.

And now, as the masses of energy that they are, they find themselves confined by Sentinel itself, its field able to affect them with consequences the Flier hasn't deigned to explain, but that he insists 'wouldn't be nice'.

Dinobot knows better than to distrust the Decepticon on certain things, and their continued survival—if their existence can be considered any semblance of living—is one of them.

So, taking into account the Predacon knows Starscream knew the Maximals would lock themselves in the closest they got to their imminent departure, and still he allowed themselves to be trapped alongside them just for Dinobot's sake of being with his former comrades—not friends, friends is something a Predacon doesn't have, not even if he feels the title is more than merited—, the warrior is willing to let him have the last word.

The Flier—Seeker, actually, because that is something really important for the Decepticon, even if a Grounder like Dinobot can't really appreciate what that fully means—is a walking—floating, flying, whatever—processor-ache.

As the humans would say, a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Starscream is egoistic, cowardly, self-centered and as haughty as a Maximal noble, and, most times, the insults they share are meant to hurt.

But then there are these other situations in which the Decepticon goes through something he dislikes just because Dinobot wants to, like that first day as a ghost, spent around his grieving comrades, or these last ones, forced to stay in the Axalon, and even those times the Flier spent doing nothing so that the Predacon could use more energy than usual to hunt—prey animals can't feel him, but they notice the magnetic field created by the extra energy, and thus react with the unease of stalked animals in his presence.

He's… strange. With really quick mood swings, murderous one instant and laughing happily the next.

A complete and insensitive aft that lets him stay with the Maximals and act as if alive, even if it bores or annoys him.

So, Dinobot gives him some leeway. He may be around because of some weird curiosity that is still unexplained, but, at least, it isn't a real Pit, no matter the arguments or weirdness.

He has the feeling his attitude has been exacerbated by all the years of being a ghost.

He leans against thin air as if it was the most normal thing ever, when it takes Dinobot a deep concentration to do so, and knows what he can go through and what he cannot by spark, so that he doesn't hesitate half a nanoklik when he walks—or floats around, though he's been walking more since the Predacon first became a ghost—even if the younger mech still finds himself waiting for a door to open at times.

Sometimes, he wonders if it isn't just because he felt alone that Starscream 'caught' him, instead of whatever reason he has convinced himself of.

One day, he'll ask about it. But not now. The Seeker is in a foul enough mood as of—

Metal clangs loudly, and the Predacon whirls around in surprise.

Silverbolt has Rattrap pinned to the ground, one talon on the smaller Maximal's head.

"What the—"

"Hey!" Rhinox exclaims, turning around almost at the same time.

"What's going on here?" Primal questions, walking to the two mechs, and the Predacon turns to the Decepticon in confusion, but Starscream's shrug tells him he hasn't seen whatever happened either.

"How should I know? This hotheaded hound just went postal on me!" Rattrap exclaims from under the Flier's pede, and, after moment, Silverbolt relaxes and steps off of him.

"My… apologies. I… overreacted." He answers, bowing his helm and lifting a servo as if to hide himself in shame.

"Believe me, I know Rattrap can have that effect. But now is not the time. Back to your posts." Optimus orders calmly, voice low to sooth his crewmech's high-strung wires.

"Oh, please. Doesn't he know you can't take the Vermin's words seriously? You must answer in kind." Dinobot scoffs, crossing his arms against his chest plate.

"That means he treaded a sensitive topic. Either because it's too much against the Fuzor's beliefs… or because he's right." The Decepticon whispers with a sharp smirk, and the Predacon glares at him before turning to his comrades.

That… is actually an accurate assessment.

Plus, who would know better than someone that uses such strategies as weapon?

"It may be nothing. They're all tense." He points out, as they listen to Optimus' warnings.

"Playing Unicron's Acolyte? Not like you."

"Unicron's what?!"

Starscream startles, but his surprise is immediately replaced by annoyance.

"Devil's advocate. Slagging human idi—"

The Axalon shakes and her lights flicker at an explosion, and Dinobot finds himself wobbling out of some kind of instinct.

