Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

"Shame on you"

The venomous hiss caught Skywarp's attention mostly because it promised drama.

That was the only reason why he onlined his optics and turned his helm toward the sound, looking for the speaker.

Only to be surprised by the disdain-filled glare Nova Storm had fixed on him and Thundercracker.

"Oh, you too." Skywarp answered reflexively, slowly sitting up from his sprawl.

Either his move off his trinemate's leg or his answer caught Thundercracker's attention in turn, and he looked up from his datapad.

"Has either of you even looked at Starscream's back anytime in the last week?" Nova Storm spat, optics narrowed in disdain. Skywarp startled, but he didn't have the time to look at Thundercracker before the Rainmaker continued. "If one of my trinemates went around with their wings like that for so long, let alone my fragging Trine Leader I'd throw myself out of the lower deck airlock in shame."

Total silence descended upon the Nemesis Air Barracks as Skywarp and Thundercracker digested the insult.

*have you?* Skywarp pulsed through the Trine bond.
*I... don't...* He got back.

Nova Storm scoffed in disgust and turned his back to them.

"I may not like Starscream much." Acid Storm said at a volume that Skywarp only heard because of how quiet the entire barracks were. "But if you're going to neglect him to that extent, you should at least have the decency of dissolving the Trine, rather than try to have it both way by neglecting your duty to him and enjoying the perks of being 'Command Trine' at the same time. At least then he might have a chance at getting a descent Trine with someone else."

Skywarp felt himself grow hot from the sheer gall. Thunder's hand landed gently on his wing to catch his attention and a *no* pulsed at him through the bond.

The heavy silence broke in whispers of agreement.

Wait.

What?

Thundercracker was still radiating *no* at him, and had also caught his forearms to keep him from reaching for his blasters. That only left...

VOP

It was only after he had teleported himself and Thundercracker away from the Barrack that he considered where he'd taken them.

For anyone else who had his outlier (which there weren't any), that would have been a perfect recipe for getting stuck inside a wall or a floor/ceiling. But Skywarp's warp drive and spatial mapping softwares took up most of his processing power and a good half of his RAM, even when he wasn't actively using his outlier ability.

He had gotten his arm or leg stuck in things and subsequently had to replace them as they fully fused with the obstacle during his first vorns online. But currently, the only way he'd have this kind of accident was if he was warping blind to a place he'd never seen, or if something had been changed in his target location without his knowledge.

So, in short, no fatal teleportation mishap happened (or would happen) just because he did it without thinking.

What could happen was...

He'd warped them to Starscream's quarters.

Chapter Text

The Rainmakers' comments stung enough on their own without Skywarp compounding the problem (and the guilt) by immediately taking them to Starscream's hab to escape his own feelings.

Thundercracker breathed out deeply and shifted his grip on 'Warp into a full hug so he could squeeze as a way to expel anger.

It wasn't fair to get angry at Skywarp for reacting without thinking. Thundercracker knew exactly why it happened, and he knew it wasn't the air-headed teleporter's fault. Skywarp was like that because his frame and processor couldn't match up to the demands of his warp drive without sacrificing thinking (and emotional) processing power. Thundercracker could wish that the idiot would be less of an impulsive dumbaft, but it didn't mean it was his fault that he was.

at least Starscream wasn't there.

(Maybe it could have been better if he was, they could have jumped him, fixed whatever was going on with the back of his wing and called the thing done.)

(It was probably better that they couldn't fix the thing with Starscream's wings right away. Nova Storm and Acid Storm were right that they should never have neglected their duty to start with. 'Calling the whole thing done'... would be a net negative in the end.)

Thundercracker loosened his hold on Skywarp when he started to squirm, and gestured to their Trine Leader's berth with his chin.

They definitely needed to... address whatever was going on with Starscream. One way or another. And it needed to be a decision they both made. Which meant Skywarp needed to think.

At least that was a problem that Thundercracker had a solution for.

Skywarp blinked at him when he triggered his chest-plates and cockpit to transform out of the way, baring his sparkchamber and hardline equipment.

Thundercracker felt His trinemate's agitation, anger and confusion slide aside as he looked at Thundercracker's spark.

Sky' actually warped himself to the berth instead of walking, his own chest hurriedly sliding open as he leaned closer.

As the fields of their sparks touched and melded, they both sighed in relief. But maybe it was the recent confrontation, Thundercracker felt something off.

Trine Bonds weren't Amica Bonds, Nor Conjux ones.

And... They were meant to have three people in them.

Reflexively, his Spark followed his thoughts, and reached for his other...

Shock ran through Thundercracker.

He couldn't.

It would be normal for his link to Starscream to be much less intense than the one with the mate who had his spark bared right in front of him, yes. But he should still he able to reach.

And he couldn't.

Starscream was... Muffled. Just one step removed from not bonded at all.

The horror and shock re-focused him.

He looked into Skywarp's optics. He obviously could feel Thundercracker's emotions, but he hadn't yet understood the why, radiating confusion and concern in their much more open spark-bond.

Thundercracker reached for his hard-line cable and connected it to Skywarp's corresponding port as fast as his fumbling hands could manage.

They needed to do something.

Or at least to decide what something they wanted to do.

And he needed Skywarp to have some processing power available to him to help him make his decision.

Chapter Text

Hard-line connection, also known as interfacing, was usually just as intimate as spark sharing (though less than spark merges) which might have something to do with the fact that one implied the other, with where the hard-line equipment tended to be located in standard frames.

All three of these activities were considered perfectly normal for trinemates to engage in. So much so that all seekers came standard with two hard-line cables and inlets instead of one. So that a full, reciprocal hardline connection could be made with both Trinemates at once.

It was almost taboo to use both with the same person. Especially a Trine member. There were two so that one could connect as Trine. Not so one could monopolise...

But Skywarp trusted Thundercracker, so he held still as both cables got plugged into him and both cables unspooled.

He understood the reason as soon as the first cable connected, though.

The very moment he had a full connection to Thundercracker's processor, his own started unloading tasks onto it.

Once the four cables were in place, establishing a high-speed connection, Thundercracker pinged him with admin access authorization, and joined a whole cohort of wireless channels to the already excessive peer-to-peer link they shared.

Skywarp easily allowed the admin access and wireless hog. And just as easily relaxed into the forming spark merge when Thundercracker pulled his frame flush to his.

There were a myriad of pop-ups as 'urgent tasks' that had been moldering in the backlog in wait of more processing space that never freed up declared themselves done and sent in notifications.

Skywarp slumped unto Thundercracker's hold with relief as his trinemate dismissed the pop-ups and kept lending his processor to accomplish the massive backlog of tasks.

It was like a fog lifting. Unfortunately, on top of not being able to do the tasks, them filling themselves in a backlog queue further taxed his limited resources. Thunder's dutifully emptied the entire queue as Skywarp rested limply in his arms, enjoying the warmth and safety of the spark merge, as well as the feeling of his processor unclogging and allowing him more than a gigabite to think with.

Of course, because his entire system was pure evil, his processor used that new space to nag him about things 'not being right'. Ugh. Of course. Yeah, he knew. Starscream wasn't there. They were enjoying closeness as Trine, but there were only two of them, which was not the right number for Trine intimacy. He knew. But Starscream...

Starscream was complicated.

Thundercracker sent a vague **assent** to his train of thought just as the backlog of admin tasks he'd been plowing through finally ended and Skywarp found himself in possession of all the processing power Thundercracker wasn't using himself on top of his own recently freed up one.

Oh! That was why Thunders wanted to use all four lines and all of their wireless connecting power!

With that much connection between them, it was almost like the hardware was inside Skywarp's frame. He hadn't been able to think that clearly in... ever.

*Starscream* Thundercracker reminded him.
*Star* He agreed.
*we need to make a decision* Thunder joined the memory file of Acid Storm telling them to be decent trinemates or set Starscream free to find others. It was overcast with **agreement**. with **he's right**

Skywarp's engines snarled at the suggestion. *ours!*

Sadness came in, through the Spark, not the lines.*is he?* and then an impression of reaching for Starscream through the Trinebond and finding barely a trace of him.

Skywarp immediately reached for his bond, wanting to prove that wrong. He got a direction and a vague feeling of distance. Starscream was apparently... on the command bridge? Probably? But he spatial markers were all he got.

Chapter Text

*how?* Skywarp asked, distraught and **sad** through their very extensive multi-layered connection. *when?*

These were very astute questions, and Thundercracker unconsciously pushed back a bit of Skywarp's grasp on his processor to be able to reach into his archives and look for an answer.

Skywarp followed his lead and tried to riffle through his own archives, only to find that most of his hard drives were populated with maps instead of memory files.

These... What? Skywarp's memory was almost at capacity, saturated with maps on top of more maps. It was almost a miracle that he was able to function at all that way. Thundercracker knew that Sky's incredibly powerful outlier ability was hobbling him in the intelligence department, but that was way past anything her would have suspected.

Making a decision about Starscream, as important as it was, got pushed back in his priority tree again as a more urgent task imposed itself. Skywarp was in dire need of a memory scrub and defragmentation. Did this only happen because the teleporter didn't usually have the spare processing power to accomplish these maintenance tasks, or did his overactive mapping software refuse to relinquish the data?

Not important. Skywarp had given him full admin power, it meant Thundercracker had the authority to address this, and he sure was going to.

He dove into the new task with full focus.

Find the redundant files. Merge. Overwrite old details with the new, keep a compressed log of past changes so Skywarp could gauge the likeliness of things changing in the future based on how often they changed in the past. Tag the age of all the parts in the map. Go to the next map file.

Skywarp was watching him work curiously, guiding him with suggestion as he would be the one needing to use the maps later on.

That was why he could stop Thundercracker when he went to delete a map of something that he remembered getting destroyed during the war.

*wait*
*what?*
*This one has Starscream in it*

Thundercracker stalled, map frozen in his digital grasp. *Starscream?*

Skywarp unfurled the complicated array of tags and data attached to the old map. It was... too dense for Thundercracker to decipher. As a Seeker, his own map reading and map-logging skills were nothing to sneeze at, but Skywarp's maps were several orders more complicated than his. *explain*

Skywarp sent **frustration** and made some metadata blink at Thundercracker. He only saw that all the metadata in question included Starscream's designation, so with another wave of feelings, Skywarp took the map from him and made two dots appear labeled 'self' and 'Starscream' and played the map like a memory, making the dots move around on the map. after a moments, little glyph pasted themselves around the two dots.

Oh. These were information on emotional state.

After a little while of Skywarp futzing about, an audio track played itself as the dots moved. Thundercracker recognized Starscream's voice.

Wait.

Were Skywarp's memories getting filed in map format?

That was... unusual. But then again, since Skywarp's overactive mapping software was taking up so much of his processing power and memory space, it made sense that it was also in charge of recording life events he wasn't able to get in normally.

Looked like compressing Skywarp storage to a more manageable size had just gotten much harder.

But in the other hand, it was a relief to know that Skywarp did have archives of his personal life, even if they were stored in a very inconvenient way.

*Alright* he sighed. *That will take time. Can you keep an eye on Starscream's distance to us? It would be a right mess if he walked in of us like that on his berth. And start looking through the metadata on these and tag anything you want to keep so I don't accidentally delete something important.*

Chapter Text

Skywarp wasn't very far from dozing. His Spark felt warm and safe, engulfed in the warm embrace of Thundercracker's. Love and support so evident that he didn't even need to project it for it to come through. Like it was obvious and unconscious. Of course he loved Skywarp. there needed to be no conscious effort to make it so.

Thundercracker's attention to his archives would have felt intrusive if it was from anyone else (except maybe Starscream), but it didn't feel so. Instead calling to mind the very normal and relaxing preening of his wings. Sorting data was a maintenance task, after all, and having his Trine do it for him felt like the most natural thing in the world (if only Starscream was also there...).

He was still monitoring his Trine bond to Starscream, maybe that was why he missed him that much. Like, yeah, they definitely couldn't be seen interfacing without him on his own berth. That was a recipe for disaster. But being constantly aware of where his missing Trine member was, and that it was 'not here' only amplified the feeling of being unbalanced.

They were Trine. They should be three. And Starscream was not there.

Starscream was not there, where he belonged.

Skywarp's wingtips were feeling lonely. There should be other wingtips lodged in against his, fused together in a temporary transformation to lock the three of them in for a Spark Merge, instead of the chest plating. That was not the right configuration. Not for a Trine Merge. Thundercracker was Trine, they were in a Trine Merge. But they were only two and that was wrong. Wrong wrong wrong.

Thundercracker absently soothed him. *I know. I know. We will decide. We will decide together. Once you can.*

*fix it* Skywarp demanded sleepily.
*we will*

Once Skywarp settled a bit, he felt Thundercracker's attention shift back to his archives, and to the laborious work he was doing.

All of Skywarp's oldest archive maps of Cybertron were slowly getting fused together into a master-map. Though really, map was only adequate as a name because of the format. Most of the actual map-features were getting steadily compressed to the densest possible configuration. It wasn't really usable as a map anymore.

But. Well. Even in pristine condition, it wouldn't be a trustworthy map anyway. Way too out of date. So Thunders was making it more as a way to host all the combined metadata. everything that counted as memory, stored in one place and filed into one 'pre-war map'.

Thundercracker was getting more assured as he worked, handling the complicated tagging system and metadata, if not with understanding, then with familiarity. There were quite a few useless details he was leaving in. but he wasn't damaging anything important either, and Skywarp could feel that it was the most important part to him.

Wrangle Skywarp's overwrought memory storage into a more compact and cohesive whole while only removing things that wouldn't be missed.

A joor in, Pre-war-Cybertron Map was done with, and Thundercracker attacked the war era. Planets they had fought on, ships they served in... that sort of things.

Skywarp watched on as all the same-model ships got consolidated into master-maps, as topographic details of planets got compressed depending on how likely they were to have changed due to seismic events., and as each new master-map got tagged with the relevant dates and the persons they held memories on.

By the time Thundercracker put the finishing touches on Earth-map and Nemesis-map, Starscream had moved to his lab.

He startled when the soothing feeling of Thundercracker messing with his files stalled, then retracted.

"Whuh?"

"You need a reboot and a defrag." Thunders told him. "But not here. I can initiate it for you and then carry you to the barracks, or you can warp us to our berth, and I'll initiate and guide you through as admin via wireless linkup. It'll be slower than a full hardline, but...

But they couldn't bee seen in this position. especially not right after being taken to task on neglecting their duties to Starscream in front of the entire Air Force.

Skywarp initiated the transformation sequence to detach his chest from Thundercracker and shivered as all four cables disconnected one by one.

Leaning away and then closing their chestplates caused a full shudder. He felt... lonely, with only his Spark beating in it's casing after such a prolonged merge, but he shook the feeling off.

At least the multiple wireless connections between them were still there. His processor still felt sluggish and not enough without such ready access to Thundercracker's to unload on, but they still shared a connection. The admin access he gave Thundercracker at the start of their interface pulsing reassuringly from his trinemate.

He glanced at his plating to ensure it closed up properly, without any gaps to give him away, and then he took a firm hold of Thundercracker and primed his Warp drive for a jump.

VOP

Chapter Text

Thundercracker shook his wings out and looked down on Skywarp.

The idiot looked way too angelic with his face relaxed in recharge. (He was actually powersave, but it looked the same honestly.) After initializing a reboot for him and launching the defrag, Skywarp had gone off-line into a powersave as his processor churned the defragmentation on all the Drives Thundercracker had just made space in with the map compressing.

Well, at least it seemed that his processor had prioritized the maintenance task over booting up his map software and warp drive pilot, so he didn't actually need to rely on Thudercracker's own resources to run his admin task this time. It probably wouldn't last. Seeing the state of Skywarp's backlog queue when they first connected, the moment the two processing sinks initialized, they would refuse to relinquish resources again until brute-forced into it.

Oh well. At least Thundercracker knew to look out for it. It wasn't even like he minded doing Skywarp's digital maintenance for him. He'd just need to initiate hard-line interfacing semi-regularly.

It was... kind of weird that he hadn't been doing that before, actually.

So it wasn't just Starscream he'd been neglecting.

Or. Well.

In that case, it might be because they were neglecting Starscream. They both definitely felt that interfacing while only being the two of them was wrong.

Looking back on it, the last time he'd hard-lined with Skywarp was before Starscream got promoted as the Air Commander, the last time Starscream interfaced with them at all.

That... Also looked like when Starscream started to drift away from them. Or maybe he started a bit earlier.

Still. Toward the start of the war. Millenias ago.

When had they last preened with Starscream?

No more than a century after his promotion, too. And that was also when they stopped sleeping as a Trine too.

Had Starscream dropped them for his ambitions? Was that what this was about?

He almost wanted to call the unnatural dimming of their bond their chance to opt out and dissolve the Trine like Acid Storm suggested;

But...

He looked down at Skywarp's peaceful face.

Skywarp had reacted so strongly, negatively to the idea. Thundercracker couldn't see the reflexive possessiveness as a bad trait. After all, having a Trinemate that didn't want to give up on a Trine member no matter what was precious. It meant he also wouldn't let Thundercracker go either.

That mindless loyalty was so charming.

The whispers were getting annoying, though.

But... Neglecting a Trinemate was a serious offense. It didn't really matter whether Starscream neglected them first. He was the one with something wrong with his wings as a result. And in a way, even if they decided to ditch Starscream in the end, they should at least address the current matter. They were still Starscream's Trine at the moment, so his maintenance was still their duty.

Skywarp's latest knowledge of Starscream's position placed him in his lab. Skywarp was processing his own defrag fine on his own.

Thundercracker was a bit tired from all the data work, but not enough not to go and at least check what Nova Storm had pointed out. Once he knew, he could discuss it with Skywarp and they could fix it.

Then they would either dissolve the Trine Bond with Starscream or repair it.

Chapter Text

Oh.

Wow.

No wonder Nova Storm took them to task. It was... really obvious.

Well. For a Seeker, at least. Thundercracker wouldn't be surprised if none of the non-flying Decepticons noticed.

But yeah. The border of Starscream's armor around the wing-hinges had gone bare-metal-shiny from wear. It was an invitation to rust. Especially while stranded on a planet with so much oxygen. As well as oxidizing accelerators such as water and salt. Both of which they were exposed to way too frequently with where the Nemesis had crash-landed.

To add insult to injury, the wear, while a potential health hazard if left as it was, was the kind of thing that could be fixed in five minutes with stuff Thundercracker already had in his subspace. It just couldn't be done by Starscream himself. Or, indeed, couldn't be seen by him, considering how far his helm could turn and the fact that the Nemesis was no luxury ship, and mirrors weren't all that common.

Thundercracker could understand Nova Storm's anger. Taking over a week to address something so easy and obvious? It definitely was neglect. And any damage on a Seeker's back was their Trine's duty to fix, so the culprits were easy to deduce.

Thundercracker sighed and took a decisive step inside the lab.

It didn't look like he would need Skywarp's help in fixing the problem with Star's wings. No time like the present, right?

"What?" Starscream snapped at him when it became obvious that Thundercracker was coming closer.

Damn. But did Starscream really need to be so unpleasant?

"Your armor edges are shining." Thundercracker stated simply, getting a buffing cloth and his tub of protective nanite cream out of his subspace.

"No they're not!" Starscream screeched with a startle away from Thundercracker.

"Yes they are." Thundercracker sighed. "Right by the wing hinges. Just turn your back to me for five minutes, and I'll take care of it."

Starscream froze, staring at Thundercracker with wide, startled optics. He didn't answer, though.

After a long awkward silence, Thundercracker tried again. "Look. The whole Air Force noticed it. You don't want them whispering about your finish behind your back, right? Just let me give you a touch up, and we can try to pretend this never happened."

Thundercracker had no intention of pretending nothing happened. But the argument worked, and after another pause, Starscream nodded jerkily and turned to his workbench, planting his hands firmly on the working surface and pulling his wings forward as far as they would go to give Thundercracker full access to his wing hinges.

Thundercracker eyed the subtle tension in his Trine Leader's frame with regret, but he lost no time stepping up to Starscream's back and starting to spread the nanite cream and gently distribute and buff it as the colonies of color-changing nanites first picked up on Starscream's color scheme, and then vitrified into a protective enamel on top of Starscream's exposed armor edges.

Thundercracker didn't even consciously decide to run his fingers over the touch-up and then start fanning outward along Starscream's wings.

But he very definitively noticed Starscream jerking out from under his touch and then skittering away before yelling at him to go away if he was done with bothering him.

Chapter Text

Starscream twitched his wing, trying to shake off the lingering feeling of warmth that stayed where Thundercracker touched him.

Of course he knew the feeling was entirely psychosomatic, but he couldn't help the twitches.

Why did Thundercracker have to go and fondle his wings, anyway? It was fine so long as only the cloth was touching him.

And really, there had been no reason to touch Starscream with bare plating!

His Spark was feeling funny. Warm, tingling, but with occasional pangs of pain and longing.

Guh. He thought he was over that.

He'd gradually stepped back from shared maintenance, doing all of it himself no matter how difficult it could be at time to reach for certain parts. He'd made the right tools to allow himself to do his own maintenance. And Skywarp and Thundercracker had let him slip out of their notice as he gradually increased their distance.

It helped that Skywarp was so dumb, and that Thundercracker invested so much time in helping Skywarp out where his limited intellectual capacities handicapped him.

