The news sent shockwaves through the Decepticon ranks. Thundercracker? Really? Air Commander and second in command of the Decepticon army. Thundercracker had attacked Starscream and taken the Matrix. Not only had he taken it, it had chosen him.

It sent shockwaves through the Autobots too. A Decepticon? Really? Their new Prime was a Decepticon?! Was this some sort of bad joke? It had to be, because that wasn't even possible, was it?

The Sonic Canyons community was in an uproar for an entire cycle, but the Nova didn't back down and calmly assured them that she knew it had happened and it was true, firmly asserting that if the Matrix had chosen Thundercracker to be the next Prime then he was worthy and they should support him.

"Give him a chance, you guys." She pleaded. "He's all we got and we need a Prime."

There was a division. Some refused to believe it, others refused to accept it, some were ready to try, and most were unsure. It just didn't…how could this be?

"Because the Matrix doesn't care about faction. It cares about what's in your spark." Star told them.

Some mecha stormed out, some drifted off to quietly think. But most stayed put to talk amongst themselves.

"Prowl, you must go to Iacon. Thunderous Prime will need your guidance." Star told the Praxian.

Prowl frowned, still thinking through the situation and still not sure he liked this development. She put a hand on his shoulder.

"I know it's hard to accept, but we need him. You know we do. And he's going to need help to know what's going on."

"How do we know we can trust him?" Prowl asked. Star shrugged.

"I trust him."

"You have never met him."

"No, but I have met Thundercracker. It's his job now to do something about this, Prowl, and since Starscream has labeled him a traitor he has nowhere else to go. He kind of has to be on our side."

After a moment Prowl nodded. "Very well. I will leave as soon as I am able."

"Thank you."

~0~

It had been several deca-orns since then. The Decepticons were enraged, but the Autobots were good at hiding by now and laid low. The Sonic Canyon community had had little communication with the group moving around with Thunderous Prime, but more and more Autobots were finding him as news spread in the underground, and the community was getting progressively smaller as more and more mecha left. Most of the 'Bots that came were the ones who either didn't know what to do, or who were bitterly against the new Prime. Still, their system held, and possibly held even better than it had before as Starscream called more warriors out of the provinces to help hunt the Autobots in the Iacon region, following Thunderous Prime wherever they dared. It was heartening for most mecha to know they had a hope again.

And then there were mecha like these ones.

Verasuvius paced up and down the line slowly, as she always did, imprinting each Autobot's face in her databanks so she could remember them always. Her black and chrome, lightweight seeker frame moved fluidly, lights glinting along her curves as she smirked down at the mechs at her supposedly cruel mercy. Most kept their heads down, not daring to meet her optics. Bad things happened when you did that, they had been told.

But there was one who gave her a very fleeting glance, and it was full of disgust and hate; a resigned kind of defiance, as if he knew nothing else. She met his glance and her mouth twisted up into a smirk, but he flicked his optics back to the floor as she passed. Two steps beyond him and she still caught the word he muttered under his breath.

Verasuvius stopped. "What was that?" she asked lightly, not looking back. When there was no answer she did turn around to stalk back to the mech and lean over him. Slowly, he looked up to meet her crimson optics, a tiny sneer on his face. He was scuffed and scratched and scarred terribly, as was every other Autobot in the lineup, but his optics were bright and there was a rather handsome face hidden beneath the wear and tear of a rebel.

"I said, you're a freak." He repeated clearly and slowly.

Verasuvius straightened, holding his glare, smile slowly spreading. The mech was fairly large, a melee fighter from the looks of him, but he was lean and she would bet he was pretty strong. The surreptitious glances his neighbor was sending him—a similarly built mech with flares on the side of his helm—were not lost on her. Neither was the fact that they had similar paint jobs, two strips of paint running down their arms, chests, and legs. Maintaining any sort of paint job was a luxury for the Autobots now, but these two seemed determine to hold on to at least a tiny bit of individuality. The Autobot she was confronting had red stripes while the other had golden yellow ones.

She stared at the mech for a moment more, smiling broadly, and then began to laugh. "Oh, yes, you've still got some fight left in you." She crowed when she was done. "And what's this?" she wondered playfully, actually going down on one knee to lift his neighbor's chin, looking between the two Autobots. Both glared at her with absolute loathing, their faces almost identical. Vera chuckled again. "Brothers, I believe."

Both of them looked surprised for a brief moment before yellow stripes pulled back sharply. "Leave us alone." He growled, trying to scare her off with his tone and glare, but Verasuvius wasn't even fazed.

"Oh, you too, huh?" she stood, grinning still, and turned to Ricochet. "I want them."

Ricochet eyed the brothers and the ugly looks they were giving the femme. "You sure?" he wondered.

"Yes, I am, and don't question me Ricochet." She replied lightly, and the red and black mech nodded.

"As you wish, ma'am."

