Warning for this chapter: none.

In this chapter: a loooong but necessary talk, Skywarp being silly, Starscream going out of his way to be as ooc as possible, and a very perturbed TC.

Chapter 5: Knowledge

"A real trine?" Thundercracker repeated, his brows lowering into a confused frown.

They were still hoovering in root mode, two-or-so miles over the ocean's surface, and slowly moving toward a destination only Starscream knew about.

"Yes." Starscream nodded with that same, strange and unnerving smile on his lips, the novelty of which unsettled the blue seeker."You know what it means, right?" But it didn't sound like a question, more like a statement. As if the blue seeker was clearly supposed to know what his wing-leader was talking about.

Unfortunately, that was not the case. Thundercracker had but a slightest idea of what a 'real trine' was. He had a rough knowledge of the concept, but didn't know more than its existence. All he had ever known, was that his creators had been one of these 'real trines' and, just like they were, the concept was a thing of the past. The lack of information Thundercracker processed on the topic made him ill-at-ease in front of his wing-leader.

Dealing with Starscream had never been something he was fond of; the Air commander had never relinquished a victory in their past disagreements. He was always the smartest, the most determinate to win the battle of argument. And whenever it came to a point he no longer had words to fight with, his claws were still fiercer than Thundercracker's own.

And right now, the blue seeker knew he was even more at a disadvantage: Starscream had a far better knowledge of the subject at hand than Thundercracker himself did. It wasn't good at all.

Whenever a fight wasn't about physical force, it was always the level of knowledge of its participants that dictated the issue of the argument. It hadn't started yet, and Thundercracker was the loser of this fight already.

He chose to keep his attitude defensive, even if the situation didn't call for a fight. Not yet, at least, but being safe was always better than being sorry.

Wanting to keep his obvious lack of knowledge hidden from his potential adversary, Thundercracker refrained from giving the Air commander a spoken reply. He only nodded briefly, hoping this would satisfy Starscream.

"TC?" Starscream tilted his head on the side. Of course, he wasn't satisfied by the simple gesture." You know what a real trine is, right?" He repeated his question, now with a hint of suspicion in his voice.

"Of course, I know." Thundercracker huffed, looking away from his commander. "I was sparked by one."

"You never told me about your creators" Starscream stated, his smile turning curious. " Who were they?"

"You never showed the slightest interest in me or my past before today." Thundercracker looked back at him, keeping his expression cold as his optics dimmed in annoyance. At the aggressive-passive words of his wing mate, Starscream's smile flattened a little.

This was better, Thundercracker though. He now felt like the proverbial ball was in on his side of the field again. "Why should I disclose such information to you now?"

Starscream hoovered a bit closer to him and placed a hand on his shoulder, a bit too low for the blue seeker's liking. "Because, I didn't know we were a real trine before."

"That's because we never were one!" Thundercracker shrugged the unwanted hand away. "And you know it as well as I do: we were placed in a trine back at the war academy, because we were the only un-trined seekers left! We are, have always been and will ever be, a fake-forced-trine!"

Starscream watched his face closely. His smile was now gone, replaced by a blank look of calculating seriousness. At some point, he seemed to falter. He sighed and turned his gaze elsewhere. Thundercracker realized he was about to be further prompted or even lectured and didn't want to hear it. He felt like knocking Starscream out here and there, then escape all this.

But what Starscream said, then, made him temporarily forget his desire of desertion.

"You have lost your creators at a young age, didn't you?" This, again, was less a question than a plain statement. This time, though, at the mention of creators he never had the chance to know, Thundercracker did falter. His cold expression turned pained for a nano-klik, but he quickly recomposed himself.

"Why would you care?" He snorted, his expression hardening to marble coldness. "You probably didn't even know them"

"They had an accident." The Air commander voiced carefully, deducing what he thought was the most probable truth. "They died and you were raised by people who weren't seekers...One of your creators' friend, perhaps?"

