A/N: Where Skywarp flies out to New Vos to avoid Thundercracker I MEAN visit his fellow alien-abductee, and gets a little useful information to add to his campaign to get-starscream-interested-in-this-if-it-kills-me. You can't avoid your wingmates forever, though. And didn't anyone ever tell you that saying "if it kills me" is really tempting fate...

Can't wait to get you in those fragging yellow squares.

Go over there where we can keep an optic on you, sit down, shut up, behave yourself. And don't complain. It's for your own good.

With his hands fisted at his sides, and features tightened in a painful glare, Skywarp pushed for the horizon, concentrating on the slow ache of heat building in his overworked thrusters.

This sucked slag. Really fragging sucked it. Every time he thought he'd got a handle on things, could start to come to terms with it all and adapt to this new world…? Some new fragging glitch came along and gave his gyroscopes a good hard spin in a totally new direction. Many more of these unexpected nosedives into confusion and he was gonna dig a trench with his nosecone.

In the back of his mind, he could hear Thundercracker scolding – thrust from your vanes, Skywarp – but couldn't bring himself to care. It wasn't as if this new frame was going to be permanent, right? ('Cause like Pit he was gonna make sure of that.) And if he fragged his turbines well enough, he could always spend a night at hospital, getting them replaced. Right? It'd get him out from under the guys' thrusters, if nothing else.

Not as if they'd miss him.

He tightened his fingers and tried to shake the idea off. Maybe if he could go fast enough, maybe he could outrun the thoughts he was struggling with. Right?

To think that not even thirty orns ago, finally getting out of the Cons had felt like the best thing that had happened to them! Finally in control of their own destiny, no longer squabbling like starving animals over dregs of energon, or stuck on that Primus-forsaken mudball, labouring through endless heat and wet and dirt, getting shot at for nothing. A chance to reinvent themselves. Actually win, for a change, even if you had to squint to see it.

Now, with Thundercracker remote, too busy playing Goody Straight-Struts with the policedorks, and Starscream stressed, depressed and noisier than ever? It seemed like the worst idea in the history of ideas. Their trine was in tatters.

And it's all your fault, Skywarp. Congratulations on continuing to be an award-winning screw-up. Megatron was right all along; you're only ever useful when you're just the grunt who does what he's told.

He pushed the thought down, squashed it flat as he could. It's not a screw-up unless you can't fix it, and you're gonna fix it. By Primus, if you do nothing else useful in your life, you're gonna fix this.

Pushing further from Deixar, he watched as the buildings decayed beneath him – shabby, dirty homes on quiet streets, giving way to derelict structures, slick with algae, then to broken walls and twisted structural steel, and finally to rubble, crushed fine and flat under the heels of war.

He knew he was closing on Vos, even though he barely recognised the place – a featureless, painful wasteland. Where once had stood a forest of gleaming towers, of manufactured canyons so deep their footings vanished in the shadows, now was a desert, an almost-empty plain of blackened, broken rock, impossible miles of jagged metal and rubble.

Hurting, Skywarp almost lost his nerve, almost turned back. He'd not seen the ruins of his old home in a very long time, and the memory made his new wings ache. The ghosts of long-lost friends clouded his senses with phantom noise and dust and smoke. Warnings flashed into life, in spite of the clear blue sky, triggering an involuntary response in his weaponry; he could feel the heat of warming plasma coils and jerked his hands up to cover his upper arms, alarmed, almost falling out of the air. Hey, whoa. Not now!

Last thing he needed was to be accused of making gestures of war…!

You got out, Warp, he reminded himself, focusing on bleeding the pressure out of his helm and correcting his stall. One of the few to get out with your plating more-or-less intact. To fight for the ones who were caught out, caught unawares, caught under tonnes and tonnes of rubble to despair and die slowly. Fight for flight, for freedom.

...at least, that had been the idea, huh? Until Megatron took over and it all turned into something else. And that's all over. There's no-one here to fight. Don't go cause a riot on your first visit, Primus!

Determined to clear his head, Skywarp concentrated instead on his surroundings, widening his reception to pick up more of the chatter he could sense on the airwaves – a soup of packets of data passing between individuals, identity checks, positioning requests, and a constant music of conversation, thousands of high-efficiency clicks and trills. There might be friendly rivalry between the various classes of airframes, but they never stopped talking to each other.

They noticed him the instant he passed across the official border into Vosian airspace. Conversations all swung his direction, turning hostile, suspicious – demands for identity, direction, purpose. Finally managing to get his cannons to offline, he sent out a very broad low-power reply, hoping to cover everyone's demands at once.

Suspicion turned rapidly to recognition, and finally to gleeful greetings – even a few excited comments that felt like welcome home!

These guys were more pleased to see him than his own trine. It… hurt more than he'd been expecting, actually. He tried not to think about it too hard.

It could be a solution to his problem, though, right? Maybe he could stay here, for a while.