Stupid worn out armor edges!

Now his Spark had decided to go and be all full of longing again, like when he'd first distanced himself from the Trine.

At least Thundercracker had left quickly enough when Starscream screamed at him. Maybe he would drop the matter and forget it.

And Starscream's stupid Spark would calm down and stop panging in a vorn° or so.

The prototype Starscream was working on escaped from his grasp and clattered to the floor.

A look down revealed the culprits to be his own shaking hands.

Frag!

Damn it!

Why?

Starscream gave into the urge to hunch and hug himself, wings trying to tuck in as close as they could.

He hated this!

Hate hate hate!

He hated how small and fragile and vulnerable and needy his Trine always managed to make him feel without even trying to.

He hated that from the moment Thundercracker's hand swooped over his plating to check for damage he'd been longing to just curl up and soak up the attention. He hated how protected and cared for he always felt between his Trinemates' arms.

Starscream was strong! He didn't need to feel protected and cared for. He didn't need to feel small and needy.

Starscream was going to become the Leader of the Decepticons after he finally managed to kill Megatron! He was going to win the war and become the Emperor of the whole universe!

What was the affection of a pair of barely special Seekers when he should have the loyalty of every single Cybertronian! Every single sentient being, even!

Everything. His spark whispered. They're Trine

Starscream leaned down to retrieve the fallen prototype, only to see a drop of liquid fall down from his face and onto the floor.

What in the name of Primus?!

His fingers came up to his face in his surprise. No. It couldn't be.

No way he was crying pathetically! He must be glitching. That was the only reason he would be leaking optical fluid!

A sob shook his frame.

Chapter Text

The first thing Thundercracker did upon returning to the Air barracks was to find Nova Storm.

He was chatting with his Trine. It would make things easier. As well as the fact that every one that wad there turned their attention to him when he strode toward the angry seeker.

Now what he had in mind was the kind of thing that Starscream or even Skywarp would have found extremely hard to do. But one of the uses of a Trine was to diversify the stong points at the unit's disposal, after all.

Thundercracker stopped in front of the three hostile seekers and brought up a hand to rest over his cockpit. "Thank you." He said simply. "From Seeker to seeker, I owe you gratitude for helping me see that I have gotten complacent and that my Trine needs change." He turned his helm toward Ice Storm, standing next to his Trinemate. "To you too. You were right. You are right. Skywarp and I haven't made a choice yet, but we will."

With that done, Thundercracker turned back to his and Skywarp's berth and went to check on how his defragmentation was going.

At least that seemed to be on the right track.

Unlike the situation with Starscream.

Thundercracker sighed and eased himself down on the berth. The problem with Starscream was definitely a long term one. There wasn't much he could do right away. And definitely not alone. It was a Trine problem. It called for action from the Trine. So him and Skywarp. He would discuss it once Skywarp was awake.

Besides, he was really tired. A good part of that was the emotional toll of having Starscream reject his touch so blatantly.

He sighed and pulled Skywarp close to him, Sparks as physically close as they could go with their frames, rested his forehead on Skywarp's shoulder. They would have work to do. Especially if as he suspected Skywarp refused to let go of Starscream.

He vented out a sigh and offlined his optics.

Recharge first.

Planning later.

His recharge flux ended up being about his Trine courtship. The Starscream of his youth a recurring feature.

The flux turned twisted toward the end, as the more recent memories of Starscream gradually turning away from them wormed in and projections of it going worse and worse, of Starscream discarding them fully, abandoning them by the wayside, looking at them without any warmth left in his optics, like they were absolutely nothing to him, substituted to the actual memories.

He woke of violently enough to startle Skywarp online too.

Chapter Text

Skywarp woke up with a start, feeling woozy in the helm.

A look at his ongoing task-list showed that it was because his defrag, while almost finished, was still churning in the background while his map software and Warp pilot were booting up. Resulting in absolutely no spare processing power for his use.

He onlined his optics out of sheer habit, and then stared uncomprehendingly at what happened to be in front of them.

Oh.

Thundercracker.

Trine.

Good.

Trinemate's own gaze locked on him and he made a move toward Skywarp.

Skywarp's sensors registered touch on his plating.

Even with his processor all clogged up, his Spark still recognized *Trine* as the source of the touch, and he eased into it.

He was in good hands.

Trine would... Take... Care... Of...

His wireless communication suite revved up to full power and all of his channels opened up at once.

Admin access initiated.

Trinemate leaned toward him. Brought their forehelms together.

Communications speed through wireless doubled.

Borrowed processing power filtered in and boosted the speed of his defragmentation cycle.

Skywarp stayed like that, limp and mostly insensate into his Trinemate's grasp until the script for his defrag concluded itself and his processors finally relinquished some part of his bandwidth to actually think with.

Uh.

Oof.

He hated when his processor did that.

Skywarp grunted and grasped onto Thunder's plating. Sinking into his grip.

Not being able to think right most of the time was bad enough, but the times when his processing power got fully overwhelmed and let him staring helplessly into the void were really the worst.

He couldn't even know how long the episode had lasted because he hadn't had the focus to even take a note on his chronometer's display when it started.

Thundercracker's hands petted at his wings soothingly and he grumbled wordlessly as he let his entire weight rest on his Trinemate.

*sorry*
*hmph*
*bad recharge flux*
*humph*
*I... dreamed of Star abandoning us*
*mhmmm*

Thundercracker sighed through his turbines and pulled Skywarp into a full hug, setting his engines to a soothing rumble.

A memory file transmitted to him through the full suite of wireless connection between them.

Skywarp pursed his lips but set the file playing.

He watched himself (Thundercracker) enter Star's lab, spotting his worn out finish, and offering help. Starscream grudgingly letting him slather nanites on the exposed metal of his armor, but fleeing from his touch as soon as he ran an inquisitive hand over his wings.

!

That...

That was upsetting.

And very, very... concerning? Skywarp's emotional suite always had trouble engaging as it should. Too processing hungry for the limited bandwidth Skywarp had available.

Sadness and fear was what he could process from the memory the least taxing answers for his processor to come up with. After a moment of mulling the memory file, anger hesitantly tagged itself on.

Trine should have their finger in each-other's wings all the time! Why was Star refusing!

Hng. Stupid processor.

"Let's go somewhere private," Thundercracker smiled at him, *then we can hardline to let you think on it*

Skywarp sighed in relief and engaged his pistons. At least actions were easy.

Chapter Text

Hard-lining with Skywarp was a peculiar feeling. First, there was the Spark feelings. Skywarp's emotions were very strong and unrestrained, and during interface, they all focused right onto Thundercracker. It was like standing right next to a fire.

It was such a waste that they hadn't Spark-merged for so long. Thundercracker had almost managed to forget how fiercely loyal and steadfastly loving Skywarp really was. To the point where caring for his Trinemate became more of an habit and a duty than the earnest wish to help he'd started out with.

When really thinking about it, the fact that Starscream distancing himself from them had damaged the entire dynamic of the Trine rather than just both of their link with him was very logical. Trines were there to provide stability. A duo couldn't pretend to be a Trine. Still having someone to care for and who cared in return meant they probably suffered from the estrangement less than Starscream had, but it didn't mean they got by unscathed.

The first step to repair, though, as always, was to notice that something needed to be repaired.

The other reason why interfacing with Skywarp was a unique experience wasn't quite as pleasant. Thundercracker could feel his processors heating up from the amount of work they were asked to do.

He didn't know if he should be surprised or not by how thoroughly Skywarp utilized all processing power at his disposal. On one hand, it has a bit startling that someone so consistently simple-minded would want to think so hard at all. On the other, it was utterly unsurprising that someone who had to scrimp and optimize all the time would rush in to take possession of all the resources available to him and make them work for him right away.

It was a bit humbling to see Skywarp greedily lay hands on all the resources available, though. It made Thundercracker feel like he took his own processor for granted. He didn't even use all of it, most of the time. While Skywarp was constantly struggling with the lack of processing power, Thundercracker thoughtlessly let his own go to waste. It felt a bit disrespectful of his Trinemate's handicap.

Ah, but it wasn't important at the moment. He'd proposed hard-lining to allow Skywarp to use his own processors and make a definite decision about Starscream when he could think clearly. So the best was to clear out as much of his processes as he could to give Skywarp more bandwidth with which to think.

He got busy for a breem with pushing anything non-critical into mid-term storage, then pausing anything that could wait but not too long, then refocused on Skywarp.

He normally would have to use guesswork and make the Trine Link work for him in order to guess what Sky was thinking, but with most of the thinking going on on his own processors, none of that was needed, since everything logged itself into his historic.

Skywarp was... Running a few hundred emotional models and routines.

Ah.

Right.

Feelings weren't Skywarp's forte usually. It wasn't a 'either' situation, Skywarp struggled with thinking and feeling for exactly the same reason. But Thundercracker wasn't surprised that Skywarp reached for emotions before logic in deciding what to do.

Even with his processors not treating emotions, Skywarp still had a Spark. And Sparks generated emotional responses. These responses just tended to be raw, and over-simple, which was why most bots passed all that through the processor too. In order to get the emotions the Spark generated to a more coherent and nuanced place, as well as justifying and tempering them.

But it meant that even with his processors refusing to treat emotions, Skywarp still felt them. Possibly even more reliably than logic-based thoughts. It had a part to play on how impulsive Skywarp could get, having his emotions react more reliably than intellect, Skywarp tended to let the stunted feelings he could process guide him unless expressly given directives (by someone he was inclined to listen to, which also had roots in feelings, like loyalty or trust. Or plain habit).

Faced with the evidence that they Trine was taking a nosedive and getting ever closer to crashing down in flames, it made perfect sense for Skywarp to take all available processing power and throw it into figuring out the emotional landscape of their Trine.

Trines were Spark-anchored bonds. There might be practical reasons for their existence (preening and flight formations being key ones) but it was born from emotions. Trust, loyalty, support, love. And also came with a link that conveyed feelings easier than anything else. To the point where all other forms of Trine-link communications had to be worked on and practiced with to get intelligible results.

It was good for newly formed Trines that Seekers in-air communication was so emotional in nature, because flying together was part of tightening the bond, but flying together in formation as a Trine relied almost solely on Trine Bond communication. (A link that couldn't be hacked, or blocked, by anyone, giving them the advantage of a totally screened communication in combat.)

...

*flying!*

Chapter Text

For some reasons, Skywarp found it easier to think in terms of trajectories. When he really wanted to do something, the best way to think about it tended to be picturing it like a map. (He knew why that was. It was because his mapping software was always going, draining resources from everything, but by thinking of things to do like a map, Skywarp could trick the stubborn program into parsing things for him, rather than just drain the processing power he'd need to be thinking.)

With Thundercracker lending his own processors to him, Skywarp immediately set out to craft the thought-map for his Trine's trajectory and goals, and trying to plot a route toward getting things back on track. (Thundercracker was talking about a choice, but Skywarp... felt like there was no choice involved. Starscream was theirs. They won him fair and square.)

(Well, if there was a reason to truly remove Star from the Trine, Skywarp would find it while crafting his map, so it wasn't like he was lying to Thundercracker.)

(He wasn't lying to TC! it was just... He didn't want to lose Starscream. He was theirs.)

*flying!* Thundercracker's exclamation jolted him from his thoughts.
*hmm? flying where?* He asked, feeding even more of his archived memories into the emotional models.
*not where, flying at all! when did Starscream last fly with us?*
*last skirmish was... last week?*
*not flying in combat... and even then, he barely stayed with us, either. like flying for the sake of flying.*

Skywarp paused and really thought about it. Wow. It had been... centuries.

*does he at least fly by himself?* Skywarp replied instead. He was sure Thundercracker could track down their last true Trine Flight as well as him, after all.
*I... doubt it. that's bad. that's really bad!*

It was

*At least he is still flying for combat* Skywarp reasoned. *he's not fully, like, grounded*

**concern** and **sadness** flowed back through the bond. *only flying to hurt others or get hurt, though? that might be worse than just not flying at all.*

Skywarp didn't answer to that. He didn't know, was the thing. He could only hope that Starscream getting air every now and again had been enough to preserve his sanity.

*so you've made your choice?* He asked instead.
*not... really. I can still be concerned for him, though.* TC grumbled back.

Maybe Thundercracker needed a little push.

Skywarp had started the map of the Trine's relationship from the very beginning. Maybe it would help?

Thundercracker did turn his attention to the map file when Skywarp shared it, but there was no understanding coming from him.

Oh, Right. Thundercracker found Skywarp's maps hard to read. Maybe...

He fired off an access request for Thunder's personal archives.

When it got validated, he used the timestamps from his own map to fish for the relevant images to illustrate with, then stamped glyphs for emotions on them. color-coded to reflect what Skywarp himself was feeling at the time as well as what he'd perceived Star and Thunders emotions to be.

It was striking, adding the visuals to the information he had recorded himself. Oh, right. It was how things had looked, wasn't it.

Thundercracker's attention snagged and stayed on one image Skywarp had pulled up.

It was Starscream's back. A bit of Skywarp was visible at the edge of TC's field of vision. They were all three standing on top of a cliff. Starscream had already been chosen for Trine Leader. Skywarp's metadata said they were all happy, excited, eager to fly. No doubt in sight.

Thundercracker messed with the file a bit, and the image turned into a short video clip. There, they could see Star's helm turning a bit, and a smile on the visible part of his face, and then he turned forth again and put his wings in flight position. At the edge of TC's vision, Skywarp did the same.

*you should save that map. we'll have to show it to Star to make him understand.* TC said.

Chapter Text

Thundercracker spent a bit longer going through the relationship map Skywarp had made. It was visibly incomplete. Skywarp had started from the beginning, got through their courtship and early Trineship, but it got spotty after. There were markers, later on, for the incident they had just lived through, and a nebulous goal point even further.

Even with the map being so spotty, though, Thundercracker could see Skywarp's point of veiw. He had focused more on the high points. on the love and trust that had been there in the past.

That's why Thundercracker sincerely suggested the map be saved to show Starscream.

Because, just as he suspected, Thundercracker was going to bend to Skywarp's preference, and it was obvious his preference was in working things out.

*well, since we're already taking a trip down memory lane, let's try and see how it all went so wrong.*

Skywarp sent a wordless ping of acknowledgment and turned back to his archives.

Skywarp had his own approach that seemed to center around looking trough all memories tagged with Starscream's presence, running it through emotional analysis and then integrating it into his map, no matter the result it gave, simply making it more or less prevalent depending on how strong the involved emotions were for the Trine. It was thorough, and complete, and while it would take a long time to complete, it was unlikely to miss key moments.

Thundercracker decided to go for another approach.

He already had an inkling of what went wrong. Starscream's promotion to Air Commander had a key role in his estrangement.

And adding it to Thundercracker's own personal bias... He was suspecting the Decepticon movement/army as a whole from being at the root of their problem, so that's what he looked for.

When did they (Starscream) first talk about joining? (Vos bombing, yes, but not only, Starscream showed an interest much earlier.) When did they join? (Yeah, okay, still Vos bombing.) When did they become more than foot soldiers? (Right about when they participated in the operation to kill Sentinel Prime.)

More personal to him was... When did the Decepticons got warped? When did Megatron start showing his first signs of tyranny? Of not even wanting to deliver on his initial promises anymore? That was a subject to personal interpretation, but Thundercracker pinpointed a few strategic decision that didn't sit right with him (on the moment, or in retrospect), as early as possible, and passed their date-stamp to Skywarp as points of interest, just to see if his own search would turn up any correlations with their Trine losing integrity.

Going forth, he marked all the times Megatron had shown himself to be a less than ideal leader in a way Thundercracker could detect, and logged all the dates, with a small blurb of the events or vocal track transcript. He didn't forward those to Skywarp yet, just kept them in a mid-term memory log.

Skywarp was... As stubbornly unthinking of his loyalty to Megatron as he was about dropping Starscream. Thundercracker was sure the loyalty itself was weaker toward their 'leader' than it was for the Trine. But it would unsettle Skywarp to take 'suspect Megatron to be bad for us' as a foundation to looking for their problems. Thundercracker could do that well enough on his own.

For the moment.

As a compromise, he did put in the dates of events that directly involved Starscream getting in conflict with Megatron into the map, with short descriptions of what happened at the time.

And... Wow. That was telling.

An argument in a week became two, became five, became screaming matches, became intimidation, became violence. The frequency and severity ramping up almost exponentially.

Starscream got roughed up worse and worse, for less and less valid reasons, more and more often. That was more than enough to be getting neurotic.

And...

That was a hell of a lot of Starscream's wings getting roughly grabbed. By surprise, or with obvious intent to harm.

No wonder Star had recoiled! It wouldn't be surprised if Starscream rewrote his association of someone touching his wings as entirely negative and threatening!

Skywarp pinged him an interrogative glyph, even as the Spark-link went *interrogative/concerned*

Oh, right, Skywarp could feel Thundercracker's emotions in real time. The sadness, worry, and anger had to have caught his attention.

Thundercracker hesitated only a moment before gathering all the wing assault instances up, tagging them Starscream&Megatron; wing; threat; hurt; !negative!, with an additional surprise/sudden to the tags, where it applied, and sent the packet. Then, he took the memory of the previous day, and added tags Starscream&Thundercracker; wing; surprise/sudden; ?threat?; ?negative?; ?hurt?

Skywarp audibly hiccupped when receiving that second packet.

Fair.

Thundercracker hated it too.

Chapter Text

Skywarp stared at the simple log of tags Thundercracker forwarded him in horror for a while.

NO!!!

NonononoNO!

It couldn't be!

*but the positive instances should offset-*
*what positive instances?* Thundercracker answered, words filled with **resignation**. *we haven't preened with him even once since that whole grab Starscream by the wings thing started.*

They... hadn't.

Skywarp firmed his resolve and turned away from the systematic search for Starscream's tag he'd been on. Thundercracker had posted a bunch of timestamps that Skywarp had thought he'd check on as he went. Since it seemed like Thundercracker was on to something, Skywarp re-prioritized and started looking through his archival maps according to what TC gave him to look for instead.

The first timestamp brought him to a conversation they had in a bar. Skywarp's archive held a conversation about the budding Decepticon movement, how it could be a chance to change things. To have more rights. The emotions Skywarp had tagged were lukewarm at best for himself and TC. A bit interested, nut not that involved. Star, though... Hmm that was weird.

*can you forward me your own memories of this?* Skywarp sent in.

He got a packet in return and set to crunching the video and audio through emotional processing, to see what more he could deduce on Starscream's mindset.

That was anger.

Huh.

Skywarp had known Starscream wanted to aim higher, but he was truly angry when talking about the possibility of upward social motion if functionism stopped being the official stance. Not just annoyed. 'I hold a grudge' angry.

Skywarp posted the result on the shared map, and he saw Thundercracker look through it.

*huh* Thunders sent. *that's... wait a click. I think I know what this is about.*

Thundercracker sent in another packet. his memory of the 'there was a Cybertronian shuttle frozen on earth' incident. And some press releases about a seeker being kicked out of Iacon Institute of Sciences (and how one couldn't expect a warframe to be good at science anyway.

Skywarp ran the info through. Wait. Did Starscream get kicked out of a life of being a Scholar over functionism? Probably. Functionism had been bad enough that it was a miracle Star got in in the first place. But why did Thundercracker find it relevant?

*that was before we Trined.* Thundercracker pointed out. *Star's life-plans didn't originally include a Trine. do you think...*
*so we're the consolation prize?* Skywarp asked, feeling hurt.
*or the 'there is no other choice left'... maybe... maybe he never accepted us fully?* Thundercracker pointed out, feeling **betrayed**.
*... let me see...*

Skywarp leaned away from his emotional responses, leaning into the logic system that Thundercracker's processors allowed him use, and went to look for memories of past Trine Merges. There hadn't been a lot, thinking about it.

His own memory of Trine Merging was truly magical. He was so happy, he had a full Trine. They were his! His people. Forever. Thundercracker was happy, fulfilled. Star... Star was... mirroring. It felt like he had been thinking the same. But what if... What if he'd only been focusing on their own emotions inside of him in order to shield out other, less happy feelings he'd been having?

He sent the log along with his suspicions to Thundercracker.

TC went very, very quiet.

*you know.* He said after a while. *it looks like we bungled our initial courtship. let's do it again. do it right, this time.*
*you don't want to call it off?*
*you don't want to call it off. let's try to do it over, if it still doesn't work, we can call it off then.*

Chapter Text

*where do we start?* Skywarp asked him. *gifts...* Skywarp projected the feeling that it would be **complicated**. They were in the middle of a war, they had little extra resources to pour into gifts.
*no* Thundercracker responded. *we can't start there.* For all that burrying Starscream under positive attention felt like what they should do, instinctively... first they needed... *we stop caring.*

Skywarp dissolved in **confusion**.

*Star decided he didn't want a Trine.* Thundercracker explained. *I think he needs to... see what it is to not have a Trine.*

Sky was silent for a moment, processing.

*yeah. I guess you're right. If he didn't really want us and our first courtship failed, then more of the same might not be enough. but how do we act? should we be hostile?*
*no.* Not with Star. He thrived on attention, positive or negative. So the best way to mark the absence was... *we act indifferent.*
*that will be a bit hard...*

Right, Skywarp was spontaneous and emotive. Feigning indifference when he truly did care would be difficult for him. Especially when they stopped their connection and he went back to his lower baseline processing power.

