A/N: I decided that I would start uploading on a schedule regardless of writing speed. Get some consistency and expectations from my readers. As well as some leeway for me to slow down or have times where I'm not writing as fast. Based on this last week, it should work out. I thought about Fridays, but because it's a workday I may not always remember to post before going in and I already chores to do Fridays as well. So I decided Saturday mornings would be best. So here we are!

Hope you enjoy!

Chapter 10: Trouble Unseen Pt 3

Sunstreaker glared at the wall. He didn't get it. Shadebreaker was a traitor. Why was Prowl treating her as if she wasn't? He knew Prowl. The mech had no more tolerance for traitors than he did. While what Prowl had said about prisoners wasn't wrong he had never made such an argument about it before. Merely stopped him, punished him and moved on.

"What did Prowl mean about her choosing not to hurt you, Sunny?" Sideswipe asked from next to him quietly.

Sunstreaker glanced at his brother and realized how uncertain he looked. Sideswipe had been uncertain from the start, having been conflicted by the way Shadebreaker had behaved on the ship. Sunstreaker had believed it was because his trusting nature had just led him to fall for her tricks more easily. Now he was second guessing.

"She didn't fight back," Sunstreaker said after a long moment, turning back to look at the wall. "While I was approaching, I thought she would. She'd tensed, her frame shifted as if preparing for a fight, but she did nothing. Just stood there until I was on top of her. And then she didn't even struggle. She didn't move until Ironhide tackled me off of her."

He felt Sideswipe staring at him with wide optics. "But why not?"

"I don't know," Sunstreaker said.

"She already confessed," Sideswipe said. "She doesn't have to pretend."

"Unless the confession was the pretend," Sunstreaker said, realization hitting him like a truck.

Sideswipe's optics widened even more—Sunstreaker hadn't known it was possible for them to get that wide. "What do you mean? Optimus said-"

"That's right," Sunstreaker nodded. "He said. Shadebreaker said nothing in that meeting. She was silent. Maybe they were afraid she'd give herself away if she spoke then. But how else do you explain Prowl's reaction? Has he ever asked me to think about a traitor's actions before?"

Sideswipe thought about that for a minute. "No…" he said. "But why would Shadebreaker pretend to be a traitor? Everyone hates her now….Well…almost everyone."

"There must be a real traitor," Sunstreaker said. "And she's pretending to lure them into a sense of security until they make a mistake. Remember what you told me about Makeshift?"

"Ooohhhh," Sideswipe said. "Slag. Who do-" He cut himself off as the door to their temporary cell opened.

Sunstreaker looked to see Ratchet walking in carrying a scanner. His optics watched him as he approached, wondering if it could be Ratchet. Ratchet, who had served on the Ark with Sideswipe. Ratchet who had known Optimus just as long as Jazz. Optimus would know if it was Ratchet, right? Unless Makeshift had really upped his game.

"Ratchet! Buddy!" Sideswipe said cheerfully. "How's our best friend?"

Ratchet glared darkly at him.

Someone's in a foal mood, Sunstreaker thought as Sideswipe flinched away.

Ratchet turned his glare to Sunstreaker. "I've brought your lunch and I'm here to see to your injuries."

Sunstreaker grunted in response. He felt Sideswipe nudge a question over their bond and he responded in the negative. They couldn't risk telling Ratchet their epiphany in case he was the shifter. In fact, Sunstreaker would feel a lot safer if… ah, he just saw Jazz peek in the doorway long enough for him to see him and then disappear again. That was reassuring.

Ratchet removed Sunstreaker's shoulder armor carefully and set it aside. Then he scanned the joint where Prowl's shot had hit.

"You're lucky Prowl didn't use his Investigator Special on you," Ratchet told him gruffly.

"I'm sure he just didn't want to risk injuring your pet informant," Sunstreaker growled bitterly. Had to keep up the act that he hadn't figured anything out.

Ratchet's expression darkened at that. "Look, I'm not too happy about the way it's being handled either," he said darkly. "But you can't keep going around beating up prisoners, Sunstreaker. It's against the Autobot code."

