Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

His steps echoed throughout the empty halls of the facility as he approached his destination. Starscream was nervous for days, but he hid it under his usual demeanor. When he finally stopped in front of the door he hesitated for a moment before opening it. Who knew what will he see after going through it? What kind of misshapen freak of nature will greet him? He swallowed the knot forming in his fuel intake and donning his most convincing confident face, he walked in.
The facility’s existence was a secret he guarded closely by eliminating anyone ever being on location unless he chose the bot to be permanently serving there. He kept a list of those Decepticons and a convenient cause for their tragic demise up his sleeve in case they prove to be a liability or got too much knowledge. After all, he couldn’t be too careful.

His feet took him through a lab with large tanks containing protoforms and nearly fully formed armatures of sparkless Cybertronians. Starscream knew he was close to his destination when the bare endoframes got replaced by fully formed Seekers floating inside the mixture of energon and nanites giving the last brush strokes to their platings. Starscream stopped in front of one of the tanks and examined the bot inside.

“These ones are ready to harvest.”

The sudden voice startled him, but he hid it well. Starscream turned his head from the frame in the tank and greeted the scientist approaching him.

“How many are they exactly?”

The smaller bot stopped next to the jet and handed a datapad over to him.

“This is the latest batch, numbers 63, 64 and 65. Previous batches developed complications and had to be terminated.”

Starscream raised an optical ridge.

“Complications?”

“The subjects were psychologically unstable, number 50 tried to escape the facility, and we had to send subjects 51 to 62 to try and restrain him. Needless to say it ended badly for all parties involved.”

“But the previous clones were stable enough, yes?” Starscream didn’t watch the videolog to its end; he didn’t have to see the jet looking just like him getting dismembered by his own mirror images. It didn’t sit well with his current mental state.

“I would say that this psychological discrepancy only manifested in one out of ten subjects.”

Starscream nodded and gave the datapad back to the scientist.

“Give me the sparks, and let’s get this over with.”

The tanks were drained and opened, so the three Seeker clones now stood defenseless against the world. Starscream stepped closer to them, back to the one whose features he was examining before the scientist – if he could recall his designation was Voltdrive – interrupted him. He found that he liked how his latest clones looked. Sleek, built for speed and effectiveness while their paintjobs evoked due fear and respect. Something he always craved but seldom gained. He reached out and touched the midnight black finish of the inactive jet and pulled his fingers back wet. They didn’t have time to dry properly yet.
Voltdrive returned with a cart containing several frozen sparks Starscream managed to salvage from another cold-construction facility back on Cybertron. He immediately saw an unusual one. Three, to be precise. A triplet of sparks looking like a star in the process of forming or going nova, as veins of red and orange and violet energy coursed through their blue core.

“Are these stable?” He picked up one of the unique sparks. He felt the jolt of electricity through the photonic crystal.

“I believe so.” Voltdrive answered. “I assume they are point one-percenter sparks. Or just ones that got colored funny from the freezing process.”

Starscream stared at the spark in his hand, watching as it thawed and its colors swirled livelier as the frost dissipated from its container.

“Let’s try these then.” He decided and opened up his own spark casing.

“I recommend you put the sparks to that diagnostic station.” Voltdrive closed the cart and pushed it out of the way. “You wouldn’t want to crush it accidentally, would you?”

Starscream rolled his optics, but complied, placing all three sibling-sparks into slots on the diagnostic device before sitting down to the assembly slab’s edge.

“Ugh, I hate this…”

Voltdrive stepped next to Starscream holding an extractor with long spikes and sharp edges.

“I know, but I need CNA for the procedure. Now lie down, and try not to yell too loudly.”

Starscream was proud that he did all he could to barely produce a sound while the extractor tore a part of his spark out. He couldn’t give CNA too often for it could end in life-threatening complications, so Voltdrive always made sure he cut a large chunk out of the freely offered crystal ball. The first time he donated his CNA to the procedure, he proved to everybot in hearing distance that he is worthy of his name. Also he was sure about expanding the Cybertronian language with curses that never existed before. There is such a level of pain where hissing and muttering “you naughty spawn of a gun” just doesn’t cut it.

“We’re done, crybaby.” Voltdrive patted Starscream’s chestplate after letting him close it. A large part of the jet’s spark was in the extractor, much larger than Starscream remembered from before.

“Give me that!” He grabbed the device and wobbled over to the diagnostic station holding the three fresh sparks. He began to inject his own spark’s material into the spheres, which reacted in a strange way. As soon as Starscream’s CNA entered theirs, another, black swirl began to form inside the sparks.

“Huh. That’s weird.” Voltdrive commented.

“Let’s insert these into their final place and power them up.” Starscream ordered and picked the sparks up into his hands. He stopped in front of the 63rd clone tank and waited until Voltdrive manually opened the chestplates of all three clones.

“Will you give them names?”

If he was going to be honest, Starscream didn’t really think about it until now. He already had several clones serving under Megatron’s olfactory sensor, and he suspected that they have names, but to give his clones a designation himself… That indicated something he was afraid to face. A sort of intimacy he abhorred and craved at the same time.

“You know what? I just might.”

He stepped over to Nr 63 and placed a spark into his casing. Then he went on to 64 and 65, waiting until their optics flared up and their confused expressions made way to the blank stare of a protoform obtaining necessary data and sort through their basic programs.

“I like this one’s paintjob.” Starscream went back and touched his clone’s wing again. “Dark blue and black, it’s becoming of him. I shall call him Vigilante.”

Hearing his designation, the clone perked his head up and followed Starscream’s form as he stopped in front of the next clone. This one also had a majorly black paintjob, but a large part of his plating kept its natural metallic grey.

“This one looks like if whoever did his paintjob ran out of paint.” Starscream jested.

“I don’t know, the nude metal parts seem pretty terrifying.” Voltdrive answered. “Also, I’d like to inform you that all of their paintjobs are infused with cloaking technology.”

“If only this ugly silver-grey wouldn’t remind me so much of Megatron…” Starscream shuddered. “But I guess I know his name now: Ironstrike.”

“Sounds good. And the last one?”

Starscream spent a little longer with this one after the other two clones stepped out of their tanks on wobbly legs and immediately began to explore their surroundings. The last clone seemed terrified. It was leaner and aesthetically pleasing with a monochromatic paintjob. The only things breaking the black-and-white color scheme were his crimson optics, fearfully darting to and fro.

“Look at me!” Starscream ordered and the clone complied. He remembered the spark he inserted into this frame was the one he first held in his hand. “You’re kinda pretty… Too pretty.”

Voltdrive scoffed, prompting Starscream to turn his ire towards the scientist.

“Why did you design him like this? He’s supposed to be a soldier, not a poster-bot.”

“He’s you.” Came the sardonic answer.

Starscream wanted to riposte with something vitriolic but he stopped. “He’s you”. Had he forgotten the young and dashing bot that could twist anyone he wanted around his digit? The handsome and devious conman who could cheat himself into the Academy, and land himself a job as a researcher under the Functionist regime? The one that had his hulking co-worker head over thrusters for him? He vented dejectedly.

All of a sudden, the rage and jealousy he felt towards the newborn bot had been pushed into the back of his processor. Yes, this was him. Before the war. Before Megatron had laid a hand on him.

“I know your name now.” He turned back to the clone, taking his hand and gently helping him out of the tank. “Solarwind.”

The clone’s optics flared in acknowledgement of his new designation, and flashed a smile at Starscream that made the jet’s spark send a jolt of pain through him, stronger than what he felt while the extractor was cutting a chunk out of it.

Chapter Text

After some test runs and psychological evaluations, the clones were ready to leave the facility they called home for the past few weeks. Starscream rarely visited being busy with his duties as both a commanding officer and occasional punching bag, but he managed to escape the hellhole of his office from time to time and went to check on his project. His latest clones were learning the ropes fast and he expected nothing less. After all, he was always adaptable. Before they could leave the facility and the planet for good though, Starscream wanted to take his clones out to fly.

He would never admit it out loud, but in times when there was nothing but the sky around him and the landscape below him, that was when he felt the safest and calmest. His clones, not so much. It irked Starscream to learn that his copies were adept at fighting and possessed a higher than average intelligence but they froze in place atop the facility and remained standing there when faced with the challenge of conquering their very home terrain – the skies. This would not be. Not on his watch.

So the last time when he visited his clones – who were all showing off their newly learned skills and accomplishments with pride after noticing his presence – he decided to teach them how to fly himself. Voltdrive asked to be present for the occasion, but Starscream had a feeling that he’s not there for supervision, rather for entertainment.

He took all of them up to the top of the building, and stood on the edge, feeling the harsh wind of Xiban IV before transforming and flying a circle around the facility. He noticed that the trine of his clones are still standing on their respective spots when he returned to where he came from.

“Don’t tell me you don’t even know how to transform yet…” Starscream grumbled as he landed next to his clones.

“Uh… Nope.” Ironstrike commented, looking at his siblings who both shook their heads. Starscream cast a disapproving glance at Voltdrive, and decided that heads will roll for this. Literally.

“Ugh. Fine.” He vented and dug up some data from his memory core which he sent over to the three bots staring at the floor sheepishly. “Since we all share a frame-type, my data will be as good as any. So… You do have an alt-mode, now it’s time for you to learn how to use it.”

It was hard to be patient with them, and Primus knew he was anything but. Yet Starscream also found a memory file of his mentor, teaching him how to adopt an alternate mode and how to use it. He figured he can use the same techniques she did for educational purposes.

“Think about your alternate mode and let your t-cog rearrange your frame into that shape.”

He could practically see the gears shifting inside his clones’ heads, and then it happened. He heard the trademark sounds of a working transformation cog, and all three members of the trine now stood in front of him as standard issue tetrajets. Well, almost all three of them.

“What in the name of Primus is this?” Starscream exclaimed looking at Solarwind. “Your whole root-mode is on your undercarriage! You want to get laughed at and then get shot by an Autobot? Because that is exactly how you get laughed at and shot by an Autobot, if I don’t get to you first.”

Solarwind slid away from him slightly.

“I’m sorry!”

“Can I ask a question?” Ironstrike raised his wing like it was his hand “What’s an Autobot?”

Starscream hid his faceplate in his palm. This was going to be a long day.

“First things first.” He asserted. “Learn to transform and fly, and then you will learn the rest.”

They had to wait for Solarwind to get the hang of transformation though.

“I don’t…” The clone stuttered “I can’t seem to… Uh, there’s something wrong.”

Starscream stared at his clone’s frame stuck halfway between vehicle and robot modes and tried hard not to laugh and scream in frustration at the same time.

“Stop panicking or you’ll get stuck.” He tried to sound as calm as possible, but everyone noticed the growing impatience in his voice. There was a short pause before Solarwind speaking again.

“I’m stuck.”

Transforming back to root-mode, Ironstrike went over and kicked his sibling in the t-cog, which seemed to arrange the stuck transformer's frame back into its root form.

“You jerk! You kicked me!”

“You’re back to your old form, no?”

Starscream stepped between his bickering clones.

“Enough.” He turned to Solarwind. “You better learn how to transform or you will be decommissioned.”

The clone’s already pale faceplate went even paler.

“Yes, creator unit.”

Starscream turned towards the other clone, with a way too familiar smirk on his faceplate.

“And you… How did you even know that will work?”

“I didn’t.” Ironstrike shrugged. “But I thought I should do something to help.”

Starscream began to have a bad feeling about this batch. One of them was obviously prone to malfunctions and the other one possessed too much altruism for his liking.

“You don’t do that.” He grabbed Ironstrike’s neck. “We don’t “help” others. Bots either learn to look out for themselves or perish.”

“But…”

“Memorize this, and you will spare yourself from a great deal of suffering later in your existence.” He leaned closer and added “Which will be brief if you disobey me.”

“I would never…”

“Good.” Starscream let go of the clone. “Now where were we? Oh, yes. Transform and learn to fly.”

This time all three of his clones managed to turn into their alt-modes without complications. Thrusters ignite; they followed his lead around the facility. It took about three or four laps before they really got the hang of it, but after that Starscream couldn’t force them to stay in formation. They wanted to explore the planet, fly higher, go faster and farther than before, and despite his displeasure of having to bother with their training, Starscream enjoyed himself as well. He felt like he had glimpses of his past self, the bot he was before the war reflected inside his clones somehow. But as always his more pragmatic self prevailed and reminded him not to form attachments. It never worked out for him before, and he didn’t wish to test his luck again. Especially not when the price of attachment could be too big. He must focus on his mission, the ultimate goal of the mere existence of these copies of him. Still, he felt a tiny sting of sorrow in his spark as he looked at the three of them playfully chasing each other.

Not long after transferring the latest batch to serve aboard the Nemesis, Starscream ordered the facility to be shut down. He gathered all data he had stashed about the project, and began to arrange some unfortunate events that will lead to the demise of anyone who worked on it. The building on Xiban IV was razed to the ground by a squad of trigger-happy and generally unruly Decepticons Starscream hired especially for this task. One of them was actually named Triggerhappy, as he recalled. They were replaced by another and yet another group of would-be assassins who asked no questions and didn’t refuse bribes, ordered to terminate anybot who had worked on the project. Starscream was sure he was thorough in tying up the loose ends.

Meanwhile he had to keep an optic on his clones as well, to prevent them from causing more trouble than they’re worth. He kept a list containing the names of all clones serving on the warship, and as he stared at the datapad with the designations, he felt like he has to prepare for the inevitable.

There was no time to waste during their last assault on the Ark, and he could not keep all of the clones in sight. After the Ark crashed on the planet they were now orbiting however, Starscream felt like he had a little time to power down his engines. He was wrong.

Not wrong in the sense of being able to slow down a bit – Soundwave advised Megatron to be cautious and he ordered a meticulous scouting of the planet – but in the sense of letting his firewall down.

Megatron’s request to walk with him and have a private talk that was – in the warlord’s own words – “long overdue” came as a cold shower.

“If you are planning anything detrimental to our cause, I will find out.” The silver-grey tank announced it unusually calmly. “And be sure that if I do, you will need more than a blank body for parts to repair what’s left of you.”

After the threat was out, Megatron left Starscream on his own. He didn’t even register that he was running away from the warlord as fast as his feet and thrusters could propel him through the corridor. In a blind panic, he bumped into his clones inside the hangar, where they were working on some small task or another.

“He knows. He’s going to kill us all!”

The three jets exchanged glances and then did the unthinkable: they tried to comfort him. Starscream never thought how conflicted his emotions will be towards this trine, but at the moment he wanted equally to hug them and to tear them apart until there’s nothing but spare parts left.

“Are you three completely CPU deficient?!” He yelled at them. “Did you not register with your audioreceptors what I just said? He. Fragging. Knows. About you.”

“This should not be a major problem… sir.” Vigilante was the calm one, as always. “Besides, Lord Megatron cannot be informed about the entirety of your plan. He’s bluffing to push you off-balance and according to your panicked behavior, he was successful.”

“Soundwave must have spied on me.” Starscream began to walk around in circles, seemingly ignoring the clone’s assessment of the situation. “I was a fool to not suspecting one of his wretched minions trailing me all over the place, listening on what I said, what I did…”

He felt a hand on his wing out of the blue and he instinctually grabbed the offending hand and threw the bot over his shoulder, grabbing and twisting the other Seeker’s arm until he heard the click of the actuator and Solarwind’s pained yelp.

“Never touch my wing without permission.” Starscream growled and kicked the other bot for emphasis.

“Let her go!”

The threatening tone of his other clone sobered Starscream somewhat. He released Solarwind’s arm, and let Ironstrike step between them, spreading his wings to appear to be a larger, easier target than his injured sibling.

“Let’s just all calm down and think for a moment.” Vigilante tried to ease the palpable tension between his sibling and his creator. “Commander, you say that information about your… our mission has been leaked through Communications Officer Soundwave to Lord Megatron, correct?”

“It is.” Starscream grumbled and turned his head away from his other clone who scooped his sibling up and left, not-so accidentally bumping his shoulder plate into the Air Commander when they passed him by.

“Then let me find out the extent of this leak, sir!” Vigilante requested “Maybe we can find a way to turn it to our advantage.”

Starscream’s processor was racing. After the panic was gone, he could now think clearly and knew that in this case course-correcting might be a good idea. Also, he now knew which one of the clones was an actual threat.

“Very well.” He agreed. “Find out what does Soundwave know and how much he told Megatron about my plans.”

He actually felt calmer now that there was a solution to the problem. He flashed an equally disarming and threatening smile at Vigilante.

“Make me proud, my sparkling!” Starscream rested his hand on the clone’s shoulder “I think that you – unlike your siblings – have true potential.”

The clone mirrored his grin and Starscream began to feel absolutely terrified by him.

“Thank you, sir. I will strive not to disappoint you.”

It took several minutes to get to the medbay, for Solarwind kept on stopping, cradling her injured arm. Ironstrike tried to calm his sibling, but she wouldn’t stop sobbing.

“Come on, we have to go.” He caressed her back while holding her. “The longer it takes, the longer it will keep hurting.”

“Why is he like that?” Solarwind finally managed to blub “He told me I will be decommissioned and now this!”

“I don’t know, but believe me, if he lays a finger on you again, I will personally toss him out the airlock.”

“He hates me.”

“Nah, he hates everyone.”

Another round of shaking and unintelligible mechanical noises indicated that they had to wait to move forward. Ironstrike held on to his sibling until the storming emotions of the other bot stilled enough for him to reach her.

“I’m a malfunctioning heap of mistakes.” Solarwind vented but her brother shook her gently.

“Stop this at once! You’re not a mistake. You’re my sibling. And I know that some days it doesn’t feel like it, but I love you.”

He accidentally touched the still sparkling actuator of the other jet, sending a jolt of electricity through both of them.

“Jerk.” Solarwind tried to slap Ironstrike with her functioning hand, but he dodged it, laughing and sticking his tongue out.

“Glitch!”

Solarwind strutted away, pretending to leave him behind, but after a few steps, her posture returned to its former hunched position, nursing her arm.

“Hey…” Ironstrike caught her at the end of the corridor, just in front of the medbay. “No matter what, I love you. Along with your glitches. Just keep that in mind.”

He kissed the faceplate of his sibling, then went on his way. He had patrol duty with Thundercracker.

Solarwind kept looking at her brother’s back until he turned and stepped inside a cabin before she entered the medbay. Gambler was on duty, and he was in the middle of cleaning the tools.

“What is it this time?” He turned to Solarwind as the other bot approached him.

“I think my actuator is broken.”

“Sit; let me have a look at it.” Gambler picked up a wrench he already cleaned and his optic transformed into a magnifier. He saw that he’ll have a lot of work with the arm and the actuator after a short examining.

“How did you manage to bust your whole arm so thoroughly?”

Solarwind tried not to begin to cry again.

“I… I guess I’m just prone to breaking and malfunctions, like I swear this frame hates me.”

“I wouldn't go that far to say that.” Gambler comforted the other Seeker. "But I do see you a lot in the medbay."

Solarwind lowered her head to not have to look into the medic’s optics.

“Anyway, I can’t fix this right away.” Gambler put his tool down. “I’ll have to report to your superior officer that you have to be hospitalized for a while.”

“Thank you.” Solarwind muttered.

Gambler kept on looking at the bot while his processor was working. He hoped that Solarwind is not the kind of Seeker who flies into walls "accidentally" or “free falls” until one day they crash.

“Would you tell me something?” He spoke again after a short pause. “Why do you think you have so many malfunctions? You are one of the latest models, you shouldn’t be acting up like a seven-million years old obsolete. Are you sure you are telling me everything?”

“I'm telling you all I know.” Solarwind mumbled. “Maybe this frame is just a reject or made of insufficient materials...”

Gambler’s spark sank as the younger Seeker began to silently sob again. The problem was bigger than he thought.

“All right. Let me run a diagnostic on you, a real thorough one. Hardware, software, spark and t-cog.” He explained. “If there is anything wrong with your frame – well, other than the obvious arm-injury – we will know, and I will correct it. You need to be in top shape before I will clear you for flying again.”

“Okay.”

Gambler nodded and dragged the tool rack closer to them.

“I will take your arm off for the time being.” He explained before beginning to unbolt the injured part “That will be easier for me than having to navigate through your broken hydraulics and sparking wires.”

Solarwind didn’t answer, didn’t even look at the medic while he removed her arm. The only thing giving her a slight sliver of hope was the promise of finally finding out the reason behind her frequent system errors and malfunctions. Ever since the first time she came online, she knew something was off. Seekers didn't drop from the sky because a slight alteration in air currents, yet she frequently went offline from something so small. Her broken arm was in worse shape than any other bot's would be in her position. Sometimes she couldn't even talk because her vocalizer malfunctioned when it was the least appropriate, like when she had to report something to Starscream. She turned her head towards Gambler, who now began to connect the diagnostic station to her.

"It will take a while. Try to get some rest, go  on stand-by." The medic advised and left. Solarwind looked at his back and knew she won't be able to recharge from her racing processor that over-analyzed everything.

“Is it supposed to be like this?” Ironstrike commed Thundercracker while flying over a vast body of water. “I mean, I know the planet supposed to have oceans, but why is there so much of it?”

“Don’t forget the water-based organics” Their temporary leader replied “and the abundant energy signatures of a big load of nothing.”

“What are we looking for exactly?” the temporary trine’s third member, another low-ranking Seeker named Laserlight inquired.

“Anything indicating Autobots or valuables.” Thundercracker answered. “But I guess we won’t find any even if we fly off the map.”

Ironstrike didn’t agree entirely on the valuables part. His sensors picked up minerals and fossils, and there was significant radio traffic in the air.

“Sir, we are getting too close to what appears to be a native form of water-faring Titan.” He reported what Thundercracker probably already knew.

“I am aware, private. Just keep on following me.”

The “water-faring Titan” turned out to be an aircraft carrier ship, belonging to one of the native organic creatures’ military bodies.

“Initiate infiltration protocol!” Thundercracker ordered his subordinates and flew over the carrier. He saw some of the organics running around aboard it as soon as they noticed them, and not long after three of the jets being carried on board was in the air, going after the Decepticons.

When they got close enough, Thundercracker scanned the fighter jet closest to him, and noted that his soldiers did the same, assuming identical forms of that of their pursuers.

“What now?” Laserlight inquired over the comm. Before he got an answer though, a radio transmission came from the jets on their tailfins. None of the Cybertronians understood what it was, so they sent the universal translator on the signals.

“They want us to identify ourselves.” Ironstrike stated the obvious. “And threaten to open fire unless we comply. Also, they claim that we violated their airspace.”

“So?” Laserlight joined in the radio traffic “Shall we identify ourselves or open fire on them?”

Thundercracker was thinking. Taking out the jets wouldn’t be hard for them, and they could weaken the enemy. But the order was clear on that it was not yet time for them to reveal themselves, or to attack.

“Negative.” He answered his subordinates “Do not engage or return communications. We’ll leave them behind soon enough.”

“But we could easily take them down.” Ironstrike argued.

“We are under the Infiltration protocol, private. No interaction, only observation.”

The younger Seeker muted his comm. but remained in formation on Thundercracker’s right. Soon the three jets with the organics returned to their carrier.

“We lost them.” Laserlight reported.

“Continue searching the area.” Thundercracker ordered. “We have a lot of terrain to cover.”

After a while the water gave way to land, and with closer proximity to the planet’s surface, came stronger sensor input.

“Captain, I caught some weird spikes in energy readings to the East.” Ironstrike broke radio silence after they approached a mountain ridge. “Might worth investigating.”

 The trine landed in front of a cave, half-buried by debris. The signal came from there.

“Well, your catch, private.” Thundercracker slapped Ironstrike’s back “Yours is the honor of going in.”

“What?”

“I thought your audiosensor is working.”

Laserlight stepped closer to Ironstrike and pointed at the cave while talking to Thundercracker.

“It might be more prudent if two of us went to investigate. Radio transmissions might be blocked by the mineral structure of these mountains, and who knows what’s inside there?”

“All right, you two go in, I shall play sentry.” The officer vented.

The two Seekers ventured into the long, pitch black tunnels. They didn’t have to go too deep, for their sensors picked up strong radiation almost right at the cave’s entrance.

“What do you think is down here?” Laserlight asked just to break the silence.

“Beats me” Ironstrike shrugged, scraping the ceiling with his wings. “I hope it’s energon. Would be nice to have a full tank for once.”

“You know you can’t fly with a full tank.”

“I know, I said it would be nice to not starve every once in a while.”

Their bickering stopped in an instant when they found the source of the energy readings. Pods of glowing crystals, emanating strong radioactivity.

“What’s that?” Ironstrike stepped closer to inspect the strange mineral. It looked like several cubes fused together.

“Not an energon crystal, sadly.” Laserlight quipped. “Or if it is, I have never seen anything like it before.”

“Well, it’s obvious that the signal was coming from these.”

“Then take a sample and let’s get out of here. This place gives me the creeps.”

Ironstrike flashed a teasing grin at his partner.

“Afraid of being underground much?”

Laserlight’s wings were already drooping and the mention of being underground made him practically fold his wings to his back entirely.

“Just cut that piece of stone and let’s leave!”

Ironstrike shrugged again and turned his hand into a tool which he used to carefully chisel a big chunk out of the ore he found.

“It will take a while.” He informed Laserlight. “Can I ask you something?”

The other Seeker stopped looking around nervously and kept his optics on his partner.

“What is it?”

“Why did you sign up?”

The same nervousness returned to Laserlight’s features and he turned away.

“I shouldn’t tell you slag, but if you so want to know, I joined Megatron’s forces because it was better than living on the streets and begging for scraps. Oh, and also because I hate Functionists.”

“Fair enough.”

As he continued to cut and chisel the stone Ironstrike picked up an addition to what Laserlight said on a low voice.

“But sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice.”

The grey Seeker stopped his work and turned once again to his partner.

“Why do you feel like that?”

Laserlight was startled; he did not expect the other to hear what he said. But now the thing was out and he needed to find a way to defend himself.

“Do you think I’m that stupid? I will not speak of this any further. Take that sample and let’s go.”

“No, I’m really just curious. I will not tell anybot about it.” Seeing that Laserlight was not going to budge, Ironstrike added “You know, sometimes I feel like that too. I mean, I am fairly new and I was made to be a Decepticon. I didn’t really have a choice. But you did, and I want to know why you feel like it wasn’t the right one.”

Laserlight still seemed to be guarded, but his wings were no longer rising, instead they were back to their default position.

“Listen kid, I’m not a really friendly type. I never was. Wouldn’t say I didn’t do a lot of messed up scrap that would make you protoforms hide under your recharge slabs in terror, because damn right I did.”He vented and shook his head. “But I don’t think we should be this obsessed about killing the last remnants of a failed regime. Capture them and lock them up for good? Pits yeah, let’s do it and throw away the key. But hunting them down and butchering them and a whole planet of organics just because? Nah, that won’t do. And make no mistake, Megatron will do that. He’ll send in one of his Phase-sixers to turn this world into a barren piece of rock.”

Ironstrike lowered his head and stumbled backwards a bit when the crystal piece he chiseled came off from the wall. He put it into his subspace and began to walk out of the cave when he felt Laserlight’s arm grabbing him from behind, and his blade held against his neck.

“I told you what you wanted to know, kid. But fair warning: if you tell anybot about it – and I mean anybot, like your trinemate or just a random minicon janitor – I will find you and put you into past tense. Got it?”

Ironstrike nodded as much as he could from the blade. Laserlight let him go and both of them left the crystal cave behind. Thundercracker waited impatiently for them to emerge.

“Well?”

“We found some unidentified form of ore, sir.” Ironstrike showed the sample to his officer.

“Oh, this must be what Soundwave beeped about.” Thundercracker recalled the Communications Officer mentioning something about unidentified mineral sources on the planet “Good find, private. Let’s take this precious little rock back to the Nemesis so the brainy-bots could analyze it.”

“Lead the way, sir.”

While flying back to their ship, Laserlight got a message from Ironstrike. He didn’t want to receive it, so he blocked the comm. channel, but damn the youngster was persistent.

<<Incoming encrypted transmission>>

Laserlight would roll his optics if he would be in his root-mode but as a jet he just flew stoically through a cloud. He decided to receive it this time, if only to make the other Seeker stop bombing him with messages. The transmission sounded sincere enough to actually surprise the older Seeker.

<<I want to make sure you know that I did not ask about your insecurities so I can tell on you. I feel the same, as I said. I have… serious doubts about what we are doing on this planet and why. And no one would tell me anything. I came to the conclusion that part of our fraction dismisses me because of my age, and part of them dismisses me because of my rank and frame type. Way to go, you so-called “anti-Functionists”. Anyway… And I really mean it… If you want someone to talk to, I’m here. Ironstrike out.>>

Laserlight scoffed and deleted the message.

“Naïve spawn of a glitch.” He grumbled to himself, but he couldn’t help but feel some semblance of sympathy emerging from his spark towards the younger Seeker. “He will learn. Oh, poor thing, he will.”

Starscream got the reports about his clone’s find later that night. He actually knew what the strange mineral was, because he happened to help Shockwave – and by helping he meant snooping around in the lead scientist’s lab – develop it. Ultra-energon was part of one of Shockwave’s many experiments, and Starscream found it an odd coincidence to have the mineral so abundant in this remote planet. Regardless, he began to assemble a party of Decepticons he wanted to send to the location to mine the ore. They were always looking for an edge in battle after all, and Ultra-energon could give them immense power.

His processor wandered back to his clones after he finished sending the report to Soundwave and Megatron. So far he kept track of all of the clones’ activity and it wasn’t anything promising. Several trines attempted to climb up the ranks by assassination, only to get caught and executed. Some of them turned against each other, reducing the numbers of the clones significantly. One trine was blindly loyal to Megatron and they grated against Starscream’s nervous systems more than his last and – in his opinion – weakest batch of clones did. He did not create them to be loyal to the bot they were supposed to assassinate. Fate truly had a distorted sense of humor.

He sat down on the floor inside his cabin and stared at the ceiling while trying to figure out where he went wrong with the cloning process. Or was it Voltdrive’s fault? That two-bit, glitch-ridden piece of scrap metal probably did something to the sparks or the coding. Starscream almost audibly growled when he thought about the other scientist. Thankfully he was now actually scrap metal, melting in a boiling pit that remained in the place of the cloning facility. If he could, Starscream would destroy Xiban IV itself just to erase evidence. Also to let out some steam. That would be good too.

As his head touched the wall he realized he needed to recharge. His energy levels were below the safe threshold. Looking at his chronometer though, he realized that his shift is not yet over. Not that he cared much. Being always on duty and having to watch how they behave were problems for common Seekers and bots, not a Commander. Starscream decided to go out for a short walk – maybe fly – around the ship to get the creeping exhaustion out of his system before actually going to recharge.

He passed by the infirmary while going to the hangar, and spotted his clone lying on a slab talking with Acid Storm and Nova Storm about something. The three seemed to have some sort of a somber conversation Starscream wanted nothing to do with. He saw Gambler muddling with a diagnostic station in the background, and assumed his clone is in a bad shape and the Rainmakers were there to give some sort of condolences. If someone would ask Starscream, he’d say good riddance.

He arrived at the hangar shortly after and an unfamiliar jolt of sorrow hit him when he did not see the three clones working on the equipment there or tinkering with the stasis pods. He did see Skywarp though, sitting on the edge of a ramp and looking out at the sky and Earth’s moon.

“Are you sleeping on the job, Captain?” Starscream tried to startle his trinemate but Skywarp just acknowledged his presence with a grunt.

“What do you want?”

Starscream sat down next to him and dangled his feet under the ramp.

“I was inspecting my troops. As their Air Commander, it’s my job to keep them on their toes or whatever they have instead of.”

“Uh-huh. Cool.”

“If you sounded a smidge more disinterested I might think that you don’t want to talk to me, Skywarp.”

“Nah… It’s just…”

Skywarp shrugged and finally deigned to look at his trinemate.

“You know, a wise bot once said to me “if you have a problem, sit on it and think.” So I’m doing that. Sitting and thinking.”

“Since I was the “wise bot” who told you this, would you elaborate on what your problem is? Not that I really care, just you know… For conversation.”

“I overheard something which keeps on popping up in my processor’s logical query over and over again. And I did some snooping around and found that the rumor bothering me is true.”

“What rumor?”

Skywarp turned his head towards his trinemate and back at the moon again.

“Starscream, I see your energy signature everywhere on the ship. Like you’re at multiple places at the same time. I thought it was just a glitch or something but it isn’t.”

“Maybe it is a glitch. You should go and see Gambler.”

“I know you think that I’m stupid, but I’m not that stupid. What did you do?”

This was a rare moment of Starscream feeling intimidated by his trinemate. Neither Thundercracker nor Skywarp evoked the same visceral terror in him that Megatron did so most of the time he defied their attempts at bullying him into doing things their way. Not today though. Skywarp didn’t appear to be threatening, yet his voice carried a demanding tone that was mixed with a hint of worry.

“What do you think I did?” He crossed his arms in front of his chassis.

“I know you for millions of stellar-cycles, and I know that now you’re stalling. You always had a knack for fantastic bad ideas, and I know that you had one recently. I figured the best way to find out what it was to ask you directly.” Skywarp elaborated.

