Ratchet sighed in relief as he leaned back from the golden warriors chassis, grumbling softly over the scare he had just gotten. When Red Alert had come over his comm. link claiming that Seekers had attacked the twins, Ratchet had expected to come to save the Seekers from certain death- not the twins themselves.

With a sigh he reached one had up to the comm. link, "Red Alert, Optimus Prime, we have secured and helped Sideswipe and Sunstreaker."

Optimus Primes rumbling voice came across the comm. link, "Good. Red Alert, I expect to see you in my office in a breem to tell me how the Seekers got into our perimeter."

Silence. "Red Alert?"

Still, silence. Ratchet's unease grew. By now, Red Alert must have responded in some fashion… Prime murmured, "I'm going to go see what is the matter with Red Alert. Ratchet, return to the Ark at top speed. We might need you here again."

Ratchet turned off the comm. link, as he turned to Wheeljack. "Cmon Jack, help me load them up and we'll take them off to the medbay where we can finally finish repairing these idiots."

Wheeljacks fins flashed on either side of his head as his head tilted at Ratchet. "Hey, Ratch, what do you suppose made their sparks fluctuate like that?"

"How am I supposed to know Jack? If they had a triplet, or a bonded I'd say it was them. But they obviously don't have such a thing. So the next best thing is that they attempted to latch onto each others sparks to make sure it didn't fade."

Wheeljack made a slight noise, before he bent to pick up Sideswipe. Ratchet grunted as he transformed into his ambulance form, white paint glinting in the light. Sideswipe moaned softly as he was jolted, and Wheeljack hissed in consternation.

Ratchet sat still as Wheeljack slid the two into the medics back. The others that had come all kept a wary optic on the sky. "Ratchet, I found Red Alert… he's unconscious in his security room. He's trembling as well."

"Is he hot to the touch?"

A moment of silence as Optimus Prime touched the unconscious Lamborghini, before, "No, he's not."

"Then what could be wrong with him?" Ratchet demanded of the sky, and life in general. He received no answer, like usual, and the medic grumbled as he pulled away, the twins safely ensconced in his back. "Prime, take Red to the medbay, and give him to First Aid. Me and Wheeljack will be there in a few moments."

"Right."

Ratchet engines revved loudly as he took off in a cloud of dust. The others were quick to transform and take after him. Within a few moments, they were in sight of the Ark, until at last, Ratchet drove straight through the hallways to the medbay.

There he was met by a puzzled First Aid. "Ratchet, I can't find anything wrong with Red Alert. His spark pulse is a little slower then normal, but other then that, he's perfectly fine. No dents, nothing to show his CPU is out of whack…"

Ratchet grunted as his doors swung open. "Get Sideswipe and Sunstreaker laid out on berths. If there's nothing visibly wrong with Red Alert then I can't do anything for him. As for these two I need to get them into intense care. Spark beats will only be steady for who knows how long, and I don't want to miss ever moment of opportunity I have."

First Aid nodded as he dragged the twins out of Ratchets back. Ratchet transformed, and began to snap orders, prepping for the major piece of surgery that was about to happen.

-------

They were floating. All three of them were floating, drifting on a sea of nothingness, surrounded by nothing, and buoyed by nothing. It should have been a disturbing feeling, but instead all three felt perfectly at home with it.

Three sparks latched onto each other, comforting and 'feeding' off of each other. One spark nudged the other, and the third spark intervened, radiating waves of calm, quiet acceptance.

Love/happiness/warmth the three emotions darted from spark to spark, creating a rippling wave between the three as the sparks attempted to make up for the long absence from each other. Not a single one of the three was willing to give up what time they had just to the three of them-

They knew without a doubt that sooner or later they had to truly wake up out of the semi-coma they had sent themselves into. And they also knew when they woke up, they were going have to face the truth.

Swiftstrike spark slid up warmly against the other two, as they shared one of the fondest memories they could bring up-

Sideswipe scowled mockingly at Sunstreaker as he leaned backwards in his seat. Sunstreaker ignored the mocking smile as his head craned to look out the window. Swiftstrikes head tilted from side to side as he attempted to see over his triplets shoulder.

