Hateful yellow optics narrow as they stare at the Winglord and the Autobot leader cozying up to each other after the Autobot leader disgustingly had given himself over to the seekers' barbaric ways and had allowed the massive blue seeker to dominate him without putting up a fight.

He can no longer control what he registers from his surroundings, his sigma ability sensing everything around him as despair and chaos fill the mind of every former Autobot and Decepticon in close vicinity. His mind is no longer his own, and he can no longer hide his discomfort behind his usual distanced behavior and droning speech. Instead, his new frame communicates everything even before he has finished a thought.

There are no more lies and subterfuge.

No more a silent sanctuary in his mind.

And he lashes out at the one to be blamed, his telepathy reaching over distance and penetrating the Autobot leader's mind to cause Optimus to feel the same pain as Soundwave feels. An excruciating side effect of his sigma ability, he cannot escape without the modified frame that had protected him from it.

Optimus screams in agony as excruciating pain suddenly fills his mind and drowns out everything else as it overloads his system with its massive sensory feedback. He is blind and deaf and insensated as the pain wreaks havoc inside him, not seeing Thundercracker's worried expression, hearing the distraught words or feeling the soothing caresses. Neither does he sense when the Winglord in a flurry leaves as the origin of his distress is identified.

Only when Soundwave stops his mental attack to flee into the air does Optimus regain control over his senses, and he watches Thundercracker shoot into the air and transform to pursue the black and dark blue seeker at top speed. But even at his top speed, the Winglord is challenged to catch up to the quicker submissive, and Soundwave makes a mockery out of their new leader with how effortlessly he evades getting caught.

Soundwave engages his lasers and shoots at his adversary, feeling satisfaction at the pain he senses from the Winglord. He takes a few more shots before he quickly speeds away to avoid the enraged dominant and laughs scornfully in his alt-mode at how pathetic the blue seeker is in what is supposed to be its sparked element.

With his attention solely focused on the Winglord, he doesn't register when Skywarp enters the fray before the black and purple seeker materializes right in front of him in a puff of purple, forcing him to initiate evasive measures to avoid collision and capture. He doesn't get to orient himself before Skywarp vanishes again and rematerializes above him, black arms clamping down hard around him and weighing him down with the added weight.

It allows Thundercracker to catch up to them and take over for his trinemate. The Winglord grabs the disobedient submissive in a crushing grip and forces them down towards the ground with the full force of his thrusters, forcing Soundwave to desperately initiate transformation out of alt-mode and ignite his thrusters before he can impact with the ground with destructive force.

Hovering above the ground, Thundercracker still with a vice grip on him, Soundwave refuses to submit and hisses defiantly at the blue seeker. The answer to his defiance comes promptly, and he screams in pure agony as energon gushes from the wounds the Winglord's claws create in his wing as they rake down it. His other wing receives the same brutal treatment, and as the pain seizes him and nearly makes him lose consciousness, his thrusters cut out and would have sent him to the ground if not for the Winglord's firm grip on him.

/You will submit and obey, submissive!/ Thundercracker roars in a fury, raking his claws repeatedly down the black and dark blue seeker's wings until they are covered in lacerations with a flood of energon dripping onto the ground not far below them. /Never challenge me! I will be lenient with you only once because of your lack of knowledge, but if you dare challenge me again, I will show no mercy and you will face your fate according to our customs!/

Then he is released and falls to the ground, landing heavily on his back and wings and letting out a scream of agony as the shock of the impact causes a new wave of pain from his severely damaged wings. Paralyzed by the pain, he cannot move, and time passes. Kliks become breems before he hears the sound of steps cautiously moving towards where he lies abandoned by everyone.

Dark blue and red colors enter his sight, and he recognizes the Autobot leader.

/Here to gloat?/ He growls weakly.

Optimus looks down at Soundwave with a shake of his helm, a sad look in his optics at the physical state of the seeker before him.

/No, Soundwave./ He answers as he sits down beside the severely wounded black and dark blue seeker, reaching out with hesitant claws to try and offer comfort to his suffering kin. /I am here to help you if you will allow me./

/No one can help me. This is my fate./ Soundwave says, knowing he is dying and feeling remorse at what he did in the face of the unconditional kindness he senses coming towards him from Optimus's mind.

The Autobot leader's mind fills with steely determination. /Your fate is not to die here. We have come too far to have it end here for you./ Then Optimus begins to cough up the nanite-rich substance from his throat and applies it gingerly on the wounded wings, healing the severe damage until the wounds are gone and only the dried energon is a testimony to the punishment Soundwave had endured.

Soundwave stares in astonishment at his wings while he slowly sits up, touching them mystified before looking at Optimus in disbelief.

/How did you do that?/

/A healing ability the seekers have kept a secret from us until recently. They are capable of more than we ever knew, which is why it was so hard for us to kill them. Their healing capabilities are startling and necessary in the brutal life they live. In the life that we now live.

/What Thundercracker did to you is expected in the seekers' society as punishment for disobedience, and he even went gentle on you. If we had been on Cybertron, he would have had no choice but to kill you for what you did./ Optimus answers as he glances towards where Thundercracker speaks with Ratchet, the twins, and many others who hesitantly have gathered around the Winglord and his trine.