The Decepticon snarls and tugs him upright, even as the Maximals fall to the ground with startled cries.

"Like I said. Sudden." Optimus lets out as he gets off Cheetor, and the Seeker groans.

"I don't know if I should applaud him or knock him out."

"You're a lot like him in that regard."

"Applaud him it is."

The Maximals recover quickly, but their efforts to defend themselves are for naught as the auto-guns are destroyed, and Dinobot can feel himself tensing.

"We have to do something."

"Sentinel is still online."

"We have to do something!"

"You can't!"

"But you can!" And the Seeker turns serious as the Predacon looks at him, snarling. "You can do something, can't you?"

"Why should I?"

"But—"

The ship starts shaking again, their enemies' attention on them once more now that the defenses are offline, and the fear and tension skyrocket.

"Starscream!"

"This isn't my battle."

"How can you say that?!" He shrieks, desperation and disbelief in his voice as he sees his friends shaken around like leaves in a storm. "You're here! You're involved!"

The Seeker turns around—

And the alarms shut down.

"What the heck just happened?" Rattrap asks, turning to see Primal straightening out of the broken lift door.

"We had… help."

Dinobot turns, but Starscream is tense, alert, and that not only tells him it hasn't been his doing, but that things are not good.

He's a ghost, after all, so what need has he for caution?

"No way. I was scanning across the board. There was nothing, nada, out there!"

"Well, what would you call this?" Cheetor asks, and both ghosts join him and the Rodent in watching out the window, just in time to see a bird-shaped ship shimmer into existence as it lands.

"No slagging way…" The Decepticon whispers, optics pale and tension increasing, as he moves away.

"Old Relic? Do you recognize that ship?"

"I—No, but… that invisibility trick…"

"Lower the shields." Optimus orders, and all mechs, active and deactivated, whirl around in surprise.

"What? Oh, please, tell me that no-brain of yours is still under warranty. That ain't no Maximal ship." Rattrap points out, gesturing to the vessel out the window, and the Predacon observes it again before grimacing, agreeing silently.

"What do you think, Featherless Chicken?"

"I don't know."

"What?!" He shouts, turning around in surprise—and stepping back when Optimus moves forward, grimacing a nanoklik later when he realizes the Maximal would have just stepped through him.

"Lower the shields." Primal repeats, and Rhinox finally obeys.

And then, nothing.

"Strange. One would think a greeting would be the next step." Silverbolt mutters, the Rhinoceros trying all hailing frequencies—and the ceiling hatch opens without an order.

"Anything you know, Old Relic, now would be a good time!"

"Hacked, no sign of whoever did it… Spec Ops. Mirage."

"Who?"

"An Autobot spy with an invisibility cloak, but… I though he got deactivated at the Battle of Autobot City!"

"But… if he's an Autobot, why would he hide from the Maximals? And why would he come with a Predacon ship?"

"How am I supposed to know?!"

The active mechs stop talking and take out their weapons.

"You're the one with the immortal spark!"

"I can't be everywhere at once!"

A laser pointer lands on Dinobot's chest plates from the ceiling hatch—and goes through him to roam over Rattrap's frame, while another moves over the floor.

"What is it, Big Bot?" Cheetor asks softly, and the Predacon chances a glance at the Transmetal Gorilla, but stays tense, feeling naked without his sword in his servos.

If he's supposed to be an image of his last frame that his spark projects to better deal with his deactivation, why can't it project him some weapons too? Starscream has his shoulder-mounted cannons!

"Not what, who." Primal answers, and Dinobot does turn fully to him then, and sees the Seeker do the same from the corner of his optic. "After the Great War, a few Decepticons were granted amnesty."

"A few what?" The Flier whispers, dread filling his voice, as the laser pointers move over the Maximals.

"Most have retired, but rumor has it that one was reprogrammed and rebuilt. As a Predacon."

Starscream starts to shake, helm moving from side to side in denial as he takes a step away, looking horrified.

Dinobot feels sick.

A few precise shots, and all Maximals are unarmed.