The two mechs grinned down at them, "Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Swiftstrike, ready to go visit your grandcreators?"

There were three overly eager nods as three faceplates turned to their creators. The creators smiled down at their creations, before the father creator pointed out the window. "Behold, Iacon!"

Soft coos of amazement echoed around the transport as those whom had never seen the splendor of Iacon before crowded the windows. Swiftstrike nearly climbed up Sunstreakers back as he attempted to see out the window. Sunstreaker allowed him, though he scowled up at his triplet. Sideswipes excited jiggling of his arm interrupted his train of thought to look at the city below.

"Would everyone please take a seat? We'll be landing soon-" The shuttles voice slowly urged mechs, femmes and younglings back to their seats, despite Sideswipes impatient bouncing. Their creators simply continued grinning like fools, as their hands intertwined.

The shuttle landed, fifth time after Sideswipe had asked, and before the other two could even twitch, Sideswipe had shot off the shuttle and onto the ground, vaulting over the surprised customs officer head.

"Sideswipe!" Sunstreaker took off after his triplet, as Swiftstrike looked up at his creators. Both of them shook their heads as they sighed.

"Go ahead Swiftstrike. We'll sort it out with the customs officials." Swiftstrike nodded, and took off after his errant triplets. "We expect you three to be waiting outside for us though!"

Swiftstrike didn't say anything as he chased after his triplets. He was faster then them, so if he could just- A flash of red caught his optics. He slid to a stop, and turned around to look as Sideswipe gaped up at the towers in front of him. Sunstreaker came hurtling out of the crowd at the next moment. "Sides-"

"Isn't it so cool Sunny?"

"Sides, Sunny, Dad and daddy want us to come back to the shuttle now."

"Alright Swiftstrike…" Sideswipe allowed himself to be led back to the shuttle, still gaping around the beautiful city like a country bumpkin. Sunstreaker glowered at him.

"Stop looking like that! You're making us look suspicious." Sunstreaker grumbled.

They spotted their creators standing nearby the shuttle, anxiously looking for them. Swiftstrike pattered up close to them, and the father smiled down. "Ready for picture taking?"

Sideswipe groaned, as Swiftstrike looked away. Picture taking was not the most favorite of activities for them, even as Sunstreaker preened in response to the idea of getting a picture. "C'mon you three, after this we'll go get a few energon cubes."

That perked up both Sideswipe and Swiftstrike as they all posed in front of a building. It's dark background was a sharp contrast to their bright colors, as laughingly they posed.

The memory slowly faded into the background, as Swiftstrike spark pulled away slightly. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker nearly pounced on the spark, wailing protests. Swiftstrike silently sent happy/wake up/come

Sunstreaker sighed, sleepy/tired/must we?

Sideswipe reminded, see/come/touch

That caught the triplets attention, and he perked up slightly. Waking up would mean that they got to see what their triplet had been reformatted into- the only reason why Sunstreaker could think of the reason why they hadn't recognized him.

The red warriors optics onlined first and found himself lying on top of a berth. Beside him he could feel Sunstreaker struggling to wake up, as Swiftstrike was waking up. His head turned to the side to see the single other Lamborghini on board the Ark.

"Red?"

The smaller Lamborghini flinched at the incredulous tones, before offering a hesitant smile. Sideswipe dragged himself out of his berth, and flopped onto Red Alerts, ignoring the yelp. Sunstreaker managed to get to his feet; pulling off a tube that had originally been connected to him, before making it the five steps to the berth Sideswipe and Red Alert were in.

"Out of all-" Sunstreaker paused as Red Alert looked down guiltily at his lap. "Red, you're Swiftstrike?"

"…Yes." Red Alert watched his triplets carefully, optics wide. The two looked at each other, before a wicked grin split Sideswipes face. It was tired, like all of his movements, but he grabbed Red Alert about the waist, and dragged him firmly into the berth, before he snuggled up close.

