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It started so gradually that Drax didn't even notice. The way that some bots from higher command began to stop Moombean in the halls and asking questions, advice or dropped things off to her.
It was so small at the start that he didn't notice it. Far more content in being by his best friend's side than anything else going on around him.
He knew, at the time that it wasn't good for a seeker to ignore everything around them, really. It was foolish. But, Moombean had always had better scanners and sensors than him and they just got better as they aged, with more experience to back up her uses.
It's the fifth time that Moon is stopped in the hall that he begins to put things together.
They were seeking her out. Asking for advice over this-and-that, wanting her thoughts on certain things.
Drax is confused, because what?
He knew his best friend was scary smart, had always been smart even when she was younger. She could pick him apart with her words the piece him back together without realising that she did it.
She learned, with age, what her words could do to the unprepared. She learned to control the impulse to rip into a bot with her vicious words and leave them whimpering on the ground in tears.
It had been funnier when they were younger, not quite sure of their place in the world and unaware of their effects on the people around them.
Now, when he had those barbs turned on him when he did something stupid or sank into his own violent impulses he got it.
They were too smart when young, prone to striking out first then thinking next. And then -
Moonbean's curiously over information, that she kept close to her spark, had gotten Lightstar killed -
It had taken them years to bring Moon back from the brink after that, to piece her back into something that could function.
Her family Unit had helped, Drax knew, but he couldn't quite help to think that it wouldn't have even happened if someone hadn't let her go off onto the planet herself.
(Even if a smaller bit of himself whispered that it was good she had grown up before she had killed someone with her words, but no - because Lightstar had been her Creator and she had loved him more than anything.)
"Drax." Moon interrupted his dark thoughts. He twitched, realising he had stopped walking.
"Yeah, 'Moon?" He asked.
"I have to go help Ambush with some things." She said, pointing a clawed finger at the minibot in front of her. Ambush waved, looking amused. "I'll see you in the rec room later."
Drax twitched again, hands clasping helplessly at his sides as he watched his friend wander off with the minibot.
He hated it, despite how much it sickened him in equal measure. He shouldn't be jealous over some other mech stealing away his fellow seekers’ attention.
But -
They had been best friends since sparklings. It had always been DraxandMoon never Drax and Moon.
And now, they were stealing her away from him.
He wasn't jealous. He wasn't.
"Ya be jealous, mech." Rem said, laughing. "Acting like a 'lil sparkling with their toy taken' away!"
Drax groaned, dragging his clawed hands over his face. " Stop it ." He growled, planting his face on the table and groped miserly for his energon.
Rem, the aft, kept laughing. The small cassette had been in the rec room when he had arrived and had decided to stick around to laugh at his misery.
Jukebox better not have been expecting his cassette back in perfect condition because he swore he was gonna scrap the little fragger.
"How half the Nexus is convinced that you're a stoic bot I won't ever know!" Rem grinned cockly, taking a sip of his energon. "You're all soft inside that hard shell."
" I'm gonna tear you apart, Rem!" He snarled, denting the table with his claws.
Rem tilted his head, optics blinking and he looked far more serious than before. Drax started, thrown for a loop still with how quick Rem flipped emotions.
He had known, of course, that Rem wasn't as stable as his brothers. He had been the first cassette that Jukebox had and when he had been made, something went wrong somewhere along the lines and had messed Rem up in the head a little bit.
It was why, his original name, Remix, had been passed into his younger brother and he had been stuck with Rem. A half-way finished musical note that didn't sound quite right without the other half, but worked regardless.
He felt pity for the mech before it was quickly shoved aside because he was an aft. The cocky little slagger.
"Ya knew ya' wouldn't stick together all the time, didn't ya?" Rem asked, all playfulness pushed aside.
"I-I knew that!" He sputtered, waving his hand. His energon cube twisted and spilt some liquid before he settled down.
"Then, if ya knew it was just time," Rem leaned forward, jerking a small finger at him. Drax jerked back, warily watching the digit. "Why are y'all moopy 'bout it now?"