The place didn't actually look so bad, even, now he was closing on the centre and could see better. Amidst the impossible miles of desolation, there were signs of recovery everywhere. Where the destruction had been pared back to clean bedrock, lurid yellow construction mechs swarmed, driving in new pilings and digging new foundations. Small clusters of squat towers erupted like enthusiastic clumps of weeds, bristly with scaffolding, all constructed from such a mishmash of reclaimed materials they shared no similarities with their neighbours. The skies had begun to repopulate, as well; brilliant contrails lit by strong midday sunshine wove through the air – most singly, a few in pairs.

Small wonder they'd taken to calling it New Vos. Skywarp finally found a half-smile. It lightened his spark, to see that even his brutalised home district was finally starting to pick up the pieces, and reduced the painful, regretful pressure that had built in his chassis.

He glided briefly alongside a pair of curious little fliers that had come to investigate their visitor. For Seekers, they were quite small, even smaller than Skywarp's lean, mean, lightweight refit, although their idents didn't say they were particularly young – but then if Screamer was to be believed, there were plenty of rescued, refitted pre-war machines repopulating the place, so who knew what 'young' meant, any more? Could you call yourself old if you'd spent most of your life in stasis lock, buried under miles of rubble?

He felt a request come across the air, asking -new/ident/status/confirm?- and then almost instantly a flutter of disappointment at recognising he was already trined; they must be looking for their third.

Could be waiting a while, Skywarp realised. Until they dig up someone new, I guess.

-good luck!- he pinged, anyway, with a thumbs-up; one grinned and waved back, but his partner was already soaring away.

Options, he heard a little voice say in the back of his brain, and immediately banished it, annoyed.

Don't need options, because you're gonna fix it.

He still watched the friendly pair until they had vanished into the blue.

Skywarp turned his attention to the maps he'd downloaded, telling himself he was just getting his bearings until his own were up to date, not trying to find something to do instead of pay attention to the troubling thoughts nagging at him. Acid Storm's little cluster of towers were easy to find; among the oldest of the rebuilds, they were fairly symmetrical, central, and tall, easily visible over the tops of all the others even from the distance. He homed in on them.

A tan-coloured Seeker was out working on the top platform of the tallest, fastidiously sweeping the same area over and over with an old-fashioned bristle broom. Mostly sandy-brown, with elements of turquoise and chocolate, he didn't recognise them as anyone from Acid Storm's trine – maybe it was the femme he was looking for?

He pinged the unfamiliar jet for identity – she visibly jumped upon sensing the request, and turned to look up at him-

Even at this distance, he could see her expression change from mild suspicion to alarm. The broom clattered down on the platform as the femme whirled about and disappeared through the door.

Oh. Right?

Wasn't expecting that.

Skywarp touched down, and cautiously approached the empty doorway. "Uh. Hello?" he called after her. "Didn't mean to make you jump? I just wanna talk? Uh… Are you there?"

No reply. He dithered, weight shifting from one thruster to the other, wondering if he should go ask for help from someone-

-stay where you are- Acid Storm's hostile command came out of nowhere.

-what?-

-just fragging stay put. be there shortly-

If the sharpness of the command hadn't been clue enough, actually seeing the green mech come stomping out onto the platform proved Acid Storm wasn't especially pleased to see him. He had his wings hiked and was leaning aggressively into his stride, arms stiff at his sides. Skywarp backed off, surprised by the hostility.

"Would it really have killed you to call me a tiny bit in advance, and let me know you were going to pop in?" the Rainmaker snapped, stabbing a finger at him in an aggressive point.

"What?" Skywarp found the edge of the platform under his heels and wobbled precariously for a second.

"We've only just begun to have some success in convincing her that They aren't coming back to get her, and who should turn up but one of Them! Primus!"

Managing to recover his balance without a total loss of dignity, Skywarp bristled and stepped forwards, away from the edge. "D'you wanna explain exactly what you mean by that?"

Acid Storm wasn't easily intimidated, and didn't back off. Instead, he took advantage of their sudden proximity and jabbed one finger into his visitor's dark plating. "Guess. Even you're probably smart enough to get it on your first or second try."

"If you want me to punch you in the face, just say so." Skywarp leaned into the touch, trying to force the other mech into a retreat. It was hard to ignore the way he felt like he'd just added two plus two and for once got an uncomfortable four.

They painted her up to look like you, and let her loose among the Empties in Rustig. And now here you are, the mech they were trying to get her to be. TC was probably trying to warn you, but you were too busy being hurt and torqued to listen to him.

Coulda been less slagging cryptic, though.

They matched glares, blazing optics barely a handsbreadth apart.

It was Acid Storm who finally broke the stalemate, looking away and stepping back, arms folding defensively over his chassis. "This isn't a good time, Skywarp. You're lucky she's not made a run for it already. I've got your frequency; I'll let you know when you can come back."

"I can't go anywhere yet." Skywarp could already feel Thundercracker's I-told-you-so burning into the back of his helm. "I need to talk to her."

"…need. Right."

"Yeah, need." The teleport rubbed the back of his neck, then spread his hands, palms outwards. "She's the only one who might know anything about what happened to me." He huffed a frustrated noise. "Primus! Everyone else thinks I hallucinated it!"

Acid Storm remained quiet for a moment, lips pursed, then looked from his visitor's face back to the doorway. Skywarp followed his gaze, and easily spotted the intense blue optics watching from the shadowy opening; they ducked hastily back out of sight.