“My so-called “fantastic bad ideas” are my burden to carry.”

“As is the inevitable clash with Megs that usually ends up with you in pieces?”

Now the intimidation gave way to rage. How dare he even mention that, when the last time it happened he didn’t do anything to prevent it? Or the time before? Or countless times before? Starscream fought back the venom from his vocalizer when he finally answered.

“If my plan will work, Megatron won’t raise a digit on me ever again.”

“Oh, yeah right. Where did I hear it before?”

“I will not stand for this interrogating any further.” The Air Commander snapped and began to stand.

“So you don’t tell me, because you don’t trust me.”

That one shot hit. Starscream sat back.

“We’ve known each other since the Academy, yet you still don’t trust me.” Skywarp rarely sounded offended or passionate about anything, so his voice full of bitterness grated against Starscream’s audioreceptor. “I went through a reformat to look like you, because I loved you and you still can’t muster a tiny sliver of trust for me. Or TC for that matter. Why?”

It was at the tip of his tongue. His vocalizer rebooted several times, the queue of things he wanted to say but didn’t dare seemed endless. After a few seconds that felt like eons with battling himself, Starscream donned his most arrogant face and forced his vocalizer into a neutral tone.

“I am your trine leader. My job is not to trust you or return your affection but to lead. And that is what I’m doing.”

This time he stood and turned and left the hangar while ignoring Skywarp’s sardonic quip directed at his back.

“That’s it, Screamer. Run away from reality to your delusions of grandeur and let others take the fall for your actions. As always.”

He couldn’t wait until his quarters’ door sealed shut behind him. Starscream leaned against it, trying to stop the violent shaking of his legs. He balled his hand to a fist and slammed it against the door. The battle inside his processor that started while he was talking with Skywarp was now a full-blown war. How could he tell him? How could he trust them after seeing them watching him getting hurt over and over again and just letting it happen? How, after all the time he showed himself to be strong and ambitious could he reveal what a weak and wretched creature he truly is? Maybe Megatron was right and he does not deserve to be loved or respected.

He slid down back to the floor and stared at the wall in a state of despair. His processor kept running on his dark thoughts and events way back in the past, thinking that maybe they were the reasons he was unable to open up even to the two bots he dared to call friends but only to himself. Maybe those things were responsible for seeing his clones as the helpless, weak fools they were. Starscream forced back the coolant welling up in his optics and the pain inside his spark. It wasn’t there. It was only imaginary, or information creep from when he went under the splicing process. He couldn’t afford to be weak. Love, compassion and all that junk were liabilities and characteristics of bots of a lesser kind. Kindness was a tool, as was the ability to charm bots to interface and share their secrets.

They didn’t matter in the end. Power was the only thing that mattered. And he will gain that by any means necessary. This was a lesson well taught to him by Megatron. A lesson written in his own energon. To think that long ago he was head over thrusters for the same bot that sent him nearly to oblivion on more occasions than Starscream wanted to count? What a fool he was. But he couldn’t resist the fire in his voice and the truth behind his words and back then he was unaware of the level of Megatron’s violent nature. And even that intrigued him. He loved to play with fire, so what if sometimes he got burned? He loved the game of cat and mouse they played over power and the dynamics between them. When the beatings became more severe and began to replace the games and the sarcastic banter; that was when Starscream learned to fear his “master”. That was the time when he began to think that what he says about him maybe true.

The sliding of his cabin’s door startled him out of his train of thoughts and made him shriek very ungracefully.

“What do you want?!”

Thundercracker stood in the doorway with optics wide open and feeling rather awkward.

“Uh… I just came to check on you. Skywarp said… Hey, what’s wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong.” Grated Starscream yet he didn’t turn to face his trinemate. “Leave me.”

“Have you been crying? Did he hurt you again? That’s why you don’t want me to see your face?”

“Get the frag out, Thundercracker!” Now he was yelling as loud as he could. The blue Seeker raised both hands and took a step backwards.

“All right, all right. I leave. But if you need help, just call.”

The door closed, yet Starscream still felt violated. Like if Thundercracker could read his processor like Soundwave did. Like he knew what a hoax he was.

Outside Thundercracker went back to the other Seeker leaning to the wall.

“You were right. He’s still upset by something. But how did you know?”

Ironstrike spread his arms in a way that indicated that he had no idea.

“I just know. Whenever he feels upset or is angry or is in pain, I feel it.”

He looked at the closed door then turned back to Thundercracker with a worried expression on his face.

“Do you think it’s because of the sample we gave him? Can it be something bad?”

“Nah. It’s something more personal.”

They stood in silence for a short while before Thundercracker speaking again.

“So you’re binary-bonded to him. That’s weird.”

“Why is that weird?”

“Because I’m his trinemate and my brother is his trinemate as well, and he isn’t bonded to any of us. Yet, here you are, fresh out of the assembly line and binary-bonded to your Commander.”

“What are you implying?”

Thundercracker scratched the back of his head and ushered the other bot to the cantina and sat down opposite of him before he continued to talk.

“Listen kid, I know that Starscream is a hot piece of metal. All the young Seekers want to be him or want to be with him. And I know the spawn of a glitch is charismatic too.”

Seeing the utter confusion written on Ironstrike’s face he tried to elaborate.

“It’s none of my business, who are you exchanging cables with, but please be careful. ‘Scream is not the type to settle. Also, if Megatron finds out, he’ll probably give you a lecture about fraternization on his own way, which might end up with you in the medbay. Just sayin’.”

Ironstrike still had no idea what Thundercracker was talking about, but he nodded like he understood.

“All right… I’ll try not to get tangled in his cables then.”

“Hey, as I said, it’s none of my business. Primus knows it might do him some good if he could just let down those damn firewalls for someone. The issue here is that you shouldn’t trust him.”

The younger Seeker nodded again. Thundercracker stood up to leave, and patted Ironstrike’s shoulder.

“I mean it kid. Don’t trust anyone. I’ll not use what I know of you against you, but other bots will. Be careful.”

“Thank you for believing me.”

TC chuckled and shook his head. The kid was unbelievable. Absolutely unfit to be on the Nemesis, let alone the Decepticon army. Just what in the name of Primus was going on in Screamer’s processor?

After the officer left Ironstrike stood up and left the cantina as well. He went to see how Solarwind was doing, and found her reading a datapad while the diagnostic station still ran tests on her system.

“Why look at you! Fresh as a burning train wreck!”

Hearing her brother’s voice, Solarwind put down the datapad and cast a disapproving glance at him.

“Ooh, the resting botface. Scary.” Ironstrike kept on teasing her.

“How come you didn’t rust to oblivion out there on that wet planet?”

“It’s not that wet. Besides, if I rust, you’ll be stuck here with your stuck-up brother, and no one would cheer you up after Starscream yodeled your self-worth to oblivion.”

Finishing his speech, Ironstrike hopped up to the slab next to his sister.

“I don’t know why, but your pitiful attempt at being funny is working.” She grinned.

“That’s why I’m here. To provide you with emotional support and terrible puns and one-liners. What better sibling you could ask for?”

Solarwind laughed for a short while before slapping Ironstrike with the datapad gently.

“So… would you tell me why your arm is still nowhere to be found and what that scary huge thing is number crunching about you?” He inquired.

“Gambler needs more parts for my arm, because he wants to strengthen it. I don’t really know about the diagnostic station, but Acid Storm was here and gave me this interesting datapad I would read if some noisy maintenance unit wouldn’t interrupt me.”

Ironstrike put his hands on his hips.

“Maintenance unit? Now that’s low.”

“Not as low as your intelligence level.” his sister stuck her tongue out at him. “Oh, if we’re talking about intelligence: did you find out what bothered our predecessor?”

“No, I didn’t. But it was true, he was distressed. Still is.”

“And why do I feel when he is distressed? How do I feel it?”

“It’s not just you, it’s me as well. Safe to say that Vigilante probably feels if Starscream is distressed too.” Ironstrike leaned closer to Solarwind and lowered his voice so only she could hear.

“I learned that we are binary-bonded to him. I don’t know what that means or what to do, but Thundercracker thought that I am bonded with Starscream because I find him hot or something… He said something about swapping cables too, but I swear to god I have no idea what good that would do for either of us.”

“So? What do we do?”

“Keep it a secret. Maybe I’m just paranoid because many other bots told me not to trust anyone, but I am more than willing to heed their advice. For whatever reason, Starscream didn’t tell anyone about us. That’s gotta be suspicious for anybot.”

Solarwind nodded.

“Well, it can’t be helped.” she vented “I hope there’s a way to control it. Feeling these waves of anguish and shame and sorrow are… ugh. I have my own, thank you.”

“I hear ya.” Ironstrike stood and prepared to leave. “Well, since you’re here being lazy and one-armed and such I also have to do your shift as well. So, I gotta go.”

“Pick up a cube on your way back! I can’t get to grab my rations, so someone should do it for me.”

Ironstrike nodded and left his sister to read her datapad. On his way to his post, he kept on thinking about everything he learned and tried to figure out whom to trust. He decided to have a chat with his brother as well before settling down with a solution.

Chapter Text

“Don’t tell me you don’t see it!” Ironstrike’s voice echoed through the Nemesis’ maintenance shaft. He and his fellow clone Vigilante were having an argument. As they always did lately.

“What you see as injustice, I see as a necessary evil to keep the unfit from our ranks.” Vigilante replied on a calm tone.

“Have you no sense of compassion? No regards for anyone else’s life but your own? What if it was me or Solarwind next time? Would you still think it was a “necessary evil”?”

Vigilante’s heavy vent betrayed his annoyance. He finally looked at his brother and saw the raised wings, the balled fists and the slight snarl all indicating his fury. The fool never learned how to mask his emotions.

“Of course I would. It is not about what’s good for me or you. We are here to serve a cause, one that serves our whole species’ survival. We can’t afford to let compassion for the weak cloud our judgment.”

The argument has blown up because of an event Ironstrike witnessed. It was the execution of a low-ranking Decepticon over stealing rations. The bot in question was a larger type – a tank of some sort as the Seeker could tell – and he tried to defend himself by stating that the current dosage of energon didn’t cover his basic needs in order to function. Regardless, he was shot, torn apart and then recycled for spare parts and energon. Megatron claimed it to be “a redistribution of goods” but Ironstrike saw it for what it was: a senseless, unnecessary murder over a tiny pink cube of fuel.

“You know what’s clouding your judgment? The scrap you have been fed your entire existence, which isn’t that much. It’s a shame, really.”

“Are you done being unreasonable, Ironstrike? Resorting to insults won’t change anything. Same as throwing things to the wall.”

“True, but it makes me feel better.”

The two sat in silence for a while, only the loud whirring of Ironstrike’s cooling fans making any noise.

“I can’t believe that you think it was something necessary.” He spoke again, shaking his head.

“I know that your processor is not capable of that, but at least try to see the bigger picture!” Vigilante sighed in annoyance again. “The private had to be executed to prevent others from making the same mistake. We don’t have much energon. We have to rely on our betters to decide the rations and have to make do with it to maintain order, because we have a war to win.”

“Because we are so totally equal.” Ironstrike sneered.

“We are. We are no longer being judged by our altmodes.” Vigilante riposted.

“Like the Pits we are. Have you seen this army? Us Seekers are treated like second-grade members, only the ground–based alts are faring worse. I do see the bigger picture brother dear, and it doesn’t look good. It looks like we are all expendable. So much for equality.”

Vigilante stood up.

“I’m done with this conversation. You don’t want to listen to reason, and I have neither the time nor the patience to listen to you anymore.”

He began to walk but stopped and turned back to his still sulking brother.

“What you are saying is treason. I should report you to Soundwave but I won’t on one condition: never talk like this again. Not to me, not to anyone.”

“Are you threatening me?” Ironstrike stood as well, and with two long strides he was facing his brother.

“No I do not. I am merely warning you. You’re my trinemate so I’m naturally more tolerant of your outbursts, but no one else will be. Keep up this slag and somebot will report you.”

“His name was Barrage.” Ironstrike said on a low voice. “You should remember it, for maybe the next one on the list will be yours. Decry my outrage as much as you want, but I know that between the two of us, I am the one who sees this mockery of a society for what it is. Peace cannot be reached through tyranny. That in itself is a lie.”

He pushed through the opening between Vigilante and the wall, knocking the other Seeker out of his way. Little did the two clones know about the pair of unsolicited audioreceptors listening on their conversation. And their owner had anything but benign intentions.

The hours were ticking by on a seemingly endless cadence for Solarwind. She got the diagnosis from Gambler after a long and embarrassing series of tests and examinations. She still couldn’t really wrap her head around it no matter how many times she read the text on the datapad.

“I’m afraid I don’t really understand…”

 Gambler leaned to the tool rack behind him and crossed his arms in front of his chassis.

“It’s a compatibility error caused by the circumstances of your creation. I don’t mean to be offensive, but I know you were constructed cold. Someone inserted a spark into the frame that became yours without checking for possible issues… And I can’t blame them for it’s a rare condition. It only affects one bot out of a million.”

“But what does it mean? Will I cease to function? I’ll just randomly shut down and that’s it?”

“If it goes untreated, you might indeed go offline again mid-flight and crash.”

Solarwind lowered her head and her wings mirrored her motion.

“So… what do I do now?”

She felt Gambler’s hand on her shoulder, and saw the medic stand next to her slab.

“According to my research into the database from before the war – at least what’s left of it – the best recourse would be a reformat. A completely new frame was proven to solve the problem with nearly all of the bots who reported the issue.”

Solarwind looked down on herself and then back at Gambler.

“And how would I get a new frame?”

“See, this is the real problem here.” Gambler vented heavily. “Back then I could do it with one of my optics offline, but now that we barely have any medical supplies, and we’re in the middle of a war…”

He shrugged and frowned.

“Sorry. I can’t help you any further. Besides, I just got the order from the higher-ups that I will be transferred. They only need Hook on board and they are sending all other medics to other warships or stations throughout this planet. We’re spreading out.”

Solarwind felt her spark skip a beat. Something was definitely brewing.

“Do you have any idea why? Or you can’t tell…”

Gambler finished Solarwind’s medical report before answering her.

“To be honest, I don’t really know. I only have a guess that we are going from phase one of the Infiltration protocol to phase two. Ending observation and beginning to use the ongoing tensions among the planet’s natives to escalate to a full-blown war between them.”

“That means we’ll be seeing more action then.” Solarwind vented bitterly. She wouldn’t confess it to anyone, but she was afraid. From what she gathered out of the data she had access to, the planet they were now covertly invading was a frightening one filled with organic lifeforms ranging from nearly as large as a Cybertronian to microscopic scale. To think that tiny organics could infest her merely by flying around in the atmosphere was enough to send her systems into kernel panic.

“Well, you’re clear for flight now.” Gambler asserted and let Solarwind stand up from her slab. “But be careful! No heroic nonsense while out there, you hear me? I won’t be here to patch you up, and I wouldn’t trust Hook with assembling a peg let alone fixing injured bots. To be fair, I doubt he was ever near medical Academy.”

Solarwind nodded and turned to leave but a turn of phrase kept on recycling in her logical queries.

“Um… A peg is made of a single piece.” She commented.

“Exactly my point.” Gambler riposted while welding the plating of an offline bot. Solarwind decided not to dwell on it and left.

She immediately began to search the ship for her brother. Not that they didn’t talk every single day since she was confined to the medbay, but it wasn’t the same as being close to her trinemates all the time. Much to Solarwind’s surprise, other Seekers noticed her presence and greeted her as she passed them. Slipstream even mentioned that her new arms looked better on her than her previous ones. Acid Storm and Nova Storm just nodded at her direction while she crossed the corridor next to their quarters and arrived at the one she shared with her own trinemates.

Not knowing whether he is on duty or at recharge, Solarwind hoped to find Ironstrike in their shared cabin, but as the door opened, she found an unpleasant surprise.

“Back with us?” Starscream inquired on his usual semi-annoyed tone, while reclining on the single chair the trine had in their living quarters. “Good.”

Seeing that the monochromatic Seeker froze in the doorway he inclined his head towards the recharge slab.

“Sit. Your trinemates should be home any klik now.”

Solarwind stepped inside the small cabin and let the door close behind her. She tried to give her creator as wide a berth she could in the enclosed space before uneasily sitting down on the edge of Ironstrike’s slab.

“What are you…” She tried to ask but then they both heard the lock beeping as it recognized another of the quarter’s residents. Ironstrike stepped inside and froze in place like his sister did at the sight of Starscream.

“Two out of three.” The Air Commander quipped. “I wonder where the reliable one is.”

Vigilante pressed himself inside through the space between his brother and the doorway and dragged Ironstrike in before locking the door.

“Now that we are all gathered here into this nice family meeting, I would like you three to know that your very existence depends on your answer to my next question.” Starscream sounded unusually grave and his voice carried a tension that made all of his clones sure about his intentions to actually kill them if they don’t comply. He stood up and waved Vigilante away from his brother’s vicinity before reaching out and grabbing Ironstrike’s shoulder.

“How long you two knew about him being a closet-Autobot?”

“They didn’t…” Ironstrike began but was cut off by Starscream.

“Shut up, I’m not asking you. I’m asking them.”

Vigilante answered first.

“I had suspicions about his true nature, sir. But I had no solid proof until very recently.”

Solarwind wanted to stay out of it, but the piercing gaze of Starscream’s crimson optics bore into her.

“I don’t… I don’t even know what you’re talking about, Creator.”

“I won’t fall for the “playing cute” tactic, I do it all time.” Starscream asserted. “So? How long did you know?”

She cast a desperate look at Ironstrike before burying her face behind her hands.

“Ever since he began to talk.”

She felt coolant welling up in her optics and trailing down on her faceplate. She betrayed her brother and now he will die because of it.

Starscream turned back to Ironstrike.

“What were you thinking?!”

He slammed the clone into the wall for emphasis.

“Are you trying to get all of us killed? I should end you right here and now, but you are lucky.”

Ironstrike thought his audioreceptors are malfunctioning. His trinemates felt the same.

“Are you not going to kill us then?” Solarwind sniffled.

“I should.” Starscream spat “Primus knows I should reduce all three of you to slag, but I need something taken care of. And I thought you could do the job.”

“What do you require of us, sir?” Vigilante inquired at once, making Starscream almost forget his rage and disgust of his clones. But only almost.

“After snooping around in Soundwave’s reports, I found an interesting morsel. A piece of information that could be used in my favor and so in yours.”

“We await your orders, sir.”

Starscream looked at Ironstrike still struggling inside his grasp.

“See? He knows his place in the world. Why can’t you be like him?”

“Because you made me to be like you!” The clone spat back and freed himself from the Air Commander’s clutches.

“Don’t remind me.” Starscream grumbled. “Anyway… The interesting morsel is about a bot named Gearshift. Soundwave has proof that this lowly supplier is actually a spy. He’s working for the Autobots and was inserted into our ranks back on Cybertron. He’s out of luck, lost contact with his buddies when the Ark crashed, and now he’s probably desperate to find a way off the Nemesis.”

He threw a datapad onto the slab next to Solarwind. She picked it up and showed the contents to Vigilante while Starscream continued.

“But that would be an unfortunate event. So it is up to you to find and stop Gearshift from getting off the ship and reaching his contacts. You shall work with whoever you need and use whatever means necessary to succeed.”

He turned back to Ironstrike and was talking directly to him.

“This is your last chance. Prove to me that you are worthy of being my Seeker. Fail and I will personally tear your wings off and kick you out the airlock.”

He walked out of the cabin but turned back to Solarwind from the doorway.

“And you! Stop sniffling like a protoform! You’re a war machine, a weapon made for destruction of an enormous scale! Don’t weep!”

After the door finally shut behind Starscream, Solarwind ran to Ironstrike and embraced him as much as their frames allowed. Vigilante shook his head and left them with mumbling something along the lines of “pathetic fools” before disappearing somewhere inside the ship.

“Hush, sweetspark.” Ironstrike whispered in his sister’s audioreceptor. “Don’t weep indeed… Not because it makes you weak, but because he doesn’t deserve it. Not a drop of your cooling fluid or fuel.”

“What are we gonna do?”

Ironstrike was thinking for a moment before answering.

“I think we don’t really have a choice…”

He stood, helping Solarwind up as well.

“We have no time to waste. We got to find Gearshift before anyone else does.”

“Do you really want to kill him to get into Starscream’s good graces?” Solarwind asked bitterly.

“No. We’re going to help him get off the Nemesis, and find the Autobots on one condition: he takes us with him.”

It came as another surprise when Ironstrike was approached by Laserlight the next day, while he was cockpit deep in Gearshift’s service records.

“Interesting fella, isn’t he?”

Ironstrike nearly activated his thrusters and jumped up a level through the ceiling.

“Uh… Yeah, I was ordered to keep an optic on him.”

“Why is that?”

“Classified.”

Laserlight cast a hundred-Watt smile at Ironstrike and crossed his arms in front of his dark red chassis.

“Oh really? No name private yesterday and now you’re working on a classified case? What did you do to Starscream to get promoted so fast?”

“Mostly annoy him.” Ironstrike mirrored the other Seeker’s grin. “Go ahead and give it a shot, maybe you’ll get a classified case too.”

He turned back to the data-console and added

“Or maybe he’ll just toss you out the airlock.”

Laserlight chuckled but he didn’t leave. He pinged Ironstrike’s inner comm. system and sent a message.

<<”Remember the lengthy note you sent me the other solar-cycle? The one where you so generously offered your audiosensors in case I wanted to cry? Well, turns out I might need your help. And maybe I can give you some info on Gearshift. What do you say?”>>

Ironstrike pretended to ignore Laserlight while he saved every single document and evaluation about the alleged Autobot spy and sent a message back.

<<”I don’t know if I can trust you.”>>

<<”Neither do I. We have to fly blind in this case I guess.”>>

Before Ironstrike could answer, Laserlight grabbed him and pulled him into a nook and whispered “Open!” into his audiosensor. Not knowing what’s going on, Ironstrike obeyed, and opened his chassis to show his spark-casing and interface ports. Laserlight pulled a thin cable out of his casing and inserted it into one of the other bot’s ports. Before everything went dark, Ironstrike noticed several bots patrolling the area but leaving them be.

It was a weird sensation, seeing another bot’s inner system, even if only the most superficial part of it. Laserlight nudged Ironstrike’s firewall with a request to connect and he let it.

<<Well, now we’re alone.>>

Indeed. They were inside the two-way datastream where no other bots could eavesdrop on them unless they too were connected. Ironstrike felt like a fool for not realizing sooner why Decepticon high-command frowned upon “fraternization” among soldiers. Soundwave couldn’t see or hear anything that went on between two bots that were connected this way.

<<You know why I’m after Gearshift, aren’t you?>>

<<I only know what you are willing to show me. But I see that this is new for you. Have you never interfaced with anyone before?>>

<<Rude. But also, no. Is it always this weird?>>

<<Aww, I was your first! Don’t worry, you’ll get used to it. Just stay away from Mnemosurgeons… Those bots can alter your mind as much as I heard.>>

On the outside, Laserlight’s hands ran up to Ironstrike’s wings and he ran his digits over their edge, making the younger bot shiver.

<<I can see your code! And also… Laserlight… You’re working with Gearshift?!>>

Ironstrike jumped into the other Seeker’s arms both figuratively and literally.

<<Easy there, big bot. And who knew that you want to switch sides… And…>>

It was Laserlight’s turn to go pale and get shocked.

<<And you’re a clone. I’m basically interfacing with Starscream 2.0…>>

<<Don’t remind me… You see how much I hate him, and that the feeling is mutual. Help me! We have to find Gearshift and escape together.>>

The hesitation was clearly written in the code of the other bot. Ironstrike pressed as close to him in the physical world as he could to match the effort of his mind trying to reach him.

<<I let you in. You can see it for yourself that I’m not lying. I don’t belong here.>>

Laserlight went through all of the data he could before Ironstrike pushed him out of his system. He knew everything he needed to know. The clone was safe to trust.

“Look at you! You can barely stand after that overload.” Laserlight jested while he steadied the shaking Ironstrike. Now they were back in the world of omnipresent optics and audiosensors.

“Is it always like this?” Ironstrike queried after trusting his vocalizer enough to speak.

“Just the first time.” The older Seeker’s lips stretched into a cheeky grin. “And my, I have been told to give bots the shakes before but you sweetspark, is a whole new level. We really should repeat it some time.”

Ironstrike understood the implication and grinned back.

“Your quarters. Next time you’re off-duty.”

“I’ll make sure my trinemates won’t bother us.” Laserlight turned to leave and slapped Ironstrike’s rear plate.

They had to wait longer than their next off-duty hours though. Orders came and bots were deployed in numbers that left the Nemesis with only a skeleton crew and high-command. Only a handful of Seekers were kept on board, everyone else was hiding among the many countries’ many air forces. Some of the bots with ground based altmodes such as Barricade were planted inside police forces. He almost instantly reported Autobot activity. It seemed like they had an infiltration protocol of their own.

The Constructicons were building bases all over the world but most importantly in a place called Oregon and in another called Brasnya. And it was the latter where Gearshift was assigned to, so that was where Ironstrike wanted to go as well. Sadly, fate had other plans.

He got a message from Laserlight calling him to dock 47 to meet. Ironstrike was suspicious so he sent a note to his sister with the information about where he’s going. Either it was a trap or they found a way to contact Gearshift. His feet made an echoing noise as he ran through the near-empty corridor leading to the elevator going to the docking area. The descent was so slow he wanted to jump out into the elevator shaft and fly to his destination instead. Ever since he began to work on finding Gearshift his system was on high-alert. The elevator stopped and Ironstrike stepped off from the platform to go and find his partner in crime.

He bumped into another bot instead. Fear nailed his feet to the ground as he recognized the owner of the set of trackwheels and cannon he was staring at. Megatron turned around and cast a disapproving look at the nuisance.

“Watch where you’re going, Seeker!”

“Apologies, sir. I didn’t see you.”

“Soldier, why did you leave your designated post?”

If seeing Megatron filled the clone with fear, hearing the trademark monotone of Soundwave made his energon freeze in his fuel vessels.

“I…” He wished he could conjure up lies on the spot as fast as his creator did. But then the thought of his creator gave Ironstrike an idea. He rebooted his vocalizer and answered as confidently as he could. “I am doing errands for Air Commander Starscream, sir. The order came from him personally.”

Megatron and Soundwave exchanged looks and the warlord shooed Ironstrike away.

“Off you go then.” He turned back to his Communications Officer and grumbled “I think I’ll have to have a little chat with Starscream about sending troops anywhere on a whim.”

“Starscream probably has an agenda of his own.”

“Oh, he always does.”

“Be careful, Lord Megatron.”

“I’ll try not to send him to the medbay this time.”

“Strategy: stick to sarcasm and badly veiled insults?”

Megatron vented and spread his arms while turning towards the elevator platform Ironstrike came with.

“The keyword here is “try”, Soundwave. I can’t promise anything.”

Ironstrike waited until the platform took both commanders out of sight and hearing range then he sent a message to Laserlight over their inner comm. system.

<<I’m here, where are you?>>

After a short time that felt like eons, he got a reply.

<<In the back under the dropship. I tried to avoid detection by Soundwave.>>

It felt like a whole mountain was lifted from his spark. Ironstrike ran towards the destination on full speed, disregarding the pain and error messages warning him of the damage he did to his thruster.

Soon he saw the familiar red paintjob he began to fancy.

<<Hey, slow down speed demon! The whole docking bay echoes from your steps.>>

Ironstrike grinned at Laserlight as he stopped next to him.

“I can’t help it. I wanted to see you as soon as I could.”

The red Seeker laughed.

“Oh, did I make that good of a first impression on you?”

“Definitely.”

Laserlight reached out and pulled Ironstrike into an embrace. The unexpected sound of somebot rebooting their voice box startled them and made them separate.

“Excuse me, are we interrupting something?”

Ironstrike once again felt the energon freeze in his vessels. Vigilante showed up next to them from under the shadow of another dropship. Behind him walked a distraught Solarwind, casting an apologetic look at her brother.

“What are you doing here?”

Despite his best effort, Ironstrike’s voice was filled with badly veiled tension.

“Our sister was worried. I offered to help her looking for you, if she told me where you went.”

A message came through the inner comm. system from Solarwind.

<<He’s lying. I didn’t ask for his help. He forced me to tell him where you are. Please do something!>>

“If I knew it was only a tryst, I wouldn’t even bother.” Vigilante sneered.

“It’s not only a simple date.” Ironstrike forced his voice to sound even. “I have information about the Autobot spy we are looking for.”

While talking, he squeezed Laserlight’s hand and sent him a message.

<<Play along! My sister is safe but my brother isn’t. Help me fool him into thinking we are capturing Gearshift.>>

<<Fine. And then?>>

<<I don’t know… Shoot him on first opportunity.>>

Laserlight let him go and crossed his arms in front of his chassis.

“Actually I am the one who knows about Gearshift’s whereabouts. And as a matter of fact, I invited him here as well. Don’t blow it kid. I know your brother, and we were working on this case together for a while, but you’re nobot to me. Screw this up, and you’ll pay.”

Vigilante pulled his olfactory sensor up but other than a scoff, he didn’t comment.  Solarwind stood next to Ironstrike, leaving the other clone.

“So, we’ll wait?”

“Not for long.” Laserlight answered her and nodded towards the elevator platform, which was moving again. A short, stocky bot came down with it, and hurried towards their direction.

“It’s showtime everybot.” Laserlight turned to the clones again. “Act like you’re about to betray your faction.”

The small grounder stopped next to the group of Seekers and made a whistling sound.

“Quite the welcoming committee you assembled here, Laserlight.”

“Well, turned out that we’re smuggling more than one bot out tonight.”

Gearshift vented loudly and turned to the clones.

“Listen here: this whole thing is very tricky. We have to avoid patrols and have to get down to the planet without anybot noticing the dropship is missing. Laserlight and I have a trick for that, but with all this fuss about Megs initiating Phase two, it’s near impossible to do. We have to wait.”

Ironstrike swallowed the knot forming in his fuel intake and shook his head.

“No. We have to go now. We are in danger.”

Gearshift’s pistons hissed and he made a grumbling laughter.

“We are all in danger, Seeker. I will not risk my plating if I can’t be sure if it’s worth it.”

“I have an idea.” Solarwind inserted “All of us can fly but you. We don’t need the dropship. You just have to hold on to one of us while we descend.”

The smaller bot hummed and scratched his chin.

“That might work. But which one of you is willing to take on the extra weight? No offense, but you flyers are way too sensitive machinery.”

“It could work if two of us carry you down.” Laserlight added “We have a safety harness and chains, you could be strapped to me and Ironstrike.”

“I don’t like it one bit, but if you’re in such a hurry…” Gearshift shrugged. Ironstrike wanted to tell him that actually he is the one they are in such a hurry for. Somewhere in the back of his spark he had a bad feeling.

A few minutes later the safety harness and corresponding chains were all added to Gearshift and the two jets who changed into their altmodes. Solarwind and Vigilante also changed forms and flew in front of the other three. The extra weight of the Autobot indeed sent some warnings and error messages to both Seekers’ HUDs, but it wasn’t that significant to cause much trouble.

While descending towards a place filled with organic plant life Ironstrike had time to analyze the data his sensors picked up from the atmosphere. He couldn’t see the environment with his optics as opposed to his root form, but what he gathered from the readings he found to be fascinating. It wasn’t the first time he flew over the Earth’s surface, but now he actually paid attention to it.

<<It’s a beautiful place.>>

He sent a message to Laserlight.

<<I know. But let’s focus on getting Gearshift down in one piece before he breaks both of us in two. We’ll have plenty of time for sightseeing later, sweetspark.>>

Solarwind and Vigilante turned in the air and began to fly to a clearing before changing back to root mode and descending. After slowly putting Gearshift down to the ground the other two Seekers transformed as well, and immediately began to get rid of the harness and chains.

“So, we’re here. Now what?” Ironstrike inquired after throwing the unneeded gear into the bushes.

“We wait.” Gearshift replied. “Let’s find a suitable place to hide. It’s only a question of time before they realize we’re gone and send some other Seekers to find us.”

“No need.”

All optics turned to Vigilante, who stood confidently while the sound of another pair of engines could be heard.

“Gearshift, Laserlight you are under arrest for treason.”

Another pair of Seekers landed next to Vigilante. Laserlight felt a pang in his spark when he recognized his trinemates, Thunderwave and Skyraider. The latter held a communicator he handed over to the clone.

“We found the spies, sir. How shall we dispose of them?”

They all heard the gravelly voice of Megatron answering.

“Excellent. Do as you see fit, private. The DJD is en route to collect the traitors.”

 “Gearshift, run!” Laserlight yelled at his partner and the little Autobot didn’t need a second warning. He changed modes and speeded away.

Vigilante turned his head towards his new allies.

“Thunderwave, get him!”

“Don’t you dare move!” Laserlight shot into the blue jet’s direction. Skyraider went after Gearshift in  his trinemate’s stead.

Solarwind froze and cast a conflicted look at Ironstrike.