And then, their invisible attacker jumps down, shimmering back in sight before he touches the ground, all polished silver and black.

Starscream locks down.

"Ravage."

Dinobot tenses, ready for anything—

But the newcomer just puts his guns away.

"You will pardon my shooting the weapons from your hands, I only wish to avoid any regrettable… accidents to my person." The feline-like so-called Decepticon explains calmly, rumbling deep voice resembling purring, and the Predacon chances a quick look to the ghost Flier.

Starscream is stock-still, looking even more horrified than he did before, and the Raptor starts to shake in helplessness.

Whoever this Ravage is, he must be a dangerous and terrifying opponent, ruthless and fierce, for not many things can scare the Seeker like he does.

"Yeah? Well, next time try the front door." Rattrap almost snarls, and Dinobot doesn't know if he should slap the Rodent for his blindness or order him to run as far and fast as he's able.

"Rattrap. Please." Optimus cuts him, a raised servo stopping him from anything else, and the Predacon almost lets out a sigh of relief—

"Please?! Oh, for booting up cold! The only thing worse than a stinking Pred is a stinking Decepticon." And this time the spy is snarling.

But even as Primal pushes him back and orders him to shut up, Dinobot finds himself… hurt.

Yes, Rattrap trusted him at first as much as the Predacon did the Maximals, but they worked up from there.

And yes, the last time they had a real conversation, the Rodent made his opinion on Dinobot getting the Golden Disk back to Megatron well known.

But they cleared that too.

"Like I said… you're just a blasted slag-spouting saurian but… it's nice to know where you stand."

He shouldn't, not after hearing what the spy said in the Predacon's quarters after his demise, but it still hurts.

It still hurts, that every single Predacon is to be treated like a criminal just because of Maximal propaganda.

"Covert Agent Ravage at your service." The newcomer finishes, and only then does Dinobot focus back on the conversation at hand.

Only to lose focus once more while the Maximals ask whether or not their Council received the signal too, because Starscream seems to have finally snapped out of his shock.

And is now shivering visibly, shaking his head with disbelief clear on his faceplate, still unable to look away from the black and silver mech.

"Old Relic?"

"What did they do…"

"What are you talking about? What should we be expecting from this enemy?"

"He's no enemy." And Dinobot whirls around in surprise, only to see the fear having turned to… despair. "He's Ravage."

"Starscream?"

"He was a spy, one of Soundwave's Cassettes… I… I was supposed to…" The Decepticon finally looks away, moving to the corridor as the Maximals and the newcomer start to talk about their course of action.

After a last look back, the Predacon follows the older ghost.

Who is trembling next to a window, helm in his servos and, to Dinobot's surprise, completely silent.

"Starscream?"

"I was supposed to be the leader." The Flier growls, and the Raptor startles at the murderous tone, finally recognizing the shaking for ire instead of fear. "I was supposed to be the leader of the Decepticons, not Galvatron, not that stupid Tri-Predacus Council, and not those accursed Maximals! I, Starscream, should have been the leader of the Decepticons! Ravage should have never been rebuilt just to be a Covert Agent, he was supposed to be my spy!"

After a second, Dinobot recovers from his surprise, and feels his own anger surge, a snarl on his faceplate.

"So what? You should be leader of the Predacons too?" He hisses, servos clenching into tight fists, unable to believe the… the nerve of the Decepticon, claiming leadership over whole factions even after his own deactivation.

"The Predacons should've never existed!" The Seeker shrieks, whirling around, and Dinobot feels as if slapped, optics wide in disbelief.

"What?" He whispers, trembling as he feels some kind of… tickling on his spark.

Like the instant before he's shocked.

But the Decepticon calms down as he once more buries his faceplate in his servos, wings moving to his sides to hide himself.

"I was their leader…" He whispers, and, this time, the Predacon just turns around and goes back to the bridge.

When he gets there, however, he finds the Maximals straightening and nodding in acceptance at something he's missed, and, before he can ponder about it, they head for the lifts.

Excitement and worry pulsing in his spark, Dinobot lets himself fall through the floor, but not before calling the Decepticon's name.

