I don't own Transformer or the Riordanverse; they belong to their owners.

Chapter 20: I Quit My Job.

The next two days of my life were just a string of numbers.

Even for a walking computer like me, it was a challenge going through and correcting the massive mess Jane had made of Tristan's tax documents and records. It probably would have been next to impossible for a human. I ended up needing to control both my main body and holomatter avatar at the same time in order to multitask. With my primary body outside the mansion using a VR interface and my avatar inside working on Jane's old computer.

Jane had certainly been thorough, and it wasn't just her. It turns out Tristan's agent, financial manager, and accountant were in on this too; someone had spent a lot of money and time to put the pieces in place to destroy his and Piper's life.

I almost felt sorry for undoing it all.

I wasn't able to stop it completely, but I was able to at least make it manageable. Tristan probably would have to sell one of his spare houses or some other knick-knacks, but he wouldn't be completely ruined.

And in case he did end up getting in trouble with the law, there was always that evidence I managed to scrounge up proving most of his financials had been altered without his knowledge.

I still wasn't sure who was behind this; who the mysterious C was. All I managed to find was that a bunch of shell corporations had been involved in wrecking Tristan's financials. They were all linked to the same mother company, Triumvirate Holdings.

What made me worried was the fact that I'd seen that name before. M.A.R.S. Industries, one of our allies on Earth, had done business with Triumvirate Holdings in the past.

I couldn't worry about that now, though. It was time to do what I should have done a long time ago.

After finishing up most of the work, I disabled my holomatter Avatar, took off my VR headset, and called Soundwave.

"Thundercracker? Are you ready to return to base?" Soundwave asked.

"...Yes," I said.

After the words left my mouth, I got another flash.

Some men from the IRS arrive at Tristan's home. They tell him he's under arrest.

Tristan tries to insist he didn't do it, but all the evidence says otherwise. It's rock-solid. Piper desperately tries to fight it, but there's nothing they can do.

In the end, Tristan is forced to sell everything he has. His acting career, which he had worked so hard to build, is over. He becomes a hollow shell of a man. He barely holds himself together, but he does hold himself together. For Piper.

Piper and her dad move back to the McLean Land. The two do find some peace; Piper gets to go to a normal school and be a normal kid. Tristan finds some more time to spend with Piper, and the two are closer than ever.

But the shame and embarrassment of losing everything after being at the top of the world would never go away...

Soundwave opened a ground bridge for me, and I walked into the Decepticons Records and Communications HQ. The base that had been my home for several years.

I found Soundwave waiting for me.

"Thundercracker. I find the amount of time you've been spending outside the base for the past two years rather troubling," he greeted. No hello, or good to see you again. The first thing he did when he saw me was reprimand me.

"I know," I said simply.

"Now. Get back to your duties." Soundwave ordered.

Fat chance. "Yes sir." I saluted.

As I walked back to my recharge chambers, I reflected on what I was about to do.

I knew I would have to deal with the consequences of this. Big consequences.

But I didn't care anymore. I was doing the right thing, no matter what now. I'd deal with those consequences when they came.

Maybe I was being stupid. Maybe the smart thing to do would be just to shut up and keep working; deserting could probably get Piper and Tristan in trouble too since the Decepticons knew where I had been going.

But I was done hiding who I was; I was done lying to myself; and I was done fighting for a cause I couldn't support anymore.

I'd rather be stupid than a sparkless shell of a bot.

I got into my recharge chambers and looked around them. I had a funny feeling I would never see them again.

Truthfully, I normally probably wouldn't have come back, but I had to get one thing. The poster Tristan and Piper got me for Christmas. It has been hanging on the wall of my dorm since Christmas, when they gave it to me. There was no way I was leaving without that.

As I took down the poster and folded it up, Skywarp teleported into the dorm room.

"Hey TC You're back!" he said happily.

"Yes, SW, I'm back," I replied with a sad smile.

Skywarp could tell something was wrong with me, though. "Hey. What's wrong, buddy?".

At first, I considered lying to keep pressure off me. The longer it took for the Decepticons to discover my desertion, the better.

Like I said, though, I was tired of lying to myself and hiding who I was.

I think I was stupid.

"I'm leaving," I told Skywarp bluntly as I put the folded-up poster in my chest cockpit.

There was a moment of silence before Skywarp spoke up. "Leaving?" he asked, sounding surprised. "But you just got back."

I sighed. "Yeah, I know," I said. "But I need to go."

Skywarp looked worried. "Wait, are you deserting?" he asked, his voice trembling slightly.

I nodded, feeling a pang of guilt. "I have to," I said. "I can't stay here anymore."

Skywarp's face was a mixture of anger and sadness. "WHY!?" he asked in a voice that honestly made my spark break. "How can you just...WHY!?"

"Because I can't do this anymore!" I explained, "I can't fight for a cause I don't believe in anymore, a cause that's taking more and more lives!"

"Every life's worth it if it means a better Cybertron!" Skywarp insisted.

"A better Cybertron?!" I asked incredulously, "We're the reason Cybertron's a mess to begin with!"

"Sure, maybe Megatron was right," I continued. "Maybe Cybertron did need to break out of its stagnant status quo, but we've taken it way too far! And now innocent people from another planet are being affected!"

"You- You can't do this!" Skywarp pleaded, "We're a team! Partners! Ever since Starscream-"

"I know Skywarp. But like I said, I can't do this anymore." I extended my hand to him, "But it's not too late. You can come with me."