<<If we run, we’ll be hunted and shot down. I’m sorry…>>

She backed away and stopped next to her other brother.

“We tricked Laserlight into thinking we’re switching sides. We are not traitors, Vigilante, you have to believe me!”

The dark blue jet sneered at her.

“I am inclined to believe you, sister dear. But what about Ironstrike? We both know that he has… Troublesome ideals to say the least.”

Laserlight squeezed Ironstrike’s hand for the last time before punching him in the face.

 “You spawn of a gun, you tricked me!”

“No, I…”

The message coming in unison with the punch cut the objection in the clone’s processor before it could form.

<<Play along! I’m trying to save you!>>

<<I can’t. I’m willing to die for what I believe in.>>

<<Idiot… The DJD is coming for us. And believe me, you don’t want to die by their hands. They are the worst of the worst, handpicked by Megatron himself. I’d rather someone shoot me before they get here.>>

“You’re right.” Ironstrike finally spoke out loud “I tricked you. I had one last chance to prove my loyalty to my creator, and I did.”

Laserlight backed away from him, and Ironstrike ran to the other side. He couldn’t bear to look at the red Seeker.

<<I’m sorry Laserlight…>>

<<It’s not your fault. Please remember me.>>

Skyraider returned and dropped something to the ground. It was Gearshift’s upper half, with his Deceptibrand having a hole shot in the middle of it.

“One down, how many to go?” The crimson Seeker raised his null-ray and aimed it at Laserlight.

“Only that one it seems.” Vigilante deadpanned. He turned towards his brother with a look on his faceplate indicating he still didn’t believe him.  

Laserlight flew away and both his former trinemates and Vigilante went after him. Ironstrike stayed where he stood.

“They’re going to kill him.” Solarwind whispered. “Oh god, what have we done…”

Back on the Nemesis, watching a vlog sent to Megatron by the DJD, Ironstrike wished he could have been stronger and could shoot Laserlight instead of what he had to go through before he was deactivated. He and his siblings were present on Starscream’s request, insisting he wanted his soldiers to see the footage of the execution “for educational purposes”. Solarwind got sick halfway through and Thundercracker escorted her to the medbay. Seeing the brutal dismemberment of the bot he came close to and hearing his screams while he was melted alive was almost too much to bear for Ironstrike as well, but he forced himself to watch the whole thing in order to remember. He knew that the music the huge purple tank played while pulling out Laserlight’s optics will haunt him forever.

When it was over, he practically fled as soon as he heard Megatron utter the word “dismissed”. He wandered around the ship aimlessly until he found himself standing on the wing of the Nemesis, looking down at the deep blue ocean beneath. Despite Laserlight’s last message, he did blame himself. It was all his fault, he should have been so much more careful. Also he should have tossed his brother out the airlock long ago.

His comm. began to beep but Ironstrike ignored it for as long as he was able to. After the fourth time it began to ring, he picked it up.

“What do you want, Starscream?”

“I wish to speak with you in private.”

“What could I possibly say to you, or the other way around?”

“I see your position. Stay there and wait for me. I don’t need Soundwave to hear what we’re talking about.”

“Fine.”

He indeed waited for his Air Commander to show up, if only out of curiosity.

Starscream sat beside his clone and stared down at the vast body of water with him before speaking.

“You know, there’s a thing called “free falling” some bots used to play before I banned it. It’s a game of trust one usually plays with his trinemates or such. You begin to fall from the sky in your root mode optics offline, no thrusters or engines engaged until you are on the lowest altitude where it’s safe to fly. Then you either transform in time or you rely on your friends to tell you that you’re too low.”

Ironstrike stayed silent, he didn’t even look at his creator.

“It usually ended with bots crashing and burning. Attachments come with great costs, Ironstrike. I was hoping that you will find out on your own. I’m sorry you had to learn it the hard way.”

“If I promise to think about your “life lesson” will you leave?”

Starscream cocked his head to the side and sneered.

“Look at that EM field! You’re seething with rage. Good. Use it against our enemies, and nothing will stop you!”

“Oh, don’t you worry, I know who my enemies are. And I definitely intend to use all my hate and rage and vengeance against them. I’m just waiting for a chance.”

Ironstrike still haven’t turned to face his creator. He knew that if he did, his optics would betray him. He felt Starscream patting him on the back and his shadow was cast over the clone as he stood up to leave.

“From now on, your position among the Decepticons is a stable one. If anyone crosses you, they cross me. Take this harsh lesson to spark my hatchling, and you’ll be stronger.”

Days blurred together into monotonous working hours. Ironstrike at least had no time to think. He avoided everyone including his own siblings, and ignored even the most desperate attempt of communication by Solarwind. He didn’t blame his sister, he just didn’t want her to know what he was planning. He didn’t have the chance to act on it, but he decided to be patient. Ironstrike was sure that one of these days an opportunity will rise for him to get revenge for Laserlight. His first target would be his own brother for it was long overdue. Then he’ll find Thunderwave. Then Skyraider. Then he’ll find an Autobot outpost and turn himself in, hoping they won’t shoot him on sight. The plan was ready and it had to work, for he didn’t have any other choice he could live with.

Fate once again threw a wrench into the machine when one of the underground bases in Oregon was discovered by humans. Megatron was there, and though he managed to escape and possibly kill all trespassers, he ordered the infiltration protocol to be off entirely. Now it was open season for any and all Autobots and no one cared if humans got in the crossfire. Ironstrike’s plan had to wait.

“They’re going to deploy us to defend the second base.” Solarwind informed her brothers after a briefing she was lucky to eavesdrop into. “Runabout reported increased activity by the natives as well.”

“They have all the heavy hitters there. Why do they need us?” Ironstrike grumbled.

“Skywarp and Blitzwing are injured and Starscream requested backup. He also mentioned something about a Siege Mode, but I couldn’t make out anything more.”

“We’ll see when we get there.” Vigilante asserted coldly. “Until then, you two better behave and don’t do anything rash.”

The order came not long after. They were about to leave with the last of the Seekers serving on the Nemesis. Seeing the war-torn areas where once were lush green vegetation made Ironstrike feel even more bitter. Tensions escalated between human factions in the past decades. Many parts of the planet were at war, and on those parts, one or two more vehicles clashing and shooting at each other didn’t even make the news.

They were near the Oregon base, the one that had been found by the locals when the other jets came. All identical to their altmodes, but piloted by organic creatures.

“Hostiles ahead.” Ironstrike reported from his brother’s right.

“I see them. Spread out and get them!”

They split up and began to play chase with the human controlled jets. They dodged missiles and returned fire like a deadly dance. But as with all dances, it couldn’t last forever.

Ironstrike awaited for the perfect chance for years now. It seemed now he has it. If only he could get rid of the opposition first… He shot one of the enemy jets, but he didn’t have time to shoot Vigilante. Someone else was a little faster. The missile tearing off his brother’s wing wasn’t an ordinary one. Yet it came from a jet controlled by another human. As he was spiraling down, Vigilante was shot with another missile and this time it must have hit an energon line for the Seeker blew up to tiny shreds of molten metal. Solarwind’s scream assaulted Ironstrike’s comm. in unison with his brother’s but lasted longer.

He knew he should be feeling good. One item from his list was off, yet he felt only grief and horror. So much that he stopped firing. His shock gave an opportunity for another of the jets to aim and fire at him, peppering his hull with holes and injuring his wing, causing him to lose altitude with high velocity.

For a short moment Ironstrike remembered his conversation with Starscream from years ago about the free falling game. He was now going to crash and burn, and he knew that he can do nothing to prevent it.

The impact forced him back to his root mode and Ironstrike had a moment to wonder how in the Universe is he still alive but his targeting system alerted him for several vehicles approaching him fast. He didn’t have a chance. The first harpoon hit him on his injured wing and sent a jolt of electricity that made him cry out in pain. The second made him fall to his knees, and the third put so much strain on his systems that he went into stasis lock. He saw a large group of humans gathering around him before he shut down.

Solarwind found herself alone surrounded by enemy jets and rockets flying in her general direction. With both her brothers dead, she made a decision she hoped will prove to be the prudent one: she retreated. After several long minutes of trying to outfly and lose the humans she succeeded in crash-landing in front of Starscream’s base. Thundercracker and Slipstream escorted her to the Commander to give her reports. Solarwind had no idea how she could stay focused and collected enough to do it, but it seemed like her escorts saw through her calm disguise and convinced Starscream to give her a moment to regain her composure.

After she gave her report, she was left alone by the busy crew of the base. Solarwind had to face the hard reality of losing both of her siblings and failing her creator in every way possible alone. The small cube of energon she was nursing might as well be her last supper. How could it all go so wrong so fast? How come no one warned them about the humans and their new weapons?

She couldn’t even recharge because all she did was toss and turn on her slab. Though there wasn’t anything indicating that Starscream was going to harm her, Solarwind felt a sort of uneasiness and impending doom over her that kept her systems on edge all the time. After a long week of boiling in her own juices, she finally snapped and barged into Starscream’s quarters.

The Air Commander was surprised to see his creation in the doorway, but more surprised to learn why she was there.

“I’m not going to kill you.” He frowned “I need every bot I can gather, so now it’s not the time for petty revenge. Yes, I am aware that you have failed me and that your siblings are gone. Be at peace my sparkling. You’re safe. For now.”

It took this long for Solarwind to finally lose control and began to cry while she slid down to the ground next to the door. Starscream closed it and helped her up to guide her into the only chair he had next to his work station and recharge slab.

“I know that being alone without your siblings is a horrible thing to bear. I gave you time to heal, but it seems like you need more.”

The most Solarwind could manage in response was to nod her head. She stopped crying the next moment for what happened was so unexpected it shocked her out of her emotional state. Starscream pulled her into his arms.

“They’re gone. The only thing you can do now is remember them. Take your time and feel the sorrow but don’t let it consume you. When the pain fades, there will be anger. Hold onto it like a lifeline, and turn it against those who wronged you. I told the same to your brother before, and now I’m telling this to you. It sure helped me to survive, and it can help you as well.”

He let go of his clone to look her in the optics.

“I’m not a generous bot, Solarwind. I rarely give others anything but scorn. I hoped that you three knew that I valued you… Well, I came to. Eventually. You are needed, even if you don’t feel like it.”

She leaned her head back to the nook of his neck. For one unimaginable cycle, Starscream’s embrace felt like home.

“You will be reassigned to the Harbinger. Far from this planet’s surface. I don’t expect it to be called to battle soon, so the most you will have to do is building space bridges.”

“Why are you sending me away?” Solarwind sniffled. “You are all what’s left for me.”

There was a long pause before Starscream finally let go of her and took back his cold mask.

“I need warriors. And you aren’t one.”

Seeing her devastated look he added on a softer tone.

“I could make a soldier out of you, my Pretty Poison*… But I don’t want to. Better if you’re away from all this.”

She accepted her fate without any other word. Actually, Solarwind felt relief when she travelled through the space bridge leading away from the planet which became her siblings’ grave. Life on the Harbinger wasn’t much different from the one she got used to aboard the Nemesis. For the first time after everything had happened, she felt she could move on.

Chapter Text

Skywatch HQ, Undisclosed Location somewhere in the US, September 1984.

The jeep stopped abruptly, ending the train of thought of the woman sitting in the back seat. She dug a magnetic card out of her purse and got out of the vehicle, showing it to the grim looking men armed to the teeth standing guard at the gate. After they let her pass, she proceeded into the facility that spanned out in the area for miles. They had their own airport of some sort, judging by the hangars and jets. The sight of the airplanes made her think of her husband, a fighter pilot. They just had their little daughter about a month and a half ago. Grace wouldn’t even come if Director Beller wouldn’t insist on her presence.

But here she was, walking down the long corridor leading to her boss’ office. Grace stopped and looked out one of the huge glass panels facing the airport of the complex, thinking about her family again. It was the break of dawn on a Saturday, and she just left without as much as a word. She barely had time to call her mother to ask her to look after little Reese for the day. Grace took a deep breath and fixed her blonde hair looking at her reflection in the window before continuing to the Director’s office. After a short knock, she heard an assertive “come in”, so she opened the door and faced the person responsible for her inconvenience.

Director Josephine Beller – Josie for her friends, but since she had few and far between, not many people referred to her as such, and it also didn’t fit the stern and rather grim looking young woman standing in front of Grace – greeted her with a firm handshake and gestured for Grace to sit down in front of her desk.

“Welcome to Skywatch, Agent Harvey. I’m glad you could come.”

“Your men didn’t really leave me any choice.”

“Sorry about that. But as you will see I didn’t request your presence for nothing.”

She turned away from the agent and began to walk around as she spoke.

“We came in possession of an asset which requires your expertise.”

“I am no longer working as a computer scientist.”

“I know.” Beller stopped next to Grace  “And I wouldn’t tear you away from your family if it wouldn’t be something important, Mrs. Harvey. Believe me when I say that this is something big.”

Grace studied the Director’s features for a while. Her angular face, neatly cropped ginger hair and her gaze that seemed glacial even if she was smiling. Somehow she reminded Harvey of an android from a science fiction movie. Rumor had it she indeed had some sort of cybernetic implant that gave her the ability to walk and move again after a catastrophic accident rendered her paralyzed from the neck down just after she finished high-school. According to her service record, Beller was an engineer and praised technological genius before she ended up with Skywatch, and this fact made Harvey even more suspicious about her reasons for calling her.

“Forgive me Director, but I’m still not convinced.”

“Let me show it to you then.” Josephine took a glance at her decorative watch on her left wrist “It’s almost time for the disassembly.”

She motioned the other woman to follow and stepped out of the office. She led the agent deep into the facility, to a large building that looked like some sort of factory with an assembly line and what seemed to be a slightly damaged F14 Tomcat fighter jet. Harvey almost made a quip about the jet being in service for quite some time, but what happened next made her objections disappear.

The assembly line came online after the Director nodded and signaled one of the workers operating it from behind a glass wall. The jet began to change form into something Harvey only saw in one of those Japanese cartoons before: A robot the size of a building. It also spoke or at least emitted mechanical noises and chirps and clicks that reminded her of speech patterns because of their cadence and repetition.

“What is that?” Harvey turned towards the younger woman.

“That’s something we intend to find out.”

The robot silenced and it looked like it was listening on the two women talking in front of it. Then it spoke again, but this time Harvey understood every word.

“I surrender. Please cease hostilities. I mean no harm.”

“Impressive.” Beller noted “It couldn’t speak before, only make those weird noises you heard. I wonder if it tried to communicate with us, or tried to reach someone else.”

Harvey took a step backwards when the robot tried to get up, but it was restrained by chains and sturdy cables tying it to place.

“I surrender!” It kept on repeating over and over. Grace would swear she heard fear in the voice of the creature.

“Open it up!” The Director ordered and the assembly line began to weld and cut the plating of the robot, which – to Harvey’s utter horror – began to scream and beg for them to stop.

“I tell you anything!” It cried while a hook pried open its torso and others peeled away the plating from his arms and legs. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know, just please stop!”

 “Do you understand me?” Beller asked the robot while skirting the assembly line to get into the focus of the prisoner’s sensors.

“Yes.”

“Good. You will tell me everything I want to know. Who made you, who sent you here, how many more of you are, and most importantly: How can we kill all of you. And you wouldn’t even have to say a word.”

She turned and climbed a set of stairs followed by Agent Harvey and the screams of the creature. When they reached the next floor, Harvey looked back at the assembly line and saw that the floor was flooded with a purplish-bluish glowing liquid leaking from the robot as it was dismembered.

“Shouldn’t we stop this? It really looks like it’s in pain.”

“It’s a machine. It can’t feel a thing.” Beller dismissed the agent’s worries. “It must be a convincing and quite disturbing defense mechanism or programming to prevent anyone from opening it and examine the inner machinery.”

“It begs us to stop, like it thinks we are torturing it for information. Who made such a defense mechanism or program… It’s… Sick.”

The Director picked up a thick dossier and gave it to Harvey.

“I was hoping that you can help me find out. Was it the Soviet Union? Japan? Or is it something else entirely?”

Opening the dossier, Harvey found pictures of another robot, slightly smaller in scale and sporting parts of what looked like a commercial vehicle.

“As you see, this one is not the first of these machines we found.” Beller commented on the contents of the file. “The other one kept on reciting a name, a serial number and a rank of sorts but never said anything else, not even under the disassembly unit. It too had the tendency to scream though.”

Below them, the robot’s cries raised an octave as its faceplate was being removed. Harvey stood and began to look for the exit.

“I can’t listen to this anymore.”

“Did you know that their faces are made of tiny metal plates, and are capable of imitating the full range of human expressions?” The Director mused while the faceplate still dripping the oddly colored liquid was being lifted up and left hanging above the creature.

Now it was stripped to its internal machinery and the workers inserted all kinds of data cables into its ports and sockets. Harvey stared at the head of the creature and knew her nightmares will be haunted by screaming metal skulls for weeks to come.

“I still have the other one’s in my office.”

Now that she mentioned it, Harvey remembered the weird ornament on the wall behind Beller’s desk she always assumed was a crest or a shield of some sort, shaped like a mask. To learn what it really was made her stomach turn worse than her morning sickness did.

“Your work will be to decrypt the data we gather from the machine.” Director Beller said on a strict tone “Find out everything you can! I hope you see now that it is a very important task, Agent Harvey.”

Grace nodded and fled from the building and the endless cries for mercy coming from something that shouldn’t even have a concept of what it was.

She worked for a month decrypting the strange glyphs and code fragments she received after the gruesome scene of dismembering the machine. Harvey found really hard to sleep or to relax in that month. At night she heard the agonizing screams and begging for mercy every time she closed her eyes. Having to be near the thing didn’t help either. At least she could convince the lead scientist to put back the faceplate where it belonged. It seemed the skull-like appearance of the robot’s head unnerved everyone else as well. It shut down somewhere in the middle of the data mining, and all attempts at reviving it proved futile.

Until one night, when Grace was working overtime to get to the bottom of the code, she heard the creature cry on a low voice. At first she thought it was just her mind playing tricks but after she gathered her courage and went to look, she saw the robot strapped onto the assembly line leaking some fluid from its eyes and silently weeping. When it noticed her, it didn’t ask her to set it free. It asked a single question with such resignation and bitterness Grace knew no man-made machine could ever imitate convincingly.

“Why don’t you just kill me already?”

She took a step back and ran to her office, locking the door. No matter what Beller said, she knew the truth. That machine wasn’t anything like she saw before. It was alive.

Agent Harvey requested her resignation from Skywatch after spending three months on what was dubbed Project Prometheus. In that time she cracked the code obtained from the robot and helped reverse engineer several of its features, including its weaponry. Through all that time she was convinced that there are more of these unusual machines out there, wearing disguises of ordinary vehicles or military aircraft. She went from skeptic to a firm believer of Director Beller’s cause in the course of her stay at the Skywatch facility. She wouldn’t want her daughter to live in a world where she has to fight living machines to survive.

Autobot Headquarters, Oregon, May 1996

“My brother is missing!” Sideswipe exclaimed and pushed the bot in front of him to get him out of the way. “And I’m going after him whether Prime likes it or not!”

“Don’t be an idiot!” The bot blocking the exit – Hot Rod – replied. “First Skids goes missing, then Mirage, and now Sunstreaker. You want to be the next? Because you will be if the humans find you.”

“Why are you so sure it was their doing and not the ‘cons’?” Bumblebee joined in coming from behind Sideswipe. “Last time I checked, they were still around and planning something.”

“We’ve been through this, Bee.” Hot Rod crossed his arms. “I know you love humans and that love blinds you for their true nature, but I don’t want to be dismembered by them or driven into a wall because they blame us for the Decepticons’ handiwork on their planet. If I wouldn’t know better, I’d go with Sideswipe and look for Sunny. But I’m not mad yet.”

“Maybe we really should go look for Sunstreaker, and we should start by asking humans who saw him the last time.” Sideswipe grumbled “Primus knows what is happening to him while we’re playing council and talk and do nothing.”

The trio silenced as they heard the noise of another bot’s footsteps. Prowl came and gave them a curious look before turning his head and proceeding with walking to the back of the base.

“I’m going out. With you or by myself, I don’t care.” Sideswipe asserted turning back to his conversation partners. “Tonight. I’ll go and find out what happened to Sunstreaker, and if I learn anything I will report back to Prime so he’ll finally let us go and rescue him.”

“Your chassis.” Hot Rod shrugged and leaned to the wall.

“Guys, be reasonable.” Bee tried to save the situation from worsening. “We have a lot on our plates, and Optimus has a reason why he keeps us inside. What if we end up going missing too? There are way too few of us left anyway.”

“And whose fault it is?” Hot Rod kept arguing. “Ever since we crash landed here we have been protecting the locals from the ‘cons yet the first thing they did when they discovered us was turning on us and hunting us down like we were responsible for the destruction of their cities!”

“They are hurt and angry. They lost loved ones getting in the crossfire of our war.” Bumblebee replied on a somber tone “Of course they want to blame someone.”

“Then blame Megatron and his lackeys.” The red speedster began to raise his voice then after realizing he will draw attention on them he continued on a calmer tone. “They killed Mudflap, Bee. Tore him apart. They probably killed Skids as well, and if we don’t find them, they’ll kill Mirage and Sunstreaker too.”

“Hey, I thought you were against going out and search for Sunny.” Sideswipe scratched his head.

“I changed my mind.” Hot Rod threw at him offhandedly. “I’ll call Smokescreen and Drift and we’ll go out tonight. The more the merrier. Don’t let them think they can get away with killing one of us.”

“I can’t believe it.” Bee threw his hands in the air and left the two red sports cars.  

“Do you think he’s going to tell on us?” Sideswipe looked after Bumblebee’s back plate.

“Nah, he’s a little snitch, but I don’t think he’ll go directly to Prime and tell him what we’re planning.” Hot Rod answered. “Besides, he knows that I’m right. Maybe not all humans are nasty little squishy annoyances, but enough of them are to make it a problem.”

That night before the search party could assemble they got news: A full-scale Decepticon attack has been unleashed on the far away country of Brasnya. The conflict had spread over the great ocean, and they had no Autobot outpost over there.

“It is vital that we intervene as fast as possible.” Optimus instructed the remnants of his forces. “We cannot let Megatron’s troops eradicate that part of the Earth either. So my decision is to fly the Ark over to Brasnya and eliminate the threat before establishing an outpost. Any questions?”

“Just one: what will we do if it turns out to be a trap and humans will attack us?” Hot Rod stepped forward.

“I don’t see why they would go to such lengths to set up a trap for us.” Optimus cast a flat look at him.

“Autobots are going missing.”

“And you suspect humans behind these abductions?”

Hot Rod nodded.

“Should I remind you what happened to Mudflap? Almost to Ratchet as well? This cannot go on any longer, something must be done."

“We cannot afford rash decisions and risk to antagonize the locals.”

“Those locals are already pretty antagonistic. Ask Sideswipe if you don’t believe me.”

Hot Rod became more and more vocal about his dissatisfaction with Optimus Prime’s decisions lately. He wanted to act when the older and wiser leader wanted to wait and learn more before doing something. It was the case now as well. Looking around his soldiers, Optimus saw that many of them began to share Hot Rod’s wish to lash out against what they perceived as unwarranted hostility.

“Very well. I want to know everything about these missing Autobots.”

Prowl came forward and recited what he already knew.

“After the incident with Mudflap, Skids went out to patrol and search for Decepticon activity in the area before we lost contact with him. Mirage was sent out to investigate but contact was lost with him as well. Lack of resources and available personnel prevented us from sending out a search party to find them. I messaged Nightbeat and asked him to keep an optic on the humans’ communications over their satellite system for clues about our missing bots, but so far nothing of note came from it.”

“And now Sunstreaker is missing too.” Sideswipe added, stepping to the front of the row of Autobots gathered around their Prime.

“These are grave news indeed.” Optimus was thinking about a solution already. “It seems like we’ll have to leave a search party here while the rest of us go and see what Megatron is up to over the ocean. Sideswipe, you will stay here and search for clues regarding the whereabouts of Sunstreaker and the other missing Autobots! Ratchet and Ironhide will also stay behind and help you.”

So it was said and done. After the Ark left, the three-bot search party went on to establish their own base of operations in another remote part of the state. Days after days were spent looking for clues but turned up nothing. Sideswipe began to act rashly and the two older bots had to scold him and remind him of their mission’s importance more times than they felt comfortable with. People were on edge and they were on the lookout for vehicles running without drivers.

“I’m telling you, we won’t find as much as a bolt left of them.” Ratchet grumbled to Ironhide one night while Sideswipe was out looking for his brother. “I say we should just pack our cargo containers, regroup at the Ark and leave this heap of rock to the ‘cons.”

“Prime would never leave.” Ironhide shook his head. “He wants to save this planet from falling into Megatron’s clutches. And if he stays, we stay.”

“I know. Still, it’s good to have this hope sometimes that you can just turn your back-plate to the bunch of ungrateful little meat-lumps and leave.”

There was a short pause, silence broken only by the sound of the security devices before the two bots heard the sound of something dragging against the floor. Soon they heard Sideswipe’s call as well.

“Ratchet!”

The medic and the warrior exchanged a look before rushing to the base’s entrance. Sideswipe was dragging a familiar alt-mode with him: A white and blue race car.

“Is that…” Ironhide began but instead went over to help Sideswipe pull the badly damaged and rusty vehicle inside before shutting the door.

“It’s Mirage.” Sideswipe confirmed after they were safely behind the closed gates.

“But what’s wrong with him? Why can’t he change modes?”

“I think I know the answer for that.” Ratchet said while he ran a quick diagnostic scan over Mirage. “Something is blocking the communication between his t-cog and his brain module. He’s mode-locked.”

“Can you do something about it?” Sideswipe inquired with a hint of haste in his voice. “Maybe he knows something. We should talk with him as soon as possible!”

Ratchet cast a disapproving look at the scout but he nodded.

“I’ll do as much as I can. Now help me put him on the repair rack!”

After working tirelessly for hours, Ratchet learned much more about Mirage’s condition. He bore scars from welders and torches and his internal mechanisms has been tampered with by someone definitely not knowing a thing about Cybertronian biology. In short, he was hurt bad. But at least Ratchet found the foreign object responsible for blocking communications between the bot’s t-cog and his processor, so he could remove it and let Mirage change back to root form before preparing a CR chamber to put him into.

Sideswipe wasn’t having it though. He wanted to speak with Mirage as soon as he was online again, so he took the risk of inviting Ratchet’s anger - and infamous wrench - on himself and snuck into the tiny medbay while the medic was gone, locking the door.

“Hey there, Mirage.” He greeted the half-conscious bot strapped to the assembly slab. “Man, you look bad.”

The racer didn’t answer him only followed his movement with his optics. Sideswipe stopped next to him and leaned close to the other bot.

“Listen, we don’t have much time before Ratchet comes knockin’ me out with that wrench of his for “disturbing his patient”, so I gotta ask you real fast: do you know where Sunstreaker is? Did you see him at all?”

Mirage looked at Sideswipe with half-closed optics but when he finished his questions, he shook his head.

“What happened anyway?” The scout risked another question. He already saw Ratchet’s larger frame approaching the door.

“They…” Mirage began but his vocalizer glitched and he only emitted a row of unintelligible mechanical noises before rebooting it. “They… Have…”

Ratchet arrived at the door and judging by the look on his faceplate, he already had that wrench in hand. Sideswipe nudged Mirage gently.

“Come on, buddy! Tell me something I can work with! It’s a matter of life or death!”

“They…Have… Ssss”

“Sideswipe!” Ratchet’s voice boomed through the air and the door’s fabric. “I’m going to open this door and you’re going to get your skidplate kicked concave. Get away from that repair slab, at once!”

Sideswipe perked his head up and looked at Ratchet through the door’s transparent panel, but then he turned back to Mirage. The medic opened the door and went over to grab the scout, but seeing Sideswipe’s reached out hand asking for time and hearing what Mirage said made him change his mind.

“They… Have… Skids.”

“Who? Who has Skids?” Sideswipe pushed but Mirage began to emit another set of unintelligible noises before going offline. “No, no no no… We need to know who has Skids!”

“That’s enough!” Ratchet finally pulled Sideswipe away from his patient. “He needs to go to a CR chamber at once.”

Seeing the devastated look on the scout’s face he added.

“Luckily I happen to have a clue about the mysterious captors of Skids, and probably Mirage as well.”

“Oh yeah? Who are they?”

After securing the unconscious racer to the CR chamber, ratchet pulled out the microchip he removed from Mirage while repairing him, from his subspace.

“Well, turns out Hot Rod was right for once. I found this in Mirage, and it’s definitely human made.”

He threw the chip to Sideswipe who caught it in mid-air and examined it.

“So what are we gonna do?”

“I suggest you and Ironhide gather some intel on our new friends at Skywatch. Might be interesting to know why they kidnap Autobots and fit them with inhibitor chips to mode-lock them.”

Skywatch Headquarters, March 2006

Spike Witwicky was a remarkable man. An admiral’s son, he enlisted when he turned 18, and did his father proud. But what gained him world-fame wasn’t his flawless service record or being a paragon of heroism. It was a single act, which had as much to do with chance as with Spike’s own skill with a prototype gun. With a single well-timed shot, Spike Witwicky became to be known as the man who killed Megatron.

After the Decepticon leader’s fall, his troops fled the planet. Well, save for one or two of them trapped inside buildings or places they couldn’t leave soon enough to catch their retreating warships. One of said warships – the Harbinger as it was later identified by Skywatch’s database – was shot down over Siberia and was quickly stripped of anything useful. By the time Skywatch agents reached the wreckage it was barely more than a skeleton of a ship and some scattered remains of dead Cybertronians.

Many of the invading troops were caught and made quick work of by Skywatch’s special weapons they designed to be effective against the armored platings of the aliens. It sure seemed like they knew their weaknesses well. It took little time for Spike to fit into their ranks after he was asked to join while he lay in a hospital bed, recovering from the last encounter he had with a transforming alien robot that looked like a huge metal jaguar – though some of his sight impaired colleagues argued that it was a dog. He was there when the Earth Defense Command had been formed and gathered soldiers and spies from all over the world.

EDC had been looking for ways to work together with Skywatch for months before they finally had the perfect opportunity. Not long after Megatron was deactivated, the leader of the other warring faction surrendered to Skywatch forces. The Directors of both organizations were about to meet and decide what to do before alerting the President along with the political leaders of the whole world. It was a sticky situation, but Spike wasn’t called to talk right now. He was there to ensure his boss’ safety and to investigate if what Skywatch claims is true.

He followed Director Faireborn’s lead to meet up with Skywatch’s enigmatic leader, a woman he only heard some vague rumors about. Seeing them face to face, he could draw some comparisons between EDC’s Marissa Faireborn and Skywatch’s Josephine Beller. The former was younger, energetic and aggressive, while the latter was cold, calculating and outright unnerving. Her once strawberry blonde hair was now all grey but Spike suspected it wasn’t because of her age – she was only somewhere in her late forties or early fifties at best – rather because her lifestyle and – if the rumors were true – a side effect of her severely outdated cybernetic implants putting extra strain on her system. He found the whole discussion fascinating from an outsider’s point of view. Like an overly assertive child arguing with an emotionally unavailable mother. Judging from her perseverance, Marissa had some experience in dealing with that.

It took another heated argument – this time with Optimus Prime himself – to finally reach a point of understanding between the Autobot faction and humanity. Both sides agreed to peaceful co-existence and EDC also recruited the Autobots to help hunt down the remaining Decepticon combatants. Optimus agreed to everything on one condition: Skywatch had to release all Autobots they had in captivity. As much a shock as it was to hear it from the Prime, Spike just had his suspicions confirmed. Skywatch could manufacture and design weapons against Cybertronians by reverse-engineering other Cybertronians. Director Beller’s face went through various shades of color before she asserted that Skywatch has no Autobots in custody, but she also assured Optimus of getting to the bottom of his missing bot cases.

By the end of the year 2006, all Autobots held in various locations in Skywatch-controlled facilities were released. Ratchet later confirmed to Optimus that all of them had scars similar to Mirage’s and their brain modules were tampered with, causing irreversible damage in one case. Skywatch denied everything, blaming a splinter-organization they named “Machination” for the atrocities committed against the captive Autobots. But it didn’t really matter who committed the crime, for intergalactic laws forbade Cybertronians from giving technology to species not as advanced as they were. It was only a matter of time before the Duly Appointed Enforcer of the Tyrest-accord came to investigate.

The Great Cybertronian War has officially ended, now it was time to rebuild. Every major city all over the world got equipped with EM field detectors and radiation scanners fitted to alert for the presence of energon. All Autobots residing in the area were required to register with local authorities and were closely monitored. Decepticons – even those who had forsaken their allegiance, such as Swindle – were not welcome anywhere.

Well, anywhere but the EDC’s ranks.

EDC/Skywatch base Mt. Saint Helena US, June 2015.

“It was supposed to be a standard test flight” was the single thought that kept on repeating inside Lt. Reese Harvey’s head as she desperately tried to regain control of the prototype F-35 she was requested to take out to test by her superiors at EDC. The ground was getting closer by every second she spent in vain to try and force the airplane’s faulty machinery to work and prevent her from crashing. Thinking back to that morning, she wouldn’t think that this would be her last test flight.