Sunstreaker scoffed at that, but he filed this information for later analyzing. He knew Ratchet well enough to know his words meant he wasn't in on the scheme. Which meant one of two things. He was a suspect, that much was clear. But either he was the shifter, or he was very hurt by Shadebreaker's imagined slights.

"I mean it," Ratchet said as he worked on his shoulder. "How many times am I going to keep having to patch you up over the same thing?"

"As many as it takes," Sunstreaker snarled. "These 'Cons need to learn not to play with our sparks if they don't want burned."

Ratchet was silent, mouth forming into a thin line. Sunstreaker didn't know if that meant he was agreeing or just giving up.

After finishing work on his shoulder, Ratchet ran a scan over Sideswipe to make sure he didn't need repairs as well and then provided them each with a cube of energon. Then he left them to continue their previous discussion in peace. They waited until he had time to get sufficiently away.

"Anyways," Sideswipe said, moving closer to his twin. "Who you suppose it could be?"

"Anyone who was already here, I suspect," Sunstreaker said glumly. "Shadebreaker didn't fight me because she knew it wasn't me. That means those of us who arrived on the ship aren't suspects."

"But…if it's a shifter, they could be be shifting between bots, couldn't they?" Sideswipe asked.

"And risk being in the same room as the bot they're impersonating? I think Makeshift must've upped his game since the Ark. Otherwise, I feel like he'd been caught by now, with as few bots who are here."

"Oh, well that's not good at all," Sideswipe said.

"Indeed," Sunstreaker agreed.

"You're going to need to go easy for the next several days while your nanobots finish the healing process," Ratchet said as he fixed my right arm in a sling.

"Because I'm doing such strenuous activities as it is," I said dryly.

Ratchet glowered at me and I tried not to flinched. He tightened the strap just a little too roughly and then adjusted it looser again when it ended up too tight. "Do not move this arm until I tell you that you can."

"Hm," I just hummed.

Ratchet glowered at me as he backed away and I could tell he wanted to say something as he stared at me for a moment.

I sighed. "If you want to yell at me, Ratchet, just do it," I said. I motioned with my bandaged, but not in a sling arm. "Have at it."

Ratchet got visibly more angry then and I sensed Ironhide shifting behind me. "Would anything I say to you even matter? Did any of it matter?"

I bowed my helm at that. I wanted to answer him. I really, really did. My spark ached at the fact I couldn't. Not until we knew who Makeshift was impersonating. It could be Ratchet, as unlikely as I thought it was.

Ratchet scoffed at my silence. He waved a hand as he turned away. "Get out of my medbay." His tone was scorching to my hurting soul.

I climbed down from the bed, Ironhide close enough to help if I really needed it. I took one last look at the mech's back before departing the tent, Ironhide right behind me. I just kept walking, standing up straight as if unbothered as Ironhide guided me with a hand on my shoulder.

I ignored the stares of the nearby humans. I ignored the glares from the nearby bots. None of them mattered to me in that moment in the face of Ratchet's pain. It hurt knowing I had hurt him in the same way I had been hurt. I had never wanted that. I could only hope I could repair the damage when this was over. If he even wanted to talk to me then. If any of them even did. For the same was true for them all, after all.

Prowl frowned slightly as he listened to Jazz's reports about his findings. Then he compared them to his own. Something he'd noticed between his observations and Jazzs's was that if this was indeed Makeshift, the mech had stepped up his game since the Ark. Not only were all the bots who were suspects of different mass than Makeshift, but it seemed like Makeshift was sticking to only one bot to impersonate.

There were no cases where any one bot was ever spotted twice. Every bot could be found for any given point of time. And no unknowns had been seen either. That was part of why the investigation was taking so long. They were trying to determine if Makeshift was changing forms or not. It didn't appear as though he was. Last they encountered him—he'd made it seem like doing that would kill him.

"Makeshift must've really upped his game," Jazz said, clearly having come to the same conclusion.

"If it is even Makeshift," Prowl said contemplatively.

"You think one of the bots may truly be a traitor?" Jazz asked, sounding skeptical.

"Or," Prowl said meaningfully. "This is a shifter we have not dealt with before. One more skilled than Makeshift. Able to hold onto a singular form for long periods of time."