Cosmotrailer. Thundercracker was shocked by his wing leader perspicacity, and the name of his old caretaker and mentor came to mind automatically, his face displaying fondness despite himself as memories flooded his processor. Cosmotrailer had been his Sire-creator's friend and colleague at Vos' medcenter. After his creators died in the fire that ravaged the facility, the old shuttlemech had taken the still too young Thundercracker in. Cosmotrailer wasn't a seeker, but he still took care of him like he would have had, if blue seeker had been his own creation.

He was about to tell all this to Starscream, but caught himself before even one word could escape his vocalizer. Resolutely stubborn, he shut his mouth tight.

Why should he give that away? Starscream had no right to know such an intimate element of his life. His memories was all he had left of his creators and old mentor, he didn't want to share them, they belonged only to him.

"Why should I tell you ?" He frowned, his optics sharp and his wings rising high in defiance. " You have no right to know about my past! We're not family, we're not even friends!" He retorted angrily, not liking how easily the Air commander had almost taken control of the conversation.

"Alright." Starscream said softly. "I won't ask you again. You'll tell me later, when and if you feel like it."

"I won't tell you slag, Starscream! Why would I ever want to?" Thundercracker imposed himself in Starscream's personal space, puffing his chest and spreading his wings wide and high in a threatening display.

Starscream immediately responded in kind. His wings perked up, spreading outward against his back as he bared his fangs. His chest vents reeved noisily and his bulk suddenly seemed to expand. He made up for quite intimidating a vision like this. Although Thundercracker was naturally slightly taller and thicker than his Air commander was, his own display wasn't quite as impressive.

It lacked the strong aura of authority and charisma only Starscream possessed.

Driven by eons-old genetic codes and instinctive reactions, Thundercracker stepped back and lowered his wings, subconsciously and physically recognizing the other's superiority. He did so without even thinking. Of course he didn't want to admit this defeat, even if he had already surrendered.

These codes, he thought, were exactly what he didn't need in his life.

"Thundercracker, answer me frankly now." Starscream demanded, aware that he would get his wing mate's confession now . " Do you know what a real trine is?"

"No" The blue seeker rasped, as if the mere admission physically hurt him.

"Let's wait for Skywarp!" Starscream patted his shoulder in a non-condescending gesture. " We'll explain you what it is all about." He saw- and felt- the blue seeker's reluctance to go through this, so, and before his wing mate could complain, he added:

"Even if you don't want to acknowledge or respond to the 'pull' yet, you still are a seeker. You will have reactions and needs, and you won't understand them if you are not properly educated in the particularity of your frame-type coding and biology."

Sweet, heed the sound of an impending science-talk coming! Thundercracker thought for himself sarcastically. The desire to fly away was strong in his spark. But curiosity overwhelmed it. Starscream had mentioned something about a 'pull'. He had no idea what it was but it worried him already. Cosmotrailer hadn't known a thing about seekers, and so, hadn't been able to instruct Thundercracker in the History and particularities of his frame-kin.

He didn't want to die ignorant.

Also, a little mischievous voice in his head reminded him that he was very curious about Starscream and Skywarp's strange ( and uncalled for) relationship. Despite being aware that it was not his business, he still wanted an explanationon the 'how' and the 'why' of their little affair.

This would probably be his only chance to have it.

ooo

When Skywarp finally rejoined them, he looked quite sheepish and smelled of high-grade.

"I'm sorry...Megatron wanted to dance." He explained, as if that were a good excuse to explain his delay.

"And I missed this!" Starscream groaned, looking genuinely disappointed.

"Don't fret!" Skywarp chuckled. "I saved a video file, just for your pretty optics!"

