And... the final chapter! I do hope it meets your standards... Same disclaimer, same people playing the same characters.

Time passed, as it always did. Skywarp desperately, desperately wanted to go back, back to Reflector. Back... oh, not to the merge, that was great, awesome, better than anything... but back to Reflector, the three so very different and unique personalities, how could no-one care what their names were? Their surprising care, demands... And that deep, deep bond that ran between them, he had seen it so... he wanted it more, wanted more OF it... But they had all agreed, just one night. And even if he could, he wouldn't want to undo that night, he'd rather live with this want than to have never had that experience.

Distraction, Skywarp thoroughly sought distractions. The purple Seeker was very good at finding ways to stop his thoughts, and if anyone noticed when his 'appetite' grew even more voracious, well, nobody commented on it. He was still fit for duty, as much as he ever was, so it didn't really matter. And when Skywarp's suddenly insatiable hunt suddenly stopped... Only his wing-brothers knew he had stopped taking any lovers, and only because they were among those that he no longer took.

Skywarp sat alone in his room, on his empty berth, toying with a small scrap. Jump coordinates were on it, but though he often considered going there, he knew what waited... knew he had not been invited. They belonged to the past now. And so he simply played with it, or with the pictures he had been give, the few physical gifts Reflector had bestowed on him.

He haunted them… truly hunted them, snippets of memories during interfacing, ghosts of touches that were not there, even in their work they would turn with hope whenever someone interrupted them, only to be disappointed time and again. They had each other, they were Reflector… that was probably all that kept them whole and somewhat sane. Somewhat, for they were not wholly sane anymore, taking risks they should not, spying on their fellow Decepticons with envy instead of simple calculation, they probably knew better than Skywarp how many mechs he had taken to his berth after they parted ways…

Glee came when he stopped… and lasted for quite awhile, then they noticed that Skywarp was smiling less, looked less perfect, behaved more… well, simply behaved instead of making antics and jokes. He also was not flirting, not shamelessly fishing for compliments or dragging lucky mechs off to a recharge cycle of passion. They stopped being gleeful and grew concerned… but they did not know how to show that concern… were not even sure that he would welcome their efforts if they offered to help.

Instead of doing anything directly, they went about it like spies, leaving small things for him to brighten his days… making ever so sure that nothing could be traced back to them… hoping that he would not make the connection, even going so far as leaving false trails…

Someone had noticed. Someone was leaving him things... little things. Things that made him smile for a moment, before he stored them away, using what was meant to be used, trying to enjoy what had obviously been left for that purpose. Skywarp had his suspicions, and his hopes... for a time, the complete lack of a trail had him almost sure who was giving these things... But then a trail came up, cold as it was, and his slowly brightening mood fell again. Even Starscream was beginning to notice, to show concern. Skywarp simple teleported away from the questions, often visiting that patch of earth he had first gone to after Spyglass had warned him away. He was a stupid mech, and he knew it, always thinking and never any good coming of it. He should just... go tell them how he felt... no. No, they... they wouldn't laugh at him, or tease him being unsatisfied... not real teasing, at least, not cruel. But they wouldn't take him back, they couldn't...

It helped at first… then nothing, sometimes he would even just leave the gifts, first they thought because he did not notice them but as they were ignored again when reoffered they gave up on that approach. They did not know what to do now… how to get… no, how to fix what had gone wrong. The sneaking suspicion that it was somehow their fault! Maybe he had noticed them, maybe he had gained more knowledge from the merge then they had thought possible and so spotted them when they spied on him and his lovers. Envy… they did not want to think about that, they did not mind that he had lovers, but they minded that he did not come to them afterwards, insane as that was, they had set the rules, not Skywarp…

"We… are apologize... we will keep away from now on and leave you to your… your… just, we are sorry for disrupting, it was not our intentions, we… we are not sure why…" Spectro was their 'diplomat'. And it was him who approached the purple seeker in the monitor room, keeping a healthy distance and stuttering out a more or less understandable sentence.

He stiffened at the hesitant, familiar, voice, only one part... Spectro, if he guessed right, and Skywarp knew that he had. He had not expected them to approach him... "Don't," it was shorter than he meant it to sound. "I, I don't... You're not disrupting my work..." They were, badly, but not by Spectro coming to visit. Skywarp didn't turn to look at the component, he would break if he did, to actually see one of the faces that haunted his memory. "Why...?"