*maybe... just focus on me for now?* It felt wrong, asking to monopolize the attention of one Trinemate at the exclusion of the other. But it was to allow them to win Starscream back. *and the rest of the time, follow my lead.*
*So... we're making you Trine Leader?*

It felt awkward to think that. They had picked Starscream as leader for a reason. But having a Leader who didn't care for the Trine was a sure way to disaster. And Skywarp couldn't be Leader for obvious reasons.

*I... guess we are.*
*alright. I'll follow your trail.*

He felt something in his Spark shift at Skywarp's words. Was... Was their Trine Bond reacting to their decision?

It made sense, having the bond leader be far away and muted from them was very inconvenient to maintain a healthy Trine, so the role changing over as soon as they wanted to go to a better configuration was logical.

But, what about Starscream?

Thundercracker focused on the weak link to Starscream. The Bond wobbled for a moment, and then shifted, reset to new parameters.

Oh, that had been too easy. Why hadn't Starscream's side fought him for leadership? Starscream wasn't one to accept demotion quietly. Was that a manifestation of how little Starscream cared for their Trine? Did he think it so trivial that he didn't bother to put up a fight?

Thundercracker focused harder, trying to gauge Star's emotional state.

There was nothing of note. He did feel a bit of presence, but nothing that felt like a **reaction**. Had Starscream straight-up not noticed?

That stung. Stung even more so with the new awareness that he was Trine Leader. How could his Trinemate not notice?

Skywarp sent over **curiosity**.

Oh right. What about Skywarp? Thundercracker could feel their bond had shifted, become of higher priority, with the change in Leadership. Did it mean Sky might have lost contact with Starscream entirely, now that he didn't even have the leadership to make his failing bond much more prevalent?

*can you feel Starscream?* Thundercracker asked.

Skywarp's focus moved, then **dismay** came over him.

*I... can feel a direction and distance, but it's much less clear. what happened?*
*he's not Trine Leader anymore.*

Chapter Text

It had been a week since the whole thing with Thundercracker touching him, and the prickles and pangs of hot or cold... Were about the same still. But Starscream had gotten accustomed to it, at the very least.

(He had seen neither Thundercracker nor Skywarp since...)

What was hard to get used to were the stares. At first he'd thought they were just a reflection of what Thundercracker had said, about every Seeker noticing his worn out finish. But the more time passed, the less it seemed true. This wasn't 'are there other spots he's lost his paint' stares. This was... 'Something is going to happen and I want to see it when it does.'

What the hell were the entire Air Force waiting on, that involved him? And how the hell was everyone aware except him?

He knew he wasn't well liked by the troops, but he wasn't 'excluded from the all-Seekers secret' hated, was he? Was he?

Whatever. Starscream didn't care about being liked. What a waste of time. Pshh.

The stares were annoying though. And no amount of snapping got it to go away for good.

The whole staring thing got to a head when they were gathering for their latest little skirmish against the Autobots. They were in the middle of an active military operation, so it was toned down a bit, but Starscream could tell that every single jet on the landing strip had their optics on him, and not out of respect.

Or, wait.

Not all optics were on him.

Not all the time.

The assembled Seekers were also glancing over one specific spot in between looking at Starscream in anticipation.

Starscream narrowed his own optics and cut through the throng to the spot everyone seemed to be glancing at.

He stalled in surprise when he reached the focus point of the assembled Seekers' attention.

Skywarp and Thundercracker?

Why would?...

Thundercracker's helm turned from where he'd been entirely focused on Skywarp.

Something about his optics made Starscream freeze.

"Air Commander." Thundercracker greeted. Calm and smooth and... Polite?

Why was Polite bad?

"Oh, hey. Commander." Skywarp echoed. "Got special orders for us? A mission that uses our incredible outlier talents?"

Thundercracker's broad hand reached behind Skywarp, probably pressing in right between his wings.

Starscream's own back suddenly tingled and went hot-cold in reaction to seeing that.

Skywarp's helm turned away from Starscream and toward Thundercracker's face, a warm smile blooming on his face-plates. "We're so going to kill that special mission, TC!"

Thundercracker chuckled. But when he spoke, his tone was lightly chiding. "Let the Commander give us our orders before bragging, Sky. We might simply be on base-guard duty."

"That's so lame!" Skywarp complained. "We're way too cool for that!"

Thundercracker's hand gently went over Skywarp's mouth, and his optics turned to Starscream as he ineffectually tried to muffle Skywarp's prattling.

That's when Starscream grasped what was wrong with his optics.

As Thundercracker's gaze transferred from Skywarp and over to Starscream, the warmth and affection in his optics slid away, so that once he was looking at Starscream, only cold... no, more like cool; utterly uncaring and uninterested; no feelings one way or another; stayed.

Thundercracker was looking at him the way Starscream would look at... At... A workbench, or something. Something that he had no feelings toward but which existence he acknowledged.

The persistent ache in Starscream's Spark flared to the point he almost wondered if he'd been shot. Or stabbed.

"Your orders, Air Commander?"

Thundercracker's voice felt like it came from way too far away. And yet... And yet it still succeeded in making the pain double up.

His designation. Neither of them had used his proper name even once! Yes, he was Air Commander, but...

"Report to Soundwave." Starscream barked. Having to draw on all his strength and stubbornness not to show how pained his stupid Spark was.

"Right on it!" Skywarp chirped with a cheeky salute. (He didn't even really look at Starscream. His optics made it halfway there, before turning right back to Thundercracker.) "Come on, TC, Let's Gooooo. Maybe Sounders has something cool for us to do!"

The Pain grew even more.

The two Seekers disappeared with an achingly familiar Vop

Starscream tried to delete all thoughts of his estranged Trine. They were Soundwave's problem now.

He was sure that the Radio Unit would find something for these two to do, even if transferring them to his command wasn't part of the initial Plan.

They were far away from Starscream and his stupidly cramping Spark, and that was what mattered.

When Starscream turned, he noticed every single optic on the Landing Strip on him.

Chapter Text

Their involvement in the day's battle was different from usual, what with being under Soundwave's command instead of Starscream. It wasn't bad though. Skywarp had a soft spot for Laserbeak and Buzzsaw, which Thundercracker understood.

Actually, Skywarp was also fond of Rumble and Frenzy, for different reasons. Fellow fliers and fellow troublemakers. Skywarp liked most of Soundwave's cassettes, and Skywarp's fondness easily bled toward Thundercracker.

They ended-up having a very different time compared to their usual fare. Soundwave put them together with his flying cassettes and had them use the fact that the Autobots would be rolling out to battle to scope out the Ark. And see if there was anything they could do there. They ended up making use of the cassettes' familiarity with the Autobots base and Skywarp's teleportation ability to pull a heist on their enemies' energon storage.

There was only so much energon their could transport with just two seekers, but every little bit counted where energon was concerned.

Also, Skywarp had gotten the opportunity to get an accurate map of the Ark, and that could always come in useful.

Once they came back to the nemesis after the battle, though, they were welcomed to the Air barracks by an atmosphere thick with of anticipation.

Thundercracker had informed a few gossipy Seekers of the fact that their relationship with Starscream was a work in progress, and that they would have to make a key move soon, which had an impact on how everyone looked at the members of their Trine, while also buying them space, but since they had publicly spurned Starscream, it wasn't surprising that everyone wanted to know more.

"What was that about?" Acid Storm asked them when they passed by him.

Thundercracker paused and looked at him, taking a firm hold of Skywarp's arm.

Acid Storm noticed the touch and frowned. "You said you'd do something. Was that what you meant? Cutting Starscream off?"

"Just getting some clearance for a clean takeoff." Thundercracker answered honestly. "Not all of our Trine's problems come from Skywarp and I being neglectful. We do need to step back in order to effectively get back in."

Acid Storm's frown didn't lighten, but he sighed. It was Trine business, after all. Of a Trine not his own. He still shook his head and spoke up before turning away and back to his own business. "This might spectacularly backfire. I hope you're aware of this."

"Nothing worth having is easy to obtain." Thundercracker stated at a conversational volume to the other Seeker's back.

He was taking a risk, yes. He knew it. He'd just have to hope for the best, prepare for the worst and expect turbulences. That's how life went.

The short face-off had apparently satisfied most of the eavesdroppers' curiosity, and the attention on them lessened as Thundercracker and Skywarp headed for their berth.

Ah.

Things were about to take a turn.

It was annoying that it took Starscream a whole week to notice he was being ignored, but since he had finally seen it, he wouldn't be forgetting it anytime soon. Hopefully it would get him to see the advantages there had been in being part of a Trine.

Chapter Text

Nova Storm didn't approve of whatever game Thundercracker and Skywarp were playing with Starscream.

Trine was precious and should be treated as such!

Besides, it wasn't like the two of them would easily be able to find a new third if Starscream got fed up with their antics and threw them over. With the war as it was, and no new Seekers being made, finding new Trinemates was insanely difficult. Everyone was already Trined up. War demanded flying formations to be solid. No one was hanging around waiting for 'the right mates'.

Of course there were casualties that periodically made new openings. But these were typically opening for one person. If only because a Seeker who lost both Trinemates in battle was incredibly unlikely to make it back to base alive. Not jus because flying alone was dangerous, too. Also because having lost both Trinemates made it very, very difficult to want to go on living.

If the idiots went on like that and ended up dissolving their Trine bond with Starscream, then Starscream would be a lot more likely to find a new Trine than them. They certainly didn't seem to be willing to let go of one-another in order to get integrated in with another pair° who was looking for a third to complete their Trine again.

No pair° that had lost someone wanted to lose the Trinemate they still had. So that meant these two's chance of replacing Starscream would have to be an heavily traumatized single that somehow survived losing all they had.

If they won the courtship battle to be the ones who got the privilege of welcoming that singlet in.

There were quite a few pairs° who were far along in recovery to start fighting for the right to fill up their Trine again. (For the privilege of nursing and loving someone who lost everything and make them want to live and fight once more.) The competition was fierce, after all.

(Back when Cybertron was thriving, getting a new third included fresh builds as candidates. That was a luxury they had lost with the fall of Vos.)

Starscream was the Commander, too. getting him would surely elevate whoever Trined with him.

How could the two outliers be so blind? Take such a big risk?

Nova Storm didn't understand it.

Surely there were other ways to repair their relationship than straight-up abandoning their Trine Leader.

Thundercracker, at least, seemed more intelligent than to risk that.

It nagged Nova Storm even worse than the worn armor edge on Starscream's back had.

So he... Might have been a bit annoying on purpose.

"At this rate Starscream will throw you both over for a more attentive pair°, and you'll have deserved it." He hissed right by Skywarp's side after their latest show of spurning the Air Commander. (It was small, but no less obvious. Starscream came by to give updated aerial patrol orders, and the two that should have been his Trine hadn't made a single move to get out of the crowd and by his side, where they rightly belonged.)

Skywarp was impulsive, so he was the most likely to spill if made to feel angry.

Uncharacteristically, Skywarp looked entirely unfazed at the remark. "No he won't." Skywarp just scoffed. "Especially not for a 'more attentive' pair°."

That was all the response he got. Skywarp turned to Thundercracker and they walked away from him together.

Were they really that delusional?

A few days later, he tried again.

He'd just witnessed Thundercracker give Starscream a courteous nod as he went to the energon dispenser, draw two portions, and then go back to Skywarp to hand one over, not even seeming to consider also bringing Starscream a cube.

"You'll lose him at this rate." He noted idly, making sure not to seem too invested. Acid Storm frowned a bit at him for poking at another Trine's business.

Thundercracker's optics raised up to look at him. Then he did a visual sweep, and noticing the attention Nova Storm had called in from all seekers present, he sighed and shrugged. "There's the thing, though. You cannot lose something you never had."

Skywarp's wings drooped at his words, and Thundercracker's attention turned toward him without a hitch, all the care he didn't show to Starscream turning toward his other Trinemate.

What in Unicron's name...?

It was Flight Drill day, and the Seekers preparing to go out had an obvious anomaly in them. The Commander standing appart was one thing, but Thundercracker and Skywarp were in the floor with everyone else rather than waiting for takeoff next to Starscream. Looking like their had every intention to fly as a pair°.

"You two are fucking lucky that there are no other incomplete Trine to fight you for him." Nova Storm hissed

"He'd probably shoot them down if they tried." Skywarp answered. ... Did he sound bitter? What the frag? "And not necessarily with his Null Rays set to stun."

Thundercracker smoothed a hand along the teleporter's wing. "I guess if he didn't, we could consider our duty by him done as best we possibly could. It... Would make it easier to move on..."

Skywarp's engine snarled in displeasure but he didn't argue.

"Well, the Space Bridge is almost finished, so we'll see that soon enough, won't we?" Acid Storm threw in, apparently also done with minding his own business.

"Hmm. But Starscream is pivotal in repairing it." Thundercracker huffed. " 'Almost' might be further off than you're envisioning. Especially if he computes the same thing you did."

Nova Storm didn't have time to dig further, because then Thundercracker strafed off, immediately tailed by Skywarp.

Down on the Flight Deck, Starscream's optics followed their trajectory.

A flash of longing and anguish appeared on his face, before winking out in favor of a stormy strop.

No one stuck around for long after that. A displeased Air Commander was not something any Seeker liked to be in (screaming or firing) range of.

It was three weeks since two thirds of the Command Trine publicly spurned their third, and Starscream was starting to look noticeably jittery. He had all the tell-tale signs of Seeker loneness. Not the mild ones, either. The way he always seemed on guard, always jumpy, always scoping his surroundings... The kind of things a Seeker without a Trine to watch their back would do when in a situation of stress. In-Danger-and-Alone stress. Nova Storm wouldn't be surprised if their Commander was having horribly subpar recharge. Or even none at all. With how he had no one to help secure his downtime and make it feel safe.

"This can't go on much longer." Nova Storm told the two idiots as they headed to their fighting positions.

"You're right." Thundercracker responded, optics following the Commander. "It will be time to act soon."

"Really?" Skywarp gasped, wings perking up. "How soon?"

"Couple of weeks at most." Thundercracker hummed back. "Probably sooner."

Nova Storm didn't get to see when these two would finally have decided to move. In that battle, Starscream got shot down by the Autobots' sniper.

Chapter Text

To set the stage: Starscream has been extremely talented and smart right from the start. (We're also talking about robots who, in Seekers' case came out of a factory line with an adult body and 'brain' but no particular wisdom.) Being so much smarter and having had the abilities to surpass his traditional limitations from the get-go, Starscream very quickly discarded all the 'Seeker characteristics' as beneath him, who was able and 'destined' to be something more prestigious and more influential than 'just a warframe'.

(functionism, the origin story of the war. Fun)

((Functionism being a 'form begets function' state of mind that says what body (frame) you were born into defines your entire life, as well as your "worth". Seekers are 'cold-constructed' warframe. They didn't get born 'naturally', but instead were put together in series on an assembly line, then got a Spark (soul) inserted in through Vector Sigma.

Warframes are considered a form of consumable. (Sometimes referred to as 'disposable'... It tells you all you need to know about how rotten Cybertron was before the Decepticon Rebellion, and how legitimate the Cons' fight was at the very start of things...) Warframes are made to order during conflict, taught what they need to fight and not much else, and ideally, should all die by the end of the conflict so you don't have to support the no-longer-useful citizens... (yuck)

That's why the Decepticons have so many 'soldiers' while the Autobots are mainly civilian frames. The "car/truck" shape that most of them have as opposed to fighter jets and tanks is a big clue to that. It doesn't mean that modern-times Autobots are Functionists: Optimus Prime got rid of these as soon as he could. But they were the strata of society that, while not necessarily well treated weren't at a danger of death all the damn time, and so didn't sympathize enough with the Decepticons to join them right away, and then took arms to try and stop things when the civil war got overboard from... Megatron going mental...))

Sparked as a Warframe, but having a really good brain, Starscream turned away from his initial 'military education' and chased the almost impossible goal of being a scientist.

And he succeeded, too.

Until bigotry caught back up to him.

His fellow scientist (Skyfire/Jetfire) was also a 'menial worker' class. No one expects shuttles to be intelligent, their job is to ferry other (more intelligent) bots to where THEY need to go. Basically they were token minority represents, and put together so they wouldn't bother the 'true scientists' (born to the right form to be so. Like microscope shaped Perceptor, for instance).

When Skyfire froze in Antartica and Starscream somehow managed to make it back to beg for a rescue mission, what he got was 'ugh, you pity cases, so needy', and then he was blamed for the whole thing and kicked right back to Vos.

Once there Starscream recalibrated his goals and means to get there, he finally got himself a Trine even if he used to think he didn't need one. (Since with science prospects cut off, he only had military left as a career option, and that meant having a Trine to fly in formation with.) But he never took the time to learn everything he dismissed at 'initial orientation'. No one suspected that an older Seeker might not know, either, so he wasn't sat down to learn.

He picked Sky and TC, who had probably already started pairing up and were looking for their third. Because their outlier abilities made them stand out from the lot.

So we get the initial 'Starscream never valued us as his Trine, did he?' that hurt TC and Skywarp so badly.

One of the reason he didn't suspect Trine was so important for his mental and emotional well-being is... Because the need was being met. (And at the in-between times where it wasn't, he wasn't in active-conflict-stress.) Skyfire, while not a Seeker, was a flightframe too, and he was doing what would be Trine job. Then Skywarp and TC took the task up, but Starscream never acknowledged the emotional labor that was put into it.

What little he did notice made him decide that the fact he liked having a Trine was a WEAKNESS that he should NOT indulge in, and should actually root out. With fire if necessary.

Then he joined the Decepticons, who used to have the same outlook as him on the fact that the frame shouldn't limit one's prospects.

Then he got promoted, and started to slowly back away from the Trine that wasn't that necessary once he was in a command position.

Then Megatron made less and less sense, and really seemed like he lost sight of his objectives. That seemed like a huge betrayal, and is why he wants to kill Megatron so much. As far as he's concerned, Megatron has strayed, and he himself is the only one who can rectify things.

That entire situation made Starscream's neuroses (and justified trauma: he lost his, according to Seekers instincts, first pseudo-Trine and might even perceive events as him having actively deserted Skyfire) flare up. Then he started getting a bit feral from neglecting his Trine and being neglected in turn.

Starscream is fucked up in the head(helm?) from all this, basically, for the same reason he tried to pursue higher education, he doesn't think that being a Seeker should define him. And so, he's rejecting the notion that he needs a Trine.

(Kind of like how some radical feminists are actively shooting themselves in the feet to satisfy their own overinflated ideals, actually.) (Hey, I have nothing against feminists. I'm AFAB. It's just, sometimes activism get really overboard. Starscream is one such case.)

Now Skywarp and TC really did chose him, though, which is why they are attached to the concept of having him be a proper Trinemate, and why they are willing to give him a second chance, and are setting things up so they can rebuild their Trine up. But that entails making him miss having a Trine so he doesn't treat it so flippantly again.

Star has his reasons, but he's hurting a pair of (relatively) innocents. They still love him, but now they want to get loyalty and love back for what they're giving out. (Though they too had been lapsing in it as Starscream gradually let their bond degrade.)

(It is not a sin to not be willing to have your constant efforts and affection be looked down on and stomped on. TC and Skywarp's first loyalty should be to themselves, and each-other, who are actually putting in the work. They do want to get Starscream back. But they shouldn't be expected to endlessly sacrifice themselves for someone who dismisses and resents their efforts!)

For the feeling of gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss that has been noticed and rightfully disliked...

Well. In fact, Starscream is the one gaslighting HIMSELF first of all.

(And he definitely did it to TC and Skywarp when they were young naive Seekers in the first Flush of Trinning and buoyed by the adrenaline of war, who never would have thought their Trine (let alone Trine Leader) might not value them. He has been making them feel like it was weird of THEM to be so solicitous of him.)

The plan in neglecting Starscream for a while isn't just to torture him. It's to break his delusions that he doesn't need any kind of support at all. Ever. TC, as the new brain of the operations since Skywarp is still... impaired... decided that they can't break through Starscream's Elite ability to go 'that's fine' in a burning house.

Being thoughtful and good and kind was what Skywarp and Thundercracker did when they started out. And what they kept doing until Starscream started pushing them away. It didn't work and landed them in this situation. And it wouldn't work if they started all over again either.

It's important to note that they aren't actually Starscream's only option. Any broken Trine that's been reduced to a pair° would welcome him with open arms.

And he'd probably do the exact same thing with them that his did with TC and 'Warp...

When TC said "I guess if he didn't [shoot down other suitors], we could consider our duty by him done as best we possibly could. It... Would make it easier to move on..." He's actually sincere. If Starscream threw them over and picked any other suitors... Well. That's it, then. They will be replaced as Star's support system.

It would sting but they would accept it. (And probably try to give the new Trine pointers, since they do want Starscream to get better despite everything)

They can't oppress Starscream into being there when he wants to leave. That would be introducing rot in their own Trine (very not acceptable to Seekers instincts).

But they want to get Starscream to the point where he'll LISTEN to them (and yes, be too tired by his struggle to be a 'strong single woman' to go on fobbing them off all the time and actually see that they ARE supporting him. "So You 'don't need no man', huh? fine! Go be alone. You know where to find me once you're done considering getting help as a weakness!", for a human and wonky feminism metaphor.)