"That does sound like a possibility," Jazz said. "And even Shadebreaker has said there have bits of information that has turned out inaccurate."

Prowl nodded. "She has shared that with me as well," he said.

"You have an idea of which bot it is?" Jazz asked, tilting his helm.

"I think I have narrowed it down to two main suspects," Prowl said. "Based upon your observations and the reports on which bots the Decepticons might have had the opportunity to replace them."

"Great! Now we just gotta figured out which one it is!" Jazz said.

"I think I have an idea of how to lure them out," Prowl said. "But we might have to let the twins out sooner."

"Good thing you didn't tell anyone how long you locked them up for," Jazz smirked.

"Indeed," Prowl said dryly.

Convincing the twins had been easier than Prowl had expected. They both seemed eager to pay the shifter back for playing their fellow bots like a hand if cards. And Sunstreaker, Prowl thought, probably felt itching to make up for his misjudgment of Shadebreaker.

He'd gone over the plan with Shadebreaker as well and, unsurprisingly, she'd agreed. She seemed to agree to anything that she felt would succeed in the intended goal. Prowl didn't know whether he approved or not. He suspected, however, that she knew how to use discretion. Her willingness to put her own life in danger worried him just a little, though. Self-sacrificing indeed.

The difficulty would be convincing Ratchet to go along with the plan. It was, after all, very risky. And the medic was likely going to resist it heavily upon learning what he was about to tell him.

"What's this about, Prowl?" Ratchet asked, looking highly displeased to be here. He was always displeased to be in the presence of Shadebreaker these days.

They'd called him to the almost ready medbay, the same place they'd held the first meeting to discuss the spy among them. It was dark inside and they could just barely see each other—Ratchet, Shadebreaker, the twins and, of course, Prowl himself. Jazz was keeping tabs on the suspects and Optimus and Ironhide were off base, trusting the remainder of the investigation to Prowl and Jazz.

"We decided it is time to let you in on what is going on," Prowl replied after a moment.

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. "And just what is that?"

"There is a traitor among us," Prowl said.

Ratchet scowled. "Do you think I'm blind?" He motioned vaguely at Shadebreaker.

"It is not Shadebreaker, you dingbat," Sunstreaker said bluntly. "It's a shifter."

Ratchet paused, raising his optic ridges at the mech in surprise. He stared at him, then looked at Shadebreaker, who stood there without reacting in any visible way. Her wings were still cuffed and arms still bandaged and in a sling from the yellow twins beating that morning. Then Ratchet looked at Prowl for confirmation.

Prowl nodded. "Shadebreaker has been posing as a traitor to lure the shifter into a false sense of security," he said. "They knew we suspected a mole from something Arcee had said. We came up with the idea that if they thought we believed we'd caught the mole they'd slip up."

Prowl watched Ratchet take in this information. He watched how he realized how horribly he'd been to Shadebreaker and she hadn't even been guilty.

"Do not feel bad, Ratchet," Shadebreaker said softly. "For how you treated me. It is how I would've treated me as well. I knew what I was stepping into. I do not blame you. Anymore than I blame Sunstreaker for hurting me and I don't blame him for that either."

Prowl saw Sunstreaker dart a look of surprise at Shadebreaker then glance over at him as if to confirm. He gave the twin a small nod to confirm that Shadebreaker had expressed the same sentiment regarding him to him as well.

Ratchet looked almost pained. "I'm so sorry, Shade'," he said. "For everything. Had I known…"

"That's the point," Shadebreaker said, tilting her helm with a rueful smile. "You didn't. It hurt, sure. But you just didn't know. I wanted to tell you, but it was important you didn't know. Just as it was important the twins didn't know."

"We did not know who the traitor was," Prowl said.

"And even if we had known you weren't, the reaction to the news of my betrayal had to be genuine to be believeable enough," Shadebreaker added, shifting a little on her pedes. "That was the whole reason we didn't tell the twins from my understanding."

Prowl nodded to that.

"Is the only reason you brought me here to tell me I've made a massive fool of myself?" Ratchet asked, sounding a little dejected.