"We…" Spectro halted uncertainly, what to say and what to keep silent about? Viewfinder and Spyglass could not help him… this was stolen time since Soundwave was driving them hard to finish repairs on the communications section. Megatron was impatient to contact Shockwave after the Autobots managed to blast most of that section of the Nemesis while rescuing those insane frontliner twins. They needed Skywarp to be himself again… his lack of buoyancy and mischief were driving them insane, as was the fact that he was not taking any lovers…

"Please…. We never wanted to make you stop being you… We were… are a bit obsessed, but we will leave you alone, we swear! Just please, be yourself again, joke, cause mischief, take lovers… we just want you to be yourself again!"

Skywarp gave a brief keen at that, he didn't WANT them to leave him alone! "I can't..." he admitted in a low voice. "I can't, I tried..." Oh, he'd tried, Skywarp knew perfectly well what he was doing to himself, and that soft little concerned voice... They had noticed, were worried... All the more reason... he didn't want to worry them, but they didn't need to know his problem, they couldn't... or wouldn't... He didn't know which, or which would be worse.

It hurt them… the sound, and the words from the seeker. "Please… tell us… tell us what to do to fix this? We wish to fix this!" Spectro could not help pleading with Skywarp, couldn't help asking even when they were all afraid of hearing the answer…

"You... can't," Skywarp still didn't turn, still couldn't look. "You can't... help. That I... want... One night, we agreed to that, it should be enough..." His voice was shaking, he was saying too much, and still not enough.

"Not enough… it was not enough?" Could that mean… did it mean what they hoped? Taking a step towards the seeker on shaky legs, Spectro once again stopped dead, hope and uncertainty eating at him and leaking out into the minds of his mates. "No… it was not… really… please S… 'Warp tell us…"

He heard the step, Spectro was within reach now, if he chose to try. Had... he understood that right, they were not satisfied either? "I can't... I don't want to forget... I'm unsatisfied, others are good, but not YOU, they're not... You have your reasons, good reasons! I'm too flighty, I'm stupid, I probably HAVE been with the whole ship by now..." He was leaning on a bank of monitors, if he gripped any harder he was likely to break something.

"We did have reasons… they… they became void the click you showed to be compatible… We just… we thought that you would not have us… would not consider… we still don't believe that you will consider bonding to a groundpounder!" Shivering and closing off the link as much as it would to keep his mates from reacting too strongly and disrupting their work, Spectro took his optics off of the seeker and trained them on the floor. "We… can't accept less than a bond… we don't care how many others you merge with, or even if you dragged them to our berth to merge in front of us, as long as you returned to us after… that is what we fear! That you will one day not return if there's no bond, no tie to us…"

Skywarp gave another wail, released the monitors to kneel on the ground. He had not, it was true, considered bonding... because he had thought it obvious they did not want him. "I don't... care if you fly or not! I leave... because they all try to change me! Demand, or manipulate... make me other than what I am!" Return to them... be a part of that... beautiful, deep, he had SEEN it, wanted so badly to touch it... This was not something to rush into... Return... they were willing... wanted?

"Change you… no, you are perfect, we… we are enough, no! We were enough in ourselves, until you showed us that there could be… that we needed to be more. We are not infatuated, we are in… in love…" Spectro flinched as he spoke the last word afraid that Skywarp would laugh at them, ridicule them…

Love? Love. It would have to be, wouldn't it, for them to care at all, let alone actually offer a bond, even if it was a round about way. Was that what left him unsatisfied now, why he had tailspinned into depression, was it even possible to love after so... little? "I'm thinking again... I've not STOPPED thinking since then..." He shifted, turned, and Spectro, he had indeed guessed right, looked so... worried. Afraid. "Is this love, then?"

Hope, and by the Unmake did that HURT, shot through the gestalt mech, his mates pressing to know what had happened so he had to struggle a little before answering. "We… we don't know what you feel 'Warp! It drives us crazy… as does our desire to share you, not so much by interfacing but by bond, we desire to be connected with you, to feel with you as we do in the Reflector merge… We want you to know us! To full embrace what we are, to us that is love! To be one, to wish for a fourth, but not just any fourth… you, to be one with us and never leave us fully again…"

Skywarp was trembling, holding himself back from touching the component before him. He moaned at the words, they were like a caress, deep and healing. "But that is what I want... What I have been longing for..." Love... How had HE fallen in love, how was it that he was even... oh, not considering bonding... wanting to, he would bond in a moment if they were all here... Heh, sappy... but true.

"R… Really?" Afraid to ask, afraid not to ask… Spectro stumbled over the simple word, reaching out to the kneeling seeker and then aborting the motion only to try again, digit tips shakily touching purple armor. Spyglass was beating at the mental walls, not liking the constant ups and downs of his mate's feelings and needing to hear what Skywarp was saying, see what he was doing… even gentle Viewfinder was beginning to worry and 'scratch' tentatively at the walls.