They aren't so much actively torturing him as they are taking a step back and letting him torture himself to the brink. Then the plan was to hold an intervention and as 'So, tired of being alone? We're still here. We're waiting for you. You just have to accept our hand.'

They WOULD let him refuse them. They'd just make it very clear what his options are then: be seen as a 'defective' Seeker who can't be in a Trine by all his subordinates, or pick another Trine instead. Who probably won't like him quite as much from the get-go and might get real tired real quick (double up on the 'defective Seeker': lost his trine twice without it coming down to casualty.)

Emotional beings are complicated, and there are so many layers to their interaction.

The plan is still manipulative as hell. And not very nice of them.

But they are all living in a very unhealthy environment, and there are less Seekers left than ideal, so it's not a 'countless fishes in the sea' situation. Starscream has the choice between his own Trine and war-hardened veterans who used to have a functional Trine and won't be as easy to gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss as young, naive TC and Skywarp used to be.

So. I'm writing a bunch of aftholes. No good person in sight. Like, yeah, they love one another. They're still bastards to the last. Including Starscream.

And while he's a victim, he's his own victim (and Megatron's) before being his Trine's.

TC and Skywarp still want to take him back and nurse him back to health and confidence. They just want Starscream to acknowledge their efforts and try to meet them halfway, and if letting him self-destruct first is necessary... Well. So be it.

Also... as for 'someone will steal Starscream while they're not looking!!! And they deserve it!!!'

...

Ahhh...

If someone else (except maaaaaaybe Megatron? (Doubtful, but... heh. Maaayyyybeee? In a story that isn't the one I'm writing) possibly Skyfire too, but... Starscream would be mighty prickly with him...) was good and kind to him in TC and Skywarp's absence... Starscream would probably shoot them in the face and yell that he doesn't need pity... (He's such a mess...)

On another, more minor headcanon: Thundercracker really didn't need much of a push to think of Megatron as the culprit. Most fics I read describe him as 'casually traitorous', or already disillusioned. I see him as not seeing much other choices/ not caring enough to rectify things/ Not feeling like going against both Skywarp and Starscream to insist they need to leave/ Not wanting to get the DJD falling on him like a ton of bricks.

Chapter Text

Starscream felt a crack in the struts of his left wing. Pain swamped him, even as he lost feelings on the tip of his wing.

Argh!

And then he felt the wrench, and sudden lightness on his entire left side. The lift and drag on his remaining wing made his entire right side pivot up.

He started corkscrewing wildly.

He couldn't fly like that! His navigation instruments were already going crazy. To the point where his gyros couldn't tell what was up or down anymore.

Gritting his denta against the pain, Starscream engaged his transformation.

His wings weren't so big in root form, so it was possible to avoid the corkscrew of death.

As soon as he left his jet form, he folded his remaining wing back as much as possible and opened his optics, fixing his sight straight ahead, where it didn't spin as much.

Now, he just needed to position his thrusters in the right way to counter the rotation.

Focus!

The pain was nothing.

He needed to avoid a crash-landing. Everything else was secondary.

(Why wasn't there already a shoulder bracing his injured side and helping him regain control of his momentum?)

The less spiny part of his vision that marked the center of his rotation was including more and more ground in it. He was on a downward trajectory!

It could be good to be close to the ground to avoid getting sniped again, but he couldn't hit the ground at this speed.

His air brakes were on his wings, too! It meant if he triggered them, he'd send himself in spiral around his one remaining wing.

Frag!

Focus, focus!

There!

When the 'ground' blur was mostly on the bottom part of his field of vision, Starscream brought one knee up and aimed his thruster 'down' for a second before cutting power to that thruster so he wouldn't keep making his trajectory more chaotic.

With mostly sky in his sights again, he applied himself to try and cancel his ongoing spiraling. He put his leg back straight and then engaged the thruster again.

After a quick estimation of his current torque, he hissed and spread his left leg out to the side, then angled the tip of his pede up so the thrust from that thruster would go directly against his momentum.

The spinning slowed gradually until Starscream could once again see clearly. He waited until the spiraling was entirely canceled before bringing his legs back together in neutral position.

The fact that he only had one wing, even much smaller in root form immediately tried to make him go spinning again.

He countered that by spreading his legs out again and angling his thrusters one a bit to the front, the other a bit to the back.

It took him a few moments to get the right position to put himself on stable trajectory.

Even with doing all that fairly quickly, with the speed at which he'd been flying, Starscream was surely quite far from the place he'd lost his left wing already.

But more importantly, he'd been going mostly straight, even with the spinning. It meant that the Autobots would be able to find him easily by following the direction he went on.

Starscream did not want to get captured.

They had ransom and prisoner exchanges with the Autobots, but Megatron surely wouldn't be negotiating for him.

Who even knew how long Starscream would be moldering in their jail if they found him?

He braced himself for the disorientation he was about to inflict himself and spread his right wing out again, then triggered his air brake.

His right side immediately slowed while the left one continued on, making him turn sharply to the right.

He closed the brake again and folded his wing, then applied himself to trying to fly straight once more.

He had no idea where he was.

His navigation systems reached for the geolocalization satellites' data that the organics of this world had so helpfully set up (and not safeguarded heavily since it was made for they civilians and they were stupidly soft like this). Meanwhile, Starscream lowered the output to his thrusters and plotted a downward trajectory.

Even if he'd been able to make his flight less chaotic, Starscream was still barely air-worthy.

And injured to boot.

He needed to land and take a look at his mangled left side.

Already, the 'adrenaline' signal blockers were wearing out, and pure agony was bathing his entire left side, where the parts that usually transformed into his jet mode's wing were missing along with his wing.

Chapter Text

Somewhere during the battle, Thundercracker got a faint feeling of hurt through the bond. His immediate reflex was to check on Skywarp.

Seeing how his Trinemate was still flying perfectly fine, he assumed there hadn't been a big injury, and refocused. The damn twin flying cars were a right handful, and a moment of inattention could get one grounded. Or even offlined.

It was his first mistake.

When Megatron called for retreat, he didn't question anything and did his job covering the rear.

That was the second mistake.

He didn't see Starscream when they landed with the rest of the seekers, but he assumed he had just gone on to rant at Megatron for whatever reason and headed to the barrack with everyone else.

It was the third mistake.

It all came to a head when Ravage stalked into the barracks and loudly demanded to know where Starscream was, and that skipping the post-battle meeting was unacceptable.

Then every single seeker started to look to each-other (and to Thundercracker and Skywarp) and trying to remember when they saw their commander last.

"Wasn't there a plume of smoke in the south-east quadrant, about halfway through?" Someone pointed out. "It was a bit far from the fight, but thinking on it, I didn't see Starscream afterward..."

That's when Thundercracker put the clues together.

The pain (it had stayed there for a while, hadn't it?) wasn't a minor ache in Skywarp. It was... It must have been a major injury through Starscream's muffled bond!

The realization went to Skywarp in real-time, and the teleporter started panicking. "I can't tell where he is!" Skywarp gasped. "I... I can't!"

Frag!

Thundercracker hadn't felt a pain that would denote a Trinemate dying, but then again... Would he? With the state their bond had been in?

Oh, no. His fear was making Skywarp's state worse. He needed to keep his cool!

Pushing all the worries out of the ongoing queue, he walked to Skywarp and heavily placed his hands on his Trinemate's shoulders.

"Skywarp. Skywarp! It could just be the distance interfering." He tried to soothe. "Take us back to where we fought. We'll start searching from there."

Skywarp fixed him with teary optics for a moment and then...

VOP

They landed on the disturbed earth of to their earlier battlefield.

They then had to do a bit of fancy maneuvering, because the humans had tried to fortify the zone, but they managed to get clearance.

That was when Skywarp lashed out.

"I listened to you!" Skywarp growled at him, radiating **anger** through their bond. "I trusted you in ignoring Star, and now look at this! We lost Star! He could be injured! He could be OFFLINE!!!"

Thundercracker winced.

That was entirely deserved.

"I know." He interrupted after a little while of Skywarp berating him. "I know and I'm very, very sorry! But now finding Starscream is more important! Try to focus. We need a direction. That's all. If we get closer, you're bond to get a better grasp on his position!"

Skywarp sucked in a deep vent, and then he simply took off.

Thundercracker cursed and followed after him.

Chapter Text

Skywarp grit his denta and tried his hardest to resist the temptation of pouring all his power into his turbines.

He needed to get to Starscream quickly, but he needed to ensure humans wouldn't be swarming them when they found Star even more. And sonic booms always garnered attention. It would be even worse somewhere so close to a past attack.

That same precaution against leading armed troops to his recovering Trinemate was also why Skywarp stayed in root mode instead of turning into his jet form. (Also, quick landings were easier when he had legs and the ability to hover in place...)

All of that meant he couldn't let speed distract him from his feelings. Nor could he resolve his mixed feelings toward Thundercracker by challenging him to a good race.

(Skywarp tended to win races. And be extremely annoying to try and catch at tag, because he had no problem ignoring rules against using his outlier ability and really giving people a run-around. Especially when he had a reason to be petty.) ((TC could theoretically use his own outlier when Skywarp did, but he generally wasn't okay with risking real harm to Trine...))

The truth was that it was easy, (very easy,) to blame TC for deciding to ignore Starscream for a while.

But it annoyed Skywarp that it was so easy.

While yes, Thundercracker had been the one to suggest the course of action, Skywarp had agreed with him about his reasons and methods.

And he'd been in full possession of his mental capacities at the time, since he'd been using Thundercracker's processors to think then.

His own agreement to the plan had weight.

Turning the thing around toward solely blaming Thundercracker when things went wrong was like saying that his previous agreement didn't count anymore.

He hated it when people dismissed him as stupid because of his handicap and implied that no decision he made mattered.

He certainly wasn't going to do this to himself.

Especially concerning a decision that was particularly more solid then usual.

(Both because he'd had TC's help in thinking, and because it was about Trine.)

But he was still afraid and stressed and angry.

And he knew it was mainly anger toward himself.

And  also that hurting Thundercracker would be hurting Trine, and so not very different from hurting himself...

He still wanted to make someone hurt for how afraid he was.

(Plus... It checked out, didn't it? If he was angry at himself... why not hurt himself for it?)

The nebulous feeling of direction drifted a bit to the right, and Skywarp adjusted course.

Was Starscream moving, or had he been flying a bit too much to the left?

Probably the second, to be honest.

Hopefully getting these kind of feelings meant that Star was alive.

There wouldn't be a Trine Bond to follow if he had died. (And they surely would have felt him die... (Right? They would have, right? They hadn't really rejected Starscream! It was just a ploy!) If he had.)

With feeling of direction had sharpened, Skywarp didn't need to go quite so slow anymore.

He felt Thundercracker accelerate in time with him, settled familiarly in Skywarp's trail and a bit bellow.

Even with all his reasons why being petty to Thundercracker was dumb still fresh in his RAM, Skywarp felt a spike of annoyance at how in synch Thundercracker was with him despite them both having lost so much of their link to Starscream that they failed to notice him getting hurt badly enough not to be able to come back to base.

Since that spike of anger came at the same time as the distance and direction coordinates for Starscream's position synced up...

Skywarp added a bit of altitude to the coordinates he could sense Starscream at, just in case, and then...

VOP

Chapter Text

Thundercracker blinked as Skywarp disappeared in front of him.

It took him a moment to process what must have happened and he sighed. Half in relief and half in exasperation.

He should be fine orientation-wise if he kept the same trajectory he'd been on. Besides, his Trine link with Skywarp was still doing fine. Thundercracker could follow it to Skywarp without too much trouble.

A flash of pink illuminated the dark forest ahead of him in the night.

...

Uh.

Skywarp must have found Starscream.

That was unmistakably a Null Ray shot.

Thundercracker accelerated. hopefully he would find both his Trinemates online when he landed.

That wasn't too much to ask, right?

He did find both Starscream and Skywarp alive.

Skywarp was visibly upset.

Starscream looked... Really, really bad.

It wasn't just the missing left wing, thigh and upper arm armor. Nor the hastily applied bandaging and traces of makeshift welding.

Starscream looked completely and entirely exhausted.

His optics were sunken and his one remaining wing was drooping.

And he was still attempting to convince Skywarp that he hadn't needed help.

Though...

He did seem to be trying to blame them for not coming sooner at the same time.

That... might be a good sign?

At least Starscream knew that his Trine was supposed to be there for him in times of need?

Thundercracker stepped more clearly in view, since his two Trinemates had been too busy arguing to notice him touching down.

He immediately got Starscream's Null Ray pointed at him for his efforts.

Well.

At least Starscream hadn't fired this time?

"We should try to retrieve that wing." Thundercracker stated calmly. "Think you could ping us the coordinates of it falling?"

Starscream narrowed his optics at him in an open show of hostility and wariness, but after a moment, Thundercracker got a set of coordinates through the comm. Skywarp jolted a tiny bit, which Thundercracker took as a sign that he'd received the message too.

"Thanks." Thundercracker nodded. "I'll take a look while Skywarp takes you to Hook."

Starscream didn't have time to protest.

As soon as Thundercracker finished his suggestion, Skywarp lunged on Starscream and warped the two of them away. (And hopefully to medical help.)

VOP

Thundercracker sighed again.

He was relieved.

But the night wasn't over yet. He needed to find Starscream's fallen wing.

Otherwise, Star would likely be grounded for entire months before all the replacement pieces could be found.

(Sometimes, it was very, very unlucky that Starscream was just a smidge smaller than the standard Seeker model. This was one of these cases...)

Chapter Text

Skywarp wasn't actually surprised when Starscream's foul temper ended up causing him to be ejected from the infirmary so he wouldn't "agitate the patient". Hook was mostly competant at putting Cons back together, but he had no patience for petty drama in his domain.

With Starscream missing an entire limb, he wasn't going to get kicked out. But Skywarp getting out might have a positive effect on the amount of screeching.

Might.

When Starscream was in a strop, he was perfectly able to simply find a new target if the current one disappeared.

Hook would probably forcibly sedate Star if he got too annoying.

But at least he wouldn't damage him.

Buzzsaw landed on Skywarp's shoulder as he crossed the door from the infirmary. "So you found him." The cassette stated. "And still alive, too."

Skywarp wasn't completely sure about the small bird's tone. He sounded a bit disappointed.

"Yeah. Alive, but not whole. I'll go help Thundercracker find and bring back the missing pieces after swinging by the barracks to let everyone know it isn't time to fight over who gets Starscream's post yet. You already told Sounders?" He answered with more calm than he really felt.

"Of course I did." Buzzsaw sniffed. "I think I'll stick with you! Looking for lost parts sounds interesting."

By the time Skywarp had told the Air Force that Starscream had been retrieved, he had two bird-shaped cassettes using his pauldrons as perches.

He was actually a bit surprised that Rumble and Frenzy hadn't hopped in on the 'adventure'.

They must have exhausted themselves during the battle.

Skywarp was starting to feel tiredness creep in himself.

But he still needed to go and help bring Starscream's wing back to the rest of him.

And probably get Thundercracker back home, too.

VOP

Once warped to the coordinates Starscream had given them, he immediately sensed Thundercracker's position from the Trine bond. A stark contrast to the vagueness in locating Starscream.

He could also tell Thundercracker's state of mind.

Thundercracker was frustrated, resigned, tired, and there was determination in there too.

Skywarp flew over to his position.

He found Thundercracker crouched next to what was clearly the point of impact of a Jet's wing.

Thundercracker obviously knew Skywarp was there, but he didn't feel hostile, so Skywarp landed right by his side and leaned next to him.

Ah.

Pede prints and tire tracks.

"Looks like the Autobots made off with Screamer's wing." Laserbeak commented lightly.

Chapter Text

Thundercracker was surprised by the voice of the flippant comment and turned to see that Skywarp had brought miniature company along with him.

After a moment, Thundercracker decided that it was a good thing that Soundwave's avian cassettes had hitched a ride on his Trinemate.

If they were going to have to infiltrate Autobots' base to retrieve Starscream's wing, the pair of tiny spies would prove incredibly useful.

"We can't wait to go and get the wing back." Thundercracker stated. "The more time passes, and the harder it will be for the repairs to integrate correctly. That wing is probably still mostly 'living metal' for now. It'll be dead soon, though. And also, the more we wait, and the more we risk the Autobots deciding that Starscream's wing makes for a great bait... They might not even have secured it yet..."

"So go straight to the Ark?" Buzzsaw asked. "We got to take a nap in Soundwave, but you two have to be pretty tired, no?"

Skywarp shrugged and Thundercracker mirrored him exactly. "Of course we're a bit tired.  But Starscream is missing a wing. The faster we get it back, and the faster he'll be able to fly again."

"It's a good thing we pulled that Energon heist on the Ark with the two of you last month." Skywarp added. "I have recent maps of the inside of the ship. Means I can warp us in or out without much risk."

"Yeah." Thundercracker agreed. "So long as we know where they are keeping the wing." The grumbled, turning to the two tiny mechs who were used to spying on the Autobots' base. "On a scale of one to ten, how pissed is Soundwave going to be if you two spy in the duct-work for a clue on where to find the wing?"

"Hmmph." Buzzsaw sniffed. "Soundwave trusts our judgment. He won't be mad at us for deciding the situation justifies sneaking around a bit."

...

"And how mad would he be at me and Skywarp?" Thundercracker asked again.

"Much less if you manage to steal some more Energon while we're at it." Laserbeak chirped.

"We won't be able to take as much. We have to be able to carry Starscream's wing." Skywarp pointed out.

"And that's assuming the Autobots didn't notice our previous heist and step up the security." Thundercracker added. "Red Alert is a bit annoying that way..."

"Hmm." Laserbeak answered. "Then bribes aside, I guess your best way to pacify Soundwave is to have our back while we're spying and making it obvious that you would pull a rescue for us if we got caught."

"Which we won't." Buzzsaw interjected.

"Which we won't." Laserbeak agreed quickly. "So, what are we waiting for? Let's go and play tag with Jazz!!!"

Chapter Text

After Skywarp had teleported the four of them close to the Ark in a covert spot, the two cassettes took off to spy.

As a Seeker, Thundercracker knew very little on spying. But the two birdformers did. Enough to set up a continuous-information scheme.

Both small cons were continually sending minimal confirmations of well-being and a coded update of their location (they had synchronized mapping references with Skywarp before leaving) in a format and channel that blended in with the Ark's cleaning drones. If the updates stopped, it meant a rescue mission was in order.

Buzzsaw had grumbled that it wasn't necessary since they wouldn't be getting caught, but he still agreed to do it anyway so Soundwave wouldn't be annoyed at him.

Buzzsaw came back in under an hour to let them know he'd seen a Jet wing in the infirmary.

They were nailing down the exact coordinates of the infirmary so Skywarp could do a pop-and-grab, when Buzzsaw stiffened in alert.

The smaller bot's reaction caused Skywarp to straighten up himself, and within seconds...

VOP

Thundercracker stared at the spot Skywarp had been in even as his monitoring script on the coms told him that Laserbeak missed his check-in.

Oh.

VOP

Skywarp reappeared in the same place he'd just left with Laserbeak attached to him and a scorch mark on one forearm. (The kind of mark that would happen if a weapon set to stun a cassette hit war-grade Seeker armor.)

The cassette let go of Skywarp.

And then Skywarp took two steps closer to Thundercracker, grabbed his arm, and...

VOP

Thundercracker only had a second to register the orange of the Autobots' base and the loud alarm blaring on, before a wrench(? ???) smacked him in the face.

It took him a couple of seconds to come back to his senses.

Then he saw Ratchet the Hatchet pointing a weapon at Skywarp. (And him, but it was Skywarp that was the sticking point.)

Thundercracker didn't think. He just reacted.

One step forth, a Trine-bond message, and he had Skywarp in his back, with the threat in front of him.

Thundercracker opened his mouth and

BOOM

The sonic boom made Ratchet stagger and drop the weapon.

Skywarp jumped from his place behind Thundercracker and lunged toward one of the medical berth that- that had a wing on it.

Thundercracker followed the tugging lead Skywarp was giving out, both physically and through their bond, and ignited his thrusters, angling toward the wing.

They both grabbed hold of the wing, and of each-other and...

VOP

Chapter Text

They landed back in the hidden spot Buzzsaw and Laserbeak had made them wait while they spied.

The two cassettes startled at their appearance.

"Alright. We've got the wing. Let's go before they swamp the place!" Skywarp announced.

The two birdformers looked at each-other, but they shrugged and flew to Skywarp. Both taking hold of his armor with their talons.

After making sure that he was including both cassettes, the wing, and Thundercracker in the warp, Skywarp put the coordinates for the infirmary in his warp drive.

VOP

Hook reacted to the sudden appearance of a couple of Seekers in his infirmary a lot better that the Hatchet had.

He almost fell on his aft, granted, but he didn't bean anyone in the helm with one of his tools.

When Hook saw the wing they were holding, the medic hurriedly grabbed it and headed to the berth where an obviously sedated Starscream way laying, muttering about needing to trigger transformation in order to reattach a transformed version of the limb.

Skywarp shared a look with the other three mechs with him, and they all decided to call the day done and leave.

The cassettes had to report to Soundwave.

And Thundercracker and Skywarp needed to rest more than they needed to get their minor injuries.

Walking away from Starscream in these circumstances was hard, but they realistically couldn't do much for him.