Starscream beamed at that, and the sight of him doing so shocked the blue seeker. His wing leader never beamed like, except on the few-and far between-occurrences in which he got to replace Megatron as a leader. ( the beaming increased exponentially with the warlord's degree of incapacitation)

Thundercracker felt terribly awkward at the other two's behavior, and for more than a reason too. First, Skywarp's 'attack' on his person was still fresh in his mind and he didn't want the purple seeker too close to him right now. Secondly, and that was the main cause of his discomfort, it was the first time he got to see his wing-mates acting like this with each other.

A few meta-cycles ago only, it had been about 'a stupid processor-deprived prankster' and an 'insufferable pain-in-the-aft Air-commander', respectively Starscream and Skywarp's depictions of each other. And it had never been about pretty optics, caring attentions and loving- beaming! - smiles. The contrast was too stark and too sudden for Thundercracker to just accept as normal.

"Hey TC!" Skywarp greeted him, his expression remorseful. "Sorry about earlier...I couldn't resist."

"I'd rather we don't talk about this." The blue seeker retorted, his tone flat but not hard. He really was uncomfortable with that particular topic.

"Okay...Sorry still." Skywarp said.

"Forgiven." Thundercracker conceded. " Can we go back to the topic at hand?" He said, turning toward Starscream.

"Certainly..." Starscream replied. "But let's get comfortable first! I'm leading you to a dry creek where we'll be able to sit down and talk without burning more fuel in the process."

Thundercracker looked ahead of them and realized how close they were: He could see the aforementioned piece of land in his visual already.

A breem later, they had landed and were comfortably installed on a quiet shingle beach, seated at a respectable and professional distance from each other; Skywarp and Starscream being conspicuously closer to each other than Thundercracker was from any of them.

This, Thundercracker noted with a sort of irony-driven awe, was the first time the three of them met outside of training, briefing or battle.

"Are we here for what I think we're here for?" Skywarp asked excitedly, appearing clearly hopeful to the attentive blue seeker.

"No, Skywarp, not yet." Starscream said calmly. "We're here to talk."

"Talk? 'bout what?" Skywarp's asked, disappointed. His wings slumped down and his general dejected-frustrated expression almost made the blue seeker think he was cute.

Almost, because he was still a rude imbecile Thundercracker hadn't completely forgiven yet.

"How would you explain what a real trine is?" Starscream asked the purple seeker. The air commander had a long history for being a lying traitor who was incapable of honesty. Skywarp and Thundercracker, on the other hand, shared something akin to friendship. It appeared logical to Starscream that Thundercracker would trust the purple seeker for telling the truth, or at least was more likely to.

"Three seekers together, duh!" Skywarp replied, shrugging. Starscream had to pinch the bridge of his nose after that fabulously idiotic statement; and even Thundercracker allowed himself a light smile.

"And why do they get together in a trine?" Starscream asked again, talking slowly and patiently like one does when was addressing a youngling or a mentally-defective mech.

"Well, you see, when three seekers love each others very very much..." Skywarp started on while grinning false-embarrassingly at his blue wing mate. It was quite obvious that he refused to take any of this seriously, and Starscream wanted to strangle the idiocy out of him now. Almost did too when Skywarp ran his mouth further with no caution whatsoever.

"Why are you asking me those stupid questions, Screamer?! Really...Everybody know that!"

" Skywarp, for the love of Primus, will you try being serious for a nano-klik! ( and stop calling me that!)" Starscream said through clenched teeth, his tone of voice and attitude spelling impending doom for the purple seeker.

" Skywarp, please." Thundercracker intervened calmly. " This is not funny...And I would like to know the answer to Starscream's question."

The purple seeker looked at him, surprised. " Why? Don't you already know the answer."

" Actually, no, I don't!" Thundercracker confessed, keeping his face blank. His optics looked serious enough for Skywarp to believe his admission.

The warper opened his mouth to comment on his friend's confession, but Starscream moved faster than he spoke and physically placed himself between the two others, effectively cutting the prankster before he could say anything. The air commander didn't want to let Skywarp chase Thundercracker away with too-personal questions.

" I will answer, since Skywarp isn't willing to do so simply and without making a fool of himself." The wing leader interjected, casting a disappointed look toward said fool.