"I have no idea why I'm pandering to you, but fine. I'll see what she says." The green mech vented a frustrated sigh and unfolded his arms. "But there's no guarantees – if she says no, and she probably will, I'm not forcing her. And you need to stay here. Understood?"

Skywarp gave a reluctant nod, but obediently stood and watched as Acid Storm approached the empty doorway. He fidgeted on his little spot on the platform, shifting from one thruster to the other, struggling to restrain the urge to follow and just… shake the information out of them.

"Hey, Oops?" the Rainmaker coaxed, softly. "You still there, spark?"

"Is he going away now? Are you making him go? He needs to go." The femme made no effort to hide the static in her high, sharp voice. Her words ran together in a frightened, barely-coherent mess. "He's here to take me away, you know that, don't you? He's with them, they made him wear those colours like they made me wear them but I know it's just another trick, and I'm not going! You have to make him go away. They can't have me. They can't-!"

"Hey, hey. It's all right. Nobody's taking you anywhere. He wants to talk to you, that's all."

Her train of thought derailed only briefly. "Talk to me? Talk about what? It's a trick. You know that!" A pause and a subtle change in the sound of her fans. "Have they already got to you? You-you said you were going to protect me-"

"Nobody's got to-"

"I-I can't hear their instructions. If they're here I should be able to hear them and-and I can't." Her voice skated off up the octave, thin and alarmed. "They got better at hiding it. Hiding from me- I can't stay here-"

Skywarp caught the familiar rattle of Seeker heels as the femme made a break for it, and Acid Storm disappeared briefly through the doorway, chasing her. "Whoa, wait, wait! Please. I promise, it's not a trick. This is the real thing; the one they were trying to get you to pretend to be. Maybe you'll figure out why they wanted you to do it, right? Just take a little look for yourself. I'll stay right here if you want the backup."

Skywarp felt Acid Storm's hostile demand for him to lower his security sting across his firewalls, and reluctantly it dialled down. An instant later and another request came over – subtle, privacy locked, but with the same element of babble he'd overheard a few moments earlier, a hundred questions that all overlaid each other and became almost indecipherable in the process.

The teleport replied to as much as he was actually able, then stood and waited.

The doorway remained empty. Kinda wasn't looking all that optimistic.

"All right?" Acid Storm prompted, quietly, still hidden in the gloom.

"…you promise I don't have to go with him?"

"Nope. That's why he came here. He knew I wouldn't let him take you anywhere."

"And you'll stay, if-if I talk to him?"

"Of course."

Another long pause. "I need my scanner?"

"That's fine. I'll make sure he stays here while you fetch it. All right?"

When at last a Seeker emerged from the doorway, it was Acid Storm, on his own. He bobbed his wings in a one-shouldered shrug, then spread his hands and smiled in a way that didn't feel very apologetic. "…guess we'll just have to wait and see if she actually comes back."

Skywarp just glared at him, silently. It didn't feel particularly funny.

Acid Storm wisely changed the subject. "So, mech. We've all heard the scuttlebutt, but I need to know. What really happened?"

Skywarp vented a long, frustrated sigh. "I don't know what you heard, but it's probably close to the mark. About twenty orns ago, we'd gone to Deixar Rift 'cause Screamer was lurking out there, avoiding us. Still depressed about ditching the 'Cons or something, I don't know. Anyway. I teleported, fell in the garbage, went to hospital, and TC hit me with a bombshell. Actually, you were frozen in limbo for thirty seven vorns. Your little sparks are both in adult frames, and the war's over. Welcome back. Now go sit over there and behave yourself."

The green mech gave him a long, silent stare, processing his words. "Right. And… where were you?"

"I don't know! That's kinda the point! I teleported out of a hole in the ground and fell in the garbage. It took a few astro-seconds. I only found out how long I'd been gone when TC told me." Skywarp threw his arms wide, frustrated. "How many times am I gonna have to go through this?"

"Trust me, Upswing will ask you the exact same questions. If there's even the smallest chance you'd been-"

"-kidnapped by gremlins?" Skywarp interrupted, and curled his lip. "Almost wish I had been. Easier than being in limbo for half my damn life. Or trying to explain it to guys who won't believe me when I tell 'em." He paced out small agitated circles. "I need more data, Storm. I need to get my bros interested, or I'm never gonna get home. Screamer thinks those critters are just the product of overheating relays, but I know they're at the root of all this. I know they existed!"

"Which is why you want to talk to Oops, because she might have seen them too." Acid Storm muttered something soft and incomprehensible, and covered his face briefly with one hand. "All right, just-… look." He took a step closer and lowered his voice. "Whatever rumours you've heard, forget 'em. She's not crazy, and she's not stupid. She's just not quite functioning right. She's obsessed that 'they' know she failed the task they set her, and some day they're gonna come back and get her." He waved a threatening finger. "So you better damn well not stir her delusions up worse than they already are, or you get to explain to her doctor why we set her recovery back twenty vorns."

"Yeah, all right. I get enough friggin' attitude at home." Skywarp batted the finger away, wings bristling. "You're not exactly helping a whole lot, here. I came here to get information, not more grief."