They would get a nap for a couple of Joors, then come back to the infirmary to sit with Starscream. Probably on a rotating guard.

A hush fell on the Air Barracks when the two of them came in.

Skywarp was honestly expecting at least one 'I told you so', but they were let through without comment.

He was tired enough not to question it.

Thundercracker sat on the edge of their berth, and Skywarp flopped by him.

*maybe we should have crashed in Star's hab.* Skywarp sent over.
*eh. let's not muddle our message.* Thundercracker replied while gingerly feeling his face for signs of serious damage. *... unless you think the message no longer applies.*

Skywarp thought about it for a moment and then sighed. *nah. Star will keep taking us for granted if he doesn't value us. and he won't value us unless he sees how much he needs us.*

Skywarp watched Thundercracker's shoulders sag and felt the **relief** through the bond. He instantly felt bad about his outburst while looking for Starscream.

*sorry. for yelling at you. and for blaming it all on you.*

Skywarp couldn't pin down the feelings he got in answer.

*I don't like what it says about our life that I wasn't expecting any apologies at all.* Thundercracker eventually replied.

It stunned Skywarp for a moment too. Had their standards really degraded that much?

It had, hadn't it?

*I don't like it either.* He answered.

Then he made himself comfortable on the berth and grumbled at Thundercracker until he joined him.

*I just have a question.* Skywarp sent after a while of trying to trigger recharge.
*yes?*
*would you do it again?* Skywarp asked. *if you knew what would happen.*

Thundercracker vented deeply. *yes.* He sent after a moment. *but... I would have forced the confrontation yesterday.*

Skywarp considered that for a while.

*yeah.* He agreed. *yeah. I can get behind that answer, Trine Leader.*

Chapter Text

Starscream wouldn't say the day he lost his wing was the worst day of his functioning. (That honor went to losing Skyfire in a blizzard. Or to being told there would be no rescue mission once he limped back home to beg for help for his partner.) But it wasn't far fragging off either

Getting shot and losing a wing was bad. But, war was war. Stuff happened.

The worst was afterward. When he managed his emergency landing and started tending to his wounds and then came to the realization that there was no one he could com for help and trust he would get actual help and not a knife to the back.

And then, of course he had to think of his estranged Trine. Skywarp and Thundercracker had been giving him the cold shoulder for a full month. Was there anyone else he could rely on in the entire Decepticon movement?

He... couldn't think of anyone.

Skyfire... He had burned that bridge himself. And he was with the Autobots now too.

That was the thoughts that came back all the time in the next few hours as he did his best to patch himself up so he wasn't tracking energon to give himself away and moving away so the Autobots wouldn't find him. All while also being in horrible pain from his injury.

And he still wasn't even sure it wouldn't be better to actually get caught, because he wasn't able to fly back to base in his condition.

And even if he got back... How was he going to defend himself from his own side with a huge injury? Megatron sure as hell wasn't going to be shielding him in his time of need.

And his Trine... Would they even have his back?

Then, in the middle of the night, Skywarp warped to his side.

And yeah, Starscream was high-strung enough to shoot before even recognizing him.

Not that he regretted it.

They dropped him like a ton of rocks.

No way he was welcoming them with open arms.

Which was why he screamed at Skywarp until Hook kicked him out once he was back at the Nemesis.

Then... Well, Hook probably struck him with a sedative.

He woke up again in his alt mode, with notifications on the subpar condition of his left wing. The one he had lost.

Looked like Skywarp and Thundercracker found it and Hook welded it back on.

Not perfectly, but... well. It was attached. Starscream's self-repair would smooth out the kinks over time.

Starscream wasn't pleased to see Skywarp sitting by his berth when he woke up, though.

Chapter Text

Skywarp didn't feel Starscream online through the Trine Bond.

(That definitely hurt. Though he had gotten used to the hurt of noticing the dampening of their bond. Most notably when he failed to locate him after being told that the Air Commander was missing by Ravage.)

He definitely knew that Starscream had woken up, though.

It was very obvious from how he started yelling at him before even transforming back to root form.

Now the choice.

Did he stay and try to reason with Star, call Thundercracker over, and all, or... did he walk out?

The hesitation only stayed until Starscream called him a 'retard' in the middle of blowing up at him.

Skywarp didn't even walk out.

He warped away.

VOP

Thundercracker startled when he appeared next to their berth.

Skywarp sent the video clip of Starscream insulting him over the comms and flopped half on top of Thundercracker.

TC winced. (Probably partly because of the flop, honestly.)

*damn.*
*do we really want him?* Skywarp sent back despondently. *the Trine Bond is already mostly dissolved...*
*you want him.* TC argued. *even now you do.*
*don't make this about me! you want him too. stop using me as excuse!* Skywarp replied with a growl from his engine.
*... you're right. I do. but so do you.* TC answered. *we can ignore him for a bit longer?*
*and risk losing him for real if yesterday repeats?*

Thundercracker was silent in thought for a time before answering.

*out of the two of you, you're Trine and he barely is. barely ever was. I'd pick you over him. he doesn't get to hurt you because he's upset.*

Skywarp sent over his conflicted feelings about that. He was glad that TC valued him. But you weren't supposed to play favorites in a Trine. (Even if Starscream was barely Trine. He used to be. They used to think he was. And that counted.)

*he abandoned us first.* Thundercracker pointed out, layered in **hurt**

Chapter Text

It seemed like Thundercracker's willingness to get defensive on his behalf helped Skywarp settle significantly.

Skywarp vented deeply and went limp half on top of him.

*we do still want him, so I guess the point is moot.* Skywarp sent over. *what do we do though?*

Thundercracker considered the question seriously.

*Let's find somewhere private where we can hardline and then think about it seriously together.* He suggested.

Skywarp emitted **excitement** and jumped to his pedes, tugged Thundercracker up, started walking, then seemingly lost patience with using their own legs to move and Warped them instead.

VOP

The Nemesis didn't lack private spots.

With both crashing and then getting submerged in a rust accelerator happening back to back, a lot of rooms had gotten condemned. Some of these truly were hazardous to get into. Others were simply in the middle of a cluster of places that had to be shut off.

It seemed like the place Skywarp brought them to was the second.

There was the pervasive chill of the ocean's depth that told him they weren't that far from water. And the air was a bit stale, telling him that the vents had been cut off from active circulation, but the room itself didn't look too bad, simply unused.

There were a couple suspicious crates in a corner...

Skywarp might have brought him to one of his Pranking supplies' stashes.

Not that it mattered all that much, honestly.

They weren't there for the room, only for the privacy. For each-other.

Thundercracker found a good spot to sit/lay in and bared his hardline equipment. (Along with his Spark.)

It didn't take any time at all for Skywarp to plop down with him and start connecting their cables to one-another's ports.

It also didn't take any time at all for Thundercracker to feel his own systems heat up in response to the high demand Skywarp immediately put them under.

Yeah.

Starscream was an idiot.

Skywarp was far from retarded. It was obvious as soon as the capacity was offered to him.

Thundercracker handed over as many resources as Skywarp needed and then simply watched as Skywarp started reviewing his memories and running simulations.

As Thundercracker watched, a plan was constructed. (as in, an actual plan. made in the map software and all. It wasn't surprising by this point.)

This plan was... definitely meaner than the previous one.

But... it did look like it might work.

And it should keep the risks of Starscream dying from the neglect low.

Hopefully, an opportunity to put this brand-new plan in motion would show up soon.

(It probably would, previous experience pointed to high odds.)

Chapter Text

Starscream was aware that he was making himself angrier on purpose because he was feeling guilty.

But he was very good at disregarding that kind of self-awareness.

So really.

How dared Skywarp abandon him when he was still vulnerable after his injury over a simple scolding?

Seething at how he'd been abandoned again, (even if he had arguably caused that one,) helped push back the acute feelings of vulnerability (and guilt).

Hook had looked him over, then gotten fed up with his complaints and sent him to recover in his own quarters.

It fit Starscream perfectly.

He didn't want the medic around anyway.

(And maybe if he made it to his quarters fast enough and lock the door tight, no one would see him in this state. Wing and mood both.)

(He didn't get that wish.)

As he stepped into his hab and then ordered the door to close, a small shape flew through the opening and landed on his desk.

"Mech you're a mess." The cassette stated haughtily. (Then the birdformer hurriedly ducked behind the corner of the desk, because Starscream still had his Null Ray, even if his wing was in bad shape.) "Do you even know how much risk they took to bring that wing back to you?"

Starscream paused in his quest to incapacitate Soundwave's irritating little micro-bot symbiote for a second.

"What do you mean?" Starscream asked, actually startled into stopping his attempts to shoot the annoying bird-cassette. "They just picked it up from wherever it fell. my coordinates were pretty precise, it can't have taken them that long to find it."

"Tsk tsk." Huffed the annoyance, still hidden behind an obstacle so Starscream couldn't shoot him. "You really know nothing. The Autobots picked your wing up after the battle. They went all the way to the Autobots' base to get it. Probably fought Ratchet for it too."

...

That didn't make any sense.

"Why would the Autobots even want my wing? It's not even compatible with their aerialbots." Starscream asked in shock.

The bird cassette sniffed haughtily while tentatively peeking his head out from behind the desk. Starscream refrained from shooting him.

"There are different reasons for different bots. The one who picked it up just thought of avoiding the ire of the Hatchet. They were assuming they would pick the rest of you up shortly and didn't want to tell their medic that you were short a limb, and they could have gotten it by simply bending down, but they decided to give him a hard patient to heal instead. Then whoever okay-ed the transport was simply thinking that it was a bad idea to leave a piece of still alive Cybertronian anatomy, with energon still running through it, on a battlefield where all the human unsavory government agencies would soon be picking through. In case studying it gave them ideas. The rest of command thought that if they had your wing, then you won't have it, and therefore would be grounded for a while, which can be a strategic advantage. Oh, and Jazz was thinking it would make great bait for a trap. But he didn't have the time to enact it before we stole the wing back."

Starscream stood motionless, the second part of the birdformer's initial statement catching up with him.

Thundercracker and Skywarp... Had stormed the Autobots' base to get his wing back?

He...

He'd been so sure they wouldn't lift a digit for him...

And then when he woke up, the first thing he did was to insult Skywarp's handicap with a slur?

The cassette fled Starscream's quarters while he was processing the information.

Leaving Starscream alone.

Alone.

Alone.

Lonely.

Chapter Text

Thundercracker guessed that in another army, Starscream would have been commanded for surviving the sniping attempt.

This was the Decepticon Army though.

Of course Starscream got punished for even getting sniped at all.

The only reason why Skywarp and Thundercracker weren't on the hot seat with him because of their rescue mission was because Seekers were expected to pull that kind of thing for their Trine. And they were highly successful. And Soundwave might have covered for them a bit.

The worst part about the whole thing?

It was an absolutely and completely perfect occasion to apply their new plan.

Thundercracker almost felt sick, watching Megatron drag Starscream in front of as much of the Decepticon army as could fit on the Bridge by his already injured wing.

Starscream was shrieking and frantically begging for mercy.

It...

It was perfect.

Thundercracker projected *stay* as Skywarp as hard as he could, hoping it would distract him from his own aching Spark.

When Megatron seemed done berating and humiliating Starscream with one of his habitual speeches (accompanied by his habitual violence toward a vulnerable Starscream), Thundercracker stepped forth.

"My Lord." He called out, clear and loud, trying to appear confident even as his fuel tank felt like it was about to trigger purge all on it's own. "May I have the permission to speak to Air Commander Starscream without respect?"

Megatron's red eyes fixed on him. After a moment, he chuckled. "Go ahead." The warlord allowed with a gesture at the crumpled down Seeker.

Thundercracker expelled a deep vent to steady himself and strode forth.

He reached Starscream and crouched in front of him, hand reaching for his Trinemate's face and delicately cradling it.

"You have a choice, Starscream." Thundercracker stated. Voice soft but firm. "You are in, or you are out. Either we dissolve the Trine bond with you, right here, right now, or you come back in. But I'll expect you to be obedient."

A hush fell on the bridge.

Starscream's optics reset, his voice box screeched.

"Obedient?!!" Starscream exclaimed once he regained means. "Obedient? I don't have to obey you! Even without the Air Commander title, I am the Trine Leader!"

Thundercracker sighed a vent and let go of Starscream's face. "No you aren't." He stated. "You're barely even Trine."

Starscream froze. His optics blew wide, and for the first time in ages, the Trine Bond tried to connect from Starscream's side.

Shock came through, and then betrayal, then fear.

"I am Trine Leader." Thundercracker stated calmly. "You even validated it yourself. It means I have the power to finish what you started and fully dissolve our Bond. Now comes your choice. Will you persist even after seeing first hand what the lack of a Trine can do to you? Or will you make amends?"

Starscream's optics dimmed along with the feeling of him on the Trine Bond.

Thundercracker reached for his chin again and lifted his face up to face him. "You could get a new Trine. Singles have an easier time re-Trinning than pairs°. But I doubt anyone would tolerate your behavior more than we would. And if you crash a second Trineship, or if you decide to stay Trineless, what respect would you get from the Seekers under your command? What use will you be when you can't fly anymore?"

Thundercracker paused and let the statement sink in.

"You pick."

Megatron was looking at him with surprised approval.

It made Thundercracker fear that he would actually purge.

It would ruin the act he was putting up, though.

He used the authority vested into him as Trine Leader, the physical closeness, and the fact that Starscream had so recently opened up and that his Spark was aching to keep the connection to force the bond open.

Skywarp immediately jumped into the bond along with him to reinforce his massage or *we still want you*.

Their conflicted but enduring **love** tacked itself on.

Starscream's guard on the Bond slackened a touch.

It allowed Thundercracker to send in a more elaborate message.

*pick us, and we'll shield you.*

Outwardly, Thundercracker hardened his voice, leached all warmth from it, and spoke. "You chose. Now."

They couldn't let Megatron know that they intended to do anything but mistreat Starscream.

Chapter Text

Starscream stared at Thundercracker's face.

The ultimatum contained in his demand to chose, now ringing in his audials.

Starscream reset his vocalizer in a bid to gain time, letting his voice box click once, twice, thrice, as he analyzed the situation he was in.

Thundercracker's actions were contradicting themselves. Which was true?

The words he spoke or the feelings over the bond?

(Starscream knew it was possible to lie over the Trine Bond, he'd done plenty of that himself over the vorns, but Thundercracker? Or even Skywarp? He couldn't recall them doing so...)

His gentle touch or his cold optics and voice?

(His wings were still tingling a bit, a month later, at the place Thundercracker had touched when caring for his worn out finish.)

His Spark, demanding that he go right back to his Trine and let them pamper him, or his pride, that seethed at being asked to be obedient?

(That same pride that had led him to insulting Skywarp so unforgivably even after his Trine stormed the Autobot base to get his wing back for him...)

Could he give them up? Was being Trine Leader so important to him?

He thought back to the despair he'd felt, down one wing, far away from his base. Wondering if anyone, anyone at all would have his back while he was vulnerable. (Right before his Trine showed up to get him to medical attention and find his missing wing for him...)

The answer had become clear in the aftermath.

There was still two people on his side.

Back then, at least.

Before he was so cruel to Skywarp.

Was this the same care that made them tend to his injury, or a twisted revenge scheme?

For care... Yes. Making themselves look like they too held only contempt toward Starscream, and were only considering keeping him because pairs° had a harder time re-Trinning in front of Megatron... It would allow them to shield Starscream from their Leader's ire by pretending that they would be the one to handle hurting him whenever things were getting dicey..

Revenge...

What would they get from pretending to still want him privately while being awful to him for every Seeker to see?

Even if Starscream said yes and then changed his mind, they would be the one to take the brunt of the social backlash. It would look like Starscream had been stunned into agreeing and then changed his mind after seeing how badly they treated him. Megatron might hold it against him, but... Megatron held everything against him anyway...

And...

He truly was at risk of not being able to fly anymore if he was Trineless. The last month had taught him that.

Was his pride trully more important than the loneliness he had been feeling Spark deep since he noticed they were done caring about him? (This was a scheme too, wasn't it? It had to be. Why retrieve his wing at personal risk to themselves otherwise?)

Starscream folded his wings small against his back and slumped into Thundercracker's grasp.

If this was a ploy to get Megatron off his back, then... Then it was better to play along.

(Getting Megatron to think he was beaten down enough in private that he didn't need to bother with it personally sounded like heaven.)

"I... I'm in" He mumbled.

Thundercracker yanked his face up harshly and demanded he speak up.

"I'll be obedient." Starscream answered more clearly, doing his best to inject resignation into his voice.

"I'll see to it." Thundercracker responded harshly, in total contrast with the **relief** that came through the bond.

Megatron smiled.

Chapter Text

Acid Storm frowned at the display Thundercracker was putting up.

That... Really was no way to treat one's Trine member. Especially not while leveraging your status of Trine Leader.

He dearly hoped there was more to what was happening than he'd seen. Because otherwise... He would have a lot of trouble respecting Thundercracker and Skywarp.

Their whole thing with Starscream had been really weird, and concerning.

The fact that they had immediately gone to find Starscream as soon as they knew he was missing was a good sign. The fact that they hadn't noticed on their own was concerning. Though maybe it had something to do with Thundercracker implying that Starscream wanted to dissolve the Trine?

They both had been implying that Starscream was not properly integrated while ignoring him...

He would reserve judgment for a bit more.

See what they did after this.

Thundercracker stood up, grabbed Starscream under the arms and levered him up, then pulled him closer and threw him over one shoulder. Then he asked to be excused since he needed to get some private time with Starscream.

Megatron allowed him to go, and Thundercracker headed toward Skywarp, who grabbed the two of them and teleported all of them away.

VOP

"So... Are they going to Frag, now?" Someone wondered aloud.

That, at least prompted Megatron to dismiss everyone but those who were actually supposed to be there from the Bridge.

Not that it stopped the line of inquiry once it had been launched.

Since it was obvious that Seekers would be best suited to answer this, a lot of pestering and wheedling occured as they tried to get back to the barrack or to their assigned stations.

Some still broke down and gave their personal opinions just to be left alone, though.

Acid Storm heard answers ranging from 'yeah', to 'no', to 'maybe', to 'not the way you think' getting snarled back by various Seekers.

Acid Storm honestly didn't think they would. Hard-lining, even Spark merging were possibilities, but the Command Trine had never struck him as a Trine that had a sexual relationship.

Then again, it really was none of his business.

Or anyone else's.

Which was why he didn't answer.

And also why he sabotaged Swindle's attempt at setting up a betting pool on the subject by pointing out that there would be no way to verify the win.

Chapter Text

After Skywarp teleported the three of them to Starscream's hab, Thundercracker set him down on his pedes. But when Starscream tried to brush his hands off his plating, his grip strengthened.

Starscream reset his optics and looked up in the face of... Of his new Trine Leader? It still... It didn't sound real. What was Starscream if not a leader?

Thundercracker grasped his pauldrons firmly and stood still in front of him, just looking at Starscream's face. Skywarp was leaning against the blue Seeker's side, also looking at Starscream.

Starscream started to feel like he might have fallen into a trap.

"What?" He asked irritably.

"You owe Skywarp an apology." Thundercracker stated, calm and smooth.

Starscream spluttered.

Maybe he did, but...

"We're waiting." Thundercracker said, still holding Starscream's shoulders immobile and staring at him.

"Why should I apologize?" Starscream argued back, only keeping his voice down because his quarters weren't fully soundproof.

"Because," Thundercracker answered with a sigh, "we are taking a very significant risk by lying to Megatron in order to shield you."

That was their own ploy!

"It is," Thundercracker continued, "a risk we are willing to take. For Trine only for Trine. I wasn't kidding about that part. You're in or you're out. If you're in, we protect you. But we expect from you, if not obedience, respect, and effort. If you're out... Well. A I said we would only take that risk for Trine. We can still dissolve the bond, and then we will all pretend that our 'discipline' was more than you were willing to handle."

Starscream frowned. "What? No! Too much for me to handle?! Do you have any idea what it'll do to my reputation?"

"You're going to have to pretend that we have 'tamed' you even if you accept, though." Skywarp pointed out.

"And how were you planning to do that?" He asked back.

"I have a few ideas." Thundercracker answered. Starscream stared at him fixedly until Thundercracker sighed. "First, I was thinking of disconnecting your vocalizer." He stated.

His vocalizer?

"WHAT!!!" Starscream screeched.

"Keep it down." Thundercracker hissed with a glance at the door.

"You want to rob me of my voice!" Starscream argued. Though he didn't yell this time. "Why?"

Thundercracker huffed. "Because your vocalizer is damaged. And all the yelling you do is only making it worse. Disconnecting it for a while will give your self-repair a chance to restore it at least partially. Also, remember how Megatron crushed that yellow Autobot's vocalizer once? I figure removing your voice will make him think we truly are on the same page. He does complain about your screeching often enough. And everyone knows you're smart enough to reconnect your vocalizer on your own. You not doing that will serve as proof that we did manage to get you to be obedient. Besides, it's not like you'll be completely voiceless. You'll still have your comms. And you will be able to talk through the bond once it's restored. One of us will stick close to you for a while, we can talk for you. And filter your words so they don't sound as arrogant."

Starscream sneered and crossed his arms.

It was a decent enough plan.

He still didn't like it.

