Blitzwing had never been so relieved to see Astrotrain, still in sombre orbit of Cybertron. All through his reconnaissance flight over Polyhex, he had been pushing down a fear of being abandoned—pure paranoia, but he only relaxed when the shuttle opened his airlock to let him inside.

The other Decepticons were still in Astrotrain's hold as well, though they would have had less choice in staying or going. It was a weird assortment: Ramjet, two Stunticons, one Combaticon and a handful of seekers who had never been posted to Earth, so Blitzwing barely knew them.

There was one new addition since he had left for his sweep. "Good to see you're still on the side of the living," Octane greeted him.

"Likewise." The sentiment was insincere. At one time, Octane had been the third of their triple-changer clique, but then Blitzwing and Astrotrain had slept through four million years of warfare that Octane had had to survive. Blitzwing had never really figured out who Octane was now, but he was definitely more than the guy he had once known.

"Did you find anything in Polyhex?" Astrotrain asked hopefully.

"Wreckage," Blitzwing told him succinctly. "Everything's been destroyed. Anybody left down there is dead."

"Shockwave?" Octane looked curious rather than hopeful.

"Saw what was left of him." Blitzwing omitted the fact that Shockwave had technically still been alive at the time, just in case those who had done the long haul on Cybertron still had some loyalty to him. Cybertron's former guardian would not long survive his injuries, and they did not have the resources for charity cases.

"Can't we salvage anything?" Ramjet asked.

"Doubt it. Besides, I spotted at least two Autobots poking around as well. Seems like they came out of the Unicron fight better than we did."

"Only because we softened him up for them," Drag Strip insisted.

"I don't know what the slag happened to Unicron," Octane drawled, "But if the Autobots had a weapon that could do that kind of damage, they'd have blasted us off Cybertron years ago."

"Their ship took off from Iacon again, but it's stayed in orbit," Astrotrain told them. "Near as I can tell they're harvesting debris from the fight."

"Typical." They hardly needed Dead End to point out the downsides of their situation, but he was going to do it anyway. "So they get all the benefit of whatever did kill Unicron."

"Maybe it was Galvatron?" one of the seekers offered. Blitzwing thought his name might have been Ion Storm. Or Bitstream. It was not like it mattered.

"If it was Galvatron, we'd all be in Iacon right now trashing Autobots!" Vortex snapped. "Why don't we do that anyway?"

"Go right ahead," Blitzwing told him, and he sat down, stretching his legs out. Vortex glowered at him, but even he had more sense than to take on Iacon alone. Or maybe he lacked the energy reserves to get there.

It had been a ludicrous battle. Like most Decepticons with aerial modes, Blitzwing had flown into orbit directly to assault Unicron. Some shuttles had taken off, but those had not been obvious in combat… He thought about the Constructicons and Soundwave. Had they made a tactical retreat from the outset? Blitzwing had made that decision himself a few minutes into the fight, desperately fleeing to the far side of Cybertron's remaining moon.

Astrotrain and many of the others had had the same idea. Dead End thought the missing Stunticons were dead, and Blitzwing was inclined to agree with him for once. Dead End and Drag Strip had been lucky to have caught Astrotrain on his retreat.

"Any word on the radio frequencies?" Blitzwing asked without any real hope.

"Nothing," Astrotrain confirmed. "I tried putting out a call, but nobody's answering. No other distress beacons on the radar either." That was how they had found Vortex after the battle, floating in space. The other Combaticons had likely escaped aboard Blast Off, but it seemed Vortex had missed the flight.

"They're probably already dead." Dead End again, of course. "And that makes them the lucky ones."

"The Unicronians aren't dead," Octane corrected him. "Well, Galvatron probably is, but Cyclonus and the rest… They were just watching the battle. When Unicron started blowing up, they went a little weird. Looked like they were in pain almost. Then they suddenly streaked off."

"They were always weird," Ramjet said. "We're better off without them. Without Galvatron too."

"But…" Another seeker, hesitant. "Who's leading the Decepticons now?"

Ramjet smirked and looked at Blitzwing. Blitzwing scowled back and shook his head. That ambition had not survived Unicron. There was no longer an empire to lead, and for perhaps the first time in his life, he had no taste for further battle.

Astrotrain spoke up. "Megatron told us he would always be the leader of the Decepticons. If he's dead, then maybe there aren't Decepticons anymore."

"Then what the slag are we supposed to be?" Drag Strip was not going to indulge their pontifications.

"Masters of our own destiny!" Octane declared, cheerily. They all stared at him, and he spread his arms. "We've lost Cybertron… so what? There's a whole Galaxy out there, and we're in good fighting shape." During the age that Megatron and the others had been lost, Octane had deserted Cybertron (several times, apparently) and lived a civilian life before rejoining the war effort—nor had he gone back to military service willingly, as Blitzwing recalled it.

"We could conquer our own planet," Vortex gasped, optics alight.

"Or kick back, relax and have a little fun. It's been a long war, guys. Time for some R and R!"

"The Battlechargers?" a confused seeker asked.

"Rest and relaxation!" Octane gave them all a pitying look. "Come on. Let Uncle Octane show you a world outside of martial law."

Ramjet, at least, did not appreciate being patronised. "Why not start with Monacus?" he asked, casually showing off his own galactic experience. "Always a good time on Monacus!"

"That's not how I remember it," Astrotrain grumbled.

Octane shrugged. "I guess we could start with the basics. Got the fuel to get there, Astrotrain?"

"Yeah…" Astrotrain hesitated, giving the others time to protest, but nobody did. With a sigh, he broke orbit.

Blitzwing moved up towards the bridge, where he could speak quietly to the other triple-changer. When it came down to it, Astrotrain was the only one in this lot he knew well enough to trust. "What's Monacus?"

"An asteroid. No official settlement, but it's a hub for casinos, bars and stuff. We used to have a share in a gladiatorial arena out there."

That sounded familiar; Shockwave had funded the Decepticon war effort with a few inter-galactic business concerns. Blitzwing doubted any of them were still operational, but… "Maybe there's a life out there for Decepticons after all."

"Maybe." Astrotrain did not sound optimistic, but he did not sound pessimistic either. It was a start.