Thundercracker nodded and Skywarp crossed his arms over his chest childishly, his lips pursing into a ridiculous, yet adorable-looking pout.

Starscream purposefully ignored him and focused on the blue seeker as he started talking.

"Back when Vos was still standing, seekers- unlike most cybertronians- used to bond in trines. There was nothing weird or abnormal to that, there was a good reason behind this.

"Make babies!" Skywarp chimed in. Starscream calmly extended a hand, splayed it on the teleporter's face, and pushed him away.

"What he said." The air commander resumed his explanation. "A seeker's spark is naturally less fertile than that of most cybertronians, and thus, needs more residual energy out of a spark-merge to create a newspark."

"So this is why they merge in trine?" Thundercracker realized, nodding in understanding as the explanation made sense. " Three sparks merging together create more residual energy than two. It is done purely for reproduction purpose."

"At first, yes." Starscream replied. "At first, it was merely practical. But then, the customs have evolved and the fact seekers bonded in trine became a common and cultural trait among our frame-kin. It became normal, traditional even. A couple of seekers who wouldn't have wanted a third mate, they would have appeared like the odd ones."

Thundercracker nodded again, visibly interested in his wing-leader explanations. He felt happy to finally be told all these things Cosmotrailer hadn't be able to explain him in, back when the blue seeker had been under the old shuttlemech's care.

"Thank you for the bout of History, Starscream.." He said, genuinely thankful. "But I'm not sure the war is a good time to produce newsparks...And, to be honest, I don't want to have sparklings...Not before a long time at least..."

Both Starscream and Skywarp stared at him, optics wides and mouth agape, then they burst out laughing in concert loudly in. The purple seeker even crawled up to his blue counterpart and embraced him. "that's a very good one, TC!" He declared, still laughing. " I'm definitely stealing it for my quote book!"

While feeling quite offended by their reaction, Thundercracker decided not to let it get to him. Also, when he shoved Skywarp away from him, he tried not to be too rough about it.

" You misinterpreted it" Starscream was still chuckling when he shook his head lightly in fake disapprobation. Mirth made his optics glow two shades brighter, and they looked quite stunning in contrast with his charcoal face. " Trine-bonding is not only about sparklings"

Thundercracker felt abruptly and undeniably drawn to him all a sudden, drawn to how beautiful and to how positively different he appeared then. He couldn't help but notice how pleasant his Air commander's usually unbearable voice sounded as he spoke to him. He sounded calm, strong and, as strange as it happened to be, the blue seeker realized that he felt strangely, yet reassuringly, safe in the Air-commander's presence.

His ever-calculating logic center activated, analyzing the blue seeker's emotions with suspicious attention. Remain cautious, he warned him, the mech you are finding so attractive is highly unreliable. He's a notorious liar, a proven backstabber and you, my dear, are not interested in him, no! no! You are merely influenced by your genetic programming.

" What else is it about then?" Thundercracker inquired, emerging from his inner thoughts and reveries.

" The 'Pull' is what it is all about!" Starscream declared.

" What is a 'pull'?" Thundercracker asked, frowning.

" It is what happened to us today. You know, the physical phenomenon we encountered earlier." The red and white seeker precised.

" The electricity? The sudden mechanical attraction?"

"Actually, it is an instinctual attraction." Skywarp, who had been silent for far too long and couldn't take it anymore, blurted in. "It happens when a seeker's spark finds a suitable trine-mate...And although the 'pull' happens to all cybertronians, it is more perceivable for seekers "

" Yes, well, that's the romantic version." Starscream looked at his purple mate with a fond smile. " In truth, it is about binary codes, genes compatibility and a bunch of probability calculation." he added. " In essence, our spark is our very self, but is much more perceptive than our processor! Our spark knows what we need, what we like and what we seek in other individuals."