Rewind to just an hour earlier, when she stood in front of the jet she was about to take off with and the first occasion of something weird she really should have reported right away. While climbing into the cockpit she swore the whole thing lighted up with an eerie red light before going dark again. Thinking it was only her mind playing tricks on her or just the weird angle of the sunlight reflected from the canopy’s glass, she let it go and requested permission to take off.

“All right, let’s see what you’ve got!”

She tested out all weapons systems and maneuverability and the jet brought the desired statistics. More even. It was fast, for one… Faster than all previous airplanes from the same line and it handled easily. Harvey decided that she liked the new jet and hoped she can fly it again before it becomes mass-produced.

The second weird thing happened right when she prepared to return to base and end the test. She heard a raspy, strained male voice with a light metallic undertone saying “help me” before everything went to hell.

Back to the present, and the fast descending F-35 with Harvey panicking so much she almost forgot that she can catapult. But before she could escape the falling jet, the strange red light flared it up again and it slowed down to land on its own. Harvey wasn’t even touching anything but the catapult lever. After a rough but nearly not catastrophic landing, she heard the voice again.

“Please…Help.”

“All right, it’s not funny whoever is playing pranks on my radio. It creeps me the hell out just so you know.”

If the radio prank – if it was a prank – wouldn’t be creepy enough the jet began to shake and parts of it seemed to try and move from one place to another before violently crashing back into place. Harvey also swore she heard the same disembodied voice groan, like straining from some form of exhausting activity. She feared for her life to say the least. After the whole unsettling event, the jet’s cockpit went dark again and Harvey could take off again to safely land at the EDC’s airbase.

She hesitated to report her weird experiences to Director Beller of Skywatch – the organization EDC got the prototype from – because she didn’t want to make herself look like a lunatic. So she omitted writing that “shit's probably haunted” into her report after returning to her office.

The next test flight went just like the previous one, including the disembodied voice asking for help. This time Harvey tried to expect it but it still unnerved her.

“All right. I’ll try to help you. What do you want me to do?”

She felt like an idiot for even answering what she thought was either a ghost or a projection of her imagination. There was a long pause before the voice straining to form the words answered.

“Land. Need… to… down. Ground.”

She did as she was asked and found a clear spot to land.

“Now what?”

The jet once again began to shake and rumble like it wanted to come apart, and only stopped when Harvey shouted at it, surprising even her. 

“Just what the hell did Skywatch build?” She grumbled to herself. She got no answer but luckily no otherworldly activity started either, so after a short while awaiting for the strange voice to speak again, she took off and flew back to base.

“No. Turn… Back…” Came the voice causing a blackout that almost ended with them crashing.

“Hell no! We’re going back to base and you’re going to the scrap yard my expensive, creepy friend.” Harvey replied after she regained control of the jet. 

It once again wrestled control out of Harvey's hands and flew itself over the EDC base and after making a large circle around the area it touched down at the same spot they landed before.

“Let me out!” Harvey ordered and to her surprise the canopy opened and she climbed out. After her feet touched the ground the jet once again began to shake and she was shocked to see it actually trying to rearrange itself from the outside. After a very predictable failure the voice screamed in a mix of anguish and helpless rage then went quiet abruptly. Harvey went closer to it and fought herself back to the cockpit to use the radio. She requested a team to pick her up and tow the malfunctioning jet in.

Harvey didn’t fly her chatty test subject for a couple of days while it was under inspection and repair. She didn’t know how to feel about the whole thing. Skywatch began to bombard her with questions and she also got a “friendly” invitation from Director Faireborn to meet her at her office. After getting chewed out of existence for screwing up a simple test flight and under threat to never being let near even a commercial airplane let alone a fighter ever again if she doesn’t report anything out of the ordinary at once, Harvey was sent home.

She spent the whole weekend thinking about the voice in the cockpit – for she was now sure it wasn’t in her head – and what it tried to accomplish. Was it a rogue AI? Was it something else? Did Skywatch hide something sinister and EDC was unaware or was compliant? After their war ended in 2006, all Cybertronians not leaving Earth by any means necessary were deported into the EDC's base at the Bikini Atoll. Cybertronian-based tech that was in human hands had been taken away, data, blueprints, everything by their so-called Enforcer of the Tyrest-accord. It set Earth’s technology level back by a few decades but after the Enforcer was gone, new Cybertronian based stuff began to circulate the black market and of course, Skywatch got their own batch of new toys from somewhere.

Harvey felt like an idiot for not thinking about it sooner. She got out of bed in the middle of the night and sat on her bike to go back to base. She got inside and found the prototype standing in a hangar by itself, no one around. Though she was no mechanic – and was forbidden to do so anyway – Harvey opened up the outer plating of the jet to see some of its parts. Mostly it was nothing unusual. But then she found something. A large chip of sorts, sitting among a cluster of circuits definitely not belonging on a jet, rather fitting into a supercomputer. She took her phone and flashed a picture of it before putting everything back to place. She knew someone who could help her figure out what was going on.

A month later

It took a few days to contact her man and Harvey needed to mentally prepare for the occasion. Hunting down Gonzales’ latest hideout was easier than bearing with his wild conspiracy theories. Nevertheless, she was standing in front of a ran-down building in the middle of a downtown neighborhood, waiting for the many locks on the apartment’s wooden door to unlock so she could finally get inside.

“Are you sure you have not been followed?” The jumpy little man inquired after practically dragging Harvey inside and hastily locking the door.

“No. I am alone, and nobody was following me.”

“Sorry Harvey, but you work for the military. I can’t trust what you say.” He then proceeded to look for potential spies hiding in the garden downstairs.

“I don’t have all night, Gonzales.” Harvey pressed him after a short while. “And I wouldn’t even come if I’d have any other chance.”

“All right, all right… But if there will be a host of soldiers breaking through the door as soon as I “help” with whatever is it that you want my help with, you’ll be the one going to jail, not me.”

“I doubt any of us would go to jail for looking at a picture.”

She lied about that part, but telling the truth wouldn’t be wise in her case. Gonzales led her through the tiny hall and living room, occupied by his grandma watching the evening news and into his lair of stale air, high-tech machinery and piles of litter.

“Do you never take out the trash?” Harvey inquired, kicking over an empty soda can.

“To have chemtrails on me? No way. It’s just trash, nothing bad will come of it being here.”

“All right… Let’s conveniently forget about rats, roaches and plagues.”

“Plagues are not caused by trash or rats. They are artificially created so Big Pharma can sell you vaccinations that will make your kid mentally ill.”

Harvey took a look at Gonzales and her flash drive in her hand, contemplating if putting up with him really is worth the trouble.

“Just look at the pictures on my flash drive and help me find out what I found. I’ll buy you something healthy to eat for once in return.”

Gonzales took the flash drive and inserted it into a port on his computer, running at least two separate anti-virus and malware software on it before opening its contents. There was a lot of photos of Harvey and fighter jets of various types also several of a cat basking in the sunlight. Gonzales cast a dirty look at Harvey, but she motioned for him to scroll down. There they were, the photos Harvey took about the prototype F-35 and the strange chip inside it.

“I have never seen anything like this.” Gonzales mused with clear interest “I wonder what its function and why it’s there. Did you notice anything unusual while flying that bird, Harvey?”

 She hesitated to answer. She didn’t want to sound madder than the man she was talking to, but then again the jet might be an alien in captivity.

“Yeah, I did. Lots. Actually, I think that jet is not a jet at all.”

Gonzales looked at her than back at the picture on his monitor.

“What do you mean?”

“I mean that jet might be one of those alien robots that destroyed nearly every major city back in the early 2000’s before one of their leaders got shot.”

“And the government is hiding one and tries to use it for their own?”

“Exactly. The chip prevents it from transforming and it even has difficulty to speak. But the jet is faster than any other I ever tested and its weapon systems are powerful. It’s also easy to maneuver, like I could do crazy stunts all day. It’s easy to see why any military would want a jet like that. Of course, without it having a mind of its own."

Gonzales turned back at Harvey.

“So you say you were flying what, a lobotomized transformer?”

“I believe so.” She nodded “But I need confirmation.”

Seeing his hesitation, she continued.

“Pedro, I want to tear them down. If they really did what I suspect they did, then that is against at least one international convention, not to mention about Cybertronian ones. That’s not an object, but a living being. Just think about it!”

“First the robots, then they would come after us…” he shuddered. “Fine. Take me to this thing, so I can have a look at it. But if we’re caught, I don’t know you.”

Getting Gonzales into the EDC’s base was a hard trick, but Harvey managed. she gave “her friend” a tour and when they were sure no one was near the hangar, they snuck in to see the prototype. It had been under some repairs – or modifications – for the tools of the workers were still left lying around near it, and the tarp it was kept under was lifted. The panel covering the strange circuit board and the chip was out in the open, so they could climb up and see it.

“Well, I don’t know much about those aliens, but I’m pretty sure that this chip is indeed what’s keeping it in this form.”

“Great, how do I get rid of it?”

“I’m afraid you’d have to get out the whole circuit board. But that should do the trick.”

The cockpit lighted up red as they were speaking, and Harvey pointed at it.

“Hey look, he’s awake!”

She sat into the pilot seat and spoke to the jet.

“Hey it’s me, Lieutenant Harvey. You remember me?”

“Confirmed.” The voice wasn’t strained this time, but lacked emotions entirely. “Welcome Lieutenant Harvey. I await orders.”  

“Are you shitting me?” Gonzales exclaimed. “This isn’t an alien, it’s just an AI.”

The jet began to shake like it usually did after it spoke, and the voice now was strained again… and angry.

“Not. AI. I’m… My name…”

It yelped after something blew up and caused an electrical fizzle.

“Please, help me!” It begged before shutting down. Harvey stood up and exited the cockpit to help Gonzales down.

“Now you believe me? He’s been like this all the time.”

The man didn’t look at her, he was looking at the jet coming back online and trying to rearrange itself again in vain.

“I believe you Harvey, but I won’t help you. Sorry, I have too much to lose to be your savior. Or the savior of your robot friend. You’re on your own.”

He then walked out of the hangar. The last message she got from him before he went off the grid was “never contact me again.”

So everything was up to her. She pocketed a small wire-cutter form the scattered tools and waited for the next time she’ll have to fly. It was supposed to be the last test before evaluation for mass producing, so Harvey knew she’ll never have another chance. She flew all over the designated area before deciding to go farther away and land. She risked turning off the radio, so they were completely alone.

“All right big guy, listen up: I’m going to remove the chip that is keeping you trapped in this form, okay? But I might cause you some discomfort because frankly, I have little to no idea of what I’m doing. Try to stay still and don’t swat me like a fly!”

The red light began to glow and the disembodied voice answered.

“I’ll try.”

Harvey nodded and opened the canopy so she could climb over to the panel covering the chip. She pulled it out to reveal several wires and she huffed before turning back to say

“On second thought, please do tell me if I cut something I shouldn’t… But then again, it might be too late.”

She cut all the wires that held the circuit board in place, and she didn’t hear a peep from the machine. When she was done it began to move again, this time its parts successfully rearranging them to form a humanoid robot that fell to its knees and now began to scream again, holding its head with both hands.

“Hey, I know you’re having what is the robot-equivalent of a nasty migraine, but keep it together!” Harvey pleaded in vain, for the Cybertronian didn’t stop wailing for a while before he shut down.

“Dammit. It must have been faulty to begin with.”

About half an hour later, the jet came back online. Harvey sat on a rock nearby, waiting for him to come to his senses, so she could finally talk with him without having to fear for her life ending in a crash.

“Hey there, once again!” She greeted the Cybertronian. “You already know me, and last I remember you tried to tell me your name before blowing a fuse.”

The pair of crimson optics were trying to focus on her, and their owner seemed to think for a while before answering her.

“My... designation... is Ironstrike.”

“Oh, so it’s not just your project name. Well, Ironstrike, it seems like both of us are in some big trouble. Skywatch will probably be in the biggest, but we’ll have to get to Director Faireborn of the EDC first. Do you follow?”

The robot slowly shook his head and covered its optics with its hand.

“Why is it so… Hard to think? My head… hurts. Can barely… speak.”

“They must have done something to you.” Harvey said empathically. “We have to get you to where the other Cybertronians are. They will fix you. Can you fly?”

“No.” Came the answer after a short while. “Can’t… Even… Get up.”

Harvey frowned and sighed.

“Well, time for Plan B then. Is your radio working?”

“Yes.”

“We should call Director Faireborn and inform her about you. Then she can place charges against Skywatch for what they’ve done.”

She began to walk towards the robot but it crawled away from her. Ironstrike fought himself to sitting position, leaning to a large boulder.

“They won’t… help.”

“Why not?”

“I’m not… yours. Not… property. I… defied them.”

Harvey stood on her spot looking up at the struggling robot’s face. It was obvious that pressing out those few words cost him a lot of willpower and energy. Even with the inhibitor chip gone, something still prevented him from being truly autonomous.

“Hey… I know. You’re not a thing but a person. Whoever tampered with your programs had no right to do it. But I need your help to get them to justice.”

Ironstrike emitted a soft, sad, cynical laughter at her intent.

 “Why?”

“Because people aren’t things to own.”

Her words barely registered in Ironstrike’s audioreceptors over the wailing of his cooling fans. His optics couldn’t focus and his vision was nearly entirely blocked by the countless error messages on his HUD.  Judging from the intense pain he felt in his processor, a system shock was imminent. But at least - he thought - he will die as a free bot.

“Thank you.” He pressed out before he went into stasis lock again.

Chapter Text

The calm embrace of stasis was replaced by his slowly waking consciousness and a host of voices he did not recognize.

“Sensor system online.”

“Weapon systems online.”

“ASIMOV-system online. All systems nominal.”

His optics were fuzzy but he now could see the humans behind consoles looking up at him. Several long cables led from the consoles to his various ports and sockets sending the data to the people overseeing him. So he didn't die after all. But was back at his captors' mercy, which Ironstrike knew there wasn't much to go around. Fear and sorrow once again filled his spark and was subdued by the alien software that tried to erase his self-awareness. He turned his head to look at the two humans standing on a catwalk above him and the workers and wished he could convince them to release him from this personal hell. Yet he remained silent. His systems were too unstable and he didn't want to risk another stasis lock. His distress eased somewhat when he recognized one of the humans approaching him.

“I’m going to kick someone’s ass.” Director Marissa Faireborn deadpanned. “Why did no one inform me about Skywatch’s new toy being a Cybertronian?”

“It’s not that big of a surprise, really.” Major Witwicky commented from her left. “They were keeping Autobots in their basement for experimenting on them, after all.”

“It might not be a surprise, but it’s a big pain in the neck for sure. Someone will have to explain this to Optimus Prime, and I don’t want to be that person.”

Their discussion was interrupted by the arrival of several Skywatch agents and their Director. Marissa raised an eyebrow, and Spike could practically hear her cracking her knuckles in anticipation of the blow she will strike against her rival.

“Welcome to the party, Josephine! I thought you’ll never make it.”

The older woman let the jab fly over her head and stopped next to the EDC’s Director.

“May we speak in private?”

Marissa exchanged a look with Spike who shrugged, then she gestured for Beller to follow. The office overlooking the hangar area was a good place to be out of range of unwanted listeners.

“I’m listening. So, care to explain why there is a Cybertronian lying down there, hooked into your computer consoles? I’m dying to know.”

Director Beller walked over to the glass panel looking over the work area downstairs and spoke without looking at Faireborn.

“This one was among the first aliens we captured.”

“So what, you kept him out of nostalgia? The contract decrees that all Autobots in Skywatch captivity should be set free in order to ensue lasting peace between us and the remaining Cybertronians.”

“And I have sent all Autobots back to their Prime. Subject two is not one them.”

Marissa wanted to riposte with something stingy but she stopped.

“Wait… You mean the tin-can man down there is a Decepticon?”

Beller turned her head and finally deigned to look at the younger woman.

“Now you see why I was adamant on  the development and installing of the ASIMOV-system. Without it, Subject two would pose a danger to anyone working with it.”

“We have another Decepticon working for us, you know. Thundercracker.” Marissa crossed her arms. “And I can personally testify that he wouldn’t hurt a fly unless he’s trying to tell it about the newest script-idea he had.”

“Subject two is different.”

“How so?”

Josephine turned back to look at the Transformer on the assembly line being tended to by the workers while speaking.

“It killed innocent people, Miss Faireborn. Once while it was being repaired, it lashed out and injured several of my engineers. Then it tried to escape and shot three of the guards before we could subdue it. Then it became more subtle in its attempts to take control of our equipment and took care not to actively harm my employees. But it still managed to electrocute two of them, and one resigned not long after beginning to work with Subject two.”

“You mean he’s one of the really bad guys.”

“Definitely.” Josephine turned back to Marissa and her features softened. “Do you know how I earned the questionable honor of being the "world’s first cyborg”?”

“I assume it was something unusual.” Marissa shrugged. “I haven’t read your autobiography.”

Beller permitted herself a little snicker at that but she went on.

“You know, I’m not a soldier. Before I was approached by Skywatch and got offered a chance to design my implant that helped me to move again along with this lucrative job of protecting Earth from alien threats, I was working as an engineer in a power plant. Then one night came this huge purple robot out of nowhere and began to destroy the facility.”

“Let me guess: it was a Cybertronian, so you are in beef with them ever since.”

“I was lucky. I only got electrocuted and my nervous system fried, paralyzing me. My co-workers and my employer weren’t lucky. They died.”

As she looked at Marissa, her face showed genuine worry.

“These machines are a threat to humanity, Miss Faireborn. Autobot, Decepticon it doesn’t matter. They’re all walking time bombs, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. And they won’t get tired. Won’t get hungry. Won’t stop until they had eradicated us and took our home planet as theirs. Don’t let them fool you.”

Marissa was thinking about Beller’s words but something still bothered her and thought she’ll ask about it while she has the chance.

“How could you stop Subject two from escaping? I mean… the thing is as tall as a building and armed to the… whatever they have instead of teeth.”

“It was already equipped with a prototype of the ASIMOV-system.”

“What's that? You mentioned it before.”

Beller slowly walked to and around the single desk occupying the farther side of the office.

“Do you know who Isaac Asimov was?”

“Some guy who wrote boring old sci-fi?” Marissa rolled her eyes.

“And someone who made the laws of robotics: A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm. A robot must obey orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law. A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.*”

“Could you try to explain it so us not book-nerds will understand as well?”

“The ASIMOV –system is a safety switch we inserted into the robot’s coding with the help of former Agent Grace Harvey’s work she gave us before she retired. If it tries to harm a human its systems will shut down.”

“What about self-defense?”

“It will trigger the “flee” response instead of the “fight” one. Assuming they have these instincts.”

“So it’s nothing harmful to the Cybertronian?”

“I believe the protection of humanity from alien machines has more importance than arguing about my methods to do it Miss Faireborn.”

There it was. The matter-of-fact, cold voice of Skywatch’s Director.

“I really hope that we can salvage this situation with the Autobots, for all of our sake.” Marissa sighed and opened the office’s door to let Director Beller out.

“Let them come.” The older woman answered confidently. “We have some surprises up in our sleeves.”

When she closed the door behind her, Marissa touched her headset, activating it.

“Spike! Take TC and search all nearby Skywatch base for anything even remotely Cybertronian in origin. Sarah Connor** is at it again.”

“Oh boy. Can’t I take another bot? I really don’t want to listen to Thundercracker’s “brilliant” ideas for human fanfiction.” Major Witwicky’s voice complained on the other end of the line.

“So far he’s the only one who won’t run straight to Optimus Prime and tell on us playing dirty. So unless you want to risk another war with Cybertronians because of that xenophobic old hag, I suggest you keep up with TC’s “creative genius”. He even has decent ideas sometimes.”

“All right. I’ll go fetch him.”

“Good. Report to me if you find anything. At once!”

After she disconnected, she went and stood at the spot where Josephine was a few minutes ago, looking down at the bot and the pilot who discovered his true identity having a sort of conversation.

“Hey there big guy!” Harvey smiled at the robot while he tried to focus on her. “I’m glad you made it. How’s your head?”

“Better.”

“Good. I asked the engineers if they could do something about your headaches. It seems whatever they did works.”

It almost felt like he was free again. But that weird feeling of something being off, that persistent error message, that bad line of code just didn’t want to disappear.

“Harvey…”

“Yes?”

“They…Hurt…Me.”

“No, no, no. They repaired you. Calm down, big guy.” Despite being tiny, the touch of her hand on his faceplate felt like a soothing rinse of coolant after flying too close to the sun for too long. “I won’t let them do anything bad to you.”

After that day, coming back online from stasis was something Ironstrike looked forward to. Seeing the tiny human when his optics opened with a big smile on her face, hearing her greeting and feeling her touching his plating not with an intent to harm but to soothe nearly overwhelmed him. After all those endless stellar-cycles of torture he had endured, it was almost too good to be true. Harvey never reacted towards him with fear or disgust. She was maybe a little bit too curious about him, but Ironstrike didn’t really mind.

Harvey also noticed the changes in Ironstrike’s behavior and body language while she was with him. His wings spread from his back a little and he even attempted to smile a few times before succumbing to the effect of the mysterious program that kept him from being himself. But day by day, his speech became more coherent, and his sentences became longer. After a week or so, he could communicate with short sentences before shutting down.

She began to have enough of the phenomenon and decided to recruit one of her friends from college to help. Unlike Gonzales, Carly already had an access card to the EDC’s base, being a member of the engineering group. If anyone, she’ll know how to end the annoying glitch that made Ironstrike shut down if he tried to speak.

“Just please be patient, and don’t expect magic.” She instructed Harvey while they walked into the hangar.

“I know it takes time. But I want him to be able to think and speak without blowing a fuse or shutting down.”

“I have a feeling that I know what causes his glitches and bugs, but I will need to see into his operating system.”

Harvey nodded and led Carly to the assembly line where Ironstrike laid offline.

“It makes me feel bad to see him like this.” She confessed to her friend.

“ What Skywatch did to this poor fella makes humanity as a whole look bad.” Carly agreed.

They arrived to their destination, the console next to Ironstrike’s head. He came online as if sensing Harvey’s presence and flashed a wan smile at her which changed into terror when he noticed Carly behind the console.

“No…” He groaned and tried to crawl away until Harvey stopped him.

“It’s okay, it’s okay she’s here to help! She won’t hurt you!”

“Then…why?”

Harvey was thinking for a while but then she looked at the engineer and back at Ironstrike before answering.

“I asked Carly here to look into your head, so we can fix the glitch with your speech. Will you let us do it?”

Surprised that he was asked for consent, Ironstrike blinked a few times before nodding hesitatingly.

“All right.” Carly powered up the console and called Harvey over. “Insert this cable into a port on the back of his neck. It should be accessible if you walk under his head.”

Harvey did as she was told and picked up the cable to bring it over to the Cybertronian.

“Sorry big guy. I promise everything will be all right once we’re done with this.”

“Harvey…”

“I’m listening.”

“Thanks.”

She grinned to hide the worry on her face. If they blow it, Ironstrike might die. And that would definitely make everyone angry.

“Just hang in there, okay? No matter what. I need my expensive and creepy warbird.” She patted Ironstrike’s plating. “You’ll be flying around by your own will in no time. You'll see.”

The cable was connected and Carly began to type away on the console. Soon Ironstrike went to stand-by mode and only reacted if he was asked a question about his current state of well-being.

“This program is human made.” Carly pointed at the fragments of code she analyzed and compared with the rest of Ironstrike’s systems. “That’s what causes the glitch.”

“Why was it installed in the first place?” Harvey was outraged to say the least. “He’s a completely alien being, even if he wouldn’t be self-aware it would be extremely risky. It could be incompatible and crash everything.”

“They had nearly four decades to perfect it.” The engineer frowned. “And it’s fully integrated into his vital systems. I can’t erase it unless I want to kill him. It took over the responsibility of regulating his fuel intake, his energy capacity and even some brain activity.”

“He shuts down if he gets too excited or upset. I guess they had enough of his cries while they disassembled him.” Harvey commented bitterly.

“It’s much worse actually.” Carly highlighted another part of the code. “It slowly erases everything that makes him… well, him. It corrupts his memory core and keeps his intellectual capacity at a minimum level.”

“They want to reduce him to what they perceive him to be: a mere machine.” Harvey shook her head disbelievingly. “And you say we can’t do anything about it?”

Carly flashed a disarming smile at her.

“I didn’t say that. I can’t erase this nasty little dictator from his system, but I can weaken it. Reassign control to his original systems and keep the involvement of the Skywatch program to a minimum. That said, it won’t be gone and it will do its dirty work, only slower. Much slower if my calculations are correct.”

 “Then do it!” Harvey gave the thumbs up and Carly began to adjust the ASIMOV’s settings, giving back as much control to Ironstrike’s own system as she could.

“Done.”

“How are you holding up, Ironstrike?” Harvey asked the Cybertronian.

“The processor-ache’s gone and I can finally think. So I guess it’s an OK.”

“Sounds good. Hold on a little longer, we’ll see what we can do to keep it this way.”

“All right.”

He was cooperative, which surprised both Carly and Harvey. They knew they wouldn’t be half as agreeable in a reversed situation.

“ASIMOV-system nearly disabled.” Carly reported after a short pause.

“I doubt he would be proud to know how Skywatch twisted his name and legacy.” Harvey mused.

“You think Skywatch made this program and named it after him because of his laws of robotics?”

“I think they just wanted to enslave Ironstrike to use him for their own needs, and wanted a convenient excuse for doing it. What better than a fictional law system they imposed on an extraterrestrial, non-human made mechanoid while posing as the saviors of our kind.”

The two women didn’t notice that they were no longer alone. Their company however found their opinions amusing, so he chose not to intervene until that point.

“Well, I have to disagree with you here. Skywatch has a point, no matter how ham-fisted their attempts at proving it was.”

Both women turned to look at him. Carly’s face lighted up in relief when she recognized him.

“Spike! How long have you been standing there?”

“Long enough to know that I should report you to Director Faireborn and let her deal with you.”

“You can’t… We’re just doing what is right.” Carly argued. Harvey remained silent and kept her eyes on her superior’s face. Spike shrugged and went closer to the console.

“I understand that you feel compassion towards our guest here, but I have to say that it’s misguided.”

“Please elaborate.” Harvey crossed her arms taking a step back towards Ironstrike.

“I saw what these things are capable of. I have fought them before joining the EDC and even after.”

“But the war is over. And he’s a prisoner since god knows when.”

“Does it really matter?” Witwicky asked solemnly. “Don’t let your compassion blind you to their true nature, Lieutenant. You weren’t there.”

Carly tried to ease the tension by inserting herself between her friend and the major.

“I only heard about the destruction they caused, and being there must have been terrible.”

“Terrible is an  inadequate word to describe it.” Spike turned to her and then back to Harvey. “You weren’t trapped in a subway station with a host of scared and desperate people. Children even. You didn’t see the train coming and when the survivors rushed to it, it transformed into one of these monsters and began to crush them like bugs… while laughing.”

Harvey bit her lip but she didn’t let her resolve weaken.

“Ironstrike wasn’t there either. He was already a prisoner being experimented on when all three of us were still in diapers. Don’t punish him for another’s actions!”

“I won’t waste any more breath on you because it’s obvious you don’t want to understand, but let me emphasize that I agree with Beller on this: These aliens are all walking time-bombs. And they are not yet done with us.”

For the first time in what seemed like an eternity, Ironstrike spoke.

“Don’t talk about me like I’m not here, meatbag. And don’t act like you humans are not capable of inflicting unimaginable pain and suffering on someone, I’ve spent mega-cycles in your kind’s hospitality to learn otherwise. My former comrades were following orders, same as you would in case you’re sent to war. You call us monsters but you aren’t that much different.”

With that, he disconnected from the console and stood up, leaving the hangar and the humans and the creeping desire to destroy something. The more he understood and remembered about his situation, the more it made Ironstrike angry. At least now he could transform freely. Not using his t-cog for years made changing modes painful but right now he didn’t care about anything. He took off and flew as far as he could as fast as he could.

It took only a few minutes until someone tried to reach him through his comm. Ironstrike responded, if only to tell the person to go and sit on a landmine, but hearing Harvey’s voice made him change his mind.

“You have to come back!”

“No I don’t. I’m finally free and I have no intention to spend even one more cycle inside that hangar.”

“I understand that you’re angry, big guy. You have every right to be. But if you don’t turn back and land inside the EDC base, they will send the jets after you and shoot you. And I don’t want that.”

“I’m not going back. Not even if they send an army to catch me.”

“Please, Ironstrike. Come back, and help us expose Skywatch for what they did to you. If you disappear, they will win. They will tell everyone that you are dangerous. They will send people armed with weapons designed to kill your kind to find you.”

He hesitated and slowed, but not yet changed course.

“And can you guarantee that Skywatch will be torn down and dismantled if other humans learn what they did to me? Because so far I'm not convinced.”

“I can’t guarantee that, but I can guarantee a thorough investigation. But we need you for that. Come back!”

He did. Against his better judgment, Ironstrike changed course and returned to the base where a host of humans were waiting for him.

“Told you I can convince him to come back without a fight.” Harvey flashed a victorious grin at Witwicky.

“Big deal. The carrot worked better than the whip this time.”

Both of them watched the jet as it transformed back to robot mode and stared at them with unveiled hatred.

“I came back. Now what?”

Harvey stepped forward and waved to get Ironstrike’s attention.

“We’ll wait until Director Faireborn arrives. We called her and had to confess everything, so I’m just as much in trouble here as you are. She will determine what happens next, but safe to say that our asses will be kicked.”

“Damn right!” Came Marissa’s voice from the hangar’s direction. She went over to Harvey and Ironstrike, looking up at the Cybertronian with a stern face.

“I’ll have you know that you have snipers aiming at your head, spark and t-cog. And if you try anything stupid – like stepping on me or such – they will evaporate you.”

Ironstrike raised his hands and took a step back.

“I wouldn’t have come back if it wasn’t for Lieutenant Harvey’s promise to use my case to expose Skywatch and their dirty secrets. If it turns out to be false, I’ll be on my way to find myself a means to leave the planet and won’t look back.”

“Well…” Marissa nodded “You’re lucky. We are already investigating Skywatch for the kidnapping and vivisecting of several Autobots and what we found so far didn’t make Optimus Prime happy. I guess adding an ex-Decepticon’s case to the list won’t  make that much of a difference.”

“Thank you.”

“But there are some safety measures we have to take so you won’t be at risk of being recaptured by Skywatch.”

Ironstrike didn’t like it one bit but he suspected that everything will come with strings attached, so he just accepted.

“What would you have me do?”

Marissa looked like she was surprised that she won’t have to convince the Cybertronian of her point. She scratched the back of her head while answering.

“Work for us. We are still on the lookout for any Decepticon combatants, or other extraterrestrial threats, and we can always use another pair of hands… servos… Whatever you guys have.”

“Please explain to me why working for you would be different than being a puppet for Skywatch?”

“We won’t be inserting chips in all of your ports to prevent you from transforming and thinking on your own for one.”

“Point taken.”

“And because I see that the two of you are getting along so nicely, you will get Lieutenant Harvey as your handler.”

Both human and Cybertronian went “what” while looking at her in confusion.

“Handler? You mean my prison-guard?” Ironstrike growled.

“Nope. Think of a handler as liaison between humans and you guys.” Marissa deadpanned as explanation. “She will be the one who does the talking for you with human authorities, who will dare the enraged public and try to paint a better image of Cybertronians for the human population, and who will have to listen to you bitch about no one liking you or your creative ideas.”

“That was an oddly specific answer.”

“I speak from experience, thank you for pointing out.”

“So I’m not being fired or imprisoned?” Harvey dared to ask when the silence became awkward.

“Believe me Lieutenant, being the handler of a Cybertronian is a special level of hell. That will be punishment enough for your transgressions. And your grandchildren’s transgressions as well.”

“Thank you ma’am.”

“You won’t thank me in a month from now.” Marissa laughed sarcastically. “Dismissed!”

And with that, everyone left. Before she disappeared in the building, Ironstrike heard Marissa’s communicator beep until she answered it.

“Hey, Marissa! Guess how my day’s going! You won’t believe what Buster did.”

“Can’t wait to hear all about it, Thundercracker.” She rolled her eyes but her tiny smile didn’t elude the watchful optic of the other Cybertronian.  

Ironstrike found himself shocked by the discovery of not only Thundercracker being alive but that he also works for EDC, and apparently he’s the reason for Director Faireborne’s rather ambiguous view of Transformers. Before he could sink deeper into his thoughts, he felt a knock on the plating of his leg.

“So… Now that we are a team…” Harvey began, looking up at Ironstrike. “How about we go and fly for a bit? To clear your head. I know I wouldn’t mind it right now.”

“Why not?” Ironstrike shrugged and transformed back into jet-mode, lifting the canopy so Harvey could get inside the cockpit. She asked for permission to take off and after they got it, Ironstrike took to the sky at full speed.