I meant it too. For all the disagreements I had with Skywarp, he was still the closest friend I had in the Decepticons.

Skywarp glared at my hand and smacked it away in disgust. "I can't believe this!" he exclaimed. "Watching all those stupid TV shows and movies has brainwashed you! The Thundercracker I knew would never-"

"No," I interrupted sadly. "This was always me. I just had to discover who I truly was."

Skywarp was silent; he looked at me with a pained expression.

"I'm leaving," I repeated.

Skywarp stood right in front of me, and then he pointed his wrist gun at my face.

"Deserter" he squeaked out.

I ducked right as he fired at me, the shot grazing my head.

With an uppercut, I sprang from my duck and knocked Skywarp backward while striking him in the jaw.

"For the sake of our friendship, Skywarp, stand down!" I begged.

Skywarp flew forward and grappled me. "If you care about our friendship, you wouldn't be doing this!" he yelled as he pinned me to the ground.

He took one of his arms off me to activate his comm, "Soundwave! This is Skywarp! Thundercracker's gone-"

I interrupted him with a headbutt, knocking Skywarp off balance.

With Skywarp off his equilibrium, I took that as my chance to push past him and run for it.

I ran toward the ground bridge room. I was about halfway there when I passed by the communications center. Several Decepticons were hard at work managing the communications coming to and from all our bases and soldiers active in the field.

I got a little idea in my head when I saw it.

There was no reason I couldn't leave with a bang.

I walked into the room and approached one of the cons working there.

"Hey Frenzy, this is the central hub of all Decepticon communications, right?"

"Yeah? You should know that."

I smirked.

Skywarp's voice came out of one of the consoles: "Everyone! Thundercracker is,-"

He didn't get to finish before I raised my wrist and started firing into several of the consoles.

Frenzy looked horrified. "THUNDERCRACKER WHAT ARE YOU-"

"What I should have done years ago!" I announced as I blasted another console.

"We've lost all long-range communications!" shouted one of the cons.

I don't know why, but I started laughing maniacally. I just felt so free in that moment.

"Consider that my resignation note!" I shouted.

Frenzy and the other cons started recovering from their shock. "GET HIM!".

I took that as my cue to leave. I started running to the ground bridge room, laughing all the way.

When I got there, I found Soundwave waiting for me; he looked pissed (as he probably had every right to be).

"Buzzsaw! Eject! Operation: Interception!" Soundwave commanded as he opened his chest compartment. Out of it flew one of his data bots, Buzzsaw, that looked like a robotic condor. Buzzsaw started flying straight at me.

That made me nervous. Buzzsaw may be small, but his bite was worse than his bark.

I tried to duck, but that condor was a nasty little thing, and it tore right into my wing, scuffing it.

"ARG!" I screamed in pain, collapsing to my knees.

When I got up, I saw Soundwave was still right in front of me, blocking my way. I looked behind me and saw Skywarp had arrived, with Buzzsaw hovering right by him.

"Look. TC. Calm down..." Skywarp said assuringly, "Just come with us quietly, and we can talk this out."

"Skywarp is correct." Soundwave confirmed, "Cooperate, and we will be lenient."

"By lenient, you mean you'll only torture me half as badly, right?" I asked mockingly.

"TC, don't do this." Skywarp pleaded, "You're a Decepticon! One of the best!"

"That was never who I was."

The second the words left my mouth, I let out a massive thunder boom all around me. The boom sent Skywarp and Soundwave flying off their feet.

It was the chance I needed. I raced past Soundwave into the ground bridge room and locked the door behind me.

I went to the console and inputted the coordinates I knew by heart by now, and the green portal opened up.

Right as I got to the portal, I heard the familiar VOP sound of Skywarp's teleportation power.

I looked back and saw Skywarp staring at me with a heartbroken expression. "Please. Don't leave me," it seemed to say.

I gave him one final sad look before jumping through the portal.

After I emerged near the McLean Mansion, I transformed and took off toward the Bay Area. If Jane was right, Tristan was there somewhere.

I looked around Oakland in my jet mode for a while, but there was no sign of him there; he must have been taken somewhere else by whoever was behind this.

This wasn't good. The Bay Area was huge. Was he even still here? Where was I going to find him?

While I was flying, I noticed something flying right beside me.

It was a thunderbird. I didn't know how, but I could tell it was the same one that Piper and I had seen twice before. "Uh, hi," I said. "I apologize if I'm flying in your airspace."

The bird stared at me silently. Then it got in front of me and headed in another direction.

"Are you guiding me?" I asked.

The bird didn't answer.

"Heck with it," I muttered.

I followed the Thunderbird for a while, and pretty soon it became apparent where it was taking me: Mount Diablo.

As we got closer, I could hear some noise that sounded like a struggle. Eventually, I was able to see what was going on exactly. Some people were fighting near a place with some construction equipment scattered around. The group included a giant person with reptile legs, a few smaller ogres with six arms, and a few other people who I couldn't see clearly at first.

However, I could see a man who looked half dead, tied to a post near a purple bonfire.

"Tristan!" I called out, and I began to fly down towards the ground and the fight.

When I got close enough, I activated my thunder boom powers, and a massive explosion of sonic energy erupted around me, sending the ogres and the giant to their knees.

After that, I transformed into robot mode and landed on the ground, ready to fight.

One of the combatants caught my attention, and I was surprised to see who it was.

"Piper!?" I exclaimed.

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