The Winglord looks toward them as if sensing their attention on him and then comes towards them, showing none of his fury from when he punished Soundwave.

Soundwave grovels before the Winglord when Thundercracker stops in front of him, whimpering in distress as he shows his submission to his leader. A caress to his wing has him flinching, but he dares to look up and meet the Winglord's optics hesitantly when nothing but the caress happens.

Thundercracker caresses him again, this caress surprisingly sending signals of pleasure to his processor, and Soundwave realizes that his mind is his own again. He is no longer getting overwhelmed by the invasive, uncontrollable thoughts and feelings coming from everyone around him but can now control when he wants to hear and feel them.

He breaks down at the realization and sobs loudly while hugging Thundercracker around the legs.

/Thank you. Thank you. Thank you./ He chants repeatedly and relaxes completely when a claw gently touches his forehead, his instincts awakening and instantly screaming at him about proper conduct around the Winglord.

He releases Thundercracker as if burnt and expects punishment, but before he can apologize for his transgression now and earlier, the blue seeker has knelt and is looking at him with care in the optics.

/You have done nothing wrong this time. How could you be at any fault when you until now had no idea of proper conduct around your Winglord or any other customs among your new people? As long as you never intently break our rules or harm your kin, there will be no punishment until you and your fellow seekers learn to navigate your new world. Until you have integrated into society, I will step in and defend you in any disputes./

Thundercracker rises and walks away to continue his work, proud of how Optimus handled the situation and won his former enemy over with kindness.

The black and dark blue seeker had needed his aid, too, just like all his new seekers. While he had been furious at him for the attack on Optimus, he had understood Soundwave's despair when he discovered what the black and dark blue seeker had to endure after his transformation. With a dip into the power of creation and a caress, he had rectified the damage done to Soundwave at his change into a seeker and granted him the peace of his own mind he desperately needed.

Optimus offers his servo to Soundwave, who takes it willingly, rising from the ground while looking at the back of his departing leader. It is all so puzzling. He never imagined the seeker he had caused so much harm to show him any concern, but aside from the punishment he deserved for what he did to Optimus, the Winglord has had nothing but concern for them all on his mind. All it takes is a gentle touch of his sigma ability to read it directly from Thundercracker's worried mind.

As he reaches out to the Autobot and Decepticon turned seekers around them, he senses all their despair, fear and confusion and feels an obligation to help his new leader ease all their worry. To take some of the heavy burden off of the Winglord's shoulders. Something only he and Optimus can do as their people's former leaders.

Together, they walk between their people, showing them concern and answering their worried questions. Some ask about his horrifying punishment, the fear of what they witnessed clear in their minds. But most of the questions are about what they observed between Optimus and the Winglord, the mating just as frightening to all who had watched it as it had been for Prowl and his group of former Autobots.

And they even knew what was going on.

The former Decepticons had not.

Optimus sits down and explains what had happened. How his heat had manifested, indicating the moment when they as submissive seekers are ready to get sparked and carry a new life within them. He touches his chestplates, feeling the tiny pulse of the newspark within his spark chamber. When they are all made aware of its existence, they all sense the newspark, too, and fear and worry turn to curiosity as they marvel at the tiny new life they perceive with their new heightened senses.

As their group grows, as more sit down around them to find out what is going on, he decides to tell them everything he knows from his time spent with Solaris and begins his tale. Telling them about the ancient seekers. The First Seeker. How a mutation in some of the ancient seekers caused a divide much like the one among the Autobots and Decepticons. How it led to the First Seeker's demise as Solaris sacrificed himself to save his people. And how it failed. The origin of the Matrix and how their society became what it did as the exiled seekers evolved further and further away from their origin.

They all listen enthralled to his tale, more and more seekers sitting down to listen to him as he delves deeper and deeper into the tale of who they are, the newcomers getting updated on what they had missed in hushed voices by the seekers who had been there from the start of his tale. And, as he finishes his tale, there is a new calm over the area, all the optics looking at him devoid of the fear and uncertainty they previously had held.

He looks at Soundwave beside him, feeling they have accomplished something significant.

Then the questions come, and he makes order in chaos by telling their people to put up their servo and wait for their turn as he and Soundwave answer the questions as best they can.

Thundercracker watches the mass gathering around Optimus and Soundwave, proud at what they have accomplished and feeling a burden lifted from his shoulders as his new seekers do as seekers do, finding together and teaching each other with tales of old age.

He could never have hoped to gather them like they are now, relaxed and focused on what Optimus tells them, free of fear and worry, and he dips his wings in acknowledgment when Soundwave looks up and at him. Then he turns away and walks over to his trinemates to enjoy a moment without worry, sitting down himself and letting them soothingly caress his wings.


At the space bridge, Crossfire squints his optics against the bright light of the sun as he and his trinemates arrive on Earth. Silvershade follows him a klik later and marvels at the unfamiliar surroundings together with his own trinemates. Allevaria and Salvacia burst into ecstatic laughter as they look at their new surroundings and immediately take to the sky to explore more of the area. Starfall keeps cautiously to Crossfire while Risingsun clearly yearns to follow the rapidly disappearing duo as Crossfire futilely tries to call the two submissives back.