"But." Thundercracker said, voice going back to steel. "That is only if you apologize to Skywarp and promise to stop sabotaging our Trine bond, and to actually act as Trine should from now on."

"Why would I want to have my voice taken from me? And whatever else you might do to sell your ruse after?" Starscream huffed.

"Because you're tired. And you do need a Trine, and it will give you respite from Megatron's abuse." Skywarp pointed out. "But we won't force you. We can still finish dissolving the bond."

"We will discuss and explain every idea we have to uphold the ruse with you beforehand." Thundercracker added. "You will always be able to argue against actions you really don't want. Even suggest alternate plans, I won't force things on you unless it's an emergency situation."

"But you want to disconnect my vocalizer." Starscream said.

"It seems like the most effective way to solidify this plan." Thundercracker agreed. "If you have a better idea, we'll listen to it. But apologizing to Skywarp is non-negotiable. Nor doing a proper merge and hardline to restore our bond to what it should be. Or flying together properly as a Trine once your wing is fully healed."

Starscream hissed.

Thundercracker crossed his arms and stared at him. "I'm waiting, by the way. You still haven't apologized."

Chapter Text

Thundercracker kept staring straight at Starscream.

It was disappointing that they had to all but threaten him just for him to apologize for using a slur against Skywarp.

Hopefully it was just startup momentum they needed to build up, overcoming the initial resistance for takeoff, and Starscream would get used to acting decent toward them as they went.

...

Hopefully.

It took some time, but Starscream eventually turned toward Skywarp and apologized.

Not just a mumbled I'm sorry, either. A real apology.

"Skywarp, I'm sorry for calling you what I did, it was wrong of me and uncalled for, I was irritated and took it out on you." Starscream said.

It was a bit surprising that Starscream knew how to make proper apologies. Sure, he apologized to Megatron all the time when their warlord got angry at him, but it was less about knowing what he did wrong (generally, nothing, or an assassination attempt) than it was about begging for forgiveness so the beatings stopped. Maybe that shuttle of his taught him when they were friends? Starscream sure hadn't apologized to them since they became a Trine.

Skywarp nodded his acceptance of the apology, so they moved on to the next thing they had outlined while making the plan.

Starscream seemed surprised when they grabbed him and pushed him to the berth, and he fought them a bit, but that was mostly about being startled. He stopped soon enough and they managed to get him situated.

Starscream completely froze when he registered his position.

Laid out on his front on the berth, with Skywarp and Thundercracker sat on either side of him, each supporting one of his wings on their legs. That was the best position to preen.

Which, honestly, Starscream was in dire need of.

His wings looked decent enough (damage from Megatron's rough handling aside) at first glance, but as soon as they started lifting up panels with their claws, it became obvious that he had accumulated wear and tear that should have been addressed as it happened.

After some time of holding himself tensely under their hands, Starscream started gradually relaxing into their care.

It took joors to pop out the dents, lubricate everything that needed it, and re-coat the overlapping parts of armor panels in enamel nanite.

And that was just the back of the wings.

After that, they paid attention to Starscream's back plating, the back of his helm, neck, shoulders, arms, all the way down to the back of his knees.

Thundercracker took the opportunity to look at the underside of Starscream's pedes and peer inside of his thrusters.

That was something you needed a lot of trust to do, because putting your face in front of a Seeker's thrusters was giving him a golden opportunity to ignite them in your face.

Thundercracker wasn't... completely sure he was there where Starscream was concerned, but they wouldn't get anywhere if no one made the first step.

Starscream didn't roast his face, and once Thundercracker was satisfied that nothing looked damaged, or clogged, he and Skywarp worked together to flip Starscream over so they could do maintenance on the front side of the wings.

These generally needed less help, but the portion closer to the torso was hard to reach alone.

Once they were satisfied with the state of Starscream's plating, then turned toward his face.

Starscream was watching them with wide eyes.

He looked a bit overwhelmed.

Before, that would have meant it was time to back off, but...

Maybe Starscream's state would keep him from pushing them away like he used to.

Thundercracker looked at Skywarp, communication passing between them without words.

Did they want to push it even more and force a merging and hard-line right away?

Skywarp suggested it might be a good idea to ease off a bit. They could reaffirm the bond after recharging.

Besides, Starscream would likely want to on his own if they went to sleep as a Trine should, plating to plating, Sparks only separated by armor.

Thundercracker agreed and took a hold of Star's shoulder. Skywarp grabbing him around his side so they could flip Starscream around and on top of him as he turned the both of them.

Starscream squeaked when he found himself laid out on his front on top of Thundercracker.

He squeaked again when Skywarp flopped on his back.

There was some squirming as they adjusted their positioning so their cockpits slotted nicely. Then some more wriggling and a bit of grumbling that Thundercracker took as Starscream wanting to let them know he was agreeing 'under duress' to the snuggling.

The Trine bond betrayed him, though. The emotions Thundercracker managed to receive by virtue of being the Trine Leader were mostly positive.

Not very surprising. Starscream had Skywarp's cockpit wedged between his wing hinges, his own a bit bellow and to the side of Thundercracker's. His Spark held between theirs as close as they could get without popping their armor open.

After the long estrangement, it must be a relief to have his Trined Sparks so close.

Chapter Text

Starscream booted up from recharge leisurely, which had been a luxury even when he was a scientist under Iacon's science Institute employ. (Unless he'd gone to sleep safely held inside Skyfire's hold, somewhere in deep space.) (That life had long stopped being his.)

He felt... warm and content.

Scripts ran one after another as his boot-up , for once, didn't have to be expedited.

He wasn't entirely sure why he hadn't opted for a quick boot. He only knew that he could.

That he was... Safe enough to.

That, that was very strange.

A fan started whirring at his back. Not his. Was someone else starting their boot up sequence?

Then the memory in cache became accessible, and he abruptly recalled just why he might have gone into recharge with another mech at his back.

His Trine! They had... They had, hadn't they? Claimed him back in front of Megatron and the entire Decepticon army. Publicly demanded his obedience, and privately asked for his cooperation in a scheme to get Megatron off his back.

It was annoying.

Even more so because Starscream still knew playing along was for the best.

(He wasn't Trine Leader anymore, and that stung.)

Even more irritating was how his Spark felt settled and content, trapped between Skywarp and Thundercracker. A pulse of satiated happiness weakness.

He wasn't weak! he didn't need to be coddled that was, in fact, what he'd always told Skywarp and Thundercracker when they had tried to get him to recharge between them in this exact position, back when their Tinning was new.

That he didn't want the 'coveted' middle, didn't need it. When they had still been recharging together more often than not, he had tended to take the place Skywarp occupied this time. On top and easily able to jump up, unhampered by the others' weight. Thundercracker and Skywarp had exchanged the two other places, and tried, often, to get him to 'take his turn' at the center.

(He could kind of see why it was considered the best spot. Being bracketed by Trine felt safe, even if he couldn't escape move.)

Skywarp started moving at his back, his face nuzzling gently in Starscream's neck cables. And the thought of how much damage his sharp dentae could do to them was only a distant afterthought.

Thundercracker's fan also whirred to life, the movement waking him up.

Starscream gritted his denta against the disappointment he felt, knowing they would soon need to move from this comfortable pileup, and attempted to straighten up energetically enough to throw Skywarp off him. (Best get it over himself.)

He was foiled, though, by Thundercracker's arms jerking up and clamping around his helm, hands presumably grabbing onto Skywarp's pauldrons, keeping all three of them firmly stuck together.

Starscream opened his mouth to protest, but then a click, and a gleam of light stopped him.

Right under him, Thundercracker had just retracted his canopy and transformed his chest armor away, baring his Spark.

Chapter Text

Skywarp was jolted out of his leisurely boot up sequence by a wrench on his shoulders and a push to his canopy.

All non urgent tasks dismissed themselves on their own, leaving him with a clear helm to assess the situation.

His memory in cache downloaded as he onlined his optics.

They had implemented their(his) (horrible, terrible, nasty) plan on how to deal with Starscream being in the Trine. He had picked them (he had! despite everything he picked them!) they had done much needed maintenance on his wings and back, then put him in the middle for recharge.

And...

Starscream had tried to buck him off?

But Thundercracker kept them in place by grabbing Skywarp's pauldrons.

Judging by the glow Skywarp could see, Thundercracker had also decided to bare his Spark while he was at it.

Well.

Thundercracker was Trine Leader, and Skywarp had agreed to follow his trail.

Skywarp triggered the sequence to open his armor up.

Then, since his cockpit wasn't in the way anymore and they were enacting an underhanded but transparent ploy to make Starscream want to do a proper Spark Merge, he flopped right back down onto Starscream's back.

His weight actually drove Starscream down into Thunder's open chest.

Starscream's fans stalled, then wheezed up a storm, and he flailed, trying to fight Skywarp's weight and TC's firm grip.

Skywarp didn't think. He growled and snapped his dentae noisily right next to Star's neck cabling.

Starscream froze, though his fans kept screaming from how fast they whirled.

The proximity of both of their Sparks to Starscream's was starting to take effect. The Trine Bond, that had been a sluggish, almost deleted link between them was opening from Starscream's side. The fact that the only transmissions coming through were **fear** and **denial** made it entirely obvious that it was happening entirely against Starscream's will.

Skywarp tried to overwhelm the bad feelings by emitting **love** as strongly as he could. Thundercracker was also emitting **love** as well as **welcome back**, the later of which Skywarp echoed as soon as he perceived it.

**resignation** slid into Starscream's emissions, replacing denial. The **fear** abated a bit, but stayed.

Skywarp frowned and looked at Thundercracker over Starscream's shoulder. They had no wish to actually violate Starscream. That just wasn't done. Not to Trine. Should they... Back off?

*if we give up now, we might as well go all the way and dissolve the bond.* Thundercracker answered to his unasked query.

Starscream jolted under him.

Then within seconds, the **fear** and **resignation** all but disappeared, replaced by...

Replaced by a decoy Echo of the **love**, **welcome** that TC and him were still sending through.

Had Starscream caught Thunder's transmission and decided to start echoing in answer?

...

At least it meant that Star didn't want to dissolve the bond, but...

Thundercracker's hands left Skywarp's shoulders and wrapped around Starscream's helm.

"Do Not Lie To Us." Thundercracker hissed right into Star's face.

Chapter Text

Starscream was already holding himself still and stiff before Thundercracker took hold of his helm and growled in his face.

He went even more still. (Down to his Spark)

They knew.

They had figured out how Starscream managed to lie through the Bond.

The commend from his Trine Leader came through the Bond just as it came out loud and lodged itself right in his Spark.

(There was a reason why Starscream had wanted to be Trine Leader. If he was the one to hold the power of Leader, it couldn't be used on him.)(Obviously that Ship had lauched..)

Do Not LIE

And Starscream's true feelings resurfaced, Even stronger. Broadcast for his Trine to receive.

The terror, the shame, the bitterness and resentment.

His unwillingness plain to see.

He tried to steel himself against the rejection. (Against the loneliness that was sure to come.)

Skywarp cooed at his back and ran both hands over his wings' leading edges. The **love** he projected never faltering.

Thundercracker sighed. His own emissions changing to include **sadness** and **resignation** and... and **determination**. "That's better, I guess." He hummed.

Starscream stayed still, feeling frozen all the way through. (Was that how Skyfire had felt? When Starscream took all the Energon they had and took off to unsuccessfully beg for a rescue mission?)

Thundercracker's hands left his helm, and after a moment, Starscream concluded he must have used them to brace himself, since both him and Skywarp got levered upright.

"We do need to see the problem if we want any chance to fix it, Star." Thundercracker announced.

Starscream had never wanted this to be fixed.

His beliefs mattered. If he didn't uphold them, who would?

"You're not a grounder, Star." Skywarp stated. "You do need a Trine. That's what it means to be a Seeker."

Somewhere in his distraction, Thundercracker and Skywarp had bot-handled him into a triangle with them. Their wingtips pressed to his, a temporary anchor transformation initializing without Starscream even noticing it.

At least his chest armor hadn't turned traitor and opened on it's own.

(It was sending demand after demand to do just that. But it hadn't overridden his decision center.) (Yet)

Starscream held silent.

His Spark was obviously betraying him. Spilling all his silenced words to the Bond, even if he wasn't entirely aware of all that it was broadcasting;

"Would you really rather not have wings?" Thundercracker asked, his new gentle but icy-firm tone put to use once more. "Would you forsake the sky?"

...

No.

Starscream did like being a flier. It was just...

(The need to be in a Trine to be considered whole was so alienating! So against all he believed in!)(He was enough as he was! HE WAS!)

"So what?" Skywarp needled. "You'd rather be a passenger plane? A Damn Shuttle?"

(Shuttles weren't bad.)

"Then why didn't you run to that Big Dumb Autobot? Play house with him, since you'd obviously long since threw US over?" Skywarp snarled.

(Skyfire wasn't dumb! He had the intellect to become a scientist when the whole world refused to see anyone but those Sparked to select Castes do so!)

Sunken Cost Fallacy?

Yeah, sounded about right, honestly.

(Also, Skyfire had gotten frozen before war became inevitable. When the Iacon Science Institute was still half pretending not to be a nest of irredeemable Functionists. He was still soft in a way Starscream long since stopped being.)

(He would be ashamed of what Starscream had to transform himself into. And that thought hurt too much to even consider.)(He couldn't stand by Skyfire and watch all the care he used to have slowly turn into disgust, day by day. Best destroy it all in one go and then flee.)

Thundercracker reached between them and put a heavy hand over Skywarp's pauldron. *you still want him, remember...*

(Starscream wasn't sure that he was meant to catch that.)

*YOU still want him! stop blaming it all on me!* Skywarp sniped back.

(They Still Did?)

Thundercracker sighed (it sounded like an agreeing sigh...), took his hand off Skywarp's shoulder, and plucked one of his connection cords free.

The way he plugged it in and then took one of Skywarp's own cables and pulled it to his own inlets felt practiced.

Too practiced.

(Had they been interfacing without him?)

Thundercracker's helm lifted and he stared into Starscream's optics. "It would be better with you." He stated blandly. "But we won't force you."

Skywarp slouched down a little in what Starscream identified as ease. (That's also what the Bond said.)

Starscream finally allowed the stupid script that had been pinging at him without respite to run itself.

Chapter Text

Skywarp slumped a bit when Thundercracker freed up bandwidth just for him. Damn he could get used to being able to think. The connection was slower with only one reciprocal connection, but there also wasn't the pervasive feeling of wrongness from using Trine geared equipment while only being two.

He jolted back upright when Starscream's *resignation* (was there **jealousy** in there too?) half-turned to *resolve*. And then Thundercracker turned **happy-proud**.

By the time he'd onlined his optics again, Starscream had his chest open.

He had such a pretty Spark!

Thundercracker freed up his other link-up cable and extended it toward Star. Skywrap immediately imitated him.

Sure, Starscream had been leaking a whole bunch of thoughts and feelings into the Trine (likely involuntarily), but they did need to re-establish the bond in order to get things squared away and normalized.

(And to make Star understand how much he could absolutely be a part of their Trine and frag that shuttle of his. Conjunx him if he wanted, even. Trine Bond was different. meaning not incompatible...) (Well... Fragging or conjunxing the Autobot shuttle would run into practical issues such as... Megatron, Soundwave and the DJD, sure. But these were a completely different problem.)

*... Skywarp? are you sure that's the first thing you want to tell Star?* Thundercracker queried.

... Damn, he was leaking into the Bound too?

*i mean... we can stand to be very clear about what we don't consider deal-breakers?* He tried.
*...so that's your story, then? ... i do agree that i don't have a problem with you liking Skyfire, Star. please don't make us cover up for a battlefield romance with a civilian-minded enemy, though. we'd definitely all die if Megatron found out.* Thundercracker replied.
*i don't want to conjunx Skyfire!* Starscream objected. Somewhere in the background, there was **disbelief** and *they would?* that Skywarp elected not to point out.

Hmm.

That didn't sound entirely honest.

Skywarp did his best to stifle the **doubt** from getting emitted. He didn't really want to try and help Starscream sneak that around. One problem at a time was better.

Thundercracker sighed deeply through his turbines and half-leaned toward him, then plugged a cable in.

...

Wait, was that Starscream's cable?

Oh.

Yes it was.

Skywarp tried to refrain from gobbling up all the processing power he could on that end.

Starscream still hissed and brought a hand up to his helm. "What in unicron..."

"It will calm down once Skywarp catches up to his cached tasks." Thundercracker stated calmly.

Oops

It couldn't be that much of a surprise, though, right, They had interfaced before...

Ah, but this was a while ago.

And before Thundercracker took the habit of using hard-line connection to share his processing power with Skywarp. His systems might have been less enthusiastic about grabbing hold of all available resources.

(How did Skywarp get such a long list of stuff saved up, anyway? Thundercracker had been lending him his processor really often.)

(...)

(Ah. It was because Skywarp had been using his small snatches of free RAM thinking of how to fix the Trine, and all his half-baked idea had logged themselves as needing to analyze deeper...)

"Sorry."

"Don't apologize for that, Sky." Thundercracker immediately cut in. "It'll catch up faster if you free up processing power for him, Starscream. How about concentrating on the Merge instead?"

"We need to do something about this!" Starscream argued. "How much bandwidth do you even have on the regular?"

"Pretty much none?" Skywarp answered.

"You need additional hardware! I'm sure even this backwater planet's pitiful technology would be better than nothing. I could hack into..." Starscream grumbled.

"Plotting later. Freeing bandwidth now." Thundercracker interrupted. "Come on, save that string of thoughts for later and free your RAM."

Chapter Text

Starscream was apparently horribly bad at purposefully freeing up processing space. Thundercracker had an overview of the shared hardware through the hard-line link, and he could tell that Starscream always started something new once he had more than 30% of freed-up processor space.

That was probably part of why he was so brilliant, to be honest. But it also wasn't helping much in this specific scenario.

After a minute of watching the completion status of emptying Skywarp's cache progress way too slowly, Thundercracker decided to stop hoping for the impossible and fired off an admin access authorization request to Skywarp.

Just like before, the authorization was given nigh-instantly.

So he took a look at what was in the list of cached tasks.

...

*these... aren't that urgent...*
*i know!* Skywarp whined back with a feeling like a **shrug** through the bound.
*can't you... make a map to host these? that way I don't have to delete it all, you can keep a trace of them and pick them back up when we're not in the middle of something else?*

"A map ?!" Starscream interjected while Skywarp did just that. "Why a map?"

"Sky archives most things in map format." Thundercracker informed their formerly estranged Trine member. "At this point there is little point in fighting his coping mechanisms. it works for him."

"Why would that be a coping mechanism?" Starscream asked again, obviously frustrated with not knowing stuff.

"Because my mapping softwares siphons up what processing power my warp drive pilot isn't monopolizing. If I frame stuff as map, I can get some personal processing in edgewise." Skywarp answered.

Thundercracker took the opportunity of not having to answer to focus on moving all the half-thought-out ideas from the 'need to analyse further' queue and into the fresh map Skywarp had created for 'project Trine'. He also slapped a low-priority tag on the map file, and then just to make sure, deleted all traces of the tasks from Sky's cached queue. After some hesitation, he dusted off his map editing skills again and smacked a trustworthiness index on each of the ideas he'd rehosted depending on how feasible they seemed, just like he had with outdated physical maps before.

*there. can you read this easily? i did my best, but i'm still not that familiar with how you like your maps.* Thundercracker sent out.

Skywarp numerically lifted the map from his grasp and rifled through it.

*huh. yeah. it's fine, i guess. not how i would have put it, but... it works.*
*you can tinker with it and turn it into your preferred format later. i'll make a reminder to open up a few wireless channels for you later on so you can use my hardware for it.* Thundercracker answered simply while setting himself a reminder to do just that. After a second of thought, he turned the reminder into a daily, recurring one.

Skywarp could really use daily or even twice-daily boost to his processing power to work through whatever he had in cache. The hard-line linkup was better, but a wireless one was better than nothing. And easier to do in public.

They just had to keep in mind that Soundwave could hack all non-Spark-based wireless transmissions and only work on harmless stuff over them.

"How long have two been thinking together?" Starscream asked. he felt somewhere between **resigned** and **jealous**

"Only about a month." Thundercracker answered. "Almost the entire Air Division took us to task for neglecting you when your hinges got wear... That's when we decided to do something about the state of the Trine. And since Skywarp needed to think clearly to make decision about his Trine, we ended up interfacing even though you weren't there. That's how I found out that neglecting you led to neglecting Skywarp too. He does need regular access to some more processing power, otherwise what little margin he does have access to gets entirely clogged up."

Skywarp didn't disagree in any form. Which... was good and bad. It meant he wasn't insulted by the summary of his handicap. It also meant he agreed that he'd been neglected.

Starscream, for his part, sunk into a thoughtful silence.

From the hard-line linkup, Thundercracker could feel him kick up his use of his processors.

Plotting, then.

It seemed useless to try and get him to stop.

Ah, well.

Since Thundercracker was the Trine Leader now, he just had to use Leader Privilege to force the Spark-Merge and calibration to get higher in the priority tree. That way Starscream wouldn't have to pay it conscious attention, but it would still get done.

Chapter Text

Being in a three way hardline linkup and Spark Merge with his Trine was...