He froze at the delicate touch, reached and touched the other's purple, different from his own... "Yes... Yes! That... is what I want... YOU are what I want..." Carefully, Skywarp gathered Spectro in his arms, he needed to feel even just one component... "I love you?" If that was love... And it was, he could trust Spectro's words, Reflector wouldn't lie... not to him, about this...

For a click he was simply too stunned by the positive reaction to react himself, but then he latched on to Skywarp, trembling violently, finally allowing his mates access to his mind. The relief and joy from them both, elation like nothing else at the seeker's hesitant words, it was far more then they had had any right, any hope of ever hearing. "You are perfect! We would not want you to be different, you bring so much to us… memories and desires that we have never considered! You are our perfect opposite and we love you!"

Skywarp knew, faintly, that the monitor room was not the best place for declarations of love, and he was fairly sure that the other two components were likely busy with something, and this was probably not the best time anyway... and he really didn't care about any of that. He didn't... but they... "You have work to do," the seeker gasped out, even while he clutched at Spectro. "Time enough... Talk after, in PRIVATE..." He didn't want to let go, even knowing that he was free to come later, they wanted, they needed him...

:He is right, :…but… slagit!, :Only half a joor… better we wait then be thrown in the brig.:. Spectro reluctantly, very reluctantly, pushed at the seeker's armor, he did not want to go, but they had to finish their shifts or it would be brig time and they did not want to be separated from Skywarp unless they absolutely had to. "We don't… like it, but we would like a trip to the brig even less. It… where do you wish to meet after our shifts?"

"Ah..." Skywarp thought quickly. He wanted... he would like to share that little patch of land he had found... but they couldn't get there on their own, it was outside the Nemesis... He could get them there easily enough, but that still left the issue of where to meet... ah! "Don't like it either," the purple seeker admitted, releasing the component. "The... the landing pad? There... I would like to show you something." He could explain more later, when they had TIME...

Resenting the fact that they had to part and greatly encouraged by his mates, Spectro grasped Skywarp's head and planted a passionate kiss on his dermaplates. "We'll be there Skywarp… as soon as our shift is over!" He had to run out or he would have stayed, quite likely interfaced with the seeker on the floor… still shaky, he joined his mates in their repair work. It was fairly easily done, they had cleaned it all and actually only needed to install the new components, and the half joor went by quickly… it felt like an eternity!

They were quite nervous when they approached the landing pad, they trusted that Skywarp would be there, they trusted him… but it was a big step…

Something in Skywarp relaxed when he saw the three-part gestalt, oh, he hadn't doubted them, but trusting and seeing were different things. "Here!" he called softly, moving closer. He had spent his time in the monitor room doing the one thing he normally avoided, thinking, winding thoughts that never seemed to go anywhere, scenarios and possibilities playing themselves out. He wanted... Reflector needed him to be absolutely sure about what he was doing, positive, no doubts. For once, his thoughts hadn't lead him to confusion and frustration, but to certainty. "Here, I want to take you to a place I found... you'll have to get close," like that would be a problem.

Viewfinder jumped when Skywarp spoke and they all turned to him, there was no doubt that they were relieved that he was there. They had tried not to think about what was, hopefully, to come while working, but it had been hard and they were already aroused as well as nervous. "Show us something? That sounds interesting…" Smiling shakily they stepped up to Skywarp, Viewfinder leaning on him, needing the touch reassurance, and the other two components moving into contact only a click behind him.

He moaned, couldn't help it, didn't want to, as three bodies pressed against him. "It's nothing much..." Skywarp muttered, reaching down and touching them, ensuring the were close enough... With a quick thought, he teleported, it wasn't even hard, though he felt it should have been. "I... found it in a blind warp. I've... been coming here when I need to be alone..." They felt... so good, so right...

They barely had time to shiver at the contact before the seeker teleported them away. A little startled, they looked around, it was a plateau in some unnamed mountains, a perfect place for a flier… the view was breathtaking, but in all likelihood Skywarp had not thought of it that way. No, he had probably not considered the rough mountains, deep valleys and wide sky with no traces of the human race arousing to look at. Reflector did… it reminded them of Skywarp.

"Beautiful!" They were talking about the place as well as about the seeker, pressing closer to him, need overshadowing even the wish for taking pictures of this place… and they could always come back!

"I'm glad you like it..." Skywarp smiled, happy to have please them, pleased... his loves? No, this was not the time to start worrying about grammar yet AGAIN. He sat, to be more comfortable, and to have freer access to Reflector, the components. "I've never actually flown to or from here..." The secret slipped out, something to say as he indulged his desire to touch. They liked touch, he liked giving it, and he knew what was coming...