"Well what do you want me to say? Your disappearance turned you into an urban legend, mech. Everybody had a theory about what happened." Acid Storm gave the teleport a probing glance. "I'd always wondered if it was Megatron behind it all."

For a second or two, Skywarp just stared. "…the Pit would he have had to do with it?"

"Granted I hadn't thought it through that hard, but it's no worse than any of the other stupid theories floating around. I figured maybe it was to convince your wingmates to go back to him. You need me, you can't cope without me, you can't even keep track of who's in your trine..."

"Old Buckethead's never been that subtle, or patient." Skywarp curled his lip. "Besides, it wasn't precisely an amicable breakup; the only reason he didn't immediately shoot us was 'cause he was trying to get Screamer back on board. I doubt he'd want us back now, unless it was to say I told you so before he dropped all three of us into the closest smelter."

" 'Buckethead'?" Acid Storm echoed, with a badly disguised smirk. "Nice to see you still respect the leader you served so faithfully down the millennia."

"Respect? Right, 'cause you're just dripping with it. You couldn't ditch them fast enough either."

Acid Storm huh-ed ambiguously and looked away. "That was different."

"Right."

"Guess I'd been looking for an excuse to get out for a long time." The green mech folded his arms, and glared unenthusiastically at his thrusters. "Keeping us grounded because he was scared we'd revolt was the last straw."

Skywarp arched a brow and waited for him to elaborate, but the Rainmaker evidently wasn't in the elaborating mood. Internalising a sigh, he added it to his list of things to nag TC for not telling him about.

After a few awkward moments silence, the sound of footsteps attracted their attention, and they turned as one to watch Upswing finally re-emerge from the doorway.

"Stand still," she instructed, still simmering with stressed electricity but doing valiantly to hide it. She managed a big orbit around Skywarp with a quietly bleeping scanner before he gathered his wits enough to challenge her.

"Whoa, hey, what are you playing at-?" Startled, he turned full circle on the spot in his attempt to keep his attention on her, and almost fell over his own thrusters.

She actually bared her denta at him, frustrated. "I can't check you if you won't stand still."

"Check what-?"

Her wings flicked higher on her back. "Why don't you want me to check you." Her voice had grown sharp, alarmed; her questions came out as accusations. "What are you hiding."

"…hey, you're the one coming at me with that thing-!"

-Either you let her scan you, or she won't talk to you,- Acid Storm instructed.

-That a threat?- Skywarp challenged, but got only a little shrug in reply. He got the distinct impression the mech was laughing at him, behind the carefully-emotionless expression. Somehow, in spite of having Primus-only-knew-what-that-scanner-thing-actually-was pointed at his wings, he regained control of his thrusters.

After a few more orbits that made Skywarp increasingly twitchy, Upswing finally seemed satisfied, albeit in an uneasy, fidgety sort of way. She stopped her circling, and snapped the scanner closed, lips pulled together in a wary pout.

"All done, Oops?" Acid Storm coaxed. "I told you he was all right, eh?"

She clutched the scanned to her chassis, as though it were a shield. "What if he's just better at hiding it?" Her optics flickered to the Rainmaker, checking for any hint of duplicity.

He gestured lightly with an open palm. "What does your scanner say?"

She glanced at it, briefly. "…it's green," she confirmed, reluctantly.

"Do you trust it?"

Her lips moved, but the only reply was the stuttery sound of her fans.

"He just wants to talk to you – right, Warp?"

Skywarp nodded. "Right."

For several long seconds, she just looked at him. "I'm not going anywhere."

"No problem."

She dithered, shifting from one thruster to the other and rechecking the scanner readout. "All right," she finally agreed, rocking forwards on stiff legs and trying to look as large as possible. "All right, I'll talk to you. But only so you go away and never come back! A-and you tell them I'm not going to play their games any more! Not even if they try to reprogram me again."

Skywarp pinched the bridge of his nose. "Sure. If I can figure out what they are, who they are, and where they are? I'll tell them."

She gave him a strange look. He wasn't sure if it meant she was satisfied, or trusted him less.

"Why do you think I came all the way out here on my own to talk to you?" He let his arms dangle. "The way I figure it? They only painted you up to look like me in the first place because they botched their plan and needed a stand in. They were trying to abduct me, but broke my teleport instead."

She shuffled on the spot. "So why do you need me?"

"Because I don't know who they were! I need to be able to find them, so I can get some answers! You're the only one who actually knows anything about them, and it wasn't even you they really wanted." He held out his hand. "Please. Help me? My wingmates think I hallucinated it all, and I can't fix it on my own."

She looked at his outstretched hand, then back at Acid Storm. The Rainmaker wore an inscrutable half-smile, remaining silent – no help coming from that quarter.

"If I can fix all this, somehow? Put time back to how it's meant to be? Then they'll never need to take you away," Skywarp went on. "Because we'll stop them before they do anything."

She stared at his hand for several more long seconds before finally slotting her trembling fingers into his grip. "All right. I'll try and help you." She refused to look up to meet his gaze. "But I'm still not going anywhere. Here is safe. I'll know if they're coming for us. I know which way to go to escape."