Alright, so first up: it was really close. With the size of their wings and the fact that they were attached at the back of their chassis, having their wingtips locked together meant that the sides of Skywarp and Thundercracker's chests were pressing right against his. It also meant that their knees were bumping together. (It should be really annoying, but Starscream found himself surprisingly not minding it all that much.)

Starscream could feel Thundercracker actively building their Trine Bond back up. His Spark kind of tugged from time to time as.. As his... His Trine Leader re-formalized their link.

(There was a stunning amount of warmth waiting for him on the other side of the slowly rebuilding bond.)

The hardline also let Starscream observe the interaction between his Trinemate.

Which he was doing. Attentively.

He could tell that Thundercracker was only using half of his processing power on resetting the Trine Link. Not that Thundercracker was thinking of other things at the same time.

No, Thundercracker was deliberately keeping free bandwidth for Skywarp to futz with.

And Skywarp was making use of that donated bandwidth.

In it's entirety.

All the time.

Since Starscream was still considering ways to remediate to Skywarp's apparently involuntary permanently empty helm(, it would be... kind of fine for Starscream's Trinemate to go around being dumb if it was ON PURPOSE. But it wasn't, and at that point, Starscream's pride was on the line), he decided to take a chance, and fired a request for access off to Skywarp.

It stung a bit that where Thundercracker got his Admin access validated instantly, Starscream got limited access after a few seconds.

(They didn't distrust him that much, did they?)

...

After a moment, Skywarp and Thundercracker both turned their full attention to him. (Damn that tattletale bond.)

Skywarp turned **sheepish** and Thundercracker felt **tired**.

Starscream registered Thundercracker rifling through setting on Skywarp's system for a moment.

(Because he had access Starscream didn't and he could get an overview of what Starscream had been barred from seeing.)

*don't take it personally, Star. Skywarp is simply keeping his plotting secret until it's all polished up and ready to presented.* Thundercracker sent over. (Starscream would not admit that he felt a bit better from hearing it.) *Sky left you plenty to poke around in, if you just wanted to investigate his current operating order for your own secret plotting?*

Hey!

(How did Thundercracker even find out that he was plotting about Skywarp?)

Chapter Text

Hook really had better things to do than repair the same Seeker twice for the same injury.

But it wasn't like he would get caught complaining about Megatron's way of disciplining his SiC, so all he could do when Starscream and his bookends showed up at his door was let them in.

He had heard about the previous day's events surrounding these three seekers, and he honestly wasn't sure what to think.

For the moment, he put Starscream on the medical berth and examined the state of his wings.

The welds had strained a bit... But it looked like losing the wing on jet form was at least good for one thing. The welds he had put in at the base of the wing when Starscream was in alt-mode translated more to his body than his wings in root form. meaning that Megatron grabbing him by the wing hadn't put the strain directly onto the healing welds.

Hook could see places were dents had been popped out. They even were properly re-coated and all the overlapping pieces had been lubricated. Trine collective maintenance at it's finest.

None of the Seekers were proper medics, but they did tend to take care of all minor issues just fine. There was some protoform bruising and minor strut damage left to take care of, but hook could get to that by injecting some extra repair-nanites in the affected area and call Starscream's repairs done.

But then Thundercracker spoke.

"I would also like you to disconnect Starscream's vocalizer." The blue seeker asked, standing tall at the medbay entrance.

Hook frowned at the request.

That...

That kind of ran into leftover morality hang-ups he had.

"Why?" He asked. Taking care not to sound too confrontational. Thundercracker was a warframe, and the Decepticon army... Kind of encouraged resolving interpersonal problems with violence.

Thundercracker sighed. "Starscream's vocalizer has been accumulating damages for centuries. It's too delicate to fix outright, so it's been left to self-repair and encouragements to use it sparringly but... You know Starscream. He is almost physically incapable of shutting up. You'd just be giving him some help in taking it easy on his repairing vocalizer for a while. Isn't that right, Starscream?"

Starscream stiffened up, but he did let out a strained "yes" at the prompting.

It was sound reasoning. It was just...

"What do I tell Megatron when he gets annoyed that one of his officers can't give out commands anymore?"

Thundercracker hummed, looking at his ex-Trine-Leader on the med-berth. "It's not like he'd be entirely mute. He'd still have his comms. And with the Trine Bond restored, both Skywarp and me can speak in his stead." Thundercracker eventually answered. "But you're welcome to ask Megatron for his approval of the procedure before doing it."

(Right, Thundercracker had gotten personal authorization to... probably a lot of things, actually... in regards to Starscream. It was entirely possible Megatron would greenlight silencing Starscream.)

(It was even possible he'd already greenlighted it.)

"Let me comm him first." Hook concluded a bit apprehensively.

Calling Megatron was incredibly stressful. But it would be even more stressful if he actually disproved of the procedure and came to reprimand Hook for doing it.

Megatron was initially annoyed for getting personally messaged, but after Hook explained why he was calling, there was a thoughtful pause followed by a 'do it' before the communication closed.

Alright.

All out of reasons not to then...

Hook disconnected Starscream's vocalizer from it's command control.

Then he tucked the connecting wire inside Starscream's collar faring and glued it in place with an easy to dissolve compound so it could be retrieved later on to reconnect once the vocalizer healed a bit.

He tried not to feel too bad.

This was Starscream.

He had created Megatron's fusion canon.

He was entirely able to reconnect his vocalizer if he wanted to.

At least... He should be...

Chapter Text

Soundwave was in charge of a great deal of things in the Nemesis. In the Decepticon faction as a whole.

One of them was monitoring. He monitored almost everything. From gleaning all he could of the enemy plans to checking on morale.

If something diverted from usual, Soundwave made it his business to check up on it.

The most recent thing to have changed was Starscream and his Trine situation.

After Thundercracker's bold move in the throne room, Soundwave was determined to assess the changes. He needed to see what it would mean for the Decepticons as a whole.

Or well.

Hear.

Most of Soundwave's monitoring was audio and wireless. He also had access to some visuals, but audio processing took less bandwidth, and let him monitor more simultaneously.

Since the Trine had relocated to Starscream's quarters just after their little show, Soundwave hadn't been able to pry in. Starscream had long since rendered his personal space impervious to Soundwave's intrusions.

Soundwave didn't love that, but Starscream was too good at disposing of bugs to really bother with it. The harder Soundwave tried to get audio coverage int Starscream's private spaces and the more guarded Starscream got. And not just about removing audio recording device. When Starscream felt that Soundwave was making an effort to get tabs on him, he held everything closer to his spark.

Soundwave had come to the conclusion that it was best to leave Starscream's little bubbles of radio silence alone for a clearer picture of the mech when he was outside of them.

So the only information he got on the situation was by listening in on the other Seekers.

The Air Force were being unusually chaotic in the wake of Thundercracker's move. They all seemed to have opinions. Most of them unflattering for the new Trine Leader. (That much probably was true, otherwise Starscream would surely have denied it.)

Still, for all their grumbling about this being no way to treat one's Trine member, the Seekers seemed... Mostly willing to give Thundercracker the benefit of the doubt. At least for a time.

When Starscream and his Trine finally emerged from the blind zone in Soundwave's monitoring, it was to head to the medbay, in order to get Starscream repaired from his latest round of 'punishment' and...

...

Soundwave froze when he heard the request.

Disconnect the vocalizer?

The reason Thundercracker gave Hook sounded legitimate... It also sounded like a cover-up.

Soundwave remorselessly snooped on the comm call.

And then he also listened in on Megatron after the call disconnected.

That chuckle. The satisfied little sigh...

No.

Megatron wouldn't...

He wouldn't, right?

Not with...

Not with how he'd reacted to Soundwave's empurata.

Surely...

Surely not?

(Well, Starscream still had his face and hands...)

Soundwave brought his hand up to his throat, where his vocalizer still wasn't. He had never been able to get one to work again, not with the connections and vocal center burned away right in his motherboard. He had to make due with his speakers and a makeshift bridge from his audio processing in order to use words at all.

His hands... Well. He had been able to get hands again, but the mask and visor had to do since his faceplate had been destroyed too.

(Starscream had his hands and face...)

('for now' a treacherous little voice sounded in his processor.)

(No. No. Starscream did have his hands, and his face, and even his vocalizer. It was just disconnected. No destructive actions had been taken.)

"Well. Thundercracker does have a duty to shield his Trine." One of the Seekers had whispered to someone. "Including from Megatron..."

The Seeker had quickly been shushed. The Air Force knew about Soundwave monitoring, and, like most of the Decepticon Army, they distrusted him.

Yet the mildly treacherous statement was now haunting Soundwave.

Did Thundercracker ask to have Starscream vocalizer disabled to... Please Megatron? (It seemed to have worked if he did...)

Soundwave buried the thought and refocused on the Trine he had been monitoring.

"I guess since you have been good you can get a reward." Thundercracker was saying. "Skywarp will take you to your lab for half a shift. Then you two will join me in the Air Barracks."

They split up there, and Thundercracker went to the Air Barracks, just as he'd said.

The Seekers, who had been so vocal the previous shift welcomed him with an oppressive kind of silence.

Then

"Congratulations on becoming Trine Leader" one called. "Though demanding obedience isn't a good look, you must admit"

"I'm sure you know as well as me that a Trine Leader must protect the Trine." Thundercracker answered. "Getting on Megatron's bad side would obviously be bad for my Trine. Besides, Starscream is really bad at being Trine. That's part of why I could get the leadership from him so easily. He didn't even notice it. That's how bad it was. We will need to retrain him quite a bit, and without that promise, he'd fight us all the way."

"But you will take the Leader duties seriously?" One of the Rainmaker asked in a weighted tone.

"Obviously. I know what being a Seeker means."

Soundwave got the feeling that there had been some double talk going on. Something hidden specifically from him.

Thundercracker went on to inform the Air Force about Starscream's temporary mute status, which, surprisingly, didn't cause an uproar. (One seeker muttered about Megatron liking that, but he was swiftly silenced.) Followed by what Soundwave assumed were relayed orders from Starscream. (Soundwave couldn't hack Seeker Trine bonds to listen in, so it might be true, even if he couldn't check.)

Chapter Text

Skywarp was surprised when Starscream asked to be taken to the condemned part of the Nemesis as soon as his lab's door closed behind them.

*you do know you're supposed to look obedient, right?* Skywarp double checked.
*there is no audio monitoring in here.* Starscream huffed back *Soundwave can't tell if we're in or not. and i can remove the mikes and cameras where we go. it will simply look like they failed from lack of maintenance. if they even still work.*

Skywarp considered it, but since he honestly couldn't do the risk assessment on that, he decided to just trust that Starscream had made his own assessment and wouldn't put them in trouble so soon.

*where do you want to go?*

A set of coordinates and a lot of comparing with his own map (to not end up in a wall or in floor/ceilings) of the Nemesis later, Skywarp grabbed hold of Star firmly and...

VOP

They landed with a splash, knee deep in this planet's annoying salt water. Starscream cursed.

Well, at least they hadn't fused the damn rust accelerant to their lower legs. Skywarp had teleported them in mid-air mostly because floor levels could change in the lower levels. There hadn't been that much water in the last time he explored this part of the ship.

Starscream scowled at the water for a little longer before letting out a very angry sigh and heading for the console.

*at least this much water should have disabled the monitoring equipment* Star huffed, starting to pry the housing off the console. Then, a curse later *but it also destroyed what I wanted.* He added grumpily.
*you just want a floor control console?* Skywarp queried
Starscream pinged him an affirmative.

Skywarp wadded close, reviewing his own map.

VOP

The place they landed next was dark, dusty and smelly, but it had no water. (They also didn't appear so far off the floor because his map was a lot fresher for this part.)

Skywarp made a habit of checking out the still useful closed-off parts of the Nemesis regularly. It was partly because it could be useful for stashing pranking supplies, and partly because with how prevalent his mapping software were in his processor, having close-by locations not properly surveyed in a timely manner to keep the maps from growing obsolete created a very annoying mental itch.

Starscream immediately started stalking the room, trailing water after him as the methodically looked for all surveillance devices.

Skywarp had to remind him that it was a very bad idea to fire his thrusters to hover up with salt water in them and ended up serving as a step-ladder as Star finished up his sweep.

Once sure they were unobserved, Starscream stalked toward the floor-control console and started stripping it for parts. Probably the secret plotting Thundercracker had mentioned. Skywarp didn't even bother asking what he intended to do with the parts. Starscream liked to keep his mysteries until his dramatic unveiling, after all.

After they teleported back to Starscream's lab with their bounty stashed in their cockpits and piled on their arms, Skywarp insisted on taking the time to properly dry and clean their plating, thrusters and internals right away before doing anything else so they wouldn't hit the deadline Thundercracker gave and still have the maintenance not finished.

It meant he had to warp them to Starscream's quarters and back in order to use his private washing rack.

The energy demands of teleporting with a companion was significant, and after doing it five times, Skywarp was almost running on empty by the time they joined Thundercracker again.

Thundercracker took one look at him and declared it was time to head to the mess hall and collect their rations, from which part of Thundercracker's ended up in Skywarp's cube.

*i didn't use much fuel today, unlike you, and Star is recovering so he can't pass up energon, just take it* Thundercracker sent over before Skywarp could protest.

Then he started talking out loud to Star about how to handle the shift in the Trine dynamic where his rank was concerned and Skywarp checked out of the conversation since he didn't have to power to follow well enough to give intelligent contributions.

Instead, he started reviewing his map of the off-limit parts of the Nemesis for things that might still be usable and interest Starscream.

Courting gifts might be difficult to come by, but it didn't mean he wouldn't put the effort in! Maybe he would rope TC in? Since Thundercracker seemed to have an idea what Starscream was plotting about, he could help with retrieval.

On his own, Skywarp would probably end up dragging a lot of junk in along with what Star wanted. He just couldn't run the analysis properly. And it wasn't like he could wirelessly borrow processing space from Thundercracker for it, wireless was monitored by Soundwave, after all.

Chapter Text

It had been a couple of days since Starscream had been reintegrated into the Trine. A few days since he lost the use of his vocalizer, too.

All things considered, Starscream didn't miss his voice that much...

Sure, it still rankled that... That he had been in a situation where it was necessary to accept it. Especially since, contrary to what they had first told Hook, it wasn't really for medical reasons.

So...

Starscream wasn't happy that losing his voice was something he had had to accept for his own well being. Even if he could reconnect the wire anytime he wanted.

But it was it's own kind of relaxing to have his vocalizer disconnected. It saved him a lot of posturing.

Of course yelling was still his first reflex in a lot of situations. But with the wire disconnected, his words simply went nowhere. Which meant he didn't have to deal with the fallout of having said them.

Of course he could still repeat the message on comms, but that wasn't a reflex (yet), and he got the time to really think on whether he did want to actually say the thing in between not managing to speak and re-sending it as a message.

He generally found that dropping it was easier.

He had accepted Thundercracker's offer because he wanted to rest for a bit.

So he decided to treat his disconnected vocalizer like a vacation from fighting everyone all the time.

The news of his muteness had made the rounds, after all, so he had a very good excuse to simply glare but not escalate everything all the time.

And just like Thundercracker had pointed out, if something needed to be said fast, he had his Trine bond that let him instantly convey entire messages.

Skywarp and Thundercracker tended to reword his messages quite a bit. It annoyed him at first, but...

Once again, nice vacation from bickering all the time.

(It gave him time and mind-space to devote to his new project.)

Besides, getting Megatron off his back could only happen if the megalomanic tyrant thought him beaten down enough.

Having his Trine filter his words all the time made it look more believable.

Also. Skywarp had raised a very good point. Why should he waste his energy arguing with bots that didn't matter to him? Why should he spare focus on what they thought of him when they were so very eager to dismiss his very existence as a nuisance?

Apparently, for Skywarp, if you weren't Trine, you fell in one of three categories: "comrades" (which had a gradation for command structure), "ennemies" and "I couldn't care less about you".

And apparently... Only Seekers, Hook and some of Soundwave's cassettes fell under comrades anymore. The army at large was 'don't care' and Megatron was 'ennemy'.

It had to be a recent development. Last Starscream had paid attention to Skywarp's opinions, he had liked Megatron.

Chapter Text

Skyfire had been having a regular day. He'd woken up, taken his morning energon, headed to the labs, had a theoretical debate with Wheeljack on something that wasn't his field but that he understood enough to act as a soundboard for, then gone on his scheduled cargo run.

Being asked to haul cargo from one half of the planet to the other didn't bother him at all. It gave him an opportunity to stretch his wings and spin his T-cog, and the Autobots were making use of that.

As far as Skyfire could tell, the current cargo run to China to pick an order of human manufactured parts was an Intox scheme Jazz had cooked up. There might be a few things Ratchet or Wheeljack could use in the mix. But these were not replacement parts for mechanisms.

It made sense, though. Not all the humans were well intentioned. Making them think they knew more than they did about the Cybertronian species could prove an advantage.

Not that it really mattered to Skyfire.

The part he was thinking about was whether he could, or should, take a little trip out of the planet's atmosphere on his way to, or from the pick up.

Human governments liked to have checks on their frontiers, but their laws about international waters generally meant that if Skyfire went into orbit from one ocean and reentered in another, they had no legitimate grounds to get upset.

They'd probably get upset anyway, mind. But they couldn't make that upset into the Autobots' problem.

The other consideration was the amount of energy it took to escape Earth gravity.

But the Autobots weren't truly hurting for fuel, and were generally alright with letting mechs waste some in order to exercise their alt-mode's specific needs.

He could use the trip in space to get some readings on the Star they orbited. Humans were kind of vulnerable to the whims of their Sun, so it might even turn into info Optimus might use in his diplomacy with the natives...

Yes. A little trip into space sounded very good.

He sent Prowl a notification about his plan and got an affirmation back, tagged with a request to go before picking his cargo up. Human-manufactured materials were heat sensitive, after all, and re-entry tended to get hot.

Skyfire's plating was heat-shielded, but his hold did get a bit warm when breaching an atmosphere as dense as Earth's even if he initiated entry at the slowest possible speed.

He sent back an aknowledging ping and headed out toward the Atlantic. It was the opposite direction to China, but that was a very small detour once you took the fact that he intended to go look at the Sun closer into account. The Atlantic had a lot fewer islands, and that meant he would get to international waters faster that way.

Except he didn't even make it to the ocean, let alone to space before his plan got derailed.

A jet started trailing him as he was flying overland, filling his required data work for frontier crossing.

A jet with a spark signature.

A Seeker.

Not quite on an interception trajectory, but not really not in one.

And it hadn't fired at him even though it came from the rear.

Skyfire considered his options for a while.

Honestly, he was rated for atmosphere entry. The seeker likely wouldn't be able to do more than scratch him before Skyfire got to escape velocity.

Seekers might be fighter jets, but Skyfire was an interstellar shuttle. He could outpace most seekers easily... So long as he didn't care about the damage his speed was dealing to his surroundings.

So he took a chance and stayed on his trajectory, only sending Prowl a somewhat vague update on his situation.

The jet came to Skyfire's level and wiggled his wings playfully, then engaged his transformation while keeping pace with Skyfire. Which was mostly possible because Skyfire stayed under the speed of sound in order not to inconvenience the locals with sonic booms as he cruised.

Skyfire considered the implied invitation, then transformed too and took a turn before landing. He may be willing to see what the Seeker wanted, but he wouldn't be corralled to a specific spot. He could at least be that cautious around what was now an enemy.

(War was so stupid.)

"What are your intentions with Starscream?" The purple and black seeker asked him sharply, hovering up a little to be face to face with Skyfire.

Skyfire came up short at the question.

His intentions with...

The frag?

The Starscream that used to be his partner no longer existed. That had been made obvious by how he shot at Skyfire. The loss ached. But there was so much else he had lost to this war that happened while he was in stasis.

"I don't see how that's any business of yours." He sniffed instead of showing his utter confusion.

Why would he have any intentions toward a bot that had changed so much he might as well be a complete stranger?

"I'm Star's Trine!" The Seeker snapped. "It means I get to vet his choices and give the smelter talk! Now! Your intentions!"

Starscream had a trine?

Skyfire guessed it made sense. Starscream could scarcely go through four milenias of war in an army that was full of other seekers without making an escadron of his own.

It was just.

Starscream used to scoff at the very concept of trines, back when they were in Iacon Science Institute and Skyfire had asked him if he regretted not having found two seekers to trine up with.

"I think it's a bit late to vet me." Skyfire answered honestly. "You weren't even his trine when I was a part of his life. And I can't say I count as his 'choice' right now."

"You're evading the question!" The seeker growled, Pointing a finger at Skyfire's face. "Your intentions!"

Skyfire blinked.

Huh.

That was not what he had pictured when he'd tried to imagine Starscream with a Trine. This seeker honestly seemed a bit too dumb to have a Spark-bond with Starscream.

Skyfire strangled the 'well maybe I should vet you since I was there first' that wanted to escape.

Dumb or not, this was a nominally 'ennemy' warframe hovering in front of him. No sense in antagonizing him.

"I don't have any intentions toward Starscream right now." He sighed. "Aside from not having him shoot me."

The seeker pursed his lips and narrowed his optics in suspicion, then, with a shrug, seemingly accepted it.

"Guess it makes things easier, then." The 'Con huffed. Then he rocketed up before.

VOP

In a flash of purple light, the seeker disappeared.