This planet is dangerous!

None of them should go alone too far away!

/We will scout the area./ Silvershade says before he swiftly follows his trinemates, calling for them to slow down and let him catch up, leaving Crossfire to organize their people as their seekers emerge one after another from the space bridge.

With apprehension in his spark, Crossfire pulls his trinemates away from the space bridge when a red and yellow dominant emerges from it, wishing that Swiftstrike hadn't sent the nine most powerful dominants in their society with them on the mission to locate their Winglord.

Because it can only end catastrophically with all nine gathered together like this.

Airrazor looks around as he steps out of the space bridge and onto the foreign planet that smells nothing like home. Behind him, he senses Pyrostorm and Astrowave arrive as well, and he hisses viciously at them, flaring his wings threateningly to get them to back off and away from him.

Pyrostorm flares up with fire and hisses back at Airrazor, but before a fight can break out between them, more of the dominants striving to become the next Winglord emerge from the space bridge and force them to move away from it.

Shadowdancer and Stormbreaker arrive as the next after Astrowave, and Shadowdancer narrows his optics as he stares at his surroundings until he senses Stormbreaker at his back and bares his fangs at the dark blue and green dominant, warning him to back off or face the consequences.

Stormbreaker responds with a hiss but then wisely backs away from the larger dominant, leaving Shadowdancer to examine his surroundings for a bit longer until Hazard and Windcharger emerge and accidentally stumble into him.

With a roar of rage, he is onto Hazard, but the entirely black dominant unleashes his sigma to shield himself against the attack with a force field and swipes back, his claws hitting home and tearing up the black and grey dominant's arm. Energon gushes from the lacerations and Shadowdancer howls in fury, his sigma activating and paralyzing Hazard, the force field vanishing and allowing him to strike against his defenseless attacker.

As Shadowdancer and Hazard begin their fight for hierarchy, the others instinctually get pulled into it, too―and when Wildflight and Flydive arrive as the last of the Winglord's challengers, they also enter the fray. It is brutal to watch, and Crossfire hurriedly pulls his trinemates further away as the fighting escalates and expands to the air, energon splattering everywhere as claws swipe and fangs bite.

Usually, the nine dominants would never get this close to each other but would stay comfortably within their respective clans as the highest-ranking dominant below their clan leader. Now, they are on an unknown world, forced together in a strike force to locate their missing Winglord, and none of them has any interest in helping Thundercracker, only to find out what has happened to him and if it can be used to further their ambitions to become Winglord.

When their hierarchy has been established, the violence dies down, but they still watch each other intensely, constantly on alert as their wounds get tended to by the seekers who have arrived while they fought. Shadowdancer receives the most attention, having won the position as highest-ranking in their group, and he allows himself to get pampered by the submissives healing his grievous wounds.

Prey gets presented to him, and he wastes no time ripping into the squealing thing, enjoying its frightened sounds as he feeds from it until no sound comes from it anymore. Then he watches lazily as more and more of the prey they have brought with them to this unknown prey-less planet get herded together and kept watch over by several trines to keep it from escaping. The things cower before them, wide red optics staring in fright at the greying out remains of the prey he had fed from as he throws it out for the other seekers to devour.

Nothing goes to waste, and within breems, nothing is left of it.

Crossfire comes towards him, and Shadowdancer snarls at the Winglord's lieutenant as the far smaller red and grey seeker stops before him, daring to give him orders.

The Winglord is missing.

Swiftstrike is far away.

There is no one with power over him here.

He can do whatever he wants.

No one can stop him.

Crossfire backs slowly away from Shadowdancer at the vicious snarl aimed at him, knowing he can do nothing about the defiant dominant, mindful of his vulnerable sparked trinemate that needs his protection in these dangerous surroundings.

He cannot risk further enraging Shadowdancer and causing the black and grey seeker to attack and likely kill him.

All he can do is hope that they find Thundercracker fast and that nothing has happened to the Winglord because this is looking to become what he feared when they departed from the Swiftstrike clan with the nine seekers among them.

Silvershade and his trine land in high spirits after their adventurous flight, but the silver and blue dominant instantly senses the tension in the arrived group of seekers and seeks out Crossfire, full of worry.

/What happened?/

/A fight for hierarchy, as expected with these nine./ Crossfire says, shaking his helm in frustration.

/Who won?/

/Shadowdancer. And he is getting bold./

Silvershade curses.

/Then we better hope our Winglord is in a state to sow fear in him./

And the rest of them, Crossfire thinks worriedly to himself at the statement.

All nine will become fighter Winglords if they rise to power, as egoistical and overly aggressive as they are. A dominant with the mind of a defender Winglord would never strive to kill the most impactful Winglord they have had since anyone can remember. Thundercracker came to power when they most needed him, and he has led them through some devastating hardships while also managing to keep their society together when everything seemed to be falling apart.

If it ends with a Winglord challenge and Thundercracker falls...

He looks up at the sky, praying for The Sky Above to guide them in the trying time he senses ahead.