"Oh, we like… there are other things we like too…" They did not even have to try for a seductive tone as their entire attention focused onto the seeker, Spyglass moving in for a kiss before letting Viewfinder take the place against the purple torso. The component had been out of sorts since they noticed Skywarp's sudden abstinence, had he not been so frantic they would have sent him to talk instead of Spectro, but Viewfinder would have needed to touch… he needed to touch and be touched by Skywarp, to reassure that he was okay, that it was real. Spectro kidnapped one of the purple hands, treating it to licks and kisses, rubbing his faceplate against the palm, and Spyglass eagerly caressed the expanse of the seeker's left wing, small mewling sounds of pleasure and need escaping the gestalt.

A low moan of need came from Skywarp, and Viewfinder... at the moment, the seeker probably knew that component the best, enough to know how greedy he was for caresses... He only had one hand, Spectro treating the other quite nicely, but he only needed one hand to hold Viewfinder, pulling him up for a kiss, squirming from Spyglass' stroking to rub his chassis against the lens... He had needed this, missed them, missed them so much. And he was eager, desperate, to join them, eternally.

Spectro and Spyglass voiced the pleasure Viewfinder felt, relishing in the feel of Skywarp against their mate. Spectro stepped in to plaster himself against the seeker's side, stroking the right wing with one hand and the back of Viewfinder's thigh with the other. For once Spyglass dropped his defenses and followed his mates' lead, tucking himself into Skywarp's other side, mirroring Spectro.

"We need you with us Skywarp, we have been unable to find rest, to feel complete after you left… we thought… we hoped it would be enough to observe you, but it wasn't. We… we saw you with others and we wanted to go to you after to share, to give more then they gave. And then you stopped finding lovers… we… it…"

With a brief cry, Skywarp squirmed again, the twinned caresses too perfect, the words too sweet. "Complete... I have only ever felt complete right here, with you... Others couldn't give as much as even your memory..." He didn't want to talk, it took too much effort to talk, to figure out his emotions and then put them into words... No, right now he'd rather drown himself in touch and heat, let them know how he felt through pleasure... "I am here... I will share... I will give... everything..."

"All we will ever ask!" Viewfinder claimed Skywarp's dermaplates again, eager for this encounter to escalate so that the gestalt would no longer be alone. The other two components kept themselves pressed to Skywarp. While their caresses might have been more effective in other places, this was what they needed. They had been so worried, they had suffered for their own stupid assumptions… enough was enough! "Skywarp…"

Enough. He needed them, he needed them now, and, he could read well, they needed him as badly. A slight shift, and he was kneeling again, underprepared perhaps, but unwilling to wait. An end to loneliness he had not even realized consumed him until he had seen the depth of Reflector's bond... "Now. Please..." Skywarp moaned, regretfully moving Viewfinder aside so he could split his chestplates.

Viewfinder mewled disappointedly when he was moved, then the seeker's words and actions registered, disappointment turning to eager anticipation and hungry need. They did not waste time on answering, only followed him, baring their sparks and pressing close again, so very desperate, so very… happy? Yes happy, this was what they wanted, this and more…

"Skywarp!" The name fell from their dermaplates, conveying pleasure and yet so very inadequate at showing what they really felt. There was really only one thing that could show the seeker that, and they were doing it… the gestalt had never been so sure that they were doing the right thing before.

There was a brief line of pain, three sparks pressed against his and it was not, on the physical level, ready. But on levels other than that, emotions, mental, Skywarp was very ready, had been... he wasn't sure how long, couldn't think. One moment of fear, loss of self, Reflector would consume him, but no... there was nothing to fear. He gave a low, deep moan as the merge deepened, and he could see the gestalt's bond...

By the Unmaker! Skywarp had the sexiest voice they had ever heard, his pleasure was flooding the tentative merge, flavored with a sharp tang of fear… past fear. :We will never blot you out, we will never change you, what you are is what we crave… even the flightiness we feared.: There was no lying in a merge, not even in the beginning of one like this was, Skywarp would have no choice but to believe them. The unfathomable ache that had hunted them was soothed away slowly as the seeker's mind flowed into theirs.

:I know... I know that.: Skywarp's hands moved in caresses, because he could, to re-learn his lover's bodies. Mostly, he stroked Viewfinder's faceplates, that component both easier to reach and more touch-hungry than the others. :You are the first to say that... and the first I believe...: Now they could know how he felt, now he could show them without the clumsy use of words.