As soon as Sentinel goes offline to allow the active mechs to pass, the Predacon rushes outside, finding the Seeker at his side before he can realize he got there, as serious and determined as if that… breakdown in the Axalon never happened.

It's hard, but Dinobot manages to keep a sneer at bay.

Greedy and power-hungry traitorous bastard.

Oh, he may say he's not, but it's more than clear that he's a few circuits short of a full motherboard, and he's not sure if such is because of how long he's been a ghost.

After all, can all history records be wrong?

I think not.

Nevertheless, they board the bird-like ship along the rest, though stay floating over their heads when it becomes clear they will be cramped enough, even if that means the Predacon has to stay a couple of minutes hanging off Starscream's servos until he manages to convince his body that it isn't a real body, and thus that he can float.

The ride to Predacon territory is tense, the Maximals checking their weapons over and over, until Ravage activates the cloaking, and the vessel and all those in it turn invisible.

"Don't touch the walls, we don't want to scramble the invisibility field." The Seeker warns, and, even though Dinobot can't see the ship anymore, he can feel it somehow.

Only when they're over the Darksyde does the vessel turn visible again, and, to the two ghosts' surprise, the floor the Maximals are on opens, letting them fall with startled cries—

"What have you done?!" The Predacon shrieks, glaring heatedly at the black and silver mech, before flying after his comrades.

And only then does he see their determined faces, how Rattrap grabs onto Rhinox so that the larger Maximal can ensure their safe landing, how Optimus and Silverbolt, who jumped—jumped—after Dinobot transform to fly around and destroy the automatic defenses, how Cheetor—

Crashes into the ground, his own beast mode and jets activating to slam him against a rock.

"You really could have used some flight lessons from the Old Relic." He grumbles as he lands next to the stunned Cheetah, increasing the energy running through his spark like he does to hunt, so that any auto-guns directed their way will focus on him instead of the younger Maximal, before looking up at the ship.

Starscream hasn't followed.

No, there he is, flying out of the wall like the ghost he is—

A snarl on his faceplate, raging white optics, a slashing motion of his servo as Rampage's missiles approach—

The premature explosion rocks the ship without damaging it seriously, but Dinobot screams in agony at the burning in his spark, falling to his knees and curling into himself.

And he knows why the Decepticon said to be careful around Sentinel, because they may be only sparks now, but that doesn't mean they can't be hurt by such discharges of energy.

Ravage turns the ship around, and a single shot is more than enough to turn the gigantic Predacon to a pile of spare parts, and Cheetor recovers while the Raptor is trying to get his frame to stop flickering, green optics focusing on Waspinator—

A shiver of energy under his servo, but by the time Dinobot can slash at the auto-gun to short-circuit it, it has already fired.

However, one quick look shows the Cheetah simply knocked out, though his chest plates will need a good scrubbing before they're yellow again.

"Are you alright?" Even if he didn't recognize the voice, the servo landing on his shoulder and the rush of energy strengthening him are more than enough.

"Yes. Although a repeat of whatever you did up there would be… unadvisable." He growls, turning to Starscream, who just smirks.

And then, the auto-guns go offline, the Predacon ship no longer firing at the Darksyde, but waiting on the ground.

Seeing Optimus, Rhinox and Rattrap hurry inside the crashed vessel, the two ghosts follow.

"In the name of the Pax Cybertronia and the Predacon Alliance, you are under arrest."

And the Maximals rejoice as Ravage keeps his guns trained on Megatron, tied to his control chair by energy bonds, and Dinobot doesn't know how to feel.

"Is it… over?" He whispers turning to the deactivated Decepticon questioningly.

"That's Ravage for you." The Seeker answers simply, a bittersweet smile on his faceplate and sadness and pride in his optics.

But as he watches Megatron be taken out of the Darksyde, bound, kicking and screaming, Dinobot can't help the feeling that things are not over yet.

AN: And here's the first instance of kind-of plot-hole-filling. I mean, why did the turret shoot Cheetor just once? Is it programmed to only hit the enemy once or what?