"But what about free-will?" Thundercracker asked. "This 'pull'- thing sounds a lot like something one cannot control."

"You know, attraction is never a conscious thing." Skywarp remarked. "falling in love is harder than falling on the knees!" he quoted Steven tyler, hoping to make an impression with what he thought was a very poetic message.

Starscream quirked a bow at that, then he smiled and nodded his general approval of this explanation. "One seldom chooses to be attracted by someone." he added with yet another of his mysterious and beautiful smile.

"One meets another and feels attracted, seemingly for no explainable reason. Sometimes, their attentions are not wanted. It hurts but they move on... That's how it works, and it is not different for us...A seeker can resist and deny the pull if they really don't want to be with whomever they fell pulled toward. The pull eventually subsides then."

This, Thundercracker decided, sounded fair enough. It reassured him greatly to know that he wasn't completely a slave to his own programing. He still had a say in the matter, a choice he could make.

Starscream smiled at him, waiting for him to comment on what had been said. Thundercracker wondered what he could say or ask. Something still bugged him; Why now? Why hadn't this 'pull' thing happened before? After all, they had been together for a long time, and nothing had happened before he stumbled on Skywarp and Starscream being 'busy' with each other.

That made him wonder if what he felt since then really was the 'pull', or if it was a normal reaction to being left out. What were the odds of three seekers forced together finding out they were meant for each other after all? Perhaps Skywarp and Starscream were meant for each other and Thundercracker wasn't really meant for them.

He wasn't ready to acknowledge a fake phenomenon as true.

Keeping his musings a secret, Thundercracker forced himself not to look at Starscream's smile. Instead, he asked the question that had been burning his lips for orns. "Is that how it happened for you two? You felt the pull and submitted to it?" Not that he was curious- or only so slightly - but maybe his wing-mates' experience would better explain how that mysterious 'pull' worked. And then, Thundercracker would see if he could relate to it or not.

" Oh! Can I tell him, Star? can I?" Skywarp joined his hands in a pleading gesture. " Pretty please!"

" Alright, speak if you cannot keep your mouth shut for more than five kliks!" Starscream faked annoyance, but his tone was light and his smile, as he looked at the purple mech, was more than a little fond.

That kind of scene, Thundercracker mused, was one he couldn't possibly become familiar with. To be honest, he wasn't sure if he wanted to either.

In all truth, he couldn't explain why. Too many cons, not enough pros, most probably. But, in the same time, he still felt curious about the pull and how it could be for the three of them if it was real.

Would he accept to obey his desires then?

Later, he promised himself, he would decide later, when he'll be certain the pull existed for him.

The powerful, yet calm, sounds of the ocean, not far from them, had gradually soothed him. He felt far less angry than he had been earlier when Starscream had been too curious about his past.

The night was clear and not too warm and there was just the perfect little breeze that, provided he turned his body the right way, teased his wing-flaps pleasantly. It was like an impromptu and welcomed massage, it felt quite nice.

Starscream's and Skywarp's innocent little quarrels amused him greatly even though he felt a tad jealous to be an outsider to them. It was still nice to be with them like this, there, then. Thundercracker felt good, relaxed, he felt at home.

With a small smile, he waited for Skywarp to start his story, which, the blue seeker was certain, would be quite the colorful tale.

TBC

Thank you for reading and sorry about this little cliffie: This chapter was getting way too long and I didn't want it to be much longer than the previous ones. Also, sorry for the lack of anything that isn't a long-boring-talk.

Now, and to wrap it up, have another meme-thingy! You know how much I love them ( fill it please! I'll submit my own along with the next chapter)

Transformers Ship ( pairing) meme!

What is your favorite ship? ( Het ships are, of course, allowed!)

What made you ship them?

Is your ship sailing? ( is it ambiguous in canon?)

You love fanfics in which they...( fill in the blank)

You can't stand fanfics in which they...( fill in the blank)

Any kink for them you'd like to share with us? ( optional)

Thank you in advance!