The dark femme swept through the door and back inside, an attendant meeting her with a datapad to relay a message from higher command. Ricochet waved at the sets of soldiers on either end of the group and they pulled the Autobots to their feet, shoving them away toward a hovering transport to take them out and drop them into the Hole. Two of the soldiers drug Yellow and Red to their feet and pushed them towards Ricochet, who grinned.

"You two are in for it."

~0~

They had been taken up to the tallest tower of the fortress, where there was only one door out of the elevator, and beyond that a large, oval room with windows for walls and datacases on all but one side, where there was a door to another room. Ricochet tethered them down to a small port in the floor and grinned at them before turning to leave. He paused at the door.

"You two sit tight, make yourselves comfortable. Vera'll be up t'deal with ya when she gets done working." And the mech had the audacity to wink at them before letting the door seal and lock behind him.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker glared around the room suspiciously. It was a fairly open space, with a domed ceiling—also entirely window—two pristine and uncomfortable-looking couches facing each other in the middle with a short table between them, a small table with two chairs next to the window with the best view of the Sonic Canyon, and several datacases. Sideswipe inspected the fragile-looking crystals on top of the cases while Sunstreaker tested the glowing laser rope secured to his right arm. When it extended instead of pulling taut, he was able to walk all the way to the window before it stopped him short. He glanced out at the distant Hole, wondering if the other Autobots had already been thrown down there or if they were still traveling.

A flash of irritation welled in his spark and he stalked back to the center of the room to glare around again. Sideswipe glanced up from the fascinating crystal formation he had confiscated from the datacase.

~Wanna trash the place?~ he asked over their twin bond, wary of any surveillance equipment that might be in the room. Sunstreaker snorted, taking a step closer to the crimson couch and glaring down at it in disdain.

~Yup.~

Sideswipe lifted his arm to throw the mineral on the ground, Sunstreaker bending over, ready to flip the furniture. Before either could carry through, their tethers sent out a jolt of electricity, stunning them, and rapidly retracted. The twins crashed into each other with loud yelps, wrists stuck to the port in the floor.

"Slaggit!" Sunstreaker swore under his breath, pulling as hard as he could. The line wouldn't budge, though, and Sideswipe had just as much luck. They tried several things to get unstuck, but none of them remotely worked and they only ended up bickering over who wasn't doing what right.

Eventually they opted for sullen silence, and Sunstreaker felt that irritation stab at him again, this time strong enough for him to send the emotion to his brother.

~This is all your fault, you know.~ he accused. ~If you had kept your big mouth shut, we would be out there getting dropped instead of in here.~

The tether released abruptly and both twins pulled back to rub at their wrists. Sideswipe kept his gaze down. ~So what, we can take her. She's not that big.~

Sunstreaker glared at his brother. ~She's not stupid, either. You think she would have picked us if she didn't think she could handle us? You know what they say about her.~

Sideswipe shifted uncomfortably. ~Yeah, well, maybe she underestimated us. It's happened before.~

~Well we wouldn't have to worry about it at all if you hadn't said anything, would we.~

~Oh, come on. Everybody was thinking it.~ Sideswipe rolled his optics.

"That doesn't mean you had to say it!" Sunstreaker yelled out loud, tackling his twin with the sole intent of throttling him.

~0~

Much later, Ricochet accompanied Verasuvius up the access elevator, alternately handing her datapads and accepting datapads as she filled them out or skimmed the information they contained before delegating to the proper commander in her province.

"Drop-off go well?" She asked when they were about halfway up.

"Yup. Sent 'em off without a hitch an' got their reception message right on schedule. Tough day?"

Vera let out a hot, exasperated vent, wings drooping. "Thank Primus you don't have to deal with them, Ricochet." She grumbled, marking something on a datapad. "I mean, honestly, Starscream isn't even the worst of the lot. They're all like that if they can get away with it." She complained as the elevator slowed to a stop. "They go on and on and on about how hard it is to find the Autobots, how they need more protection, more supplies, more energon," she handed off another pad as she typed in her code, "the whining just never stops! Primus forbid we actually ever coordinate or work together to get something done, or manage our resources properly, oh no! I imagine I'm in charge of this province for that very reason, because nobody else can manage worth…"

Vera stopped and blinked at the surly mechs in her living room, tirade abandoned. They glared back at her, arms crossed and posture defiant. "Oh. I forgot about you two." She admitted, irritation fading quickly. Ricochet was grinning at them again, lopsidedly, and they knew he was laughing at them.

"Think that'll cheer ya up?" he asked. A smile flitted across her face and her wings twitched up.

"I imagine it will." She handed him the last datapad. "Delegate for me, would you?"

"Sure thing, ma'am."

"Thanks." Vera murmured as her first lieutenant headed out the door again, subspacing the pads. He was still grinning.

The three mecha studied each other for a moment, the twins as hostile as they could silently be and Verasuvius amused as she looked up and down their frames, noticing some new dents and scratches. She smirked, cocking an optic ridge.

"Let off enough steam while I was out?" she asked.