They settled on the edge of the platform together, overlooking the vast building site to the east. Upswing edged just far enough away from him that their wings had a good hands-breadth of air between them, but otherwise seemed settled. "So what did you want to know?"

"Honestly? As much as you can tell me – everything you can remember." Skywarp vented a long, frustrated sigh. "I've run out of brain to do anything else with what I've found so far. I don't even know for sure it wasn't some dumb Autobot trick."

The wary blue stare levelled back at him. "Are you sure you saw them too?"

"Not very well. It was dark, and I was stuck underground."

She still looked suspicious, but the idea of being trapped in a hole in the dirt seemed to temper it a little. "You're trying to trick me," she asserted, concentrating on his expression.

"What good would that do? You don't trust me anyway." Skywarp snorted, softly. "I know they were little, with shiny optics that reflected the light. Everything else just… blended in with the shadows."

"Well. They weren't anything-bots. They were, were... hard bodied, but warm. Small." She held up her hands, palms almost touching, as an illustration. "Covered in soft fibres that all stuck up from them. They broke apart and leaked fluid and offlined if I stepped on them."

Fluff. He felt his wings perk, a little. "We found some fibres down in the Rift." Skywarp finally remembered to dig his board out of his subspace, and flicked his way through his notes, looking for a picture. "Is this what you meant?"

Upswing studied the image for a few seconds. "It's the right colour," she accepted, warily. "But it wasn't in a lump like that." She automatically reached for the board, then checked herself and snatched her hand back, as though startled by her own forwardness.

"Nah, help yourself." Skywarp held it out to her. "Please."

After another second of hesitation, she took it, and opened a fresh pane. She began to draw, with quick, precise little movements, and slowly a creature began to emerge from the muddle of lines – four walking limbs and a bulbous abdomen, four arms attached to an upright torso, a small head with triangular ears but way too many optics.

Skywarp curled his lip in distaste and had to resist the urge to look away. Small wonder the femme was scared of the critters; they looked like some ungodly huge spider. His personal absolute worst nightmare. "So, uh. What did they want you to do?"

Upswing spared him the briefest of glances. "I'm not sure. Their commands weren't in a language I understood, and their programming was terrible. It mostly made me fall over." Finally satisfied with her work, she offered him the pad back. "I think they wanted pictures from me. Pictures of people, and places, around Deixar. They gave me a camera, in my head." She tapped her temple, briefly meeting his gaze. "I think they wanted pictures of your trine, but I don't know why, really."

Between them, they managed to fill another half-dozen panes on the board before finally running out of data. While they talked, Acid Storm had politely hung back, waiting for the discussion to slow, and approached as soon as they seemed to be getting quiet.

"Here you are, Oops." The Rainmaker slotted himself between them, with a small cube of energon in his hands. "Got you some lunch." He took a sip from it himself, with her watching intently, then held the fuel out in her direction.

Upswing accepted the cube and took her own cautious mouthful, then nodded to herself, satisfied it was just energon. "Thank you."

He gave her a nudge. "I told you he was all right, eh, didn't I?"

Her optics brightened, embarrassed just a touch, and she took refuge in the glowing pink fuel. "I know." Muffled words emerged around the rim of the container. "I do trust you, I just- I need to be sure. Especially when they might be involved. The day I stop checking is the day they'll take advantage of it. They're still watching me, you know. They're always watching me. One day they'll come back, and try again." She looked past Acid Storm and gave Skywarp a small, shy smile of mixed sympathy and pity. "I know you think it was you they came for, but it wasn't. It's bigger than either of us. Whatever they came to do, whatever they needed us for? They haven't done it yet. I know they'll come back."

Skywarp grinned back at her. "Then ain't it a good job we're both onto them, now? The more of us are watching, the more likely we'll catch them before they do it."

Her optics brightened and she hmm!-ed in a sort of vaguely doubtful way, before returning her attention to the safety of her cube.

"Get what you were after, Warp?" Acid Storm prompted.

Skywarp thought about it for a few moments. "You know what? Yeah, I think I did." He met Upswing's gaze for a moment. "Thanks."

Unexpectedly, the femme reached forwards and seized his hand, in a grip that was surprisingly firm. "Whatever you do now, don't let your guard down," she said, staring him earnestly in the optic. "They're always watching. They probably already knew you were back, but since you've come to visit me, they definitely do. They're here, somewhere, waiting for their chance to try again, and they'll take advantage the instant you stop paying attention."

Skywarp just stared at her for a few seconds, mouth open. "Uh… right?"

Satisfied, Upswing set the remains of her cube down on the platform, and pushed herself lightly off the edge; she only fell for a second or two before the wind caught her wings and she swooped gracefully skywards, towards the other small group of air-frames in the middle distance.

"Guess that's her way of saying she's done talking to me," Skywarp acknowledged, watching her depart. "Flies nice, for someone who spent most of her life buried in rubble."

Acid Storm gave him a friendly elbow. "Watch it. Anyone would think you're getting tired of your dirtbike."