Skyfire decided he should be careful in case there was actual hostiles somewhere ahead. He would go to space another day.

He turned around back toward the Pacific Ocean, on the shortest way to China, and commed Prowl to let him know about the not-ambush but the weird purple seeker.

Chapter Text

It had been a week since their little show in the Throne Room, and they hadn't pushed Starscream to interface again. Starscream, after all, didn't crave the intimacy (at least, if he did he didn't want to) like they did.

Forcing it, forcing him... No.

There were things one didn't do to Trine.

Forced merges were one.

(Humans would call that rape, Thundercracker guessed. It wasn't a fully accurate comparison, there was a difference between merging, interfacing, and fragging, which was the equivalent of human sex, but the human concept around that one word for a crime they considered truly awful. Yes. That was why it wasn't acceptable to force Starscream.)

But...

Ah.

The thing was that it was somewhat okay to interface with only Skywarp, to use all the connections to let him access Thundercracker's unused processing space to it's fullest when Starscream was barely Trine.

And it wasn't okay to do that if Starscream was Trine.

And Skywarp's latest stunt, of jumping the Autobots shuttle to interrogate him on his intentions with Star was a very good exemple of what happened when 'Warp had enough thinking capacity to make plans but not enough to ask himself if the plan was actually a good idea.

With hard-line interface off the table, Thundercracker had attempted to wirelessly lend Skywarp the processor space he needed. But wireless could be hacked, and so Skywarp didn't use it to think about anything he wouldn't want Soundwave potentially knowing about.

It made it ironic that more than half of his planning to intercept the shuttle revolved on getting information Soundwave had through interrogating the cassettes.

But that kind of wonky thought process was in fact exactly what happened to Skywarp because of his handicap.

Thankfully, this one instance could look to Soundwave like it was a glitchbrained scheme brought on by that very same handicap, and the Communication Officer might not take it as a sign of care for Starscream. (Actually... It might even be seen as an attempt to isolate Star from anyone who might care to object to their 'domestic abuse', so it was almost good.)

Still.

It had made it obvious that they couldn't go on much longer without actual hard-lining. Just because that one misshap wasn't too damaging didn't mean the next one wouldn't be.

But once again, they couldn't really do it without Starscream. And they couldn't force Starscream to do it. And they might not get Starscream to agree without forcing it.

Argh!!

*???*

Thundercracker stalled at the curiosity he got through the bond.

Right.

The Trine Bond was working mostly right, and it meant both Skywarp and Starscream could tell when he was spiralling into irritated despair.

That communication also felt like it might come from both Trinemates at once.

Oh. Why not, after all? It was lack of communication that got them in their original mess. Best not repeat the error.

*Would you mind if I interfaced with Skywarp?* He deliberately sent to both his Trinemates.

Skywarp was the one on Starsitting duty at the moment, after all. (They were lucky they had gotten to mold their schedules around Starscream's so one of them could always stay close and talk for him.) (And remind him that they were serious about being a real Trine with him.)

(It probably wasn't luck. It probably was because Megatron assumed they stayed so close to Starscream all the time as a way to police him and 'discipline' him. For all that the thought was repulsive, it was also convenient.)

*I don't mind interfacing with you!* Skywarp sent back, **confused**.
*why do you even ask.* Starscream grumbled.
*I don't want you to feel left out, Star. but I won't force you just because Skywarp needs to interface soon.* Hopefully Skywarp would understand that he was broadcasting the same message to both of them at once this time?
*it would be nice to finish that map.* Skywarp sent back. There was a subtle echo that told Thundercracker Starscream was included in that transmission. *you said I should show it to Star. but I can't show it in the state it's in!*
*you won't?* Came from Starscream. Underlined with **confusion** and **surprise**

Skywarp immeddiately replied to the question with raw **revulsion**.

*no we won't.* Thundercracker confirmed, trying to keep his own disgust from flooding the bond. *I know we were kind of underhanded in pushing you to accept it last time, but it was to restore the Trine. we... we're not proud of it... but there was a valid reason. one that we'll never have again.*
*no! never again! promised!* Skywarp confirmed.
*but Sky will start making very stupid decisions very soon if he doesn't get access to processing power for the things he's keeping hidden from soundwave. he's already started to.* Thundercracker pointed out

**offense** flooded the bond.

Chapter Text

Feeling uncertain was not something Starscream enjoyed. Nor powerlessness. And Starscream had been experiencing plenty of both lately.

Most of it because of his Trine.

The abrupt indifference had been jarring, especially in how much it had hurt him.

He hadn't been aware that he had such a weakness. I was new, unknown, and surprising in the worst ways.

When Thundercracker and Skywarp turned back around and re-offered their support and protection, he had been a bit too stunned to plot immediately. Chosing to take the offer was a calculated decision, sure, but not calculated in how he might be able to escape the terms of the offer. Only on yes or no.

Same with deciding that their plan with disconnecting his vocalizer was sound.

After their first discussion, the renewing of the Trine bond, and his voice box getting disconnected, Starscream had been given enough space to be able to consider his situation and try to plot.

But he had absolutely no idea how to turn his situation around. He didn't know a way to stop needing a Trine. He didn't know how to reclaim the Trine leader position. He didn't know how to turn the dynamic between him and the other two around. And he had no better idea than this on how to shield himself from Megatron.

Killing Megatron would certainly eliminate that last problem, but he couldn't be sure he could use the power vacuum from assassinating the Decepticon Leader as things currently stood.

And if he couldn't take the leadership after assassinating Megatron, they would lose to the Autobots and he would have a whole slew of new problems.

Also, if he tried to kill Megatron and didn't succeed, he'd be right back to the 'get smacked around all the time' square. So he'd prefer to not to attempt it unless his plan was absolutely flawless. Or if Megatron went back to being violent toward him first.

So he had no clue on how to overthrow Thundercracker, nor how to make do without a Trine. He had a very distinct feeling that getting rid of Thundercracker would hurt him more than it would help him. (His Spark rebelled against the very notion of doing so.) And trying to change Trines admitedly wouldn't work for long. Or at least, it likely would land him in the same situation again in the end. And, once again, he was enjoying the reprieve from Megatron's tender mercies.

Still. His Trine had an immense power over him, and that was an uncomfortable situation to be in. And a very uncomfortable thing to discover after spending so much of his life trying to ensure no one had the power to hurt him (the way losing Skyfire had).

Because in the end...

It turned out that they had always had the power to hurt him immensely. And he had never thought to guard against it past ensuring he was Trine Leader so he'd be the one to hold the power.

(Only to discover that not only the Trine Leader title could slip from his grip incredibly easily, but members of his Trine didn't even need to be the Leader to be able to deal him harm.) (Skywarp's indifference had hurt just as much as Thundercracker's.)

Since he couldn't plot something, he'd decided to just go with the flow and stay vigilent in case an opening presented itself.

(An unsatisfying solution, but not being able to kill Megatron when he was smacking him around was just as unsavory.) (Well... More so, admittedly. At least his Trine didn't use the leverage they had to hurt him once they had made their point of letting him know that they could.)

Going with the flow wasn't too bad so far.

Sure, Skywarp and Thundercracker insisted he recharge between them every single night-shift, and they demanded he spend a good chunk of his off-duty time in the Air barracks doing 'bonding activities'... But it was a mild annoyance at worst.

(It was very, very strange that the eyes of the other Seekers on him as his Trine forced him to relax and preen with them wasn't making him itch with the need to tear faces off. Somehow, having them around and keeping an eye on his Trine was... A bit of a relief.)

The latest conversation they had about Thundercracker and Skywarp needing to hard-line was unsettling him, though.

Because...

Because for all that their insistance that they wouldn't force him was a bit reassuring, it also highlighted a concerning gap in his knowledge base.

Their visceral reaction to Starscream's confusion meant they had a deep seated value system that he wasn't aware of.

It meant that there might be an oppening somewhere there.

It also meant that Starscream couldn't predict them as well as he'd thought he could.

Chapter Text

It was difficult for Skywarp to be the one escorting Starscream.

It wasn't so bad if Starscream was off-duty, because then Star would ask him to do things or go places, and that was fun. But escorting Starscream when he was supposed to work? That was very hard.

A lot of what Starscream did was too complicated for Skywarp to understand. And he didn't need to talk for Starscream that often because Star had decided to just get very silent after his vocalizer got disconnected.

So when Skywarp was the one with Starscream and Starscream was on-duty, he mostly just followed him around and tried to keep Starscream's injuried wing protected.

Keeping the army going seemed to need a lot of datawork, and at the moment, it looked like Starscream was doing most of it. Skywarp would have expected more plotting, but... Maybe the plotting was left to Soundwave and Megatron on purpose for the moment?

He couldn't be sure if it was a decision Starscream made to help cover for their story, or if it was Megatron who decided to cut Starscream off from the planning.

The result was that when on shift, Starscream mostly spent his time looking at datapads.

There were things getting sent from the pads, and comms, and sometimes Starsceam took strolls in the hallways, but mostly, it was just super-boring.

And Starscream didn't even talk to him with the Bond.

So he was delighted when Thundercracker spoke to them.

Except he hadn't liked Star's reaction at all.

And after they had spoken, Starscream had gone even more silent.

So he was very relieved when the shift finished. Even if Thundercracker was on the next shift so they couldn't see him.

Starscream brought them to his lab and then... Still didn't talk.

He just fiddled with his dohickey and didn't even ask for Skywarp to do anything.

So Skywarp was really starting to get jittery, even if he could tell that it **annoyed** Starscream and made Thundercracker **anxious**.

It was getting really hard not to start trouble just for something to do.

But... Pranking Starscream looked like a very, very bad idea right then. And he didn't want to leave Starscream all alone to go prank other cons.

And he was very glad that he hadn't when the lab's door opened.

Because, of course, that was Megatron.

Why not?

Obviously the day-cycle hadn't been shitty enough so far.

Star immediatelly looked down when he saw their leader, then tucked his wings in. Tucked just about everything in. He even started trembling.

Skywarp felt panick try to swallow him up.

Thankfully, he noticed that **fear** was actually more of a background emmission. As far as the Bond could pick up, Starscream was more **calculating** and **focused** than **afraid**.

That made it a lot easier not to lunge between his Trine and the Danger.

Right.

The Plan.

They had a plan.

Star was following the plan.

Skywarp pasted a smile on and waved jauntily at Megatron when he glanced over at him.

It was a good thing Megatron had focused on Starscream first. He didn't look like he had noticed Skywarp's battle protocols flickering on and then off.

"Starscream." Megatron rumbled. "Soundwave said you spend a lot of time in here. What treachery are you cooking up now, then?"

Starscream curled in a little more, then he glanced over at Skywarp fearfully.

"You still have comms, don't you? I want to hear your own version." Megatron cut in, striding forth to loom and squint at the dohickey.

There was a pause.

"Rescue it, you say? That would be a first. And what do you intend to do with these starship parts if you manage to remove the salt from them?" Megatron asked.

Starscream shrugged but then ducked to get even smaller.

"To Soundwave." Megatron (probably) repeated, voice sceptical. "And there won't be any bombs in it?"

*say you and Thundercracker are watching me all the time.* Starscream instructed while flinching. *that you like to keep me busy so I don't get up to mischief, so even if this project is probably doomed to faillure, at least you can tell that it's the only thing I'm touching in here.*

Skywarp quickly bounced the message to Thundercracker along with what context he has gotten from the one side of the conversation.

Thundercracker immediately sent back his agreement and a couple of tips on how to phrase that.

"Oh, there won't." Skywarp grinned. "That and the tools are the only things he's allowed to touch until he proves that we can trust him. And we always supervise when he comes here."

Skywarp stretched and came closer to lay a possessive hand on Starscream's injuried wing. He had meant it to be reassuring, but the overwritten fear responce kicked in instead.

Starscream flinched and cowered. A lot more honestly than he had so far.

It probably helped with the cover, but it still made Skywarp's Spark hurt.

"Honestly, This is probably unsalvageable. But I can keep scavenging from the undewater sections for as long as Starscream needs busywork in order to stay out of trouble. If we're lucky there might be one or two useable pieces in the end."

(Skywarp could totally find some stuff that might be useful to Soundwave in the unflooded parts of the off-limits area to solidify this cover story.)

Chapter Text

Learning that Megatron had gone to Starscream's lab to harass him while in the middle of his monitor shift and unable to do anything was incredibly stressful. Thankfully both Starsceam and Skywarp were able to reassure Thundercarcker that they had managed to fob their Leader off with a story about keeping Starsceam busy reclaiming technology from the flooded parts of the ship that Skywarp reclaimed with his outlier ability.

Megatron hadn't stayed very long once it became obvious that he couldn't make Starsceam lash out at him by insulting him.

Megatron's interest could get dangerous, but Starsceam and Skywarp had weathered this storm just fine on their own.

From what Thundercracker could tell with the Trine Bond, Skywarp and Starscream were discussing how to ensure no one noticed when Skywarp left Starsceam alone in his lab to fetch stuff elsewhere. The key argument they had used to pacify Megatron being that Starsceam was always watched when in his lab.

Thundercracker suggested that Skywarp find a place where Starsceam could have a secondary, secret lab accessible only by warping. That would allow them to pretend Starsceam went scavenging along with Skywarp but let Starsceam actually work on what he wanted.

Though that meant that Starscream would have to actually work on salvaging salt-logged equipment when Thundercracker was the one 'watching' him. And also that Starscream and Skywarp had to bring back scavenged parts whenever they vanished together to the secret lab.

Starscream wasn't very happy to have a chunk of his lab time relegated to menial work, but he sulkily stated that the lie had been his own idea, so he should see it through.

Starscream felt pretty taken with the idea of a secret lab. Skywarp was very excited with it too, and seemed to be excitedly reviewing his maps for a likely spot.

The rest of his shift was mercifully uneventful.

Though it didn't mean Thundercracker really relaxed.

The Megatron incident just solidified the fact that Skywarp needed all his wits about him. They really needed to hard-line. And he didn't know how Starscream would handle that.

He sent the message to meet at Star's quarters when he left his post and was both relieved and a bit nervous at that.

No pushing it back, then.

"Starscream... I really need to hard-line with Skywarp." He called softly, mindful of the fact that only the inside of the hab was free of Soundwave's listening devices. "How do you want to..."

Damn.

"You... You can watch. Or not watch or... Do you want to join?" He tried again, only a little more successfully.

Starscream stared at him for a moment then shook himself. He flared his wings out and nodded decisively. *I'll join.*

Skywarp flooded the bond with **happy*** feelings. Thundercracker felt a little more circumspect, but he also let his **relief** shine through.

They had a moment of awkwardness as they tried to situate themselves on the berth, especially as Starscream's nerves were apparent in his frame language and through the Bond.

But eventually, they got themselves sorted, wings fused at the tip, and Thundercracker opened his chest. Skywarp followed suit immediately, and after a click, Starscream did the same.

Thundercracker let himself enjoy the Spark-meld for a moment before pulling out his cables and handing them to his Trinemates.

Once Skywarp was connected, he immediately felt the drain to his ressources. But he also noticed that Starscream was also poking around.

Chapter Text

It never stopped feeling incredibly comforting to have Thundercracker rifle through Skywarp's task logs and sinking into his memory banks to lend an active servo in organizing things.

And... Starscream was there. In the merge and interface right along with them.

Much better than keenly feeling his absence for every moment. It more than made up for the fact that the connection with with Thundercracker was halved.

Starscream was there. They were doing this as a proper Trine.

Thundercracker hadn't gone back to the archives since consolidating everything in more compact format,Skywarp could feel/guess his thoughts about it somewhat.

In anything recent, the cartographic details would be relevant no matter how inefficiently stuff might be stored. The compression of older archives had freed up more than enough space to not have a problem for several vorns. Skywarp had been able to function even with his mess of maps before Thundercracker intervened, so it was better not to disturb a system that worked. Especially since Skywarp's maps were atypical, and Thundercracker still couldn't read them all reliably.

Also, clearly communicated, was a feeling that Skywarp was competent enough.

Sure, his handicap kept him from thinking most of the time, and left him nothing to take care of admin tasks as they came. But when he had the borrowed extra processing power, he could manage his own memories on his own. It was better for Thundercracker to simply free up processor space and let Skywarp take care of curating his own maps.

That confidence in Skywarp's abilities was healing in ways he had never predicted.

It had been a bit of an emergency back when Thundercracker took a deep dive in Skywarp's hard drives and reformatted the whole thing.

And also an overwhelming task that Skywarp would have had trouble figuring out how to tackle. Having someone else do it who was not usually in his helm staved off decision paralysis. Thundercracker could look at the different maps with an impartial optic and decide how to rationalize them by commonality in a way that was actually helped by not understanding all the data he was shuffling around.

For managing the smaller caches, Skywarp was the best person to arrange things in a way that he would be able to intuitively find them again as needed.

Skywarp let his emotions flow freely back to Thundercracker about how he appreciated the respect for his own agency, not bothering with sorting and labeling the feelings. Thundercracker would get it.

Wait...

No Neglecting Starscream!

Skywarp turned his attention to the cable linkup and Spark connection to Starscream.

He immediately felt a snapback from the core personality traits mirror. That was something that was accessible without asking for permissions when plugged in with the Spark adjacent hardline, since someone you allowed to see your Spark was also someone you should trust with knowing you. though it also was read-only for obvious reasons.

But why would Starscream stop looking as soon as Skywarp paid attention?

Starscream read like he'd been caught doing something he shouldn't.

Except he hadn't done anything he shouldn't?

If anything, Skywarp had been in the wrong for not paying Starscream attention while they were in a merge.

Maybe...

Hmm.

Skywarp took a moment to look at his directory, and changed the access parameters to his Trine relationship evolution map to be only accessible with express permission, and then sent access authorization for everything else to Starscream.

That way Star should know that he was allowed to look at anything he wanted and that Skywarp wasn't unhappy with him.

Thundercracker had tracked Skywarp's actions and sent his own authorization shortly after, before falling back into something of a powersave mode that gave Skywarp most of his processing power to work with.

Skywarp waited a little, until he noticed Starscream making use of the access authorizations, before taking the offered processor space and going back to work on compiling the map.

He did want to finish it so he could show Star, after all.

Chapter Text

Starscream sat, half-stunned, with most of the archives of both Skywarp and Thundercracker wide open to him.

He didn't have full admin rights. He could add edits, but not overwrite, nor delete anything.

It was maybe a little hurtful that they didn't trust him fully not to mess with their files, but at the same time... Their caution was soothing.

The dissonance between being glad that they wouldn't let someone they didn't fully trust possibly wipe out or modify their entire memory, and being hurt that he didn't rate full trust was annoying, and so he compressed the entire filepath and turned back to exploring the archives open to him.

...

This would be easier if he knew what he was looking for.

Overview first.

Skywarp, as advertised, only had maps standing for memory files. Starscream poked into a few of them, but the tagging system was fairly opaque to the untrained processor.

A long term project.

Thundercracker's memory files, in the other hand, were familiar and easy enough to read. A much better starting point for his investigation.

Now, where and when would the foundations of a value system be? It hadn't been in the core personality files.

Fairly young, probably.

Starscream had built his own value system early on, and only edited it after huge traumatic events (like losing Skyfire and then being told there wouldn't be a rescue mission for an 'inferior').

He took a look into the oldest memories he had access to.

Stepping off the assembly line, sitting through the critical abilities and Frame readiness exams, a bunch of lessons, mentorship program, more lessons...

The particulars were blurred by time, full of evidence of multiple defragmentations and compressions. And horribly boring besides. Which might be why it was not preserved more carefully.

Once the contents of this kind of lessons sunk in, the exact memory of the lesson itself stopped being necessary either way.

Thundercracker was probably still too young and naive at that point to think anything but what he was told to think, anyway.

...

But then again, the commonality of his values system with Skywarp's meant that it might be exactly what had happened.

Starscream wouldn't know what lessons newly built Seekers got after the post-sparking exams. He'd been pulled out of the normal track when he maxed out the scores on the intelligence tests, given another series of exam to see just how exceptional he was, and then...

Well he'd ended up on Iacon's University of Sciences.

When he'd come back...

There was no way he would have accepted being sat in classes with actual newsparks. He had flown on his own to achieve proficiency, haunted the range to learn to use his newly reintegrated onboard weaponry, studied the protocols manual and then sat his test.

So he had totally missed initial orientation.

It hadn't seemed critical. Still didn't, honestly. But it might be the reason for them holding values Starscream had no clue about.

Which made the fact that Thundercracker's memories of that time were vague as all get out and Skywarp's were indecipherable doubly annoying.

*can i help?* Thundercracker asked, rousing from his not-thinking long enough to check the logs and locate what Starscream had been looking at.

Thundercracker reclaiming his own processing space in order to engage with Starscream got Skywarp's own attention as the ressources he could draw on diminished.

This whole Spark merge thing could be horribly inconvenient to keep secrets.

Well.

Might as well say the truth.

Or at least part of it.

*i never got initial orientation.* Starscream settled on. *the one for newbuilt seekers?*

**puzzlement** came from the two of them.

*that boring scrap?* Skywarp answered.

*ah, yes. my files from then are pretty corrupted.* Thundercracker commented, looking through Starscream's digital pedeprints.

*mine shouldn't be...* Skywarp volunteered.

*i can't read yours...* Starscream admitted.

*let me try to fly you through it? it helped TC understand better before.*