"Ohhh," Shadebreaker sounded dismayed at Ratchet's take on the matter. She gave him a look of sympathy and Prowl thought she would hug him if not for the seriousness of the meeting.

"Not at all," Prowl said. "We are telling you this now and not after everything is resolved with the others because we need your help."

"You've identified the traitor then?" Ratchet asked.

Prowl nodded. "We just need to set a trap."

"And how do you plan to do that?" Ratchet asked.

Prowl laid it out for him.

"Absolutely not," Ratchet said firmly.

"Shadebreaker has already agreed," Prowl said. "Your involvement would help guarantee her wellbeing."

"Shadebreaker would agree to jumping in a volcano if she thought it would solve the problem," Ratchet growled.

"Quick turn around for a mech who five minutes ago was ready to throw her out," Sunstreaker said dryly.

Ratchet looked properly contrite, the sound of his cooling fans hitting Prowl's audials. "I-I well-"

"Relax, mech," Sunstreaker said, amused. "It's a joke. I would be a hypocrite if I faulted you for something I was also guilty of."

"And I would only jump into a volcano if I had reasonable belief I would survive jumping into it," Shadebreaker argued. "Or if I needed to to save someone else, but that would also require survival."

Ratchet gave her a long suffering look at that.

"Ratchet, we need to catch this shifter," Shadebreaker said softly, earnestly. "I would not have gone through being treated like a traitor if it wasn't important. I wouldn't still be here under that kind of treatment while innocent if I didn't believe it was important to do this."

Ratchet considered her for a long moment. "Fine," he said, relenting. "Let the record say I don't like it."

"Duly noted, Ratchet," Shadebreaker said, smiling and Prowl noted there was a genuineness to it that had been missing for the last several days.

It wasn't until nightfall that the plan would fall into place. But it was set in motion long before.

Jazz returned to pick Shadebreaker up for his usual routine with her—they needed to keep up the act for just a little longer.

The twins were set loose to loudly complain about how Shadebreaker was being treated so lightly and even being protected by Prowl to anyone who would listen.

Ratchet returned to temporary medbay to prepare, both medbay and mentally.

When the time came, Jazz brought Shadebreaker back to the tent and temporary medbay. Ratchet came over scowling while Jazz spun a tale of Shadebreaker running a fever and concerns about a virus.

"We can't have our informant dying from an infection, can we?" Jazz argued.

"Very well," Ratchet said gruffly. He waved a hand. "Take that bed. I will see what I can do."

Shadebreaker and Jazz shared one last look, silently confirming with each that they were moving forward. Then Shadebreaker moved toward the bed and climbed on cautiously, knowing it was not an antivirus Ratchet was preparing and if the plan went awry that she would not wake.

"What if he doesn't take the bait?" Sideswipe asked his brother quietly as they watched the two bots in the practice field quietly.

"He'll take it," Sunstreaker said, arms crossed as he leaned against the tree, watching their suspect as he sparred with their opponent. After a long evening of making a fuss, they were certain they had their shifter pinned down.

The bots finished their match not long later and then walked over to the twins.

"Hey guys," he greeted.

"Nice match," Sunstreaker said. "Before long you might even give me a run for my money."

Their suspect chuckled at that. "I dunno about that," he said. "I think I could take you now."

Sunstreaker considered the mech for a moment, then shrugged. "Maybe." He gave a noncommittal answer. It wasn't time to test that.

"Well, I gotta go see Ratchet," Arcee said, rolling her right shoulder. "That last throw shifted something out of alignment."

"Great! We'll go with you," Sideswipe said. "I think I saw our resident traitor there earlier, so better safe than sorry, as they say."

"Indeed," Arcee agreed, look darkening a little at the reminder.

Sideswipe and Arcee started away and Sunstreaker started to follow, but their suspect stopped him with a hand on his arm. Sideswipe paused and glanced, but Sunstreaker waved him on.

"A word, Sunstreaker?" He asked.

"What about?" Sunstreaker asked.

"Our little problem sitting in medbay," the suspect replied. "What are we going to do about it?"

"What can we do?" Sunstreaker asked. "Prowl will have my aft if I so much as touch her again. And she constantly has a guard with her."