Skywarp glared back, defensively, but without much heat. "Hey; I never said she turned my thrusters, just that she looks good. S'nice to see someone new. I've had to put up with you guys for far too many vorns already."

Acid Storm gave him a smile that said he didn't believe him, but wasn't going to push it. "She won't go very far. Never does. She's always in sight of the tower. Just like she won't ever get her own energon, either. She needs proof it's clean before she'll intake it." He sighed, sadly. "I've been trying to encourage her to trine. Thought it might help her heal, but… She's never shown much interest in anyone, really. I guess she spent too long under the dirt, listening as her wingmates' signals went off the air."

Skywarp grimaced and looked away. He didn't like to dwell too hard on the idea – he'd not even tolerated a couple of breems underground before freaking out, he'd have probably melted his master fuseboard in pretty short order if he'd been stuck down there much longer. Having to then listen to his wingmates dying, on top of all that?

Acid Storm sensed his discomfort and bumped wings. "She was in stasis for most of it, if it helps."

"Not really." Skywarp tried for a smile, but got the impression it came out more like bared-teeth. "But thanks for trying." He vented a sigh and kicked his heels. "You're not doing a bad job, out here. Still looks slagged, but… less than it did, I guess."

"It's getting there, huh?" Acid Storm agreed, modestly, staring out over his building site. "Been one living Pit to get it to this point, though." His voice descended to a frustrated growl. "Pretty sure grounders think you can build an army out of windows and flexi-seal. Most of them won't sell us anything. I'm spending vorns just trying to get shipments of slagging concrete authorised."

"…Thundercracker helping you?"

"Of course he's helping; it's the only way they'll even listen to us. I figure they see him as the lesser evil? Seeing as he deals with Waveguide and hasn't shot him even once yet, so maybe they can trust him a tiny bit." The green jet made a disgruntled noise. "Wish he'd teach me how he does it. They tell me I'm a good speaker, but why bother when no-one listens to you in the first place?"

Skywarp watched him for a second, quietly. "Well, you got Upswing to talk to me. I figure that counts, right?"

"I guess."

"Listen, uh." Skywarp studied his thrusters, rehearsing what he wanted to say. "I'm kinda stuck for slag to do, and the guys don't want me around. Would you, uh. You know. Have room for me if I wanted to come work out here with you?"

Acid Storm just looked him in the optic, for a few seconds, as if trying to gauge whether it was a wind-up. "Sure we would. There's lots of space and not many of us to fill it, right now, and we can always find jobs for interested parties." Then he smiled, sadly. "I think you ought to talk to your wingmates about it first, though. Make sure you're doing it for the right reasons."

"Shoulda put money on betting you'd say that. Why does everyone just wanna talk about slag." Skywarp huffed a sigh and hunched his wings before pushing himself back to his thrusters. "Figure I should go, before I outstay my welcome."

"Hey. That wasn't what I meant." Acid Storm rested a hand on his wing. "Just don't be too quick to assume no-one wants you any more."

Skywarp just made a dismissive noise and folded his arms.

Acid Storm brushed his fingers down the back of Skywarp's wing, thoughtfully. "I heard you punched the boat, but that was a proper brawl, huh?"

Skywarp craned his neck in an effort to see what the other Seeker was pointing at. "Pff. Most of it's from TC's secretary. I mean Pit, she's heavy."

"Want to hit our washracks?"

Skywarp's lip-curled expression said all that was needed. "Thanks, but nah. I'm clean enough."

"Some things never change, huh. You always were a walking dustcloud." Acid Storm struggled to hide his grin. "Before you go; I'd been meaning to ask. Sunrunner and Blindside haven't turned up in your patch, have they?"

Skywarp hesitated at the edge of the platform. "Who?"

"I guess not, then." Acid Storm pursed his lips, disappointed. "Two Seekers who used to live in one of the shared towers just west of here. They vanished off the registry a while ago. They were looking for their third. I figure maybe they've decided to look a bit further afield. Keep an antenna up for 'em, would you? Let me know if they show up? Just so I can be sure I'm worrying over nothing."

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Skywarp was already camped out in an armchair under the house-tree, when Pulsar finally arrived home, dragging feet that felt heavier than normal over the threshold. She was pleasantly surprised (and a little relieved) to see him – the entire station had heard the aftermath of the argument and most of her fellow gossips had solemnly put bets on the teleport not coming back for at least a few orns, if he came back at all. (She was quite proud of herself for not punching any of the useless fraggers.)

She knew she was dusty, and dirty, and probably smelt funny, into the bargain. Her original plan had been to hit the washracks and get a well-deserved wash and polish, but right now those big, beautiful wings looked a whole lot more inviting. She figured he probably wouldn't object too much if a small dusty bot sat with him for a while?

She ambled over, and wiggled her fingers in greeting. "Hey."

He didn't specifically say hello, but he did grunt an acknowledgement and lifted his arm out of the way, and she took it as an invitation to sit down.

Purring, she plopped down next to him and tucked up against his wings.

He remained unexpectedly stiff, with an unfamiliar sort of prickliness to his field, which made her sit forwards and look more seriously at him, her purr cutting off with an odd sort of hiccup. "Warp? You all right?"