"Always wanted to tackle a commanding officer without being sent to the brig." Sideswipe murmured. Sunstreaker still stared, off balance by the fact that their little triplet had managed to get this far up, not to mention made it into being a commanding officer. Now that he looked back, he had to admit that Red Alert had some of the same characteristics-

His CPU was too tired to deal with this. With a low groan he flopped down into the berth, on top of his triplets. Beneath he could feel Red Alert stiffen, before he grumbled, "Share him Sides."

"Mine."

"Sides-" Sunstreaker murmured warningly, "Don't make me shove you out of the berth."

"Oh, fine." Sideswipe inched towards the side, allowing Sunstreaker to get a little more comfortable on the berth. "But I do this strictly because I don't want to start a fight."

"You probably couldn't even fight right now." Sunstreaker grumbled, even as he slid next to Swiftstrike. The three enjoyed a quiet moment, before Red Alert broke the silence with a question that had been on his CPU for vorns.

"Sides, Sunny, why'd you block me out?"

Two, identical winces, and sorry/love/sorry/please forgive

Words were needed for this question, and Sideswipe was the first to answer. "When- when those 'cons shot you in the back, we felt the pain. And we also felt the blankness at the ned. We- we thought you were dead. We spent the next twenty orns trying to access the bond, to get to you. We couldn't get anything."

Sunstreaker picked up the tale, "So, I closed the bond."

Sunstreaker glowered at Sideswipe, oblivious to the tears running down his face. The empty blankness of where Swiftstrike should've been echoed deeply within his spark, making it mourn for the missing presence. "We have to close it off Sides!"

"No, we don't! Sunny, please, let's keep it open just a little longer-"

"If he was still alive, he would've contacted us by now! It's too late Sides! It's too late."

Sunstreaker shivered at the memory. He should've listened to Sideswipe. It was too late now of course, but he still should've listenened to Sideswipe- "Why didn't you tell us Strike? Why didn't you tell us that you were still alive?"

"Because… you had closed off the bond. I thought I had done something wrong." A soft sob shook the smaller mech. "I thought I was too weak, and you two didn't want me keeping you back-"

Horrification lashed across the bond before either twin could stop it, and Sideswipe awkwardly cuddled up further to the crying Red Alert. "We wouldn't ever, ever do that Red. Haven't you ever heard us say we didn't want you?"

"But- whenever you came to save me, there was always-" Words failed to convey what he had thought and felt.

"The contempt was for the idiots who would dare pick on you. You're our triplet, why would we hate you? You're us." Sideswipe whispered the words soothingly, even as he sent love/warmth/happiness to his triplet.

Red Alert tried for a smile, but already he could feel systems shutting down internally. Judging from the muted sounds from the twins, they also were having the same problem. Sunstreaker grumbled, "We'll talk about this later."

"Of course Sunny."

Sunstreaker said nothing as he very firmly thrust all thought from his CPU to snuggle up to his triplets. At last, at last, they were together again. His optics dimmed as he listened to the spark pulse next to his auditory receptors, the softly revving engines lulling the three of them to sleep.

The white painted medic strode into the medbay, ready to check on his charges. Instead he found three Lamborghini's, all curled up together on the same berth. All three faces were the most contented he had ever seen, and his auditory receptors couldn't distinguish one engine from the other as they purred softly.

Wheeljack peeked across Ratchets shoulder, before saying softly, "Awww, look at them, don't they look cute Ratchet? Wait here, I'm going to go get a camera."

"Wait, Jack!" Too late, the engineer had already scampered down the hallway. Ratchet turned back to the three sleeping figures, hands on hips. "Well, what am I supposed to do now?"

--

There was a picture on the wall. It's glass frame was mudged slightly, and a bit of tape showed where it had once been wrapped. It contrasted sharply from the other pictures of the three mechs, one red, one yellow, one orange. It was newer then the others, and a little different. It was of three Lamborghini's, one red, one yellow, one red and white, snuggled together, a contented smile on their faces.


a/n: There. End. No more. Third chapter written for those whom asked, and I can only say that I desperately hoped you all enjoyed it.