"Frag off, glitch-face." Sunstreaker snarled.

A smile spread across the dark femme's face and both mechs shifted as she moved, but she walked past them, heading for the small table next to the windows. Sunstreaker narrowed his optics at her back. Even Sideswipe was a little surprised when he lunged. He didn't make it far, hitting the floor when the laser line stopped him short, and he growled at Verasuvius' unflinching wings. She glanced over her shoulder, still smiling.

"Careful," She admonished. Turning back, she tapped a spot on the floor next to the table with her foot. Well-oiled panels slid back and a circular energon dispenser rose out of the hole. "You boys need some energon, no doubt." She picked three blue cubes out of the colorful lineup and tossed two of them to the twins, still standing guardedly in the center of the room. They caught the objects reflexively and both stared at the cubes in awe and disgust before tossing them aside.

"We don't want your energon, freak." Sideswipe spat.

"No, I imagine you don't." she sat at the table and lifted a hand. "Oh well, maybe you'll change your minds later."

The two cubes, unbroken despite the fact that they had thrown them with some amount of force, rose up and floated back to her, settling on the table.

Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged a glance. That…wasn't normal.

~A trick?~ Sideswipe suggested.

~Has to be.~

"You two have no idea how long I've been waiting for you to show up. Really. I was sort of expecting word to get around sooner, and knowing your history I thought you two would be in need of somewhere to hide out and get repairs. What took so long?" Vera wondered, sipping her energon.

"What would you know about us and our 'history'?" Sideswipe sneered.

Verasuvius smiled. "Glad you asked, Sideswipe. I know all about you guys, how do you think I picked out you were brothers? Not just brothers, though—split-spark twins, isn't that right? You used to be a trader, Sideswipe, a rather successful merchant in Polyhex, and Sunstreaker was an artist, a very good artist, once. That's all past now, though, has been for a long time. Now you're front-liners, or…you were, when the Autobots were still organized. Prolific fighters, too, I thought for sure you would have gotten in enough scrapes to need some repairs, but clearly you must have run into some of the other underground communities, Iacon, was it? Or maybe Praxus… they've got a pretty good medic over there, too. Ferric, I think."

~Trap. Don't admit to anything. If we say something it'll give away their positions.~ Sideswipe thought to his brother nervously. Both twins remained sulkily silent. Verasuvius grinned at them, setting her half-finished cube down.

"Alright then, I can see you're not going to trust me until I show you, so let's get a move on. I need to visit Hot Spot and the rest of your group, too." She stood up and the mechs tensed into fighting positions. At the snap of her fingers the laser ropes popped out of their mooring and flew to her hand. She tugged lightly. "Come on, we don't have all off-cycle, something's bound to come up and Jazz can't hold them off forever."

~Jazz? Wasn't that our third in command or something?~ Sideswipe wondered.

~Sounds right…~ Sunstreaker agreed.

~It's not the same Jazz, though, right? Can't be.~

Sunstreaker didn't reply, but his thoughts were unsure.

They didn't really have a choice about following her as the cords retracted. They weren't completely opposed to the idea, at least until the second door opened. Then they were suddenly very opposed. Almost at the same time they dove for opposite sides of the door. Instead of dragging Verasuvius back, the cord stopped retracting and let them go and from inside the darkened room the femme laughed.

"That's one of the more coordinated evasion tactics I've seen." She chuckled. "But honestly, it's the only way to get to the elevator, so you're both going to have to get over it."

"The elevator's over there, glitch." Sideswipe threw back, trying to anchor himself with a datacase while Sunstreaker clung to the small table. Verasuvius stepped out to appraise the situation.

"Yeah, the one that leads to the Decepticon base is over there. If you're going to get to the Sonic Canyon community you have to go through this one in here. It's a little bit sensitive, being just about the biggest secret on the planet, which is why it's hidden in my berthroom. You can come quietly or I can drag you there, your choice."

"Or we could just beat the living slag out of you." Sideswipe suggested.

"Yeah, and then what? Even if you got that far, which you wouldn't, neither elevator would respond to you and you'd be stuck until Jazz came back and kicked your afts. So, make a choice."

Vera leaned against her doorframe as she waited, very aware of the silent conversation passing between them, though she didn't pry too much.

"Alright, time's up, come on." She said after several astro-seconds, and turned to head for the far end of the smaller room. Neither twin budged.

"Come and get us, fragger." Sunstreaker growled.

"Don't have to."

The next moment both mechs found themselves on the floor inside the dim room next to her pedes as she tapped on a translucent keypad on the tinted window. The pad blinked out as Sunstreaker tried to get up with a snarl, but he wasn't as steady as usual and the floor dropped beneath him, making him fall over again. Verasuvius grinned down at him, only it wasn't Verasuvius anymore. The femme was now grey and blue, lacking the prominent wings on her back, and much less boldly feminine.

"Who the slag are you?" Sideswipe demanded, shakily getting to his feet.

"My name is Star Nova. Yes, I am an Autobot."