"What do you think?" He glared dedicatedly at his pad. "Telling me you're the only one in work that missed hearing me shriek like a sparkling at TC before storming off to Vos, earlier?"

She glanced away, feeling stupid. "…right. No. I mean, yes, I heard. Sorry."

His lips curved into a confused grin that made his nose wrinkle, and he finally looked down at her. "What is it with you bikes always apologising for slag you weren't responsible for?"

"Sorr-… I mean, yeah. Bad habit." She brushed her fingers up her antennae, feeling self-conscious… and something still felt a tiny bit off about his manner. "…was that all that upset you?"

He stared at his board for a few quiet seconds. "Vos still mostly looks slagged. Guess I wasn't expecting it to still look so… flat?" He vented a little huff of stale air and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Should have expected it. I guess part of me was hoping it'd have fixed itself." He laughed, sourly. "Everything else seems to have got better since I fell off the planet, it's kinda unfair that Vos didn't as well."

Silently, Pulsar leaned into him, pressing her cheek against his chassis.

He finally found a small, genuine smile and let his chin rest on the top of her smooth helm. "I was thinking it might be a good idea for me to go out there and try help, but, you know." He sighed. "I'm not sure what I'd be able to do. I was always better at breaking things."

Pulsar remained quiet, for a few moments, then rustled about and produced a familiar clear plastic box from her subspace, which she held out to him; one small lilac candy remained in the bottom.

Skywarp snorted a laugh. "You're not actually eating those, are you?" He peered into the polymer container. "Some creepy stalker put them on your desk without even putting a note on the box, and you're eating them? How do you know they're not poisoned, or something?"

"That's why I offered them to everyone in the office. Including TC. Just in case." She gave it a little rattle. "I may have saved it specially for the stalker, but since I don't know who he was, I guess you'll have to do."

He pursed his lips in a badly-disguised attempt to mask a smirk. "...But I can't-... all right, if you insist." He plucked the candy out of the box. "But if they're poisoned and I fall over, I'm gonna kick your aft."

"I would expect nothing less." She felt his free arm drift around her shoulders in a familiar, artfully casual way, and made a conscious effort to keep her field smooth and supportive. His fingertips delicately mapped the line of a familiar old fracture, making her shiver.

By the time Thundercracker returned, Pulsar had gone dormant in her usual corner under the teleport's arm, snuggled as well into his flank as she could manage, fans purring very very subtly. Skywarp was studying his data-board again, worrying the well-chewed end of a stylus between his denta.

The blue mech looked a little caught off-guard by seeing his wingmate. "Starscream's not gonna be happy you're chewing on his pen."

"Pff." Skywarp waved it off. "Shouldn't have left it lying around."

Thundercracker opened his mouth to say something – probably along the lines of I'm not sure it counts as 'lying around' if it was lying around in his lab – then thought better of it and continued on his way through the building.

Skywarp kept a sensor on him until the blue Seeker disappeared from the periphery of his electric field. So much for 'talk to your wingmates'. He felt somewhat deflated. No 'hello', no 'how are you'. Just a scolding for chewing Screamer's pen.

It took Thundercracker a breem or two to finally return to the atrium, and when he did, he again brought with him something other than a hello. "Here. Thought you might like this."

Skywarp turned his head to find a hand holding out a chilly flask of suspiciously brightly-coloured energon. "High grade?" All his carefully-brooded-upon reproaches promptly dissolved.

"Peace offering," Thundercracker explained, with a small smile. "Sorry I made you angry, earlier. Guess I haven't been thinking so straight, the last few dozen orns. Whatever you decide you want to do, I'll try help you achieve it."

Skywarp's lips twitched, as though he wasn't sure if he should smile, or continue with the sulky scowl. "Thanks," he said, at last, accepting the offering. "Hi, by the way?"

"Hello to you both, too." Thundercracker settled on the floor, relaxing back against his wingmate's legs, and vented a long sigh of hot air; his broad wings sagged tiredly at his sides. "Primus. Good to be home. Good to see you home. Been a long orn."

"Hn." Skywarp sat and stared quietly at his friend's dark helm for several long seconds before speaking. "Listen, I've been thinking. If it's easier for you guys, I can just… go away again. Like back to Vos or something. Figure I could give Acid Trip a hand, maybe. He says he's got the room, out there. I think I could cope with carrying stuff around a building site. Keep me occupied until Screamer's figured out how to send me home."

Thundercracker turned to look up at him, pale features creased in puzzlement. For a few seconds, he just stared, then managed to get his vocaliser working. "…what?"

"I know it was easier for you when I was dead, so I thought… you know. Maybe it'd be less difficult for all of us if I went away again for a while."

"Is-… is that what you think…? That we preferred you being dead?"

"Come on, TC. I know I'm not the smartest, but you guys aren't making yourselves that hard to read." Skywarp forced a smile. "I don't precisely feel welcome around here, right now. Seem's worked a huge burr into his armour and thinks more highly of sludge in the gutter. Lucy's outright avoiding me. You two have found new little sub-trines and new responsibility and new social circles, and I'm stuck out here on my own, wondering if it's not better that I just go find another rock to hide under."