"A simple problem with a simple solution my friend," his conversation partner said, not realizing perhaps how weird it was for the bot he was impersonating to be saying those kinds of words. "You just have to distract whichever officer is on duty while Ratchet is busy with Arcee. I'll take care of the rest."

"And what's the rest?" Sunstreaker raised an optic ridge.

The mech grinned and slammed his fists together. The message was pretty clear.

Sunstreaker nodded and the mech patted him on the back, looking pleased. Sunstreaker had to resist the urge to sneer in displeasure.

Steadishift followed the Autobots as they made their way back to the original tent on base barely able to contain an expectant grin. He'd been fooling the Autobots for months and it was finally gonna pay off by allowing him to take out one of their potentially strongest allies.

Shadebreaker may not be their strongest fighter, but Steadishift knew her knowledge could prove, as it already had, problematic for the Decepticon cause. He had carefully angled to counteract her efforts to use it to negate the fact they'd acquired it first by informing Megatron exactly when the Autobots would be going after each relic. It was unfortunate she had gotten it in her helm to go after one without informing anyone as it had alerted the bots.

But what a fortunate turn that the Autobots had taken it and the following ambush to mean that she had been the traitor all along! And she had even confessed! If he was a lesser bot, like that sorry Makeshift who couldn't hold a form for more than a couple cycles, he might have even believed she was working with the Decepticons as well.

How Prowl got a confession out of an innocent bot, Steadishift didn't know. But it worked in his favor. And if he took her out now, before she'd finished divulging her information to the Autobots, the Decepticons would have the solid advantage. The pieces were falling smoothly into place, just as he'd expected they would.

"Ratchet!" Sideswipe called cheerfully.

Ratchet made a disgruntled noise as he looked up from something he was doing by a prone Shadebreaker. "What do you want?" He snapped.

"What's wrong with her?" Sideswipe asked.

"I have her in forced power down to sort out a virus," Ratchet replied, looking like he'd rather let the virus run its course.

"Well, anyway," Sideswipe said. "Arcee is here to see you." He bowed a little as he moved aside for Arcee to move forward.

Ratchet looked at her, looking her over, then glanced back at Sideswipe, catching his optics. Steadishift wasn't sure if he'd noticed him and Sunstreaker or not, but he still stood still until the mech motioned for Arcee to follow.

Sideswipe followed them, staying by Arcee's side to fulfill his role as bodyguard despite the fact Shadebreaker appeared to be out cold.

Sunstreaker moved over to Jazz and slung an arm over his shoulders. "Hey mech," he said, steering him away from Shadebreaker's form. "Do you remember that trick you did back on Doruka III? Can you remind me how you did that?"

"Right now? Is it important?" Jazz asked, sounding uncertain. He glanced back at Shadebreaker and the mech still standing at the tent entrance.

"Relaaaxxx," Sunstreaker said. "We'll be just over here. It won't take long."

"If you say so, mech," Jazz said.

Steadishift smirked as Jazz turned his gaze away. Finally. He stepped further in now that the only occupants of the tent were fully occupied and not paying any attention to his target. A quick glance toward where Ratchet was at the far medbay bed showed his back toward him and his frame was blocking whatever view Arcee might've had. Sideswipe glanced, but made a subtle movement to indicate he was in on the plan and then looked back to Arcee and spoke quietly to her.

Perfect.

He silently pulled a dagger from his subspace, gripping it tightly in one hand as he approached Shadebreaker's bed where she lay motionless. He was silent, stealthy—the opposite of the bot he was iimpersonating. At her bedside, he raised his hand holding the dagger, preparing to plunge it deep into her spark chamber.

Steadishift might've benefited from some common sense thinking that when something was too easy it might be because something wasn't the way it seemed. He didn't see or hear another bot enter the tent and was unprepared for the sudden shock through his system as something cold hit him in between his shoulder blades.

He dropped the dagger and it clattered to the floor uselessly due to the way his arm had spasmed. Then his arm froze up and his frame followed, his knees buckling. He started falling forward, but a hand caught him by the shoulder, pulling him backward to fall onto his back on the grass instead of on top of Shadebreaker.

