Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro
Summary: There is always a choice, but sometimes the actions of others help in making the decision.

Prologue

I can feel where the journey ends
Final call for a last defense – Kamelot, "The Black Halo"

"I don't doubt his words, but the fact remains that we don't have the resources to send anyone out for rescue or recovery. It was merely good fortune that we were able to recover him from orbit before they realized an explorer was returning."

"How is he now? He was in bad shape when the rescue team brought him in."

"Currently in stasis; he used most of his energy stores getting back to Cybertron. He only came out of it long enough to tell us what happened to his partner."

"This is a bad situation all around. The Decepticons are recruiting all the military builds, especially the flyers, and someone in his situation would be ripe for the picking if we don't go about things correctly."

"He would have landed in Kaon. Luckily Wheeljack's scrambler worked to knock out their sensors or we probably wouldn't have been able to get to him before those creeps found him."

"The Science Academy has already chosen to remain neutral for as long as possible; those amongst us who have already chosen Megatron's way have... seen fit to leave. They are, of course, unfortunate losses, but I for one still have hope that all this will be resolved in a timely manner."

"Until then, it's probably best to keep his existence a secret."

"You mean lie?"

"Lie is such an ugly word. I prefer to think of it as a misinformation campaign. We'll need to report the loss of one of our senior explorers off-world; who's to say that the one we rescued didn't perish as well?"

"And then what? We can't just let him go out into the city once we report him deactivated!"

"Someone will have to act as both his mentor and a proxy whenever he needs something. I'm sure that once we inform him of how bad things have gotten while he and his partner were away, he'll understand that our measures are for his protection."

"It's a shame. He's not all that old and has already lost so much in his life."

"That's why we aren't about to let the Decepticons steal what's left from him."

"Then we're in agreement. All that remains is deciding who's going to break the news to Starscream once he awakens."