There was an awkward silence between them for a while, and it was weird for Harvey to just let the jet fly on its own without even touching the controls, but she wanted to give Ironstrike time to process everything. She knew she needed to think as well, so the silence didn’t bother her.  

They flew over the clouds where Ironstrike slowed down and finally spoke.

“So… The war ended? There is no more fighting between Autobots and Decepticons and humans?”

“Yes.” Harvey replied “The war has been over for almost a decade. Megatron was shot and presumably killed in 2006, resulting in the retreat of nearly all of his forces. Thundercracker saved a human city from a nuclear bomb and by that action he was declared a traitor and abandoned by the rest of his friends. That’s how he ended up with the EDC.”

“How did you know I was going to ask about that?”

“I saw your face when he called Faireborn. Did you know him?”

“Uh… Sort of. I was a Seeker and I had several assignments under Thundercracker’s command.”

“Well, he’s more of a non-combatant now. I heard he’s writing scripts nowadays.”

“Cool.”

Harvey tapped a cadenceless tune on Ironstrike’s control panel.

“It must be tough. Hearing all this at once, while having to deal with being a POW for decades.”

“I’ll manage.” Ironstrike made a noise similar to a sigh. “It’s a lot to take in at once, but… knowing the war is over is the hardest pill to swallow right now.”

“Well, you guys have been at each other’s throats – or appropriate analogs – for four million years. It was bound to end sooner or later.”

“Yeah.” Ironstrike permitted himself to laugh a little. “It’s weird because the war was all I ever knew. I was made during it. I have no idea what to do now, and it frustrates me to say the least.”

They flew to a remote mountain top where Ironstrike landed.

“It will take a little time, but eventually you’ll find a new purpose.” Harvey patted the control panel. “Maybe the EDC can send you to fight some baddies if you can’t fit into civilian life. You’re a fighter, after all.”

“You’re right.” Ironstrike acknowledged but he silenced and didn’t utter a word again until the sunset gave way to night.

“We should go back.” Harvey poked him half-asleep.

“I was wondering about how far Cybertron could be.”

“Feeling homesick, big guy?”

The engines came alive and Ironstrike was in the air, flying back to base.

“Being homesick would require for me to have a home.” He replied. “Though I’m technically a Cybertronian, I have never even set foot on my people's homeworld. I was made on another planet, in a facility.”

“You can feel homesick without having a home. It is only longing for something familiar.”

“That doesn’t make any sense.”

After they landed and Harvey exited his cockpit, Ironstrike changed back to root mode and looked at her still in confusion.

“Longing for something familiar would be longing to be here.”

Harvey shook her head and stifled a yawn.

“I give you time to think about it. Good night, Ironstrike. See you tomorrow!”   

Home.

The word was coming up in Ironstrike’s algorithms more and more frequently in the coming days. He took Harvey out to fly for a few more times and no one tried to stop them. When he inquired about it, Harvey just shrugged and told him that they believe the two of them are building some sort of a bond. And if he was honest to himself, Ironstrike really began to feel like they were bonding in some way.

He missed his siblings – one of whom he knew to be dead, but the other’s fate was a mystery – and sometimes he even missed being aboard the Nemesis, with its clockwork routine and too much work to do for him to think. Ever since he was more or less free of Skywatch’s parasitic program he felt like he’s useless. There were no patrols for him to go to, no energon pressed neatly into cubes to stack, not even the humans paid much attention to his presence. All in all, he was bored out of his processor.

Harvey came to the rescue again, for she suggested that they try to play a game. With a little help from several personnel on the base, they set up a console which was compatible with Ironstrike’s cables, so he could interface with it and the games – and the bets – begun.

After a few defeats, he learned how to navigate inside the program and actually had fun outsmarting his human competitors. Racing, wargames, puzzles, he did them all and scored higher than Harvey – except in one game.

It was a simulation of sorts that involved creating tiny humans and sending them to work and buying items and designing homes for them. It didn’t have a high-score system, and the whole thing’s meaning baffled Ironstrike. He spent hours with this game when Harvey wasn’t around, trying to figure it out. But all he did was growing virtual plants and caring for the virtual children of his virtual human. And building and expanding the virtual house after he learned how to cheat and had unlimited finances.

Harvey found out about his little simulated family when she walked in on him one morning in the middle of a crisis.

“Already at the console?”

“I had to. My Sim’s conjunx died and his sparklings are about to be taken by authorities. I have to prevent that.”

Harvey laughed and sat beside the Cybertronian.

“It’s a game, you can quit and restart any time. Or load another save.”

“I wanted to figure out why you love this game so much… So far I only experienced misery and frustration.” He turned his head towards her than back at the monitor. “I can’t believe this, he set the whole house on fire.”

“You can call the firefighters.”

“Why can’t he just go around the furniture? Why is he blocked by a chair?”

“You put it in a walkway and the program doesn’t recognize it can go around it.”

“Damn it’s stupid.” Ironstrike grumbled.

“But addictive.” Harvey grinned, but her good spirits wasn’t because of the game. It was good to see Ironstrike in a better mood. “Let’s quit this flaming disaster and go outside, okay?”

Ironstrike vented loudly and defeatedly as his virtual human was consumed by the flames then taken by the Grim reaper.

“I guess a little sunshine and fresh air won’t hurt.”

He sat down on the ground in front of the hangar, and let Harvey climb up to his leg and sit there.

“I have some news for you.” She began after finding a secure spot.

“Can I finally leave? Or EDC has found something I could do for them?” Ironstrike sounded completely apathetic but Harvey’s enthusiasm wasn’t curbed by it.

“Yes, and no. We’ll go and have some simulations to determine how well you regained your cognitive abilities. And EDC is still trying to reach a Cybertronian medic to take a look at you, and assess the damage Skywatch’s program did.”

“So they still think I’m useless.”

“Hey, stop talking like this!” Harvey argued “No one thinks you’re useless. Think of it as being on sick-leave… Or Decepticons don’t have that?”

“Not really.” Ironstrike confessed after a short pause. “You were supposed to fight until you fall apart. Only special cases got permission to stay in the infirmary for longer periods of time. And if it was determined that they had a debilitating condition, they were deactivated.”

“Charming.” Harvey said sarcastically. “Good thing we don’t do that. So get it through that thick metal coconut you have on your neck: you’re not being useless. We relieved you of duty until we can determine how much damage you suffered and until we can find a means to repair you. Record it, please.”

Ironstrike replayed Harvey’s words although he couldn’t help but put a slightly mocking tone on it.

“That’s mean, Ironstrike. You’re one mean machine.”

“I thought that’s why you like me.” He finally flashed a grin at her.

“Oh, you…” She chuckled and shook her head. “Yes, I like you for being one mean warbird. But it’s only the top of the iceberg.”

“So there are more reasons!”

“And now I regret ever speaking about this.” Harvey turned her face away from Ironstrike, whose grin just got wider.

“Your heart-rate’s gone up. And you’re getting warmer.”

“Shut. Up.”

His laughter didn’t help her increasing heart-rate. But she was happy to know that he was able to laugh at least.

The simulated battle situation began with some awkwardness, for Director Faireborn called the only Cybertronian medic she knew about: Ratchet. The old, grumpy doctor was accompanied by Sideswipe and Bumblebee, both acting as bodyguards. None of them were happy to learn that Skywatch harbored a Decepticon for decades, much less when Ratchet learned that this particular enemy unit was responsible for giving the humans a lot of information and Cybertronian tech. Even if involuntarily.

“The deeper we get into it the dirtier this case gets.” Marissa explained while escorting Ratchet and company to the hangar. “And we still can’t find no trace of Skywatch’s former Director.”

“What a surprise.” Ratchet rolled his optics. “I suspect she would be the one the Autobots freed from her clutches dubbed “Circuit Breaker”. With the implants.”

“Yep, she’s the one.” Marissa confirmed. “And after we learned what Skywatch did to this ex-Decepticon we have in our custody, we pressed for the dismantling of Skywatch and got through with it. So far we could only trace some small fishes. The Director and all leading personnel vanished.”

  Ratchet stopped and looked down at the human with a stern expression.

“It’s none of my business, really… But if you don’t want Ultra Magnus to return with Chief Justice Tyrest himself in tow and flatten your skidplates with an intragalactic lawsuit that could end in another war, I suggest you get to the bottom of this case. And catch that cybernetic nutcase.”

They entered the hangar where a multitude of humans were milling about a console and a single Cybertronian.

“Huh. That’s a Seeker.” Sideswipe commented. “Humans sure seem to like them.”

“They have Thundercracker after all.” Bumblebee shrugged. “Maybe they are collecting them.”

“Shut yer traps and give me my tools!” Ratchet interrupted their chat. Bumblebee handed him the box he carried and the medic went over to the grey and black jet.

“I don’t want this.” Ironstrike backed away from the console. His cooling fans whirred loudly and he was obviously nervous about the host of EDC workers and Autobots gathered around.

“It’s okay, no one will hurt you.” Harvey patted his leg. “It’s just a simulation. Think of it like playing a game.”

“I’ll try.” Ironstrike pressed out but froze in place when Ratchet reached him.

“So you must be the latest catch from Skywatch’s lab.” He grumbled while running a diagnostic scan on the Seeker. “Physically you seem to be more or less fine. Have you experienced any malfunctions?”

“No, not lately.”

“Joint pain? Hydraulic fluid leak?”

“No…”

“Rust or chipping paint anywhere?”

“He has chipping stealth paint on his tailfins.” Harvey inserted herself into the conversation. Ratchet looked her over then grunted in acknowledgement.

“Problems with transforming?”

“Not since the inhibitor chip is gone.” Ironstrike answered. “Why do you ask me all of these?”

Ratchet put the scanning device back into his subspace while replying.

“Because you spent Primus knows how long among organics, and therefore in a high risk of contracting Atrophosia.”

“What is that?” Harvey asked.

Ratchet turned back at her with furrowed optical ridge but decided to indulge the human’s curiosity.

“It is a degenerative disease, much like Cybercrosis. But unlike the latter, Atrophosia is brought about by contact with organic lifeforms. Both illnesses are terminal with a 100% fatality rate.”

“Whoa, wait a minute!” The pilot raised her hands as if she wanted to keep Ratchet from coming closer. “You guys can die because being near us?”

“Same way humans might get radiation poisoning by prolonged contact with energon. Lucky for us, these cases are rare.” Ratchet explained “But standard medical protocol requires me to check him for symptoms.”

“What if there’s a foreign program tampering with his mind?” Harvey seemed to take on the role of speaker for her friend.

“Then he’s a damn walking miracle.” Ratchet grumbled. “He shouldn’t even be alive if your ignorant so-called engineers did anything to his brain-module. But just to be sure, I will watch his progress during the simulation and assess his mental state. That’s why I’m here.”

Ironstrike carefully stepped over Harvey to be close enough to Ratchet so he didn’t have to speak loud enough for anyone else to hear.

“Skywatch did something to me. There is a human-made virus in me which I can’t seem to get rid of. It corrupted my entire operating system, firewalls, anti-virus programs, everything. Until Harvey came along, it prevented me from thinking beyond basic needs and completing tasks…”

Ratchet vented and patted Ironstrike’s arm.

“I will look into it. I’m here to see if everything is all right with you. In case it’s not, the Pits will break loose until the ones responsible are dealt with.”

“I kept hearing this for the past months.” Ironstrike shook his head slowly. “But so far, nothing changed. Though Skywatch is officially disbanded, they are still out there. Every single human who did this to me is still out there. And who knows, they might be planning to catch another Autobot. I know that you don’t owe me anything, and that we were enemies, but I beg you to do something.”

Ratchet turned towards the assembled EDC representatives on the far end of the hangar.

“It sure seems like the humans aren’t keen on serving justice for what is basically a war crime.”

He turned back to the dejected ex-Seeker.

“Listen, kid… I can’t promise anything, but believe me. If the EDC is unsuccessful in capturing the former Skywatch agents, then we will take over from them.”

Ironstrike nodded and went over to his spot in front of the console.

“What will I have to do?” He asked Harvey, who stood next to him.

“You’ll be interfaced with the console, and then you’ll have to run the simulation. We will see your progress on the monitor. And guess what: I’ll be playing along too.”

“Really? Why?”

“Well, even though I lack appropriate equipment to be hooked up to the console like you, we’re still a team.  So I have this nice control device here, which I will use to move a virtual me around. It will be fun!”

Ironstrike almost believed her. He flashed a nervous smile at Harvey and nodded to the personnel waiting for the simulation to begin. He felt embarrassed to open his panels in front of so many people, but then he reminded himself that the same amount of humans saw his everything when they disassembled him, so there was no need to be self-conscious. After his cables connected, he searched for the execution file for the simulation program and ran it.

The outside world ceased to exist for him, and he found himself in a ruined city. Ironstrike looked around, trying to find some indication to where he was, but the only thing he could determine that he was on Earth, somewhere in a place foreign to him. He stumbled over remains of buildings and people, some other Cybertronians and even animals. He involuntarily changed modes when Harvey’s virtual self found him and yelled at him to get his attention.

“All right big guy, it’s just me. Why are you so spooked?”

“Where are we?” The F-35 asked while Harvey sat into the cockpit. “Is this one of the cities my people destroyed?”

“Yes, and no. This is an amalgamation of New York, Detroit, San Francisco and also some foreign cities, like Kazovia from Brasnya and Hong Kong from China.”

“All major battlefields in one?”

“Almost.” Harvey confirmed and touched Ironstrike’s virtual control panel. “How are you holding up? You seem horribly nervous and twitchy.”

“I am… I haven’t used my combat protocols in decades… What if…”

“Hey, hey, hey… No what ifs. We’ll work together, all right? You may not have used your combat protocols and weapons, but I did. And boy, you can pack a punch.”

She patted him and ignited the engine.

“We can do this, Ironstrike. Trust me. Do you trust me?”

He hesitated to answer, but after a short pause he said

“Yes.”

“Then let me handle the controls.” Harvey folded her fingers around the rod control. “We’ll go where you want to go, but I will do the fighting.”

“All right.”

They took off and flew above the ruined landscape of many cities blurred together to form the battlefield for the simulation. A swarm of Seekers caught them unprepared but Harvey could shoot them like it was really nothing more than an elaborate virtual reality game.

“Nice shot.” Ironstrike complimented her after she hit one of the enemy units and it blew up before disappearing.

“Nice guns.” She replied with a grin. “And we really should stop this. Folks watching might not get why we flirt to ease tension.”

“But you just explained. To ease tension.” Ironstrike’s voice was still nervous, though it carried the usual mischief Harvey had to admit to being fond of. “And it’s working.”

“Oh. So you say if I keep complimenting your weapons you’ll get enough confidence to kick the bad guys in the… whatever you have on your backside?”

“You will do the fighting, remember? But in return I can compliment your aim. It’s perfect.”

“Yeah, I don’t even miss my exes.” Harvey jested. “Let’s land there and see how well I can shoot if you’re in your bipedal form.”

Outside of the virtual battlefield, the three Autobots and Marissa watched on the unfolding events on the console’s monitor with interest and growing concern.

“They work well together.” Bumblebee commented.

“Don’t be fooled by it.” Ratchet grumbled dismissively. “He is completely dependent on the human. I see his status and his systems are going wild. His energon level is out the roof, and his flight pattern would be erratic if she wouldn’t control him.”

“You mean he’s terrified and his combat protocols are rusty?” Bee tried to detangle the meaning of the medic’s report.

“I mean he’s unfit for battle.”

“I don’t know, doc-bot.” Sideswipe took Bee’s side. “He seems to fight just fine.”

“Because he gave total control over to his human companion. He’s like a drone. Not thinking, not acting on his own. And I have a feeling that whatever Skywatch did, this was exactly what they wanted to achieve.” Ratchet argued. “Just wait and see.”

Bee and Sideswipe turned back to the monitor where the first serious threat appeared.

Ironstrike almost forgot that persistent feeling of something being wrong while Harvey fought virtual effigies of Decepticons he presumed to be killed in action by the combined human-Autobot forces. But when they heard the sound of the engine of an F-22 and he saw the familiar white-red-blue paintjob, Ironstrike froze in place.

“No…” He whined and despite Harvey’s every effort, he began to flee.

“Stop, we need to get back and fight!” She tried to talk him out of his panic in vain, for Ironstrike didn’t even slow down. He climbed over debris and tried to get under something so the virtual representation of Starscream won’t notice. Unfortunately, the other jet already saw him and began to shoot.

“Why are you running?” Harvey asked while trying to wrestle control back from the robot.

“I can’t fight him… I can’t!”

“Why not? Who is he? Someone you knew?”

Ironstrike finally stopped and climbed inside a building, effectively blocking Starscream from attacking him from above.

“He’s… was my commander. And also, he made me.”

“Ouch.” Harvey replied after a short while. “So he’s your dad! Sort of.”

“I don’t know if he’s dead, but he’s responsible for my creation and my mentoring.” He knew he shouldn’t share too much information about his connection to Starscream, if only out of keeping himself above suspicion. But assuming the Air Commander was dead, he saw no point in keeping this a secret anymore. “And I do share CNA with him.”

“Tough. Well, I know I wouldn’t want to fight my dad either. And I don’t know much about family relationships among your people, but it sure seems like you care for him.”

“I’m afraid of him. And he gave me every reason to do so.”

“Well, I’m not afraid of him. Let me fight him for you.”

“No… I don’t want to fight with Starscream. At all.”

The simulacrum didn’t care about his wishes though. Starscream’s effigy broke down the roof and landed in front of the crouching Ironstrike, two energy blades in his hands.

“Knock, knock.” He said with a menacing smirk Ironstrike knew too well. Even his voice was spot on.

“Now or never.” Harvey tried one last time to convince her friend to stand up and fight. “If he kills us, the simulation is over, but we’ll fail. And who knows what will happen?”

Ironstrike rolled over from the first blow of the twin swords and stood. He kept on dodging attacks and never hitting back, all the while trying to protect his cockpit area.

“Give me back control!” Harvey insisted. “I can defeat him!”

Ironstrike dodged another attack and pushed Starscream back a few feet.

“I’m sorry Harvey. I don’t want to hurt him, but I also can’t let him hurt you… This causes many errors in my logical algorithm, believe me.”

He blocked one of Starscream’s blades by catching his arm, but the other one slipped through and pierced Ironstrike’s torso. Harvey got disconnected, meaning she sustained “fatal” injury. The clone froze and didn’t even fight back while Starscream practically sliced him into pieces.

The simulation ended with a catastrophic failure, which Marissa was eager to point out for both participants. She sent Harvey away and after she was gone, the EDC Director turned to Ironstrike.

“Well done. You managed to put yourself out of commission.”

The jet didn’t say a word to her just sat with his face in his palms. Marissa left him and went over to Ratchet.

“So? What do the numbers say?”

The medic shook his head, and picked his toolbox up.

“Combat paralysis, possible flashbacks he had… He’s unfit for duty.”

“So what? Shall we throw him out to the scrap yard?”

Ratchet took a look at the silently weeping wreck of a Seeker and Bumblebee who went over to try and comfort him, and vented.

“I suggest an honorable discharge. He can still work for you, but not in a combat situation. I heard Thundercracker is squatting in one of your hangars as well, maybe ask him if he wants a roommate.”

  “Just what I need… Another ex-Decepticon freeloading on our base.” Marissa crossed her arms in front of her. “Maybe he could be given a job as a commercial aircraft?”

“I leave that up to you.” Ratchet turned to go. “But he needs time to heal. Right now he’s barely keeping it together. Let him have a little privacy and his emotional support human. And for frag’s sake, don’t let any of your incompetent people tamper with his brain!”

After the Autobots were gone, Marissa went back to Ironstrike, who still sat on his spot.

“Are you there? I’d like to talk with you.”

“Then talk.”

“Wow, rude one aren’t you, Crybaby? Guess what: You’ll be packing your stuff and move in with Thundercracker until we find a better place for you.”

“Please don’t.”

Marissa raised her brow.

“Well, I know that listening to his never ending story ideas and ramblings about Nurse Whitley is hard to bear, but it would be only temporary.”

“No, you misunderstand.” Ironstrike shook his head. “Thundercracker found his place and purpose here. I have not. And I don’t want to intrude on his peace with my inner conflict. I’m happy for him if his only concerns are stories and pieces of human entertainment media.”

“And the dog. Don’t forget that damned dog.” Marissa sighed. “Fine, you can stay here in your usual hangar then. But you know you can always walk over to next door and talk to TC. He won’t turn you down, especially if you can keep up with his “creative ideas”. Just sayin’.”

The black and grey Seeker nodded but didn’t look at the EDC Director.

“Want me to send Harvey back to you?” Marissa inquired after a short pause. Ironstrike nodded again. “All right then. You stay here, all mopey and broody and next time you look up, she’ll be here.”

“Thank you.”

Harvey got a long briefing about her assignment with Ironstrike and being his handler. She was surprised to still have her job, but she suspected that the simulation was actually to assess how damaged Ironstrike’s psyche is instead of an assessment of his combat skills.

“So am I to be around him all the time?” She asked from the assembled leading board of the EDC.

“Not all the time, but preferably every day in a specified time frame. Your job will be to help him integrate into society, as much as it is possible. You can also consult other handlers and other Earth-bound Cybertronians about their experiences.” Marissa explained. She couldn’t not notice the excitement on Harvey’s features.  “But curb your enthusiasm, Lieutenant! It’s creepy.”

“Yes, ma’am!”

“Also… Report every unusual thing Ironstrike does, says or thinks. We want to know if he’s a threat, or if he’s about to be self-destructive. And once again, be careful!”

“I will. Thank you ma’am.”

“Dismissed.” Marissa said but Harvey was out the door before she finished the word.

She ran straight to the hangar and to the Seeker leaning to the wall. When he noticed her, Ironstrike stood up and was in front of her with a single big step, scooping her up in his hands and pressing his face onto her.

“A little less pressure!” Harvey groaned but when she could breathe again she caressed Ironstrike’s faceplate. “Why the long  face, big guy? I’m here.”

“I thought…” He couldn’t continue just closed his optics and held her close.

“Shhh… I’m here. I’m not going anywhere. Not even if you soak me with cooling water.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Oh, you will be.” Harvey grinned. “Because I’m so going to beat your record in Arkanoid.”

Ironstrike finally laughed a little.

“You wish. You can’t get past the first level without losing at least two lives.”

“Let’s see who’s better then! I’ll order pizza and you get your energon.”

“Deal. And after I beat your score and maintained my superiority, we’ll do what?”

Harvey laughed and climbed over to the catwalk on the first floor.

“How about flirting, to ease tension?” She jested, but couldn’t help the blush when Ironstrike made a crooked grin and shot.

“Of all the things my hands have held, the best so far is you.”

Chapter Text

It was a very un-November like day in that November, roughly four months after Harvey became “emotional-support human” for a certain ex-Decepticon. She caught herself smiling at the thought of him, how his optics lighted up when he saw her, and the mischievous crooked grin he flashed at her often. If she wouldn’t know otherwise, Harvey would think that there is a certain kind of chemistry between her and Ironstrike. She took a deep breath from the still warm air and fixed her ponytail before entering the hangar which served as her partner’s living quarters.

“Honey, I’m home!” She shouted jokingly, but the crashing sound she heard made her worry that maybe it wasn’t such a good idea.

“Ah…” Harvey heard a short acknowledgement. “Be careful where you step!”

Curious about why she would need to watch her step in the vast hangar, she went to where the Cybertronian’s voice came from. She heard some noise before arriving to a blocked-off area where Ironstrike usually slept, to find him there sitting on a pile of various items and machinery, giving her the brightest and widest grin he could produce.

“Hi!”

“Hey there, big guy. What’s up?”

“The opposite of down. Why?”

Stifling a groan, Harvey ran her fingers through her dirty-blonde hair, ruining the ponytail she just fixed.

“Are you going to torture me with puns today? Because I already regret giving you that DVD with those stand-up comedy sketches.”

“Hmmm… I might think about it.” Ironstrike crossed his legs, still upon his throne of junk.

“You know what makes me smile?”

“Other than your facial muscles?”

Harvey let the joke fly above her head and stepped closer to the jet, partly to inspect what he is nesting on, partly to try and climb up to his leg.

“Our time spent well. That makes me smile and makes me content.”

“So not just your facial muscles.”

“Ironstrike…” Harvey sighed in frustration. “I might be little, but I warn you I have a mini Null-ray. And my aim is still good.”

“And what does it have to do with your ability to smile?” He teased her.

“I will smile while I shoot you in the nuts and bolts.”

“You wouldn’t.” He laughed.

“Just keep on telling me terrible jokes and you’ll see.”

She began to climb up Ironstrike’s shin, but he picked her up and put her down outside of his “nesting space” and barred the area with a large mobile metal sheet.

“Umm…” Harvey tried to take a peek through the crack between the wall and the divider, but Ironstrike stood in front of it.

“No peeking.”

“Why? What are you doing there? It looked like you’re building a nest out of used vehicle parts and computers.”

“I am.” Ironstrike deadpanned.

“All right.” Harvey shrugged. “Are you going to lay eggs as well? Because I want to see that.”

“What do you think I am, a bird?”

She couldn’t help but laugh at his indignant tone.

“Well, your paintjob surely reminds me of a hooded crow. And your voice is a bit croaky too…”

“Sod. Off.”

Both of them laughed for a short while before Harvey prodded him again.

“No, but really… What are you doing? I have to report it if it’s something dangerous. Or if you began to steal and hoard equipment from the base.”

Ironstrike vented and sat down, picking up Harvey and putting her on his knee.

“I can’t tell you yet. But I didn’t steal anything, I asked the quartermaster if these parts are needed and he told me I could take them.”

“All right. Let’s say I believe you.” She crossed her arms in front of her “But you have to tell me what are you building. I don’t want to intrude on your privacy, but we have rules.”

Ironstrike’s face saddened and he nodded in resignation.

“All right. I will try to keep the technical details to a minimum, and I hope you’ll understand that it’s not something dangerous.”

“Go on.”

The jet vented again, and projected a holographic blueprint of a device.

“I’m trying to upgrade this.”

“And what is that?”

“This is called a holomatter-generator. I have it, but I didn’t use it at all until recently… And it needs several upgrades.”

“Shouldn’t you go to Ratchet or another Cybertronian medic with that? I mean… You can hurt yourself while trying to upgrade it, no?”

“Actually I talked with Ratchet about it.” Ironstrike scratched the back of his head. “And I learned how to do it myself. I just need parts. Lots of parts.”

Harvey raised her hands as if she considered the conversation to be over.

“All right. You can have your parts and your secrets. I just had to ask, so you're absolutely not building a weapon of mass destruction under our noses.”

“You still don’t trust me…” He furrowed his optical ridge. Harvey patted his knee-joint.

“I trust you big guy, you’re my best bot. It wasn’t personal.”

His face lighted up with a little smile.

“What shall we do today?” He asked after a short pause.

“How about we go outside while we still can, and go for a walk, or fly?” Harvey suggested,

Ironstrike nodded and helped her get to the ground. They went out of the hangar to bask in the sunlight. Ironstrike sat down and leaned to the hangar’s wall while Harvey climbed up a set of stairs leading to a catwalk and the upper level office’s door. She was at the same level as his head if she leaned to the rail.

They were there, silently watching over the busy daily life of the base, until Harvey got bored of it and asked.

“So… How are you holding up? Heard you and Witwicky still don’t really get along.”

“He has his reasons to be suspicious of us.” Ironstrike closed his optics and shrugged. “And I will survive if he doesn’t like me. I really couldn’t care less.”

“But you didn’t really try and make contact with other Cybertronians on the base either. Not Thundercracker, not the Autobots… Aren’t you lonely?”

He turned his head towards her and opened his optics. Harvey felt her heartbeat fasten as she looked into the two large glowing orbs of red light.

“I have you.”

“But I’m not one of your people.”

“So what? I enjoy your company more than any of my former comrade’s or enemy’s.”

Harvey wanted to say something about that but they heard a commotion from nearby. They saw a basketball bouncing out from one of the hangars followed by Bumblebee, Cliffjumper, Hot Rod and Jazz in pursuit.

“Hey, ya let those minibots whoop your skidplate like that?” Jazz prodded Hot Rod while catching the ball and throwing it at the red speedster.

“Not a chance!”

Bee tackled Hot Rod and caught the ball, happily running away with it.

“It sure seems like it.” Jazz quipped with a grin.

Bumblebee ran a few hangars away, and when his company caught up to him, he turned and nearly bumped into Thundercracker who just came out of his own quarters to take his dog out for a walk.

“Hey, TC! Catch!”

Whether he wanted it or not, Thundercracker was now part of the game. Buster barked excitedly and chased the ball like she wasn’t in the presence of robots with titanic proportions.

“Don’t let Hot Rod and Jazz get to you!” Cliffjumper informed their newest teammate about the rules of the game.

“What’s up, Bee? You need an obsolete flying trashcan to help?” Hot Rod teased and got the ball shot at him like a projectile, knocking him over on impact.

“Obsolete trashcan your rear spoiler!” Thundercracker replied while picking up the ball and throwing it back to Bumblebee. “Score for us!”

Several other Autobots joined in either to watch the game or to cheer for one team or the other.

Cliffjumper had the ball and ran towards their hangar when another player joined in the form of Arcee, snatching the ball and throwing it into the basket.

“This is how it’s done properly.” She commented.

“But who has the score?” Bee inquired.

“Well, since Hot Rod’s team is short one bot, it would only be fair if they had the score.” Blaster answered from the hangar door, where he sat and played music to accompany the game.

“Welcome to the team!” Hot Rod winked at Arcee “You better stay close to me so you won’t get hurt.”

Another perfectly aimed throw landed on his chassis, this time courtesy of Cliffjumper. Arcee laughed out loudly and helped Hot Rod up.

“No, you better stay close to me. At least I know how to catch a ball with my hands.”

“Ow.”

The game began to attract more people, even Director Faireborn found a spot for herself to sit and watch. She even cheered for Thundercracker on occasion or called him out on missed shots. Buster – after getting tired with all the running and tail-wagging – went over and curled up next to her.

The main attraction was yet to come. So far, Bumblebee’s team had the higher score as Blaster announced. He became sort of a commentator and show-bot, just as entertaining on his own as his friends' antics. But even he silenced when the group of playing bots was joined by none other than Optimus Prime.

“Out of the way, Hot Rod!” The Autobot leader called out to his would-be teammate “Let me show these amateurs how to play this game!”

The crowd cheered louder and the two minibots exchanged a look, then Thundercracker turned his head towards the far end of the base, with the lone Seeker sitting on the ground. Bumblebee followed his stare and signaled for Blaster for a time out – not really caring if there was such a thing in basketball – and went over to the pair.

“Hi, uh… We’re one bot short, and I thought I’d ask if you would like to play with us.”

Ironstrike was surprised to be noticed at all, and he knew nothing about the game the Autobots and Thundercracker were playing, so he shook his head.

“Sorry but no. I’m really bad at games.”

Bee lowered his kibble* on his back and frowned.

“Oh. I see.” He turned to go back to play but a thought made him stop and look back. “Um… Aren’t you the bot with the brain-damage? How are you?”

Ironstrike felt more and more uncomfortable with every passing second.

“I’m fine.” He answered while his body language spoke in his stead. He folded his wings to his back, and pulled his knees higher to form a barrier between himself and Bumblebee.

“Okay then.” Bee smiled at him. “But you know, you can come over and chat or anything, we don’t bite.”

He waved and ran back to play. Harvey looked at Ironstrike with a smile of her own, but the ex-Seeker wasn’t smiling. He stood up and went back to his own hangar, closing the door behind himself.

Harvey went after him through the office on the first floor and went to the catwalk hanging above Ironstrike’s quarters.

“Why did you lie to Bumblebee?” She asked after a short pause. Her companion didn’t answer just tinkered with all the junk he hoarded.

“What’s wrong, big guy? You can tell me.”

“Nothing it’s just…” Ironstrike vented and put down the parts he was working on. “I don’t think I could fit in with them.”

“Why not? They seem friendly enough. Is it because of the war? You have trouble not seeing them as enemies?”

“Yes…No…” Ironstrike held his head in his hands and vented loudly. “Harvey, I was not made to be social. I can’t be.”

“That’s not true. You need company, like anyone else.”

 “I had company…" The jet snapped "I had my siblings."

His face saddened and he continued on a bitter tone.

"But they’re gone. I had bots I loved but they got killed. And later I had no one but myself and I completely forgot how to connect to other bots, so it’s better not to even try than to make a fool of myself.”

Harvey felt her heart sink.

“I’m sorry to hear that, Ironstrike. But you know, making friends and being friends with others often includes making a fool out of one’s self. You should give them a chance. They are your people after all.”

“I am not even a true Cybertronian. Just a cheap knock-off.”

“Stop talking like that. I don’t think that they would see you this way. They accepted Thundercracker too, and he was also their enemy once. And he looks like you, but blue.”

Ironstrike lowered his head and picked on the parts he gathered while talking.

“I envy Thundercracker. I always liked him more than my creator, but I never had the chance to tell him, and I wouldn’t intrude on his life now. He found a purpose and he can fit in so well he makes it look like it’s actually easy.”

