A transport carrying the weekly energon supply lands at D-14, and Hotglide turns his attention away from the live-feed of Thundercracker and Skywarp in deep recharge.
He is as always alone during the night, and he moves to the window to watch while the transport's loading ramp opens.
::Status?::
A predatory smile spreads on his lips
::All clear.:: He responds.
::Unload commencing. You have ten minutes.::
The communication is cut, and Hotglide leaves the surveillance room.
He enters the medical bay a few minutes later and walks towards the section that houses the recovery rooms.
The opening of the door into the recovery room rouses Thundercracker and Skywarp from recharge, but before any of them can react, the intruder has already grabbed a hold on Thundercracker and pulled him away from the berths.
"What are you-..." Thundercracker asks confused, but he abruptly stops, when he suddenly feels the tip of a gun against his back.
"Come peacefully or this little beauty is going to suffer, and we don't want that to happen, do we?" Hotglide addresses Skywarp cruelly with a sinister smile, and Thundercracker fills with terror.
No!
This can't be true!
He struggles against the hold on him, but Hotglide's grip is merciless and the tip of the gun ominously begins to heat with charge.
Skywarp looks at Hotglide, then at Thundercracker, and Hotglide fills with scorn when he sees the obvious defeat in the black and purple seeker's optics.
Pathetic.
But so far to his advantage.
"Go to the door." He commands and watches Skywarp closely while his order is followed. When the black and purple seeker walks through the door, Hotglide pulls the still struggling Thundercracker with him.
"Move out into the corridor and go to the elevator. And don't even think about trying to alert anyone. The cameras are off and I am the only one on duty. There are no escape. GO NOW!"
The level housing the medical bay is completely silent. The medics on duty have been sent elsewhere to deal with a false alert, and the corridor leading towards the elevator is empty. Skywarp pushes the button for the elevator when they reach it, and a few long anxious moments later the door opens.
"Move to the farthest wall and keep your hands against it!" Hotglide instructs and Skywarp does as he orders.
"NO! Please don't do this!" Thundercracker implores desperately when Hotglide pushes him towards the elevator, and he grabs a hold on its door frame, refusing to walk into it.
The next moment his head is slammed brutally against the door frame and disorienting dizziness fills his processor. With a hard shove, he is forced into the elevator.
Hotglide pushes the button for the ground floor and the door closes.
"Level - 0. Entrance." The voice from the elevator's speaker announces, and the two seekers listen to the ominous pings as the elevator calmly moves to the surface.
"Have a nice day." The voice says when they reach the ground floor and the door opens.
Thundercracker stumbles out of the elevator when Hotglide mercilessly pulls him with him, and he notices the sharply illuminated runway and the transport that waits on it outside the facility.
"You are both walking calmly towards the transport and boarding it." Hotglide instructs threateningly before he turns his full attention to Skywarp, "You may be a teleporter, but this one will be dead before you can bring him with you."
Thundercracker stares hopelessly at Skywarp and a sound of despair escapes him when the gun, that still is held against his back, begins to hum threateningly with charge the moment Skywarp takes a step towards him to offer comfort.
"No delay." Hotglide growls, "You will have enough time together when you arrive at your destination. Get going."
They leave the entrance to the facility, Skywarp first, then Thundercracker and lastly Hotglide a short distance behind the blue seeker with the gun hidden from view.
When they are halfway up the ramp to the transport, Thundercracker stops and looks back at the facility.
His home throughout the past many years, and a safe haven, he had believed.
Help is not far away, but no one knows what is going on.
An airbase full of military personnel and the syndicate still manages to get what they want.
"MOVE!"
He turns his attention back to the transport's open cargo hold, and the last steps into the transport are the hardest that he has ever taken.
"About time, Hotglide."
"This one created an awful lot of trouble." Hotglide explains gruffly when he entrusts his living cargo to the pickup team, that are camouflaged as energon delivery couriers, and then leaves the transport to complete the final part of the plan within D-14 to imitate an attack on himself. When morning comes, no one will know what has happened. The surveillance room is ruined, cameras non-functioning and he has been the victim of an attack that left him unconscious.
Skywarp is immediately forced harshly to the floor inside the transport with a knee in the back, and he is put in handcuffs while Thundercracker is the center of attention from the rest of the pickup team.
The leader of the pickup team steps forward and the backside of his large rough hand caresses Thundercracker's cheek almost affectionately. Thundercracker turns his head away in revulsion at the unwanted touch, and a loud boisterous laughter fills the cargo hold.
"What a beauty." A digit beneath his chin forces him to gaze up into a pair of cold, merciless optics, and they study him with an intensity that has his spark pulse increasing.
"I can see what he sees in you." A rough thumb rubs soothingly against his trembling lower lip. "Relax. None of us want to hurt you. You are in safety here with me, okay?"
A single tear flows down his cheek.
The words are gentle and an obvious attempt to reassure him, but it doesn't change the fact, that he knows they are a lie. Nevertheless, he accepts them and the soothing caresses that are offered.
There is nothing else he can do in the current situation.
"Come here."
A strong arm embraces his waist possessively, and he doesn't fight against the slow and stimulating caresses to the flexible plates in his midsection while he is led further into the transport.
"It's time you return to what you are made for."
He is strapped into a seat and stares with longing out at the runway while the loading ramp slowly closes.
He is once more a slave and will never get to fly again.