Drax huffed, frustrated at his feelings. Finally, he just settled for shrugging as he was equally baffled at his own emotions.
"I just - I guess I thought we would have more time together.."
Rem stared at him for a while after that, as if he couldn't quite get a grasp on the situation but desperately wanted to.
"I think, mech." he said, accent completely gone. "That you might need to sit that little femme of yours down and have a little chat."
"Yeah.." Drax said, staring down at the table. Tracing the dents with a claw. "Yeah, I think I do."
:Drax; Moon's voice echoed in his comlink. :I'm off free next cycle, meet up with me?;
Drax clenched his hands, his claws pricking his palm slightly before he eased them up.
He stared ahead of him. At Assault laughing at something he had said, completely obvious to Galeforce and Aries' groans. Comet smiled from his spot in the corner with Whirlwind and Airstrike.
He asked himself, what did he have to lose? He watched them, Gale' twisting out of Assaults, well, assault. Aries making his way over to the three in the corner before turning and waving over to him.
He decided. A lot.
:Sorry femme, I'm busy.:
He walked over and settled down next to the Comet, amusement pressing against his EMD shield and tried to ignore the small splash of guilt/regret/sadness that lingered.
If they were going separate ways, then it will be on his terms.
He ignored the whisper that said it could work if he tried.
He's always been good at ignoring those whispers.
"Mech, wait up!" Drax grunted, slowing down to allow the small femme to catch up to him.
Smolderdash rolled around him a few times to bleed off momentum before skidding to a stop at his side. "Mech, seeker, you're a hard bot to track down when you don't want to be found!"
Drax glared, not particularly happy to see the femme. She had always rubbed him the wrong way with her attitude despite her best attempts to 'befriend' him.
Smolderdash grinned, not seeming to notice or care about his hostility. She clapped him on the shoulder despite his attempt to lean away and started to wheel ahead slightly.
Taking that as a cue to continue on with his walk, he followed.
Smolderdash wasn't his favourite superior, but she also wasn't his least favourite. Because despite her personality she was good at her job, probably the best fitted for it.
She was social, liked talking to people and had a way of making them relax around her.
Not him, it just made him even more tense when she tried to get him to relax.
"You've got the higher-ups in a fits, mech!" She twisted around to face him, dodging around the other's in her way. "Havin' them running around like turbo-rats with energon spilled."
"Haven't got a clue what you're on about." He answered, truthfully for once. Because he didn't. He was pretty sure he hadn't done anything to mess up something the higher-ups had working on lately, that was mostly when he and Moon were together that they ran afoul of their plans and gleefully destroyed them.
Smolderdash hummed, not sounding convinced and Drax briefly wondered if he could get away with pushing her down the stairs and claiming it was an accident. Probably not.
He had enough warnings about violence enough as it was that he'd probably be brigged without thought.
"Hey, did you hear that Fleet Admiral Stormchaser is retiring?" Smolderdash asked, switching topics and further annoying Drax over her presence.
He grunted, wanting her to get it over with and leave him be as quickly as possible.
"I heard he's been training up that femme of yours, mech." He twitched, suddenly listening as he watched her from the corner of his optics. "Along with her second, third and fourth since Stormchaser' are retiring with him."
Smolderdash tilted her head to look him in the optics, her expression smoothing out. "You wouldn't know anything about that, would you?"
Drax stopped, spark thudding against its chamber. What? He asked himself. What -
But that wasn't possible -
He wasn't being trained by Stormchaser.
He had always been Moon's second, always. Well with what had happened lately -
He couldn't really call himself her second anymore when he had been blowing her off lately, could he?
Their trine, if one could call it one, was dysfunctional and odd even amongst other seekers. Lightstar's death had scared Moon into breaking any bonds besides her Unit's one, even the small one they used to have when younger. And him -
He wouldn't - couldn't - bond with another that wasn't his sparkmate after his creator and carrier's death, the potential loss was too much for his spark to handle.