Thundercracker just stared at him for a few seconds longer. "That wasn't-… I'm sorry." He wiped his face with one hand. "We spent so long wondering what we'd do when you came back, we lost sight of the fact that maybe one day you would. It turned into just some, some… self-indulgent daydream. Actually having you back – if-if it really is you…" He dropped his attention back into his flask, to avoid his wingmate's stare. "It's never got easier, since losing you. Trying to move on. Neither of us really knew what to do, honestly. Not after we'd spent almost the entire first vorn searching and hadn't found anything, and couldn't figure out how to justify continuing to look when everyone else could see we weren't going to find anything-" His voice fractured and he covered it up with a little cough of his fans.

Skywarp kept his vocaliser offline, scared he'd put his big thruster square in his mouth and make Thundercracker clam back up.

For his part, Thundercracker didn't seem inclined to stop talking, now he'd apparently found his confidence. "We dealt with losing you in the traditional, healthy Decepticon way of bottling it all up inside and pretending we could cope. Pretending it wasn't a big deal when everyone knew it was. Show no weakness. It got to the point we actively fought about it." He squeezed out a humourless laugh. "Primus, did we ever fight about it. Star got very generous with his null-rays, for a while. I think it was his way of telling me to leave him alone? Like you, we thought about going back to Vos… We even contemplated going our own ways. Finally dissolving what was left of the old bond and finding somewhere new. It just." He waved his hands, trying to waft the words he wanted out of the ether. "It all felt too final. While we didn't know, and hadn't… found… I mean, we both knew there was always still a chance. Vanishingly small but… well, here you are, right?" He forced a laugh.

Skywarp digested the words, quietly. They'd waited almost forty vorns for him, and he was already threatening to go away again. He felt kinda small, actually. "So, uh. What stopped you?"

Thundercracker offered a small smile. "Partly? Knowing Screamer would struggle to find anyone else as good as us at knowing how to handle him. Even though he's more into politics, these days, he still works part time for scientific services, and they're getting through technicians so fast, the recruiting officer is on the point of tearing his own antennae out."

Skywarp scrambled carefully over the mostly-dormant bike under his arm and settled instead on the floor next to Thundercracker. "And the other part?"

"The guys here. They welcomed us with arms open wider than we ever deserved, and all that followed us was chaos. Wasn't fair to just dump them and expect them to deal with it, right?" Thundercracker cast a meaningful glance behind him; a very dim blue glow proved Skywarp wasn't his only audience. "There really wasn't a whole lot of fight left in us until the triplechangers attacked, and we realised that we had to find a way to move on, for everyone's sake. When you don't have a lot of friends, you want to protect the ones you do have."

A little hand appeared from behind, fingers closing lightly on his wing.

"We were just getting used to the idea you were never coming back, it damn nearly killed us when your first facsimile showed up. You might have genuinely only vanished once, but we had to go through losing you three times." Thundercracker coughed and rebooted his vocaliser. "I'm not sure I could survive a fourth."

Skywarp could see him trembling. He put out a hand and squeezed his brother's fingers.

Thundercracker turned his palm upwards and echoed the gesture, almost tightly enough to crease his plating. "I should probably have just admitted this from the outset, but. Well." He drew a long, stabilising draught of cold air through his core, and glanced sidelong at his wingmate. "Sometimes my psyche likes to prove there's still a big chunk of Decepticon programming left in me. It's-… hard to admit to being scared. And I am, Warp. Really, genuinely terrified. Of all this. Of what it means. Of the chance this is all just another game, another set-up, planned by Primus only knows what, and the second I hold out my hand and try to reaffirm our trine connection that it's all gonna just… fall apart on us again." He offlined his optics and let his head rest back against the chair, bracing his free hand against his brows. "I don't want to be fooled again, Warp. I can't be. If this all falls apart and you turn into another puppet sent to get close to us, for Primus only knows why-" He swallowed the rest of the words and shook his head.

"I'm gonna get to the bottom of this, TC," Skywarp promised leaning into him. "I'm gonna prove I'm me, and we'll… I guess figure something out. But I swear, if I do nothing else, I'm gonna get to the bottom of who's so slaggin' determined to hurt us, and Pit, the fraggers are going to pay for it."

When the third of their trine finally returned home, silence had descended, and everywhere was dark. Skywarp had left Pulsar curled up in the armchair, and had gone dormant sitting on the floor with Thundercracker, their wings touching. Thundercracker's dark fingers were mantled protectively and slightly possessively over his brother's.

Starscream stood in the doorway and just watched, for a few moments, energon in hand, wondering what they'd been talking about. He imagined it'd probably been the sort of deep, emotive conversation he was best keeping out of.

With quiet, practiced steps, he rounded the back of the chair, and lowered his mass to the floor on Skywarp's free side. "Why do you always end up sitting on the floor when we have a perfectly good couch?" he griped, quietly, but without heat, wriggling carefully up on Skywarp's left, sliding his wing in between the teleport and the chair. "You better be you, Skywarp."

But there was something familiar and comfortable about the way their fields harmonised, and he didn't need much incentive to let his guard relax, and was soon dozing with the rest of them.