“Because it is.” Harvey reached out and touched his head, trying to give some comfort or reassurance.  “You just need to learn to trust yourself more.”

“But what if I can’t? What if this virus that had been grafted into my operating system did too much damage? I don’t feel any kind of connection towards them, at all.”

“You can’t isolate yourself forever because of a “what if” either.” Harvey caressed the bot’s faceplate. “I don’t want you to force anything, I just want you to try.”

“I don’t know… What could I possibly give them which they would find valuable?”

“Your company.”

Ironstrike scoffed and barked a short, cynical laugh. But Harvey wasn’t going to give up so easily.

“I guess you just have been in the presence of people in the past who only saw value in what could they use you for. But that’s not what you’re worth.”

“Easy for you to say that. You were not made to be a copy of another human. You were not torn apart and put back together with a virus in your head that prevented you from being able to think for years. You were never treated like you are nothing more than an object.”

“Well, listen up, big guy…” Harvey began to get angered by her companion’s sulking. “… I may not be what you call a copy of another human, and I certainly wasn’t experimented on by an evil corporation. But believe me when I say that I know what it’s like to be treated as an object or inherently lesser. But I don’t let it define me, and neither should you!"

She calmed herself a little before continuing.

“You have tremendous willpower. You were able to speak to me while both the inhibitor chip and the program blocked you from doing so. Why can’t you take this willpower and use it to build a connection between you and others of your people? They are trying to reach out to you, why do you push them away?”

“Because I wasn’t built for that.” Ironstrike turned his head and had to reboot his voice box. “I wasn’t programmed to build bridges and connections. I was made to destroy, to be a weapon and now it is required of me to find my place in the time of peace. I'm useless.”

Harvey buried her face in her palm and took a deep breath.

“This is not you.” She asserted after a short pause. “This is not you but your creator, your captor, every single walking pile of refuse who treated you like garbage before. But they don’t fool me. I know you. And you are anything but useless. Yes, you are a war-machine in a time of peace, but that shouldn’t stop you from having a life, for god’s sake. Don’t listen to those voices in your head.”

He still kept on staring at the wall.

“I want those optics the size of dinner plates on me, soldier!” Harvey called out for him and he turned back at her. “Listen up big guy: I’m your handler, and I won’t let you rust in here all alone and brood. Your mental health is in shambles, and you need to go out and make some new friends, understood? It’s an order!”

“I’ll try.” Ironstrike said on a low and weak voice.

“That’s enough.” Harvey smiled and touched his face again. “You don’t have to do anything else, but try to make friends with someone. If you don’t want to talk to Thundercracker, you can talk to Bumblebee. He surely seems to try and befriend you.”

“All right.”

“You’re agreeing so I’ll stop nagging, don’t you?”

Ironstrike didn’t answer but his face told everything Harvey needed to know.

“Hey… What I will say now is absolutely cheesy and tacky, and if you ever tell it to anyone I'll deny it…”

She now held Ironstrike’s face with both arms, hugging him as much as the railing permitted.

“… But you have me. Even if you fail to make new friends, or if you’re overwhelmed. You have me. And I like you because you’re awesome. And no matter if I am the only person in the universe who thinks that, because it won’t change the fact that you’re worth it. No matter what you have been told before. You matter.”

She let him go and flashed a grin at his sour face.

“Unless you multiply yourself by the speed of light squared. Then you energy.”

Finally Ironstrike laughed sincerely.

“Primus, this was bad.” He snickered. “But I guess I deserve it after all the lame comebacks from earlier.”

Harvey leaned forward and hugged his face again.

“But I meant it. I’m here for you.”

“Thanks. I know.”

He gently folded his hand over her.

“I’ll try and talk to Bumblebee tomorrow. But only because you ordered me.”

“I’ll check on you two to see if you really did it.” Harvey patted Ironstrike’s face and let him go. “But I gotta go now. Use your time wisely and mope while you can.”

She joked, but she knew her friend will probably relapse into melancholy when she leaves. But she had a plan she needed to work on.

It was a very much November-like November day and the cold rain and gloomy weather reflected the mood of the group of men and one woman standing in a field among several SUVs. A helicopter approached the field and began to land, while the group didn’t move from their spot. A single, well-dressed man emerged from the vehicle and went over to the woman, shaking her metal-clad hand.

“Miss Beller! It is an honor to meet you!”

“Mr. Blackrock.” The former Director of Skywatch acknowledged his greeting. “Your agents told us you might be willing to help us out with some financial problems.”

“Straight to the point. I like that.” The businessman grinned. “How about you come with me, and I show you what help I exactly had in mind. Your men can follow on land.”

Beller nodded and signaled for her goons to move out then followed Blackrock to the helicopter. After they arrived into the impressive tower of Blackrock Enterprises, they began to discuss plans.

“You see, I am a fan of your work.” Blackrock explained while he showed all the high-tech equipment he would be willing to lend to Beller’s group. “The pacification and integrating of Cybertronian aliens into human society fascinates me, to say the least.”

“I’m not really willing to integrate them into anywhere unless it’s a scrap yard.” The woman deadpanned. “I tried to make them useful for us, but the EDC thought my methods to be “unethical”. Like you should be even considering ethics in the case of a talking toaster.”

“I know, and let me assure you that I think they were wrong. We both see the danger these machines pose to our way of living, to our planet and to the general human population. I contacted you because I want to help you with your task of either pacifying or deactivating these dangerous aliens.”

Josephine seldom smiled, but now she permitted herself a small one that only emphasized the creases at the corners of her eyes.

“I see you have quite an arsenal.” she ran her fingers over a futuristic looking weapon. “And none of these are on the market. I assume it is because they aren’t entirely man-made?”

Blackrock picked up the gun and let her see more details.

“Correct. This is a replica of the miniaturized Null-ray which is now standard with EDC forces. I have several specifically anti-Cybertronian designs in stock. They were never officially requested by any military organization. They are also nearly untraceable.”

“Sounds good.” Joshephine stepped away from the display and eyed another with a prototype armor.

“I could give you any and all equipment you require, and also financial support on one condition.” Blackrock went over to her and looked her in the eye.

“And what would that condition be, Mr. Blackrock?”

The man waited before answering, as if he calculated the appropriate words to have the desired result, but then he finally replied.

“I want their technology. I don’t care how you get it, but deliver it. Anything you can.”

“And in return you would help me restore Skywatch?” Beller was still skeptical.

“Better: You would get a new unit, free from EDC supervision.”

“You really know how to treat a lady, Mr. Blackrock.” Beller flashed a  wolf-grin at him. “New toys, new soldiers and new contracts? It almost sounds too good to be true. What do you get out of this aside from the carcasses of alien invaders?”

“Knowledge, Miss Beller.” The businessman answered casually. “And power. Just think about it: if we learn their secrets, we can easily repel the Cybertronians in case of another attack. And even better, if we possess their weapons and technology, we can leave the confines of our home planet, and can expand the territory of the human race throughout the galaxy.”

“You have big dreams.”

“And the means to make them come true. So, what do you say?”

Josephine was thinking while her gaze wandered over from one displayed item to the next, and then back to Blackrock. She knew she will never have a better opportunity to have her revenge and to prove to those fools at EDC that she was right.

“Very well. I’m in.” She asserted “But I need my old crew with me as well as the new.”

“That can be arranged.” Blackrock nodded and gestured for Beller to follow, leading her into another area filled with people from various military units and organizations. All of them stopped what they were doing when the pair entered through the double door, and turned towards them.

“Welcome to Cemetery Wind, Miss Beller.” Blackrock introduced the assembled men and women. “They will be your new soldiers in the war against the machines.”

Harvey spent the holidays away from the EDC base, leaving Ironstrike all alone and he used the time to work on his little pet project. He was true to his word and tried to build better relations with his neighbors, and much to his surprise it worked out well. Bumblebee came to chat with him for a few minutes every day, and he grew fond of watching Nurse Whitley and various other TV shows with Thundercracker. He even read the scripts the other ex-Seeker wrote if only to be polite.

He also hounded Ratchet for help with upgrading his holomatter-generator to which the medic usually responded negatively, but after a while he gave some advice and helped Ironstrike sort through all the parts and throw out everything unnecessary. By the time New Year’s eve came, the project was almost ready.

He didn’t see Harvey for almost a whole month now, and – weird as it was to admit – Ironstrike began to miss her. He tried to hide it and bury himself under his work, but at night he found himself tossing and turning on his recharge slab, unable to go to stand-by mode.

Then, out of the blue an idea came to him. Harvey – and all of the humans he interacted with lately – had a little communication device some of them were quite fond of. So much they never put the thing down. Like Carly, who always took pictures and was typing away on the touch-screen in her free time.

Ironstrike got up and disconnected himself from the recharge station, running over to the neighboring hangar to see if Blaster is still active. It needed only a few minutes of brainstorming and the Autobot Communications Officer fine-tuned Ironstrike’s comm. system to be able to connect to the crude little devices humans used.

“Thanks. I owe you a lot!” The jet couldn’t stop grinning while he stood up from where he sat down to let Blaster work.

“Don’t mention it.” The Communications Officer shrugged. “Go and get into trouble! But don’t tell anyone that I helped!”

“I won’t.”

Back in the privacy of his own hangar, Ironstrike began to search for the appropriate code and frequency corresponding to Harvey’s device. He had no luck for the first time, and he gave up after connecting to a few thousand of registered phone-numbers. No voice answering matched the one he was looking for.

The next night wasn’t lucky either, and not even the night after. But the fourth evening, just when Ironstrike was about to give up and force himself to go and recharge, he heard Harvey’s voice answering.

“Hello, who is this?”

“Your best bot.” He couldn’t help the giddy smile spreading on his face.

“Wha…  Ironstrike? Boy, Faireborn will kick your afterburner if she finds out that you hacked into the comm. system just to chat with me.”

“Actually it wasn’t only me, but my help wished to remain anonymous. “

“She’ll kick Blaster’s mudflaps too.” Harvey deadpanned on the other end of the line then she sighed in resignation. “What do you do now that I don’t pester you every day?”

“Oh, not much. You know, building my project. Watching sitcoms with TC and listen to music with Bumblebee and Blaster. The boring routine.”

“I told you that you’ll get along with them.”

Ironstrike chuckled.

“Yes, you did. And what are you doing now that you don’t have to pester me?”

Harvey didn’t answer for a short while but Ironstrike heard noises from the background indicating she changed location. After a creaky door was shut behind her, she spoke again.

“Sorry, my mom began to look at me weird, and I didn’t want her to realize that I’m chatting with a robot.”

“Oh.”

“But to answer your question: I’m curled up into a ball of heat-seeking hate, and only this hot cup of tea prevents me from freezing and setting the place on fire. How ‘bout you? You handle the cold well?”

“I miss you.” He blurted out without thinking. “The cold feels harsher when you’re not around. And even the lights seem dimmer.”

Harvey nearly choked on her tea, but she regained her composure fairly quickly.

“Poetic, are we? Well… I miss you too big guy. Good news: I’ll be back in your hangar in two days!”

“Can’t wait to see you.”

“I bet. Can’t wait to see you too.” She chuckled as well. “Happy New Year, Ironstrike!”

“Um… Are you celebrating that your planet finished its orbit around the sun?”

“Yep. Sort of. Why? Cybertronians don’t have holidays?”

“Beats me. But I find the idea of Earth’s population everywhere having a party and basically patting the planet and saying “good job!” to be adorable.”

Harvey laughed.

“If you say it this way, it’s really adorable. But most of us just get drunk and blow up stuff.”

“I bet us Cybertronians have similar holiday traditions. Gotta ask Bee about it tomorrow.”

“You do that, big guy. But now I got to go and help mom with serving dinner for the family. See you on Monday!”

“See ya.”

The line went dead but Ironstrike found himself reluctant to disconnect. He vented and climbed back to his recharge slab to get some rest.

Coming back to work after the holidays started out with the weirdest request Harvey ever got from anyone.

“I need to see your anatomy.” Ironstrike greeted her after she arrived. He was still tinkering with something Harvey couldn’t identify or wanted to know.

“Excuse me?” She stopped in her tracks, looking wide eyed at the ex-Seeker.

“I just can’t get it right. Can I see yours?”

 Harvey took a deep breath and uttered a strict “NO” to the request. The Cybertronian looked surprised and confused for a moment, then it dawned on him.

“Sorry. I don’t want to pull you apart, I just need to see the surface.”

“Still no.”

She turned to leave when the depressed voice of the jet stopped her.

“I overstepped a boundary, I see. I apologize.”

Harvey went back to him.

“Just so you know: humans don’t react well to someone wanting to see our anatomy.”

“I know now. And I will find a better way to learn textures and proportions. I’m really sorry.”

Harvey calmed down and shrugged.

“You know, you can go and search for anatomical references on the internet. There are plenty of things online.”

Ironstrike had no clue what Harvey was talking about until she showed him the search engine.  From that day on he was hooked up to the console and downloaded data when she wasn’t around. Everything was going well.

“You found what you needed?” Harvey inquired a few days later, but seeing Ironstrike’s frustrated expression she suspected he didn’t.

“I can’t believe this.” He grumbled “I sifted through terabytes of data, but nothing is useful! Also…” He turned towards her with furrowed optical ridge “Would you be so kind and explain to me why there are so many videos about teaching humans how to mate? It was embarrassing to go through those.”

Embarrassing indeed, for Harvey went red and refused to comment on the request for explanation.

He kept on working and she kept on insisting he should go out more. Winter turned to spring, and Harvey found more time to spend with Ironstrike without the Cybertronian tinkering on some device or another.  But as she began to realize, he picked up another annoying habit. She overslept and arrived to work almost an hour later one day, when the weirdness began to really escalate.

“Sorry for being late, traffic was crazy this morning…” Harvey began to apologize to the bot sitting on the hangar’s floor next to a charging station, but then something caught her attention “What the hell is that?!”

Ironstrike looked up at her, then back to the offending piece of electronic sticking out from his pelvic panels.

“That’s my power cable.” He deadpanned.

“And why is it…there?!” Harvey gestured at the area.

“Why? Where do you have your power cable?” The Cybertronian questioned back indignantly, then he seemed to be thinking for a moment before adding “Oh, right. You’re a female, you have a port…”

Harvey groaned frustratedly and threw her hands in the air.

“You’re impossible to talk to!”

Ironstrike lost it and began to laugh.

“Oh, it’s so easy to embarrass you…”

“Did anyone tell you before that you’re an insufferable piece of scrap metal?” Harvey inquired, stepping closer to the transformer.

“Yep!” Ironstrike answered cheerfully.

“Stop grinning, it wasn’t a compliment! And put that robot-junk away, someone might come in!”

“Hey, you walked in on me when I was about to hook myself up to the generator and recharge!” Ironstrike grumbled and slid his panel over the indecent part.

“Oh, that’s a sight I’m sure I’d never un-see.” Harvey shook her head, already being traumatized by the mental image only. “Good grief, now we’re making cable-jokes. I’m really glad no one else was here to witness this.”

Ironstrike grinned.

“Well, that’s why I’m here: To be a nuisance to you, and a goldmine for bad comedy.”

Harvey laughed nervously and tried to avert her gaze from Ironstrike’s hips. The Seeker looked at her and stood up, stretching his spinal struts.

“This is just a cable. It’s not a part of my anatomy in the same way it would be if I were organic.”

He popped the aforementioned cable out from a different panel on his torso.

“I can move it around, use it as an auxiliary arm or hook it up anywhere. It’s not strong enough to hold my weight though, so using it as a climbing rope is out of the question. It hurts like the Pits if I snap it or break it. But long story short: it’s replaceable. It’s not a vital – and definitely not a reproductional – organ. And I’m really sorry for making you uncomfortable, Harvey.”

She finally snapped and began to snicker and laugh uncontrollably for minutes before she could stop.

“I begin to get used to it…” She cracked up again “But you know, imagining you using your cable as an extra arm will haunt me forever.”

“That’s enough about my cables.” Ironstrike either began to be embarrassed himself, or Harvey’s mind was playing a trick on her. “What are we going to do today?”

“Fly to Blackrock tower and deliver a little something for Agent Fowler. Commander’s orders.”

“Can’t somebot else do it?”

Harvey shared his sentiment, but she also understood why Ironstrike was the one given the task.

“I know right? But you’re the only Cybertronian who got discharged and no longer has weapon systems. Your people aren’t really welcome in the outside world.”

“Why is this Agent Fowler there at that tower?”

“He’s building relations. And you will as well.”

Ironstrike rolled his optics, but his face was more concerned than annoyed.

 “It will be all right, big guy. I’ll be with you. Also, some of the Autobots will come too.”

Knowing he won’t be facing the foreign and still quite hostile world alone, Ironstrike vented and nodded.

“Meet me in a few minutes and we’ll take off. I need to put some things in order before we leave.”

Chapter Text

Flying again felt great, though a creeping thought about something being not right kept on bothering Ironstrike's processor. He tried to focus on Harvey's energy signature and the feeling of her hand on his controls. The sensation reminded him that he's safe. 

"You're awfully quiet, big guy." The pilot commented after a while. 

"I'm just thinking." Ironstrike answered. "I'm nervous about meeting those other humans." 

"I bet the Autobots are nervous too." Harvey patted the top of the control panel gently. 

"But they don't look like a Seeker." 

"True, but since you work with them, the people will know that you're one of the good guys."

Ironstrike silenced instead of going on a lengthy diatribe about him still seeing himself as a Decepticon Seeker, something that defined his whole existence since he first came online, and no amount of friendship with even the most agreeable Autobot can change that. 

"Hey, stop worrying!" Harvey patted him again. "People will love you if they get a chance to know you." 

"Of course, everybot loves a dysfunctional heap of scrap." The jet replied sarcastically. 

"I didn't mean it that way." 

Before their banter could escalate into a conflict, Ironstrike's communicator beeped. 

"Calling all nearby EDC units, this is Hot Rod! We are under attack! We need assistance ASAP!"

Though he didn't see it, Ironstrike imagined Harvey's expression to mirror his own confusion.

"Uh... What are we gonna do?" 

Harvey picked up the communicator and answered. 

"Hold on, Hot Rod! We're on our way to your position. Ironstrike can help you out."

"Negative, hostiles are keeping us under fire. They will shoot his afterburner out of the sky." 

Harvey had a terrible feeling welling up inside her. 

"Hot Rod... Where is Director Faireborn?" 

The comm was silent for a short while before they heard the Autobot replying. 

"Thundercracker took her out of the combat zone. I didn't see where Cliffjumper and Bumblebee went, humans pinned me down to this building."

"We have to help him!" Ironstrike exclaimed and accelerated towards the Autobot lieutenant's position. 

"I really don't want to spoil your mood big guy, but you don't have any weapons." Harvey sighed. "We have to contact Director Faireborn and get her orders."

"But Hot Rod might be dead while we get them." 

Seeing his point, she made an irritated sound but nodded.

"All right, we'll go in. See if we can draw fire away from Hot Rod to help him escape."

They flew dangerously close to the buildings, the loud boom of Ironstrike's engines broke windows and the air currents he evoked blew debris from the street. 

"There!" Harvey pointed towards the red bot with flame decals huddled up against the  wall of Blackrock Tower. Hot Rod returned fire towards a military grade armored vehicle which sported an insignia of sorts none of them were familiar with.

The turrets on top of it turned against the approaching F-35 and it took a lot of effort on Ironstrike's behalf to avoid getting indeed shot out of the sky.

"Hang on!" he advised Harvey "I have an idea!"

After he turned and flew around the building, giving enough time for Hot Rod to reload and change position Ironstrike went diving towards the unfamiliar vehicle's top. 

"What are you doing?!" Harvey exclaimed in terror as the turrets began to send a barrage of bullets at them.

"Trust me!" the ex-Seeker answered and transformed back to root mode, turning his engines off and crashing fist first into the armored vehicle's turret. 

"Crazy spawn of a rail gun." Hot Rod grinned and ran over to where Ironstrike and the now defunct armored truck stood. 

"Not having a Null-ray doesn't mean that I'm harmless." Ironstrike mirrored the Autobot's grin. 

"Let me out!" Harvey's voice sounded from Ironstrike's cockpit. 

"Sorry..." the jet laughed sheepishly and opened the canopy to let the human out. Harvey stepped out of the cockpit and onto Ironstrike's palm he held out for her. 

"Never do this again!" she demanded. "I almost got crushed by your rearranging parts!" 

Ironstrike's wings lowered and he shielded Harvey with his other hand as well. 

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking about you... I should have known that it would be dangerous to transform while I carry a human." 

"What's done is done." Harvey sighed. "No hard feelings big guy, but please don't do this again."

"Now that you settled your disagreement" Hot Rod inserted "we better get going and find shelter. I doubt that this one was the only heavyweight armed with anti-cybertronian ammunition they had." 

"Wait, you said anti-cybertronian?" Harvey peeked out from behind Ironstrike's digits. 

"Yep." Hot Rod confirmed while leading them into a street wide enough to accommodate Ironstrike's wingspan and headed towards a staircase leading to a subway station. 

"The humans attacking us came from Blackrock Tower. Bee and Cliff separated from me and tried to make them divide their forces. I lost contact with both of them shortly after." 

"What about Thundercracker and Director Faireborn?" Harvey asked fearing the worst. 

"No idea."  Hot Rod shook his head. 

"We should alert Optimus Prime." Harvey advised "He should know about what happened."

Hot Rod almost got his comm activated, but he stopped at the last second. 

"No. I can't tell him... I screwed up bad, I lost two of my friends and I don't even know what the Pit is going on..."

Ironstrike put his hand on the Autobot's arm.

"You didn't screw up, Hot Rod. None of us had the slightest idea of this meeting at Blackrock Tower being a trap. If anyone is at fault, it's EDC's contact."

"We'll find out what happened." Harvey backed up her friend. "But you have to tell Prime and call for help."

Hot Rod cursed under his breath but in the end, he commed Optimus and told him everything.

The assembled reinforcements found Cliffjumper hiding in a ruined building, holding what looked like the crumpled wreckage of a car. After Ratchet examined it, he confirmed that the inactive bot was Bumblebee, and that he was - though badly wounded - alive. A CR chamber was prepared at EDC's base, and interrogations began. 

Hot Rod blamed himself for the incident, while Cliffjumper told both Optimus and EDC operatives that the members of the unknown unit attacked after someone shot at Bumblebee from the crowd of people gathered to form a protest in front of Blackrock Tower. 

"Director Faireborn and Thundercracker are still missing." Agent Witwicky reported to Optimus Prime. "We are sending out search parties to try and locate them."

"The Autobot scouts will accompany you." Prime said and turned to Sideswipe, who stood behind him. 

"Gather everybot here and help with finding out what happened to Thundercracker and Director Faireborn. The mysterious organization behind the attack is also something we have to learn more about."

"On it." the scout saluted and left. 

"I want to help too." came Ironstrike's voice from the open door of the hangar everyone was gathered in. "I can find Thundercracker."

"The Pits you can!" Ratchet grumbled "You have combat paralysis among a host of other mental illnesses, forget about going out to face potentially hostile humans."

"I may no longer can fight, but I still can fly!" Ironstrike insisted "And I have stealth paint. I can cover more ground and faster than you grounders... no offense."

Prime was thinking about what the ex-Seeker said and nodded.

"Very well. Go and look around!"

"But avoid fighting!" Ratchet warned him. 

Harvey couldn't believe that they got the green light from the emergency high-command, especially because of Ironstrike's non-combatant status. But he was true to his word, and kept on searching for Thundercracker's energy signature. A long hour passed without results and Harvey began to worry. Her racing mind came up with worst case scenarios and this was only interrupted by the jet's voice.

"So... um... I know it might not be the best time to request this, but I want to give something to you, and I'd wish to spend a day with you... when we are not working, I mean."

Harvey chuckled at the absurdity of the situation.

"Are you inviting me on a date, big guy?"

Ironstrike answered with a soft laugh of his own.

"I don't know. Am I? My knowledge of human customs is insufficient."

"Let's find Thundercracker and Director Faireborn first. If we can confirm that they are safe and sound, I swear I will go out with you." 

"Promise?"

"You have my word."

She couldn't help but smile at the happy loop the ex-Seeker did at her answer. 

Marissa kept on staring at the sky for minutes before giving up and returning to Thundercracker. She scouted the area they crash-landed at and found no sign of the mysterious attackers who shot them down. 

Looking at the F-22 lying on the grass, she felt a pang of worry in her heart.

Thundercracker transformed back to root mode and tried to reach the EDC base, but his comm was malfunctioning. That didn't worry Marissa as much as the damaged engine on the Transformer's leg soaking the ground in energon. It was burning after he got shot, but Marissa extinguished the fire before going out to investigate their surroundings. 

"Are you all right, TC?" She prodded the ex-Seeker, prompting him to turn his head towards her. 

"Could be better, could be worse." 

"Your leg is still leaking."

"Really? I was sure that the rapid drop of my power level is just a product of my overactive imagination."  Thundercracker quipped.

"So far I haven't seen any of the hostiles." Marissa stated, ignoring the bot. "Any luck with the communicator?"

Thundercracker vented and shook his head.

"Nope. I tried my best, but looks like we won't be getting any help here soon."

"Dammit." Marissa began to worry again. "How long we have until you power down completely?"

Thundercracker ran a self diagnosis and what he learned wasn't anything that could ease their dire situation.

"If we can't stop the energon leak, I will go into stasis lock in a matter of kliks."

Marissa went over to the bot's leg and examined the damaged part again. She wished she could repair it somehow but if there was anything she never paid much attention to it was maintenance. 

"Hey, don't worry Marissa." Thundercracker sounded like his vocal processor was encountering some trouble. "Your friends will find us sooner or later."

She didn't know how to tell him that she was worried about him in particular. 

"I will find a way to repair you. I don't want you to go offline."

She heard the sound of a jet engine even before she finished her sentence. 

"Friend or foe?" Thundercracker wondered while gathering his last energy reserves to try and locate the approaching jet. He quickly found out that it was another Cybertronian and he warned Marissa.

"It's either one of us, or a Decepticon straggler." 

"You guys can't ID each other just by looking?" 

"I would have to see him to identify him. He's too far."

That soon changed as Ironstrike's form appeared and landed near the pair, Harvey jumping out of the cockpit as soon as the ex-Seeker's landing gears touched the grass.

"Well, look who's finaly deigned to show up!" Marissa crossed her arms "I thought you'll never make it."

"The whole EDC base is looking for you" Harvey defended "We just got lucky and caught one of Thundercracker's attempts at sending out a distress signal."

"Yeah, Marissa. No need to be such a bitch about it." Thundercracker chimed in "I told you they would find us!"

Ironstrike ignored the two arguing humans and went straight to his fellow ex-Seeker.

"Your leg looks really bad."

"Tell me something I don't know." TC shrugged and flinched. "I think I'm going to shut down any nanoklik now..."

Marissa turned to her companion after hearing his words.

"What? No. TC, you will not go offline on my watch!"

"I think I can help him, but I will need his permission to get under his plating." Harvey sighed.

"I don't care if you duct-tape his fuel lines together, but fix him enough so we can leave!" Marissa grumbled. Harvey looked up at Thundercracker and after he nodded, she went to see the damaged part still leaking energon.

"All right, it might hurt a bit." She warned Thundercracker. Ironstrike held the other bot down.

"It's okay." The blue jet vented, optics already dimming from energy-loss.

Harvey worked fast prying open the armor on Thundercracker's leg and finding the busted fuel line. She needed a lot of materials to clog it up enough so the leaking will stop, but she knew that TC needs to see a medic as soon as possible.

"Done. How are you feeling, TC?"

"My leg hurts. So kinda the same as before."

"But the leak has been stopped, so can you transform and fly back to base?"

Thundercracker ran another diagnostic on himself, finding out that he barely left any energon.

"Nope. Sorry."

"That's it. I'm calling the Autobots and request someone capable of towing TC back to base, or at least to safety, so Ratchet can fix him." Ironstrike vented and sent out a message directly to Ratchet. 

EDC operatives and the Autobots arrived soon, and the medic wasn't happy about what he saw.

"You two tiny organic menaces get away from my patient."  He shooed away both Marissa and Harvey. "You did enough damage to his already busted energon-vessels. Whose brilliant idea was to clog it with your clothing in the first place?!"

"They just wanted to help!" TC tried to calm down the Autobot medic in vain.

"They can help by keeping their grabby little appendages off of injured bots." Ratchet grumbled while he removed Harvey's jacket from Thundercracker's fuel line.

"Hey, Harvey!" The blue jet called out for the pilot standing next to her own Cybertronian partner. "Sorry about your coat!"

"You can keep it, TC!" She grinned at him. "You'll never know when will it come handy in stuffing a wound to stop the bleeding!"

Harvey couldn't find Ironstrike in his hangar the next time she went there. She wanted to say goodbye to him before going on a week long vacation visiting her relatives, but after finding an empty space where his usually messy "nest" used to be, she almost picked up the phone to cancel everything.

"Are you looking for someone?" A weirdly familiar male voice asked from behind her, and Harvey turned around to answer the stranger. He was a man around Harvey's age, with jet-black hair and darker skin with a complexion belonging to someone better fit on the silver screen than in a military base. He definitely looked more like a Hollywood movie star dressed up as a pilot than an actual pilot.

"Sorry, have we met?" Harvey took a step closer. Something about the man's face was oddly familiar for her, but her mind couldn't put the pieces together.

"Maybe we have." The stranger grinned and that was when everything clicked into place inside Harvey's mind.

"Ironstrike?" She blinked a few times to make sure she's not hallucinating. "What...? How...?"

"Remember those gadgets I was I working on last stellar-cycle?" He asked, still leaning to the hangar door.

"Yes, I remember."

"Well, this is what I needed them for." He pointed at himself.

Harvey went over to him and hesitantly touched his face. He felt real, not like a hologram at all. His hair was also neatly cut and soft as she swept a few locks from his brow.

"I don't know how did you do it, but..." she trailed off and made an impressed face.

"I don't want to bore you with the details, but let's just say that this is an alternate mode*, just like my jet-form. Ratchet helped me a lot when he had the time, and I also learned from humans over the internet."

"So... you, as in the whole huge robot is inside this human-sized disguise?"

"I have a mass-displacement generator installed into my t-cog. That's how I can change size."

"So from now on, you turn into the T-800 instead of a fighter-jet." Harvey jested.

"I'm much more sophisticated than a T-800 model." Ironstrike pulled his nose up. "But let's not waste any more time: You promised to go out with me after we found Director Faireborn and TC, and we did."

She remembered and blushed.

"Uh... Yeah, I know." She cleared her throat and looked up into Ironstrike's now amber colored eyes. "Listen big guy, I have to go home to change and prepare, but how about we meet at the gate at six?"

"That will be two cycles from now." Ironstrike mused. "All right. I'll meet you there."

Harvey went back to her living quarters as fast as she could and while she dressed up after a quick shower, she mused about the absurdity of it all. She will actually go on a date with Ironstrike. The fighter jet she was piloting not a whole day ago.

"The universe has a weird sense of humor." She sighed, looking at her reflection. "After all these years, I finally find the man of my dreams... Only he's an alien robot from another planet with a faulty processor."

She checked her hair and her make-up one more time before leaving and meeting up with Ironstrike in front of the guard post at the base's entrance. He wasn't there and she began to feel like she just made a fool of herself when he showed up carrying several wildflowers in his hand.

"Hi, um... Sorry I'm late." He stopped next to her "I remembered from my studies that humans are supposed to give gifts on dates as a gesture of wanting to belong, usually samples of flora... But I only found these, and they are wilted."

Harvey's smile returned to her face and she took the wilted assortment of flowers.

"It's the thought that counts, they say."

There was a lot of wonder and childlike awe to the way Ironstrike looked at the world outside the base. Harvey had to remind herself that he probably sees Earth - or at least the part of it they were at in the moment - from a human's point of view for the first time. If she was going to be honest, she didn't mind it. Ironstrike's wide-eyed, happy face was something she wished to see more often. They went to a long walk on the beach and sat in a bar, Harvey drinking a cocktail and listening to Ironstrike's musings about everything and nothing at all while thinking that she could do this for eternity. Some old love song was playing in the background, and Harvey felt the alcohol beginning to do its work and ease her anxiety.

"I want to dance." She blurted out, folding her arms around Ironstrike's shoulders.

"Really?" He sounded a bit surprised but slowly rose from his seat and went with Harvey to mingle among the other dancing couples. She held him close and tried not to get under his feet which led to some awkward laughs, but eventually he got the hang of it, and swayed along with Harvey to the tunes. It felt safe being in his arms. Harvey closed her eyes and just held on to her partner while slowly dancing. She wasn't drunk, but the single cocktail was enough for her to feel a bit tipsy. After all, what else would make her feel safe and cozy while she was being held by a killing machine in disguise? She chased the intrusive thought away. She knew Ironstrike, and he was safe. She never felt threatened by him ever since she sat in his cockpit on that fateful morning. He treated her as a partner not as a subordinate or a rival. Something she could not say about her previous relationships. They had their differences of course, but that had more to do with Ironstrike being an alien than him trying to assert dominance over her.

"It's really touching." His voice tore her from her thoughts.