That's when he saw Prowl standing over him with an unreadable expression. Prowl knelt by his helm and Steadishift wondered why he couldn't move.

"I would not bother trying to move," Prowl said. "The Investigator Special paralyzes its target for five minutes. You've lost."

"How did you know I wasn't Bulkhead?" Steadishift asked.

"You started slipping after Shadebreaker came forward as a traitor," Prowl said. "But you really gave it away this afternoon when you told Arcee your thoughts about what we should do with her. Bulkhead respects Optimus's decisions too much to be making comments like that unprompted."

Steadishift would have sneered if his face wasn't paralyzed with the rest of his frame.

The next morning, the bots were all gathered again. This time in the fields and the humans were gathered around to see what was going on. Shadebreaker stood next to Prowl, waiting, staring down at the cuffed Steadishift as the gathered bots murmured and wondered who this strange mech was and where was Bulkhead? It was as if she thought her stare alone was what kept him from disappearing into the ether and escaping.

Optimus motioned for quiet from his position atop a boulder that sat in the field big enough to hold him. The moment he did a hush fell not only among the bots, but also the humans.

"I know you have had questions," he said. "Many of you have had concerns about leniency with which we have been treating Shadebreaker."

Some voices were heard from the humans, though the bots were silent. Even the few Autobots left who did not already know had a pretty good idea at this point. This meeting was more or less for the benefit of the humans, which was why it was held outside. It was merely a formality as far as the bots were concerned.

Optimus held his hands up again and the humans hushed, seeing the silence that had been kept by the bots and sharing looks amongst themselves.

"The truth is," Optimus said. "Shadebreaker was never a traitor to begin with. She merely posed as one to lure out the real mole."

Another murmur and Optimus had to hold up a hand again.

"We believed if the mole thought we'd believed we had caught the mole already then they would make a mistake that would allow us to identify them," Optimus said. "And we did. Steadishift-" Prowl shoved the mech, who seemed as unidentifiable as Makeshift had been in his real form yet somehow unmistakably not the same mech, "-is what is known to our species as a shifter. A very rare kind of Cybertronian. He took the form of Bulkhead, of whom we are still determining the fate of, and proceeded to infiltrate our number.

"As of now, Shadebreaker is absolved of all charges that were put against her," Optimus continued.

He motioned and Prowl moved over to Shadebreaker. He released the cuffs from her wings and she stretched them out with an obvious look of relief on her face.

"And," Optimus added as Prowl subspaced the cuffs. "In recognition of her dedication to ensuring the safety of her fellows and the success of the Autobot cause, as well as a form of apology for the way she's been treated, we will be bestowing upon her official status as a member of the Autobots."

As Optimus spoke Prowl had stood in front of Shadebreaker and removed from subspace something no one could make out. Now, as she stood in slight surprise—having not been expecting this—he placed this object on her chest just over her spark and then stepped aside to reveal to the gathered crowd a shiny new Autobot insignia.

Shadebreaker looked down at it and reached up with her arm that was not in a sling and touched it lightly with the tips of her fingers in what looked like reverence.

"Now, we must move forward with our ongoing mission to protect your world from the Decepticons together," Optimus said. "I will answer any questions you have in the designated area of the tent we have resided in thus far starting this afternoon. For now, this meeting is adjourned."

Murmur broke out again and questions were asked anyways, forcing Jazz to take charge and quiet them down as Prowl and Ironhide escorted Steadishift away—taking him to the ship for holding.

Among the Autobots, they looked at each other, each trying to come to decision on what to do at that moment, but all knowing they owed Shadebreaker some kind of apology. But when they looked, she was gone already.

Bumblebee whirled in worry.

"Relax," Sunstreaker said to the mech. "Shadebreaker isn't mad at anyone. She knew what to expect and she already told me she wasn't mad at me. If she's not mad at the mech who broke both her arms, she sure ain't at any of you."

"Still," Arcee said. "We treated her pretty badly. It would feel wrong not to say something."

Sunstreaker shrugged. "Then let her come to you," he said.

"Yeah," Sideswipe said. "I'm sure she just needs some space."