Viewfinder leaned into the stroking digits, all of Reflector reveling in the feelings the seeker invoked, reveling IN the seeker, his personality so perfect a counter point to theirs. The merge was slow, sometimes it was even momentarily painful but they did not mind it, not when it meant that Skywarp was there with them. This time he would not leave them again, he would be a part of the gestalt known as Reflector and yet not. :We find you perfect…: a whisper into the merge, a reassurance and a gift of emotions and perceptions.

He was drowning... no. No, he was flying, flying in the merge... :Come with me: and he let them know what flying was. Deeper he went, higher he took them, pleasure and brief pains welcomed... :I love you.: No doubt...

It was… it was so much more than what they had already shared, from now on it would always be like this, maybe even more intense then this! There was no hiding, no attempts at keeping secrets, even if it would still be possible for a little while. Rather, Skywarp showed them what it meant to be a flier, not just the mechanics but the feelings… the wind against your ailerons, the strange sense of weightlessness, the utter sweet exhilaration. Had they not already been lost they would have fallen now, as it was they followed him deeper into the merge, their sparks twining a connection that was already stronger then last time, and higher into the skies of pleasure.

:You see?: Skywarp asked in exhilaration, delighting in the joy of the sharing. :The sky is my energon...: And then abruptly he took them away from flying, and showed them what they did to him, they could keep him from the skies and he would not even feel the loss. Thin and soft, the lines connecting them grew, stronger, unbreakable... but not imprisoning, no, never that. He felt the ties forming, and welcomed them, helped them to grow stronger yet.

Now knowing what the sky meant to a seeker, to this particular seeker, they knew just how profound a compliment they were being paid. :We see… now look…: They showed Skywarp how they saw the world, both as a gestalt and as 'individuals'… showed him just what this place he had brought them to did to them, showed him how and why it reminded them of him. Art… beauty… breathtaking… :we will never tire of watching you!: The merge changed, grew into something else as their sparks began merging cores instead of just outer layers, their perceptions of each other gaining yet another dimension.

He buckled a little, somewhere in the world outside the merge, outside the slowly forming bond. Art... visual beauty... Honestly, he had never paid much attention to visual data, even selecting berth-partners was more a matter of whim and personality than appearance, though their looks did play a part, never doubt that. But to look at something merely because it was beautiful, to feel actual arousal from it, from a landscape or a painting... no, that had never been something he really did. Quietly watching left too much time for thinking. :Then I will be a show for you.:

:You don't need to think…: It was a reassurance, though they did not mind Skywarp's erratic way of thinking they now… knew that he felt uneasy if he had to contemplate things deeply. It was not until after they had said it that they realized that it had been an unvoiced thought of the seeker they had reacted to. For a click they went utterly still and then elation swept through them and straight into the seeker.

Reacting first simply to the reassurance, and then to the elation, Skywarp gave a cry, emotions and thoughts not his own buoying him. They truly didn't want to change him, though they were, as much as he was changing them... not changing. Completing. Already, they would be with him forever... in only a little bit, everything would be shared.

They were used to being more than one and yet this was very different, these ties, this bond was both more profound and less heavy then their gestalt bond, it completed them even if they had only recently realized that they were missing something. They did not hesitate, releasing the last of their defenses, opening to the seeker as they had only ever been to each other. :We are yours… take and give, it is all yours.:

Skywarp shook and gasped as the gestalt bond itself accepted him. He was not Reflector, nor a component, he was and would remain himself, but to bond to a gestalt... It was not enough to bond the mechs who formed it, nor was it enough to bond the overmind. He had to, in some way, join the gestalt, it was complicated, and he didn't need to think about it. The realization came, at least now he didn't have to wonder over terms of address.

They were all bound now, all four of them, together forever… the irrelevant but spark felt relived random thought from their new part, not component, made laughter and amusement mix with the pressing pleasure. They did not have time to dwell on the new bond, or the sheer amazing feel of completion and wellbeing that was a part of it, as pleasure swelled and then burst in a processor numbing overload…

Coming around again, optics flickering, they weren't sure if they had been offline or not. :Wow…: Viewfinder's less then eloquent word was very fitting as to what they all felt… all felt…

Skywarp only had enough processing power to agree quite utterly, though he couldn't form the agreement into actual words. But of course... he didn't need too. This... was nice, his afterglow and theirs blending, just sitting here in happy satisfaction. Nice... and eternity for pleasure like this, a place he belonged, was needed. With the same goofy grin he wore so often around Reflector, Skywarp dared to contemplate the future, and found it happy.

Daaah... grins Ain't they cute? So, please leave a final review! And... keep an eye out for our next fic, Wrong to Right! Breakdown and Dead End, anyone?