"Excuse me?"

"The song. I think it's really touching." Ironstrike turned his face away from Harvey which made her think that he was embarrassed. "Humans have many love songs that are like this."

"And many more which are just plain creepy if you listen to them carefully."

"Those aren't actually love songs, people just confuse them."

"The concept of love is subjective." Harvey ran her hand over the back of Ironstrike's jacket. "There is no single sure way of one showing their affection to you."

Ironstrike grinned and laughed softly.

"Look who's being poetic now?"

"It's your bad influence." Harvey mirrored his grin.

The song seemed to never end as they danced through what felt like hours.

It was late at night when the bar closed and they decided to take a walk back to Harvey's quarters at the EDC base. The moon was bright, illuminating their way and the stars above the ocean sparkled like Ironstrike's source of energy inside his casing. Though not having anything to drink, he felt like he was drunk on simply being close to Harvey and exchanging silly quips and slow dancing the night away. He never wanted this night to end. His sentimental mood had him gazing out at the stars, stopping both of them in the middle of their track.

"What is it?" Harvey asked, and hugged Ironstrike. "Are you all right, big guy?"

"Yeah I am..." He replied, still not looking at her. "I'm just wondering how far my home system can be from here."

"Are you feeling homesick again?" Harvey caressed his back. He smiled and shook his head.

"My home is with you, Harvey. I don't miss a planet I allegedly belong to but never seen."

They didn't talk until they reached the gates where Ironstrike and Harvey separated for a little while so she could go over the checkpoint while he transformed and flew back into his hangar... Or at least that was the plan originally. But when Harvey entered the base through the gates, she saw her partner's human form again, leaning to a lamppost next to her house.

"I don't want to go just yet..." He began but Harvey interrupted him

"I don't want you to go at all."

She never knew if it was the influence of the single cocktail she had, or something he said or done, but she went back into his arms like it was something natural. He was startled at first, but then he practically folded around her, leaning down to touch their foreheads together.

"Harvey... There's something I want to tell you..."

"Can we get inside first? People are watching."

He nodded and they went inside Harvey's house. As soon as the door was firmly shut behind them, he held her close again, and gathered all of his resolve to finally say what was bothering his processor for years now.

"I want you to know..."

"I'm listening, big guy."

Ironstrike bit his lower lip and furrowed his brow but then he looked into Harvey's eyes and said it.

"I love you."

Talking about a surprise. Harvey sobered from both her slightly tipsy state and her sleepy cozyness. She suspected that they share a special bond over the years she knew Ironstrike, but it still came as something unexpected.

"I would never guessed that you have a concept of love in human terms." She tried to joke it away, but her throat had a suspicious knot inside it.

"I can assure you that humans and Cybertronians have a very similar concept of love." Ironstrike asserted. "Whenever I look at you, I feel like I could spend a million solar-cycles with you. I want to be close to you. I am anxious when we aren't together and it was bothering my logical circuits for months before I finally realized that I feel the way I feel because I'm in love with you."

"But..." Harvey chuckled nervously "I'm a human. Couldn't you find another bot? I am from a different species, is that not bothering you at all?"

Ironstrike smiled faintly and took a deep breath before answering.

"Maybe I could find another Cybertronian. Maybe I am just way too damaged for them to do anything more than tolerate my presence to a degree. Maybe I could find another bot who is willing to see through the purple insignia on my wings and my frame type and who my creator was. Maybe. But maybe my best chance is with you, a human. Someone who loves me for who I am, not for what I can do for her. Someone who taught me that my worth is not depending on how useful a tool I can be for others. Someone I can trust."

He barely finished when she dragged him down to kiss him.

"Oh, just shut up."She sniffled through tears of joy. "I love you too, you insufferable piece of scrap metal!"

He laughed and kissed her again.

Ironstrike stayed the night at Harvey's quarters. They shared a lot during that brief few hours. A bed, some secrets, some promises they intended to keep, and many many kisses.

When she woke up the next day, Harvey found herself alone in her bed, but a small note sat on top of the pillow next to her.

"Even though there may be times it seems I'm far away

Never wonder where I am, 'cause I am always by your side."

Harvey smiled and put the note away while she got up and dressed. It was a quote from  the song they slow danced to last night.

"'Cause I am your lady, and you are my tin-can man." Harvey chuckled. Suddenly she didn't want to go and meet her relatives. But it was already said and done, so she packed her bag and left the base, her head in the clouds where a certain F-35 flew around in victory circles.

Chapter Text

(Cybertron, several years later.)

Starscream stared at the bot in front of him, sitting on the cell’s floor. He looked like he went through a blender designed for turning Cybertronians into metal smoothie and survived. Broken optical lenses, dented and cracked wings, several fractures on his plating and a certain dull, defeated look in his single operating eye. It reminded Starscream of himself, after a dispute with Megatron got out of hand. He rebooted his vocal processor and stepped closer to the laser grid separating the captive bot from the outside world. The other Seeker’s optic focused on him and the dullness gave way to a brief moment of terror and then the flare of anger.

“Starscream.” He greeted him aridly “I don’t want to know how you treat your enemies if you treat one of your own like this.”

Starscream shooed the guards away before turning back towards the broken and battered Seeker.

“Why are you here?” He tried to sound as threatening as he could while he felt like he’s seeing a ghost. Another than the one he saw usually at least.

“Isn’t this my homeworld too?”

“How are you still functional, Ironstrike? The last thing I heard from you was that you have been shot down by humans on their wretched planet and died.”

The clone made a smirk eerily reminding Starscream of his own.

“Looks like those rumors about my death were exaggerated. I got captured, yes. But they didn’t kill me.” His defiant smirk disappeared and he was back to dull and defeated “I only wished that they would… Primus, I wished.”

“So? Did you escape then?” Starscream crossed his arms in front of him. “Start talking, soldier! We both know that’s one of your talents.”

“Not as much as it’s yours.” Ironstrike laughed bitterly. “Supreme ruler of Cybertron? Really?”

The clone’s laughter grated against Starscream’s audiosensor as much as his next quip did.

“How did you manage to convince the people to crown the court jester to be the king?”

Starscream’s arm lashed out so quickly his own operating system had a hard time tracking it. He grabbed the offending bot’s neck, ignoring the searing pain in his arm as the laser grid burnt his plating.

“Shut your intake or…”

“Or what?” Ironstrike growled and grabbed Starscream’s arm. “What will you do if I don’t obey you, kill me?”

Starscream didn’t answer just stared at his clone in shock as he moved Starscream’s hand from his neck to his spark casing, partly exposed by the broken outer plating on his chest.

“Would you grant me that mercy, Creator? To extinguish the spark you gave me? To put an end to this misery? I never had any love for you Starscream, or even respect for that matter. But I would give all I have to you if you could release me!”

“That’s horrible.” Starscream heard another voice and turned his head towards the source. Bumblebee stared at both of them with concern written on his faceplate. “He’s been through a lot, Starscream. Leave him be!”

The red Seeker vented loudly and pulled his arm from the grip of the damaged one.

“I will not kill you, Ironstrike.” He grumbled, while looking at Bumblebee. “Not yet at least. But I want to hear the whole story about what happened. And most importantly, the reason for you to desert the ranks of the Decepticons… Not that I blame you but as your former superior officer, I am curious.”

Bumblebee took a few steps closer to the pair, but still remained out of the captive bot’s sight.

Ironstrike sat down back to the floor of his cell, and vented.

“Aren’t you the bot with optics and audiosensors planted everywhere in the city? With a surveillance system putting even Soundwave to shame?”

“Yes, yes. I could order a data-clerk to dig up something, only problem is that I took care of erasing everything about you and my other clones. You’re a ghost.”

“And yet I’m here, still talking to you.”

Ironstrike vented again, to stop the coolant welling up in his still functioning optic.

“Couldn’t you be a bit gentler, for frag’s sake?” Bumblebee grumbled and poked Starscream’s leg with his walking stick he used ever since he recovered from the assassination attempt that happened to him on Earth. “He’s broken; he needs to be handled carefully, not like a Constructicon in a glassware shop.”

“You’re right.” Starscream sighed. “I’m sorry.”

He turned back to Ironstrike.

 “But I’m still curious about why you’re here. In Metroplex. After all those megacycles I thought you dead, you’re back to haunt me… There’s got to be a reason.”

“I didn’t come back for you, Starscream.” Ironstrike shook his head. “I came here because I have nowhere else to go.”

After a long pause, he turned back to his creator.

“I shall tell you what you want to know.”

“Finally some good news!” Starscream rolled his optics. “Let’s hear it then!”

(Earth, 2016.)

Ironstrike watched the rain fall from his spot next to Harvey’s sleeping form in her bed. He didn’t have to recharge just yet, but the past few weeks were stressful for her so he let her rest, cuddled up next to him and listening to his ventilation system’s low whirring before falling asleep. His head felt light and his spark was shining so bright in its casing that he feared it might become visible through the synthetic flesh covering his body.

It’s been a whole year since they confessed their feelings to each other, and started their relationship which they tried to keep a secret as much as it was possible. Ironstrike caught some weird side-eyed glances from some Autobots who knew, and Harvey insisted on forging a “human persona” for him, which he was reluctant to do. Neither of them knew what would happen if anyone from EDC or Autobot High-command found out, so they agreed on stealing a little time for themselves every now and then, avoiding to use Ironstrike’s Pretender mode if they could.

But when they were on their own either far from the EDC base or inside Harvey’s quarters, he changed modes into his human form and if Harvey’s onslaught of kisses and touches were any indicator, she preferred it that way as well. She never let him out of her sight for too long but he didn’t mind. If he was being honest with himself, Ironstrike would never guess that he will connect to an organic being in both an emotional and physical sense. The latter was still an unusual feeling for him, for Harvey lacked the appropriate tools and arrays to connect to Ironstrike like another bot would, and he still tried to wrap his processor around the way humans knew each other without actually ever seeing inside each other’s mind. Sometimes he remembered his one-time interface with Laserlight, how much he got to know about him in only a matter of seconds, and he saddened for he knew he will never be able to know Harvey this way.

Looking at her, his sadness vanished and gave way to the warm and fuzzy feeling he had whenever she was near. It didn’t matter if he could never know what was going on inside her head. What mattered was that she loved him as much as he loved her. Ironstrike smiled at the sleeping woman and tried to get out of bed without waking her, but her grip around his hip tightened and she muttered a single word which made the bot change his mind about leaving.

“Heat…”

Ironstrike chuckled and snuggled closer to her, to which Harvey sighed contentedly and went back to sleep. Eventually, Ironstrike powered down as well falling into a dreamless stasis.

Harvey woke up the next day still being entangled with Ironstrike, who was already awake.

“Morning, sweetspark.”

She flashed a satisfied grin at him which turned into worry.

“Dammit… It’s morning. And you’re still here…”

He laughed.

“Well, aren’t you a rude one?”

“No, I mean… They will see you if you go out now.” Harvey tried to explain groggily.

“I know, I tried to go back to my hangar earlier, but someone was leeching heat from me and demanded that I stay.”

Harvey chuckled and hit him with her pillow.

“And you stayed like you’re not a giant robot weighing several metric tons but a puppy that can be held back by little old me.”

“Who can resist a command like “heat”.” Ironstrike played back Harvey’s half-asleep order. “You needed heat, so I stayed to provide it for you.”

“How generous.” Harvey said sarcastically, but leaned forward and kissed him. “But really you better go big guy, before someone or somebot sees you.”

He returned her kiss then got up, stretching and go looking for his clothes.

“Ah… I should really stretch my wings.”

Harvey got up and went to the bathroom to get dressed and ready for work. She heard the door close behind Ironstrike and she hoped that he can sneak back into his hangar without being caught.

As the weather got warmer and the mornings came earlier, they had less time to spend together as a couple and pretending at work became bothersome for both Harvey and Ironstrike. He always had to remind himself that in his root mode he’s too big and can crush her accidentally if he holds her too tight, and she had to remind herself not to be too touchy-feely with a fighter jet. So they agreed on having a little break and trying to regain some semblance of professionalism between them.

It lasted for about two weeks. Ironstrike was constantly out for distractions that could take his processor off from worrying about Harvey and if she still loves him or not, so he spent a lot of time with some of the Autobots and Thundercracker when he was available.

Hot Rod ended up being the bot Ironstrike spent the most time with, for he became some kind of an outcast after the assassination attempt on Bumblebee and his self-inflicted isolation from the others made him a perfect candidate for long walks (and drives and flights) and talks far away from the base.

On one such occasion Ironstrike heard some music coming from Hot Rod’s radio while he was arguing with Agent Witwicky about something. The ex-Seeker went closer to find out what the ruckus was about.

“Come on, Hot Rod! Why don’t you listen to something… I don’t know, fresher? These songs are from the ‘80’s, they’re old!” Complained Spike.

“I love these. Ever since they were fresh.” Hot Rod replied and turned the volume up. “Besides, I am old! Okay, not as old as Prime, but you get my drift…”

“At least change to something less cheesy.”

“What’s your problem with Heart?”

“It’s corny! Also, who could take a guy who listens to Heart seriously?”

“I’m not a guy. I’m an Autobot. And I’m also a classic, this chassis is something resembling that era, so watch your vocal processor!”

“Ugh, all right. I better go and get this whining out of my ears.” Witwicky shuddered and turned to leave to which Hot Rod replied by singing along to “What About Love”.

“What about love? Don’t you want someone to care about you?”

Ironstrike laughed and stopped next to Hot Rod, joining him and watching Witwicky retreat in ever increasing speed.

“What about love? Don’t let it slip away.”

They were joined by Thundercracker and Jazz, forming a slightly off-key chorus that was promptly recorded by Blaster.

“What about love? I only want to share it with you. You might need it someday.”

Witwicky was practically running past Marissa and Harvey as they came out from one of the office buildings to see what the noise was about. Both of them began to laugh at the sight.

“Hey, look at that!” Marissa regained her composure faster. “It’s Cybertron’s newest boy-band! I thought you were into script writing, TC!”

Thundercracker made a dramatic bow towards Marissa and answered

“I’m multi-talented!”

Harvey chuckled and looked at Ironstrike, who was still leaning to Hot Rod’s shoulder, laughing at the absurdity of the situation.

“We should have come to Earth sooner.” He jested “We could discover humans’ music and could bond over our mutual love for it.”

Hot Rod laughed.

“Or maybe things would only get worse if Prime and Megatron would enter a karaoke contest.”

“That would be devastating.” Jazz grinned and joined their banter.

“Hey, you guys got three-hundred likes already.” Blaster informed them “Some people in the comments demand a full cover. Another one demands that you guys convince Arcee to do the singing instead.”

“Tsk.” Ironstrike scoffed “No one appreciates talent anymore.”

They laughed some more then TC and Marissa left going on an assignment, Blaster and Jazz following them on their own work, leaving only Harvey and the pair of Ironstrike and Hot Rod.

“You two better behave and not go off starting a rockstar career without telling us, okay?” She jested.

“Nah can’t promise.” Hot Rod grinned “Flybot here has killer range on that vocal processor, can’t let it go to waste.”

“I have the inclination for screaming coded in my CNA.” Ironstrike deadpanned and patted Hot Rod on the back. “You have a little time for a chat, Roddy?”

“Sure thing.”

Harvey waved goodbye to the two bots and let them talk while she went back to continue with her day. She had something she wanted to tell Ironstrike but she didn’t know how to approach the Transformer with it yet.

After Harvey was gone, Hot Rod and Ironstrike left the base and just wandered around the town nearby, the Autobot driving and the ex-Seeker changed modes to his Pretender alt-form, sitting behind Hot Rod’s steering wheel.

“That meat-suit sure is handy to have.” Hot Rod commented after a long pause. “Ratchet told me you have been working on it for a while.”

“Yeah, I did. Why? Planning to get one yourself?”

Hot Rod laughed.

“No thanks. I remember hearing about Shockwave's Pretender project, but never thought I’ll actually see one.”

“It is limiting… in a way.” Ironstrike confessed while pretending to step on the brakes at a red light.

“But you did it for her, didn’t you?”

That came as a cold shower.

“What? Where did you get that idea…” Ironstrike tried to deflect but Hot Rod interrupted.

“Hey, no judging here. For me, it doesn’t matter if it’s two bots, a bot and an alien, or an Autobot and a Decepticon… Love is love. I just find it… I don’t know, brave and foolish at once.”

“Ha. This, coming from the Prime of brave and foolish things?”

“Almost Prime.” Hot Rod corrected. “And don’t even mention that… good thing Optimus didn’t go and see the code at the other end of the Matrix after all. Folks would end up blaming me for that as well*…”

They were driving in silence for a couple of miles before Ironstrike asking

“How’s Bumblebee? Heard he might need a new frame.”

“He’s fine. His leg actuator is busted for good, but otherwise the CR chamber put him back together nicely. Looking like some old and wizened human sage with that walking cane of his.”

“You still blame yourself for that attack?”

Hot Rod didn’t answer right away, but sped up and ran out to the highway.

“Thing is, it’s not just me who thinks that I fragged up real big time there. I can see it in Bee’s optics when he looks at me, or Cliff’s. Everybot is colder to me, feels more distant. And I have not a single flying lugnut of a clue about how could I make up for my mistake.”

“It wasn’t your fault, Roddy.”

He didn’t answer again, but slowed down as both bots noticed something next to the road.

“What’s that? Looks like an abandoned vehicle.”

Hot Rod stopped and transformed back to his root mode while Ironstrike went forward to investigate. It was indeed an abandoned military jeep, bearing the insignia of the same organization that attacked Hot Rod’s team at Blackrock Tower.

“But where’s the crew?” Ironstrike mused while he rummaged through the jeep, searching for anything they can take back to the EDC for analysis. He found some documents and ID cards in the glove compartment and several weapons based on Cybertronian technology. The ex-Seeker saved everything he saw into his memory bank, and froze when he heard a small noise, like a click of a lock or a gun’s mechanism. Ironstrike spun on his heels and was faced with three masked soldiers wearing black.

“Step away from the jeep!”

Ironstrike obeyed, and tried hard to fight the impulse to freeze up and do nothing. He sent a distress signal to Hot Rod through his internal communicator, hoping that the Autobot will come and help somehow.

“That’s an EDC uniform.” one of the goons told the loudest one with a gun. “If he’s working for them, there must be one of those machines nearby as well.”

As on cue Hot Rod came with tires screeching and opened his door.

“Get in!” He yelled to Ironstrike and the Pretender ran and jumped in, only barely dodging a bullet aimed at his back.

Hot Rod turned back and went full speed towards the base while calling for reinforcements with the black clad soldiers on his trail.

“Did you find anything inside their vehicle?” He asked Ironstrike while they took a left turn to lead their pursuers away from the base.

“I did. A hit list of sorts… I can send my memory files to you.”

“Fire away!”

They learned that nearly all of the Autobots were on the hit list, also the formerly unknown organization now had a name: Cemetery Wind. After getting back to base, Blaster ran their find through his sources and some alarming morsels of information came to the surface.

"Cemetery Wind is composed of former Skywatch members and some others kicked out of the EDC and even other, lesser known semi-military organizations." Jazz explained Blaster's findings to Marissa and the rest of the joint EDC-Autobot team. "Their main goal is to eradicate all Cybertronians currently living on Earth, and according to their list, they were successful in killing some Decepticon stragglers and an Autobot named Cog. They have all the Cybertronian tech they could steal from before Skywatch’s fall and Ultra Magnus’ sweep and they put it to good use."

The assembled humans and Autobots murmured between each other, trying to make sense of what Jazz was saying.

"On the bright side: They don't know that both Bee and Cliffjumper are alive. They believe them dead.” The racer concluded his report. “But Director Faireborn and Thundercracker are among their top targets.”

“We have to do something about them, and fast.” Marissa sighed “I don’t want any more bots dying or getting seriously injured on my watch.”

“Hey, you said “injured” and not “damaged”!” Thundercracker couldn’t help but point out.

“I know what I said TC, no need for you to prattle in my every conversation.”

The blue jet stayed silent but his grin never left his faceplate. Ironstrike stood next to him with his arms crossed in front of his cockpit, and understood quite well why Thundercracker felt the need to prattle about Marissa’s use of words. The EDC’s director began to leave her anti-Cybertronian sensibilities behind. She no longer saw them as these scary alien machines, but as other sentient beings. His optics wandered to Harvey, standing among the human members of the EDC all gathered around Marissa and Jazz, listening on their conversation.

The time for idle chats and playing and forming singing flashmobs was over. They were at war again.

“I feel so useless.” Ironstrike complained to Hot Rod after they came out from the main building after the briefing.

“You’re the bot who found the clues we could use to get more intel on Cemetery Wind. You’re not useless.”

“But…”

“Hey, I know buddy." Hot Rod patted Ironstrike's back "You miss your guns and your confidence. But you helped us already. No need to overexert yourself.”

Ironstrike’s wings dropped as he watched Hot Rod leave with Wheeljack and Sideswipe. Despite the Autobot’s words, he felt more useless than ever. He felt several knocks on his shin, so he looked down to see who’s bothering him.

“We need to talk, big guy.” Harvey asserted and it made Ironstrike’s tank jump.

“Can it wait?” He asked weakly. “I think I can’t really handle any more bad news…”

“It’s good news, I swear.” She smiled and he wanted to believe her.

“Let’s get back to my hangar then.” He vented and inclined his head towards the place.

“You’re a non-combatant, so you can’t leave the base unattended.” Harvey told him after the door was closed behind them.

“Is this supposed to be good news?”

“No, silly. The good news is that you aren’t unattended when we’re together. And I know just exactly where we should be going to hide.”

“I shouldn’t hide.” Ironstrike growled. “I should be out there, fighting. Like the rest of them.”

“Love…” Harvey stepped closer to the railing of the first floor catwalk, leaning out to touch the tip of Ironstrike’s wing. “No one wants you to fight when you can’t. They understand.”

He knew that the Autobots understood his condition, but still he kicked himself over it. He felt deeply ashamed of the intense, paralyzing fear he always felt when he had to confront someone, be it verbally or physically. He knew that if he’d still be in the ranks of the Decepticons he’d be melted down for raw materials. And he felt like he deserves just that for being a burden on everyone else.

“Is it getting bad again?” Harvey squeezed his wing which tore him out of the downward spiral of his dark thoughts. “Can I do anything to help?”

Ironstrike vented loudly and turned to his lover.

“You did more than enough, sweetspark. I just feel so useless, that’s all. If Faireborn wants me to go and hide until further notice, I will go and hide.”

“You’re not being useless, how many times we have to tell you that? Besides, you won’t be hiding alone; I will be hiding with you. In my mom’s house, out in the middle of nowhere.”

Ironstrike raised an optical ridge.

“And does she know about that?”

“She knows that I will be visiting her for a long vacation I have because of stress-related burnout and such, but she doesn’t know that I bring my boyfriend along… yet.”

“Well why don’t you tell her then? I’m curious about her reaction.” At least it took his processor off from worrying about being useless.

Harvey shrugged and took her cell phone out from her pocket and called her mother’s number. It rang a few times before she picked it up.

“Reese, my darling! How are you? Is everything all right?”

“Of course, mom… I’m just calling to tell you that I won’t be coming alone to visit you… Remember that I told you I’ll come over, right?”

“I’m not that old and senile.” A very familiar dry deadpan came from the other end of the line.

“Great… Uh… So, I’m going to introduce someone to you I should have introduced a long time ago…”

“And that someone would be…?”

“My boyfriend.” Harvey blurted out without thinking. Ironstrike laughed out at the loud squealing coming from Harvey’s phone.

“Tell me everything! Is he handsome? Is he treating you well? What is he doing for a living?”

“Yes, yes, fighter jet - pilot.” Harvey droned without even paying attention.

“Oh, he’s a pilot too… Makes sense. But isn’t it against the rules?”

“Mom, we’re careful. Also, we’re not in the same unit. But I can’t say anymore on the phone. You guys will have all the time in the world to talk about the basics.”

“Can I at least know his name?”

Harvey’s eyes widened as she looked at Ironstrike for a moment before answering.

“It’s Ironst… It’s Nick Irons.”

“Well, looking forward to meeting Nick. I’ll better go now and prepare for one more visitor then. Take care!”

“Bye mom!” Harvey sighed in relief when she finally hung up.

Ironstrike couldn’t decide if he should be mad or burst out laughing.

“Who’s Nick?”

“You. From now on.”

“You named me nicked iron?!”

“Hey, at least it was better than the names Thundercracker comes up with. Have you read his scripts? He named a character Guy Trustworthy, I kid you not.”

“As long as you don’t name me Josh Boyfriend** we’re cool.” Ironstrike finally decided on laughing. “But why Nick?”

“You look like a Nick." Harvey shrugged "And that – my dearest mechanical friend – is why you need a humansona.”

“Who is he?” Josephine mused while looking over her lieutenant’s shoulder, into the face of an EDC agent on the screen. “I don’t recall his name, but his face is oddly familiar.”

“He’s a new recruit.” the man explained. “Only got accepted into the EDC a few months ago.”

“And you idiots provided him with material enough for a promotion and a lead towards our base of operations.” Beller deadpanned. “From now on, we have to be extra careful in our surveillance missions. They know about our targets, and those targets will be protected.”

“What shall we do about Agent Irons then, ma’am?”

Josephine squinted at the screen, and felt once again that she knows the EDC agent from somewhere. But she was sure that she’d remember such a conventionally handsome young man with an impressive service record. But the longer she kept looking into Sgt. Nicholas Irons, the more she became sure about something not being right about him.

“Dig deeper! Something is amiss, and I want to know what.”

“Understood.”

By the end of that day, she had a report on her desk about the mysterious EDC agent.

“Let’s see what we know about you, Mr. Irons.”

There was a host of information – date and place of birth, names of parents and schools attended, right until enlisting to the US Marines – but there were tiny bits of the puzzle that didn’t quite fit together, and Josephine knew how to find them. After checking many, seemingly trivial information, she discovered the seams of the illusion she could pull apart to reveal what was underneath.

“It’s a forgery.” She told her underlings the next day. “Nicholas Irons didn’t exist a month ago, and every place he supposedly studied at or lived at has no official record of anyone with his name.”

“So you’re saying he’s a spy?”

Josephine looked at her soldier and shook her head.

“It might be something worse.” She showed the assembled people the picture of the EDC agent in question then she brought up another, this time it was the close-up of the faceplate of one of the airplane-formed Transformers they had recently deactivated. The resemblance was uncanny between the face of the man and the robot.

“Well, either good ‘ole Nick was the base for these creeps’ mugs, or he’s one of them.” Barnett – the man who was there when their abandoned SUV was compromised by the EDC – commented.

“But…” Cemetery Wind’s tech specialist, Finkleberg objected “Is that even possible? You were there Barnett, you saw the guy. He was human, wasn’t he?”

“No, he wasn’t.” Josephine answered in his stead. “As I said, we have to be even more vigilant, men. These creatures now have a way to appear human.”

“Robots in disguise, eh?” Barnett nudged Finkleberg but he didn’t even smile.

“Dude, that’s some Terminator level crap. They can look like us. Anyone of us can be a robot. Is that not scary to you?”

“I’m not afraid of them.” Barnett shrugged. “We already put a bunch of them out of commission. Some of them were armed, some of them begged to be spared. Doesn’t matter to me if they look human.”

“They will not take our homeworld.” Josephine asserted. “We will fight to defend it, and when we got rid of the alien invaders, we will deal with their collaborators as well.”

“So, that means this fake-agent is on our list now?” Finkleberg dared ask.

“Maybe he was already on it.” Josephine mused. “But it doesn’t matter now. Our first priority targets are still Marissa Faireborn and her prized fighter jet. They are usually together, so it will be easy to eliminate both of them at once.”

Barnett nodded and turned to leave.

“I want eyes and ears on the EDC and their operations.” Josephine ordered Finkleberg. “Inform our mole about the situation and tell him to keep us updated on everyone.”

“Ma’am.” The tech specialist left, leaving Beller in a staring contest with Agent Irons’ portrait.

“I will find out which one of them are you.” She growled to the picture, like the Cybertronian on it could hear. “And when I do, I will get you like I got the rest.”

Sitting in a non-sentient car and driving long miles was an experience foreign and somewhat frustrating for Ironstrike. Harvey tried everything to keep him entertained during the long and boring trip, but even her best effort couldn’t fend off boredom forever.

“How can you tolerate going so slow?” Ironstrike whined “If you didn’t need all those stuff you put in the trunk, I could take you there in a matter of kliks instead of… whatever this is.”

“I know, big guy.” Harvey patted the Pretender’s knee “But now you’re hiding, and flying around in your jet-mode and landing in my mother’s front yard wouldn’t be the best idea.”

The ex-Seeker grumbled something unintelligible – Harvey suspected it was something in Cybertronian from the faint mechanical beeps and clicks she heard – but otherwise didn’t comment. A long hour passed and Harvey decided that silence is becoming more and more awkward, so she put on some music, hoping it will keep her travelling companion from going insane from the –compared to him – slow speed.

He hummed along to some of the songs and refrained from getting on Harvey’s nerves with constantly asking if they are there yet.

By nightfall they finally arrived to the small farm out in the middle of nowhere. It actually lacked anything remotely modern technological instrument, just as Harvey described. Her mother was nowhere to be seen, but since she didn’t seem concerned, Ironstrike didn’t bother bringing it up.

“Let’s get settled.” Harvey got out of the car and started to get her things out of the trunk.

“Wait, let me help.”

They packed her things and went into the house.

“Mom, we’re here!” Harvey shouted once inside.

“I’m coming!” they heard the voice of a woman from the basement.

“Oh, she was probably picking mushrooms.” Harvey informed Ironstrike, whose brows ran up his forehead.

“What?”

“Don’t ask. She insists on running a self-sufficient household.”

They just finished packing everything to Harvey’s old room when her mother showed up with a small basket full of various vegetables and mushrooms.

“Sorry for not going out to greet you, sweetie.” She told them while placing the vegetables on the kitchen table. Then she looked up and suddenly it felt like time itself froze.

Ironstrike took a few steps backwards and Grace Harvey also.

“What’s wrong you guys?” Reese inquired.

Mrs. Harvey gained back her composure faster.

“Nothing sweetheart. So, he’s your boyfriend, what was it… Nick?”

Ironstrike slowly nodded but he was still shaking like a leaf in the wind.

“Yes, he is.” Reese nodded and took Ironstrike’s hand to help steady it. “He’s a bit shy, sorry about that.”

“A shy fighter pilot. Hm. That’s new.”

“Yeah, um… Sorry Mrs. Harvey.” Ironstrike rebooted his vocal processor. “Pleased to meet you.”

He was lying and from what he saw on her face, Mrs. Harvey wasn’t pleased either. This wasn’t an ideal start.

“Dinner’s gonna be ready in an hour. Go and get settled until then!” She dismissed them sternly.

When Harvey’s door closed behind them, Ironstrike picked up her things and tried to open the window.

“What are you doing?” She exclaimed and took her bag out of his hand.

“We have to leave, now!”

He sounded terrified and it concerned Harvey.

“What’s wrong? Tell me!”

Ironstrike hesitated, looking at the door and back to his companion. It took him a while to decide on to tell her about the reason for his distress.

“Harvey, are you sure that this human is your creator?”

She chuckled at the choice of words, but she nodded.

“Yes, I am sure that it’s my mother out there in all her bitter and sarcastic glory.”

“I know her.” He blurted out and collapsed to the floor next to the window. “She was there…”

Harvey’s smile disappeared.

“What?”

“She was among the humans who supervised my… dismemberment and who installed that virus into my system.”

She didn’t want to believe him. But then again, why would he lie about something like that? Harvey remembered that her mother never worked yet they still got a thick paycheck for her every month. When she asked about it once, Mrs. Harvey told her daughter that it was her pension. She never spoke about her work.

“You mean… My mother worked for Skywatch?”

“She might still be.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa…” Harvey raised her hands “Let’s not get paranoid. I get it that you’re afraid, but let me ask her a few questions before we bail, okay?”

“Harvey…”

“Just a few days. That’s all I ask. If I find out she’s still working for Skywatch, then we’ll go somewhere else.”

What was a few days compared to decades? Ironstrike bit his lip but he nodded.

“I’m here with you.” Harvey sat down next to the Pretender and hugged him. “I won’t let you come to any harm.”

Here she was, this tiny, fragile human being holding him close and caressing his wings through the skin on his back, convincing him to go against his survival instincts by promising to protect him and convincing him that everything will be alright. Ironstrike kissed her gently and let her go.

 “I love you.” He whispered. He put all his trust on her tiny shoulders, and hated himself for it.

“I love you too, big guy.”

Downstairs in the basement, way behind the barrels and sacks of mushrooms stood a door slightly ajar. The unassuming little old lady sitting behind a high-tech computer was severely out of place. Yet she was typing away so fast that would put a teenager in shame, sending a message to a certain “sparkplug”.

Pawn arrived with possible target. Need information about EDC agent Nick Irons. It is likely that we have another Alice. Send orders as soon as possible!

The requested orders came almost in an instant.

“Nick Irons” is a pseudonym for Subject 2. It is indeed another one like Alice. Do not yet engage, we’ll send reinforcements. Try to separate Pawn from target if possible.