Skyline, Moon's nest-brother, was the odd one out of their trine. He could bond with others, did not show the same aversion to it as they did. He just… didn't.
They had threw ideas and thoughts about why around for a whole before deciding that the whole thing didn't matter. They weren't a whole trine but they worked with it the best they could and eventually everyone around them coped with it.
So, if he wasn't being trained up. Then it was safe to guess that Skyline wasn't either as the mech seeker hadn't changed his routine nor suddenly became busy all of a sudden.
Then who was being trained up? The only ones he hardly really seen much of lately was Whirlwind and Airstrike, but they had only recently began to hang out so for all he knew it was their normal routine, and Skynet, who was almost always busy.
But - he had to admit. That for a trine for Moon, those three weren't a back pick. Of course, one would be in command without being part of the trine as to balance it out.
Smolderdash frowned, spotting his faraway look and correcting guessing. "Oh, so you're not her second?"
She said it so bluntly, as if it was just fact and meant nothing that Drax had to stalk away least he attempt to murder a superior.
He had suddenly developed a fierce hatred for Smolderdash that no one else could understand.
"Thank you, thank you!" The white and orange mech on the bridge - Stormchaser - said. "It's been wonderful working with you all these years! Yes! Especially you, Cynder!"
The mech and femmes around the room laughed. Stormchaser smiled as he waited for them to quiet down.
"Alright, alright! Let's get this over with already!" The crowd settled, excitement nearly physically in the air.
"Taking over from here on as fourth, give a big welcome to Rear Admiral Whirlwind!" Stormchaser grinned, clearly happy at the cheers even if they weren't all that big, as a light blue and white seeker came to stand at the edge.
Whirlwind, one of the seekers he had been spending time with recently, grinned easily and he waved at some of the bots he knew for awhile as he crowed subsided again before moving over.
"Good enough, good enough I suppose." A small scattering of laughter was heard. "Next up is our third! Vice Admiral Skynet!"
There was a loud applause this time, but still no where near the volume that had been when Stormchaser took the stage.
A large, thin white- silver seeker stepped up beside Whirlwind. He turned, shook Stormchaser's hand then Whirlwind and briefly, Drax thought he heard a sarcastic congratulations being said.
"Our second, of the day, Admiral Airstike!" This time, instead of just waiting for the crowd Stormchaser began to clap enthusiastically and bounce on his feet.
Airstrike, one of the largest Seeker's they had onboard the Nexus most likely stepped over to them and bowed to the crowd, that age it up like an energon goodie and laughed.
Nice-to-meet-yous and congratulations done being thrown about to the tall seeker it fell silent. Stormchaser looked ecstatic, clearly loving being so dramatic now that he didn't have to deal with the paperwork that usually came with being boss of the seekers now.
"And, after all this time, the brand new Fleet Admiral…." He paused, for great effect which caused snickers and boos from the others he announced his successor. "Moonbean!"
The crowd went wild, clearly startling poor Moon. She looked like a startled turbo-rat had gotten caught with her hand in food.
Despite her expression, Drax found himself staring at her.
She was beautiful. She had clearly been dressed up for the announcement, her silver-blue frame had been buffered up with sparkles of gold that twinkled when she moved.
Her face smoothed out, leaving a soft smile that took his breath away. She looked over the bots like she couldn't quite believe that she was being given a spot on command.
He had never seen her look as astonishing as she did in that very minute.
It was broken when she was surrounded by command, who were clearly happy to see her as they shook her hand and congratulated her.
In spite of the pretty picture he had seen, hatred surged up like a volcano and he turned away from the scene before he did something drastic.
He froze as he found himself staring straight at a large mech not that far away from him, watching him back.
Normally, with the mech being a grounder he wouldn't feel the need to acknowledge them but -
Altair was their Prime.
The one his old seeker commander had followed when the rest left with Starscream to the Deception Faction.
He was one of the First Primes. Ancient. Old .
Yet, he couldn't seem to curb the hatred that filled him so he stared back, straight through the visor that showed him on it, he watched his own orange optics flicker.
Red optics stared back.