Grace sighed in relief then she turned off the computer, locked the secret room and went back upstairs.

She saw no signs of neither Reese nor the abomination that she brought unsuspectingly into her mother's home. Grace shook her head. Her daughter was always too trusting, too open-minded.

Reese’s laughter rang from outside, so Grace went to see what she was up to. The pair chased each other and goofed around like young couples usually did. In any other case, it would fill Grace’s heart with joy, but knowing that the man folding his arms around her daughter wasn’t even human just made her blood boil. She recognized his face right away; she saw it enough in her nightmares after all. Ever since that fateful day almost forty years ago, she saw that faceplate and heard the screaming every time she closed her eyes. And now this demon had a human disguise and threatened the very person Grace was determined to protect from his kind. Seeing Reese wrap her arms around the creature’s shoulders and kissing him was the last straw.

“Step away from him, right now!” Grace shouted at her daughter from the doorway, her hand reaching for the axe she kept next to the house’s wall.

“What? Mom, what are you doing?” Harvey took a defensive stance, positioning herself between Ironstrike and the approaching Grace.

“I didn’t want to tell you this because I know you will think I’m crazy… But he’s not human.”

“Mother, I’m sure we can work it out. Put the axe down!”

Grace wasn’t listening to Reese’s pleading. In fact, she didn’t see her at all. The only thing she saw was the mechanical abomination behind her. The demon that haunted her nightmares.

“Step away, Reese! It’s not human; it’s one of those things!”

Harvey felt betrayed. She should have known to trust Ironstrike’s instincts and flee while they could. But she tried to salvage the situation.

“I know!” She shouted. “I know, mother. He means no harm, I have to protect him from an organization that wants to hunt him down and kill him. His real name is Ironstrike, and he’s discharged. He has no weapons, and cannot hurt you. Put down that axe!”

Grace’s arm with the sharp-looking weapon lowered. But only until her daughter’s words fully registered.

“Reese, how could you?!” She yelled at her daughter.

“That’s enough!” Harvey went back to EDC officer-mode. “I don’t want to hurt you mother, but I will have to if you don’t put the axe down!”

“You betrayed your own kind and allied yourself with those… creatures!” Grace raised her voice to outmatch Reese’s cold and threatening tone. “Please tell me you didn’t… sleep with this thing!”

“Stop talking about him like this!” Harvey took a step forward. “He… Cares about me and I care about him. We love each other, and I don’t give a damn about your approval!”

Grace finally let the axe fall out of her hand in shock.

“Dear Lord, help me… My baby…”

She recovered quicker than Harvey expected, shoving her aside and swinging the axe right at Ironstrike’s head.

“You took my daughter, you fiend!”

It took only a millisecond for the Transfromer to adjust his head’s position and avoid getting it cut off. A few strands of his synthetic hair got in the blade’s way though.

“Please stop.” Ironstrike tried to calm the human down in vain. “Harvey’s right, I mean no harm to you or her at all.”

Grace didn’t lift the axe again, but pushed herself away from the Pretender.

“No matter. They are coming for you, and I hope you will go back to the lab where you escaped from!”

“Mother, what are you talking about? Who’s coming?” Harvey had a very bad feeling. Her mother ignored her, just stared at Ironstrike with open hatred.

“You thought growing or stealing a human’s skin will keep us from finding you? You’re not the first one who made this mistake. Do you know another one of your kind called Alice?”

The name didn’t come up in Ironstrike’s database, but he found a footnote mentioning “growing artificial human skin” in his own studies of Shockwave’s Pretender project.

“Wait… What did you do to her?!” He feared the worst. He didn’t know the Decepticon who became the first Pretender personally, but judging from his own experiences with Skywatch’s hospitality, he felt bad for her regardless.

“The same thing we should have done to you!” Grace snarled. “The wretched thing got disassembled and melted down for Cybertronium and other raw materials. And right until now we thought that it was the only one of your kind that could mimic a human appearance.”

Ironstrike turned to Harvey with a pleading expression on his face.

“I don’t need more evidence.” She shook her head and took the axe out of her mother’s hand. “We’re leaving, right now!”

Ironstrike nodded and took a step towards Harvey but then he heard the sound of a fighter jet’s engine.

“Run!” He exclaimed. “Both of you, inside!”

Harvey dragged her mother along and then all three of them disappeared inside the house before the pair of F-22’s with Cemetery Wind’s insignia appeared above them.

Prowl kept his optic on the humans surrounding them ever since Optimus Prime surrendered to EDC’s forces. So far he didn’t see anything unusual but something in his circuits told him that he need to be more vigilant than usual. He barely listened to Jazz when the other reported increased activity from Cemetery Wind to Optimus, who was in the middle of forming an evacuation plan. He just couldn’t shake that bad feeling off.

The assembled Autobots didn’t even pay attention to the group of humans coming in to their hangar used as briefing room, and barring the exit. Prowl noticed and found it odd. Nearly all of them were here, with a few exceptions sent out on patrol or in hiding with their handlers, so EDC circling around them as if corralling the bots into a place sent an alarm into the former police bot’s systems that had his emergency lights go off, turning his near vicinity into a light show. Something wasn’t right.

“May we have a word, agent Witwicky?” Prowl approached the nearest human he recognized.

“Sure thing. More than one in fact.” Spike replied on an unusually flippant tone.

“I am not necessarily a fan of overcomplicated rituals before getting to the point, so excuse my bluntness, but: what in the name of Primus is what you’re doing? Why are you having us cornered?”

Spike didn’t look at Prowl while he answered.

“It’s quite simple. The usefulness of our alliance has expired.”

“What?” The Autobot took a step away from the human. The heavy footsteps of Optimus occupied the sudden grave silence that settled over the hangar.

“Agent Witwicky, is this something ordered by Director Faireborn?” The Autobot leader inquired, suspecting that something was amiss.

“Don’t concern yourself with that, Prime.”

Jazz, Wheeljack and Bumblebee also gathered around their commander and cast puzzled or wary looks at the humans.

“This alliance of yours with humanity is over.” Spike stated. “It’s no longer beneficial for us, as long as you deny giving us information and technology you have stolen.”

“Why you little…” Ironhide growled and joined the crowd to try and crush Spike, but several barrels of mini Null-rays aimed at him made him stop mid-track.

“You are making a mistake.” Optimus tried to reason with the human.

“Oh, no I’m afraid I was making a mistake back then.”

Bee felt betrayed the most. He thought he knew what was going on, but so far he didn’t want to believe it.

“They aren’t EDC, Prime.” He finally spoke. “They’re with Skywatch, or Cemetery Wind or whatever they call themselves now.”

“I knew I should have aimed better.” Spike scoffed. “That yellow nuisance was always too smart for his own good.”

“You can still do the right thing, agent Witwicky.” Optimus pleaded. “Stop this madness and we can discuss what you need and what is in our power to provide for you.”

“I am doing the right thing, right now.” Spike pulled his nose up. “Sorry Prime, it’s nothing personal. I have orders, and I’m willing to comply.”

“But why?” Prowl found his voice again.

“I had to choose between protecting my own species, or serving yours. And no offense but I will always choose the former. Do I like you guys? Yeah, some of you are okay. But I don’t trust you. Never did. It’s as the old saying goes: if you’re out hunting with your dog and a bear attacks you, you run and let your dog take care of the bear. It’s not human.”

None of the Autobots spoke, not even Optimus. Bee had a lot running inside his processor, but he kept it to himself.

“I’m sorry it has come to this.” Prime broke the tense silence. “But we won’t stand idly while you have us at gunpoint. Autobots, defend yourselves!”

Spike shrugged and aimed at the large bot’s faceplate. The time for words was over.

Far from the EDC base, Marissa paced to and fro in a field, sometimes looking up at the sky. Thundercracker should be back already, and she worried he might got captured. They caught wind of several ex-Skywatch agents’ correspondence describing a great offensive in code, and needed Nightbeat’s help with cracking it. The Autobot detective was hiding off planet on an asteroid along with Cosmos, silently observing communications of the Decepticons, and later – after the war ended – Skywatch. Marissa didn’t even want to bring TC along, but he insisted. Luckily they weren’t completely alone, for a handful of Autobots led by Hot Rod patrolled the area where Nightbeat’s shuttle landed.

“Where are you?” Director Faireborn grumbled and not hearing the jet-engine’s roaring did nothing to soothe her nerves.

She decided to wander a bit further from the massive shuttle and try to look for an elevated spot to keep a look out for Thundercracker. Instead of the F-22, she saw members of her patrol being chased by Cemetery Wind’s heavy vehicles.

“What the…?” She exclaimed and turned to run back to the shuttle.

“Nightbeat, take off!” Marissa yelled from the top of her lungs but before the shuttle could do as much as close the door it got hit by a missile. Hoping that the bots inside are still online, Marissa turned her attention to the forest surrounding the field. The shooter must have hid among the trees.

“Don’t let that spaceship take off!” Beller ordered Barnett who reloaded the missile launcher.

“What about the guards?” Finkleberg worried. “There are at least three of them and they probably heard the blast.”

“Let them come.” Josephine replied coldly.

As if they heard her words, the alt-modes of Hot Rod, Arcee, Sideswipe and Sunstreaker came speeding towards the shuttle and Marissa.

“What just happened?” Sideswipe sent a message to his comrades through the comm. system.

“We’re about to find out.” Arcee replied. “Focus.”

“Somebot should pick Faireborn up and ask her if she knows something.” Hot Rod chimed in.

“On my way.” Arcee answered him as well, and left the group to head inside the forest.

“I knew that humans are nothing but trouble.” Sunstreaker grumbled. “You were right, ‘Rod. We should have bailed when we had the chance.”

The next missile almost hit the middle of the group.

“Split up!” Hot Rod ordered and changed modes to take a better look at his surroundings.

“They’re here somewhere!” He yelled to Sideswipe who nodded and began to break a trail among the trees followed by Sunstreaker.

“Did you find Marissa?” Hot Rod asked Arcee through the comm.

“Not yet.” The pink motorcycle answered. “But I can follow her tracks, so she must be nearby as well.”

“Keep looking! And if you can reach Thundercracker, tell him to get his sorry afterburner here. We could use some air support.”

“Got it.”

Not hearing anything about the Cybertronians’ exchange, the group of Cemetery Wind’s soldiers positioned to successfully ambush the small company of bots.

“They are scattering.” Finkleberg reported to Beller what he saw through the lens of his drone. “It looks like they’re searching for Barnett.”

“They don’t know where he is.” Josephine dismissed the tech specialist’s worry. “And if he knows what’s good for him, Barnett changes position quickly.”

Barnett changed position as soon as he fired the missile launcher but it didn’t save him from being detected by Sunstreaker when he wanted to run past the pair of bots making their way through the bushes.

“Got one!” the yellow speedster exclaimed and threw himself after the fleeing human. Sideswipe had to tread back and go after his brother from way overhead. He quickly lost sight of both Sunstreaker and the enemy soldier.

“Great.” He grumbled.

Sunstreaker kept up with Barnett with ease, and though he hated to admit it he enjoyed playing cat and mouse with someone belonging to the group that had him captive. He wished he could inflict the same terror and anguish on the small organic they had inflicted upon him and many other bots they could capture.

“You can run but you can’t hide!” He taunted the soldier, who managed to reload the missile launcher he carried and shoot at Sunstreaker. The bot evaded the missile but it bought enough time for the human to run and disappear in the woods.

“Nobody can say I refuse a challenge…” Sunstreaker shrugged and carved a path between the trees. His sensors picked up the heat residue of the human running through the area. The Autobot followed the trail while thinking that maybe the Decepticons had the right idea about this planet after all. He caught Barnett again, running towards a clearing. He even dropped the missile launcher to gain speed. Sunstreaker’s engine revved up and he began to run as well. He landed a kick on the human, which had him flying and spinning in the air, hitting the trees on the way and finally landing in the clearing he was heading towards.

“This is for Skids, you slagging waste of space.” Sunstreaker spat and turned away. “And for Mirage, Cog, Powerglide and me.”

Barnett was dead before his broken body hit the third tree in line towards the clearing.

Arcee stopped at the same clearing carrying Marissa in the second when the mangled remains of Beller’s soldier hit the ground.

“Sorry for crashing the party, but I think it’s getting out of hand.” Faireborn commented while she dismounted from her companion. “You really thought we won’t find out what you were planning?”

“You have not the slightest idea of what I’m planning.” Beller sneered at the other woman.

“Well I suggest you give it up before we turn more of your men into mashed potato.” Marissa inclined her head towards Barnett’s remains. Finkleberg dropped everything he had and ran only to be stopped by Arcee.

“You love the power that you have with these machines at your heel, aren’t you?” Josephine snarled.

“Nah, I don’t need them to kick your and your lame goons’ asses.” Marissa grinned and crackled her knuckles.

“Really?” Josephine’s smile turned to something utterly psychotic as her body began to emit tiny electrical arcs. “You know, I am not called Circuit Breaker for nothing… Let’s see if you really can handle yourself without help from your robot friends!”

She stomped on the ground and what happened next made Marissa regret her previous cockiness.

Arcee didn’t even know what hit her, but her system went haywire. She could do nothing else but scream in terror as the energy overloaded her. Hot Rod arrived just in time to get caught in the area of effect and join the chorus of terrified mechanical screaming with joints sparking and smoke emitting from under his engine hood. He remembered the Seeker Whirl overloaded way back in the war, and Hot Rod knew ever since that this was a method of deactivation he never wanted to suffer.

Josephine came at Marissa seconds after she emitted the energy waves that had two of her four Autobot companions paralyzed and slowly frying. She also had to admit that the older woman was a formidable fighter despite not coming from a military background. Her implants also gave her an edge over Marissa, who had to rely on her martial arts skills and sheer hope of Thundercracker arriving to help out soon.

Sunstreaker heard Arcee and Hot Rod screaming and went to see what happened. His first instinct was to grab them and pull them out of the clearing but as soon as his hand touched Arcee’s plating Sunstreaker’s system began to collapse as well. He didn’t hear Sideswipe yelling at him not to touch the other two bots.

Now three of them disabled, Sideswipe had to think of a means to help Marissa and/or call Thundercracker back from wherever he was at the moment. He tried to stay out of sight as much as it was possible and luckily for him, most of Cemetery Wind’s soldiers got scattered when the fight broke out. No one paid attention to him when a single human began to rain lightning on everything, scorching even the land itself in her wake. He was always a bot of action and not observation, so Sideswipe began to panic. He only calmed down when he noticed a pattern in Circuit Breaker’s ability. It only triggered after a short cooldown period.

“Marissa! She can’t use her ability all the time, she needs to charge it! Wait for an opportunity and strike her then!”

He hoped it will be enough for the EDC’s commander to overcome her opponent who – sadly – seemed to have the upper hand.

The long-awaited sound of a jet engine came, and Thundercracker flew in circles around the clearing, shooting at the fleeing vehicles filled with Cemetery Wind’s soldiers. Sideswipe tried to get the Seeker’s attention by waving at him, but TC was occupied with chasing down the jeep and swooping down to catch it, turn it upside down and shake the humans out of it. He only noticed Marissa having the bossfight of her life with Beller after he gathered all the unconscious soldiers into a pile.

“We have to help her!” Sideswipe ran to the blue jet pointing at Faireborn.

“No, I have to help her. You have to get back to base. Trust me; your friends need any help they can get now.”

Sideswipe hesitated and looked at the deactivated trio of Sunstreaker, Arcee and Hot Rod.

“What about them?”

“It wouldn’t matter if you don’t get Nightbeat and whoever else you can and save everybot who was left at the base.” Thundercracker sounded gravely serious. “I saw… These humans had us fooled for all this time. They killed many of us and used our dead comrades’ bodies to build an army for themselves. We have to get out of here.”

Sideswipe didn’t want to believe his audiosensors.

“Run, get back to base and save who you can!” TC repeated. “I’ll deal with Marissa after we defeated the bigger threat.”

Sideswipe nodded and with one last glance at his offline friends, he changed modes and headed towards Nightbeat’s shuttle.

As soon as they were inside and out of sight, the two enemy jets opened fire at the house.

“We can’t stay here!” Ironstrike tried to shout over the sound of the engines and the explosions above their heads.

“I know.” Harvey yelled back “But I don’t want to leave my mother!”

Grace kept on staring at the doorway leading upstairs from the basement, or more precisely, the inferno the house has turned into.

“It’s too late.” She sighed in resignation. “They know you’re here. They won’t stop until this house is level with the ground.”

“Then I will draw fire away from the house.” Ironstrike stood and began to walk towards the exit, but was stopped by Harvey.

“I won’t let you do that! It’s suicide!”

“Better that than having to watch you burn.”

“There’s a tunnel leading out to the fields.” Grace commented. “We can use that to escape.”

Harvey nodded and pulled Ironstrike along. They followed Mrs. Harvey through the tunnel while they heard another missile obliterating everything that had a chance of surviving the first two.

“This is all my fault.” The Pretender sighed heavily.

“Shut up.” Harvey squeezed his hand. “It’s not you out there, bombing an old lady’s farm, but those morons. The same ones who wanted to enslave you and erase your sentience. It’s all their fault, not yours.”

“Do you think we can survive this?” Ironstrike squeezed back Harvey’s hand gently.

“I know we can.” She replied.

“But what if we don’t?”

Harvey didn’t answer right away, but held onto Ironstrike’s hand like a lifeline.

“Whatever may happen, I want you to move on.” She said on a somber tone. “I don’t know about clones but as far as my knowledge of Cybertronians go; you guys live for millions of years. I don’t want you to spend all that time grieving for me.”

“Same goes for you, Harvey. If anything happens to me, I want you to move on. Find a human you can spend your life with.”

“Let’s stay optimistic and hope we both get out of this alive, okay?” Harvey forced a smile on her face.

“We both know that we barely have a chance for that.”

Harvey stopped and made Ironstrike to stop. She held him close and kissed him like she could only breathe while connected to him.

“When this is over, we should come out with our relationship and resign from EDC’s service.” She knew it was wishful thinking, but she had to get it out of her system.

“People would never accept us.” Ironstrike began to walk again, but not letting her hand go.

“My people or yours?”

“Both. We would be outcasts, shunned by both organics and mechanoids all over the galaxy.”

“And what do we care about what they think?”

He laughed bittersweetly.

“You’re right. All we should care about is that we are together. And that’s enough.”

“We could marry, and shock them with our creepy technorganic children.” Harvey jested.

Ironstrike’s laughter was a bit lighter this time.

“I doubt that we are compatible that way, sorry.”

“But we should still marry.” She grinned but it faded away as she turned her face.

“I don’t know how it works with humans, but we only have to say that we are conjunx endurae from now on.” Ironstrike kept on looking at Harvey until she turned back to meet his gaze.

“I like that. It’s way less trouble than human weddings.”

“Then we are conjunxed from now on. We can slow dance in the rain and drink engex from the drum while sitting on the floor or fly around in circles because we feel like it. As long as we’re together, nothing else matters.”

They reached the end of the tunnel where Grace stopped.

“Go.” She ordered them. “And I hope I will never see any of you.”

Harvey opened her mouth to say something but her mother interrupted her.

“You betrayed humanity by marrying this abomination. You’re dead to me.”

Harvey saluted mockingly and went out to the field followed by Ironstrike who changed modes as soon as he got enough room for that. Harvey sat in the F-35’s cockpit and cast one last glance towards the devastation Cemetery Wind wrought upon her mother’s farm.

“I miss your guns, big guy.” She sighed.

They flew back towards the EDC base when they got Sideswipe’s broadcast over the comm.

<<To every Autobot and allied ex-Decepticon: EDC is compromised. I repeat: EDC is no longer friendly. Cemetery Wind infiltrated their ranks, and they attacked and deactivated Optimus Prime. Peace is no longer an option.>>

The scout’s voice glitched as he added the last line to his message.

<<It’s open season on all Cemetery Wind members, and no EDC agent is above suspicion either. Good hunting.>>

Harvey couldn’t believe her ears.

“How could this happen?”

“Probably the same way Skywatch had your creator among their ranks after all those years.” Ironstrike vented sarcastically.

“What shall we do now?” Harvey asked after a short pause.

“I have no idea.” Ironstrike confessed. “Do you think we could check on the EDC base, see if there are any Autobots we can help out?”

“No. Your weapons are offline and if we fly in without as much as a missile in our pocket, we’re toast.”

Ironstrike hated his inability to fight ever since it first occurred.

“But you can get my weapons online and use them.” He suggested. “I may freeze up in battle situations, but you aren’t! Just let me connect to your helmet, and I can give control of my weapon systems to you!”

“I don’t know, Ironstrike… It didn’t really work out in the simulation, remember?”

“Unless we meet Starscream somewhere, I doubt we would end up the same.”

Harvey sighed and nodded.

“All right. Let’s do it!”

A thin cable snaked out from under a panel on Ironstrike controls and wriggled its way towards Harvey’s helmet.

“Ugh… Please tell me you never “probed” me with one of these cables of yours…” She half-jested.

“I'd never... Only if you ask me to do it.” Ironstrike answered playfully then connected the cord to the helmet before beginning to override his own weapon systems.

“If we meet heavy resistance, we bail.” Harvey stated. “I don’t want you to get injured.”

“Same.”

They never reached the base. The two jets from Cemetery Wind caught up with them shortly after Harvey took control of Ironstrike’s weapons.

“Don’t look now, but we got company.” The ex-Seeker commented while changing course to throw their pursuers off their track.

“How long until they catch up with us?” Harvey asked fingers already on the trigger.

“Not long, I’m afraid.”

The two F-22’s approached them faster than Ironstrike would prefer.

“Hey, Harvey…” He began, feeling the rush of battle filling his circuits with clarity and near-paralyzing fear at once “Whatever happens, I want you to know that I love you, and I always will.”

“Sappy.” Harvey grinned under the cover of her helmet. “But I meant what I said, ‘Strike. If I don’t make it, I don’t want you to lie down next to me and go offline. I wouldn’t live as long as you anyway.”

The safety belts held her a bit tighter, or at least she felt that way.

“Besides, don’t twist your circuits about anything else but those two birds coming after us. We can deal with them if we work together.”

“Right.” Ironstrike replied by turning and going towards their pursuers instead of away from them. “Take them out!”

“Could you do a Mad Ivan?”

“A what?”

Harvey explained to her partner what kind of stunt she had in mind.

“Sure, I can do that.” Ironstrike sounded excited but terrified at the same time. “Just be sure that you hit your mark.”

“I trust my warbird.” Harvey patted Ironstrike’s plating. “Now let’s show them what we got!”

She felt every muscle in her body twitch and burn from the electricity coursing through them. It seemed like Marissa underestimated her opponent, and that will be her downfall. She saw Thundercracker land nearby and that gave her a small sliver of hope, but the battle was far from over. She took a few steps backwards to get a glimpse of the battlefield.

The bots were still standing where they went offline, and TC was busy corralling the land vehicles back to the clearing. Beller stood in front of Marissa with a triumphant smile, but her breathing was labored and it took more and more time between periods she could use her ability to shock Marissa and try to fry Thundercracker’s circuits. If her calculations were right, Faireborn could still win this fight by making Beller exhaust herself.

She punched, kicked and elbowed her way towards the end, deflecting or taking hits from her adversary. The last pulse-wave hit her and threw her back several feet, making Marissa think that she won’t be able to stand up again. She saw TC fly over her with a burning wing and – as silly as it sounds – it gave her the needed strength to deliver the final blow and knock Beller out.

“You… Are under arrest… For intergalactic terrorism.” She panted while she cuffed the cyborg’s hands. After that she sat down on the ground and just stared at the bizarre sculpture group that became of Hot Rod and his friends.

After a while she heard the engines of a familiar jet and felt the wind as he landed nearby.

“Friend or foe?” Thundercracker asked while never drawing his gaze away from Marissa.

“I don’t know what you mean by that, TC.”

“Are you my friend, or my enemy? Because I thought it was the former, but now I’m not sure.”

“I like you, Thundercracker. I love to hear your stupid stories. Or about your dog’s shenanigans. I was afraid that I will lose you.”

“Then why are your men killing Autobots right now, as we speak? Why do you have the corpses of my dead friends repurposed into being used as fighter jets by the EDC? Why did you lie to me about everything?”

Marissa looked at Thundercracker’s face and couldn’t bear the weight of his gaze.

“I didn’t know, TC. Who is killing Autobots? How do you know that those jets were once bots you knew? What did I tell you that you think was untrue?”

He took a step towards her, and for a brief moment, Marissa thought he will step on her and crush her like a bug, but he leaned down and picked her up as gently as always.

“Something is very wrong, and I need you to find out how all this could happen.”

He replayed Sideswipe’s message and watched as Marissa’s face lose all color.

“TC, I need to use your radio.” She asserted. “I will get into the bottom of this mess, but right now, I need to stop this before it turns into another war.”

Harvey shot and hit one of the enemy jets, and its pilot was appropriately shocked by the crazy stunt she and Ironstrike performed – or maybe he was shocked by the giant robot hand coming out of the F35 and flip him the bird while flying over his jet – but there still was another who turned out to be more skilled than his trinemate was.

“This one’s tougher.” The Cybertronian commented.

“Thanks, Captain Obvious.” Harvey grumbled while nudging Ironstrike to turn and dodge a missile.

“And he’s pissed.”

“Not as pissed as I am.” She replied and set loose a missile from Ironstrike’s.

“You’re the most wonderful, murderous little creature I ever had the pleasure to meet, Harvey.”

“You did more than meet me.” Harvey laughed. “You married me.”

They worked together in perfect harmony, like they did in the simulation.

“That’s sparkwarming.” He laughed. “Keep peppering his armor with everything I got, and maybe we’ll get back to base in a short while.”

The two jets circled each other in a deadly dance, which ended with Ironstrike going full speed towards a mountain range.

“Do you think he can keep up with us?” Harvey asked.

The alarm of a missile inbound sounded before Ironstrike could answer.

“Brace for impact!” He shouted but his cockpit got hit by a missile before he could finish. He lost control over himself and began to fall, spiraling down with a thick trail of smoke behind him.

“Harvey I hate to be a killjoy, but I need control back… Like right now.”

When he didn’t get an answer – or control of his systems back – he tried to wrestle it from the human. The land came closer and panic began to override Ironstrike’s rational algorithms.

“Harvey, I will crash if you don’t give me back control. I need to attempt crash-landing or we both will die!”

A terrible, unbearable thought popped up in Ironstrike’s processor but he refused to even acknowledge its existence. He tried to override controls again, this time successfully.

“This will be a bumpy landing… Harvey, do you even hear me?”

If he would be in his root mode, his intake would tighten and his vocal processor would glitch.

“Harvey, answer me for frag’s sake!”

Ironstrike crashed into the ground while transforming back to robot mode, breaking one of his arms and denting his wing and his thruster until he finally stopped and could attempt to stand up. The searing pain inside his limbs and cockpit told him that standing is not a good idea.

He stood on all four of his shaking limbs, and forced himself to open his shattered and dented canopy. The smoke coming out from the cockpit burned his optics, but he reached inside and freed the small bundle of tattered and burnt organic material what was left of Harvey’s body.

Birds and forest animals flew and fled when they heard the painful howling of the metal creature amongst the ruins of a glade.

“To all Autobots, allied Decepticons and EDC units, this is Commander Marissa Faireborn, and I order a ceasefire. Cemetery Wind is no more. Director Josephine Beller is in our custody, under arrest for intergalactic terrorism. We don’t have to fight anymore. The EDC is not your enemy. Calling all Autobots, the EDC is not your enemy…”

No matter how many times he heard the message, Hot Rod barely wanted to believe it. He stood in front of a space bridge Wheeljack tried to get into operating shape with the help of Thundercracker. Ratchet had overwhelming amount of work with repairing all the bots that got injured in the battle with Cemetery Wind’s forces. One of such bots was Optimus Prime, who refused to come back online no matter what methods Ratchet tried to get him to wake again.

Bumblebee and Hot Rod ended up being the two most likely candidates to take over leadership of the Autobots on Earth, but it made them turn against each other. Hot Rod was so sure about his superior chances to win that he renamed himself Rodimus – as it was custom for Primes to change their name after they got the matrix of Leadership. Bee didn’t even want to lead the Autobots, but still it was him, who finally won the popularity contest making Rodimus throw a tantrum and leave the EDC base with a handful of followers.

Thundercracker came out with the knowledge of the space bridge after many bots expressed a wish to leave Earth. Marissa gave them the green light to go and search for it, also to commence repairs. It took a few weeks but the space bridge to Cybertron was in a working condition, and only needed some final touches. That was what Wheeljack had been working on the past few hours.

“Aren’t you come back home too?” Rodimus initiated a conversation with Thundercracker just to pass the time.

“Nah. I like it here.” The blue ex-Seeker grinned. “I have Buster and my scriptwriting, and also I have Marissa. Why would I leave it all behind?”

“I don’t know, for your homeworld?”

“I never really had a home there.” TC admitted. “Skywarp and I were serving on the Nemesis for so long that I rather consider that damned warship my home than any nest in Vos or something…”

“Tough.” Rodimus commented indifferently.

Other bots stood in line behind them, all of whom wanted to go home. At the end of the line stood a Seeker looking like a ghost, right next to Ratchet and the device that held Optimus’ frame.

“I’m sorry kid.” The old medic patted the wing of the grey Seeker. “I can’t fix what you have. Grief is not something I can repair.”

“But I want this emptiness gone.” Ironstrike whispered. He couldn’t properly speak since he lost his handler. No bot asked why.

“I think I know a bot who could help you, if he’s still around. Don’t keep your hopes up though.”

“Thank you Ratchet… For everything.”

Ratchet patted Ironstrike’s back again, and moved his Primely package towards the space bridge.

Hours passed, and nearly all bots wishing to return to Cybertron had left. Only Ironstrike remained, looking back at the mountains and the forest, and the EDC base somewhere around there.

He was found still clutching Harvey in his hands and wailing. She was laid to rest in the cemetery inside the town they went out to date once. Grace Harvey didn’t attend the ceremony. Marissa gave a nice speech of what Ironstrike didn’t remember a word, but he knew something had died within him along with Harvey. It felt like a part of his spark was torn out, and he still felt the sting. But on most days he only felt empty, too tired to feel at all.

He stepped towards the space bridge hesitantly, but then he remembered what was basically Harvey’s last wish.

“Whatever may happen, I want you to move on. I don’t want you to lie down next to my grave and go offline. Cybertronians live for millions of years and I don’t want you to spend all that time grieving me.”

He turned his head away from Mt.St. Helena, and the place where his love had been laid to rest, and wishing that he could leave all the pain and the emptiness behind, he stepped through the gate that led him to a planet he never saw but was supposed to be his homeworld.

(Cybertron, present day)

“Is this how you ended up here?” Starscream sounded skeptical. “By trying to outrun your grief, only to find more?”

“I’m telling the truth.” Ironstrike insisted. “I didn’t even think of you when I passed that space bridge. Not even as a quick fleeting thought.”

The red Seeker hummed and turned away from the cell. Bumblebee looked at him sternly and motioned towards the exit with his head.

“No, I will not release him!” Starscream objected. “I don’t have sufficient evidence of him not plotting against me!”

Bee sighed in resignation.

“Whatever I say will not convince you that I don’t give a flying lugnut about you and your schemes.” Ironstrike groaned in frustration as well. “Want to keep me here? Fine. I don’t care. Want to kill me? Great, just get on with it already. I. Don’t. Want. To. Overthrow. You.”

Starscream vented loudly and turned towards the exit.

“Maybe a little time to reflect on your lies will do you good.” He quipped and left, ordering his goons back to guard Ironstrike’s cell.

“He’s up to something.” Starscream mumbled and paced to and fro in his office, while Bee just sat down next to his desk.

“You’re being paranoid. Ironstrike was never the scheming type. So much that it made it quite unbelievable that he’s your clone.”

That made Starscream stop.

“Then why is he here? Why now all of a sudden?”

“He’s been through a lot. Besides, he has a record of smalltime crimes; you can look into it if you’re so worried about his motives.”

Bumblebee pointed at a datapad thrown at Starscream’s desk.

“Fine, I shall look into it.” He growled. “But you can’t condemn me for being cautious.”

He sat down and read the datapad, until he felt Bee’s hand on his shoulder.

“’Scream, you’re not cautious. You’re on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and it shows. Ironstrike means no harm to you, and you know it. The only thing he ever wanted from you was distance.”

“Maybe. But he’s still a threat. I know it in my spark that he wants revenge for what he had to go through because of me. I know I would.”

“Do you think you deserve it?”

“Shut up Bee, you begin to sound like Megatron.”

Bee gave up and shook his head, disappearing into doing his own thing for the remainder of the day. Starscream couldn’t be happier. He dug and dug into the information he could find about his clones and knew that he’s not going crazy. To hurt him was the only thing anyone ever wanted from him. And he’d rather die than let it happen again.

“I’ll find out what’s going on inside your head.” He told Ironstrike’s form through the surveillance screen. “I will find out, no matter what you come up with to try and deceive me.”

After all, who could deceive the deceiver, but he himself?