Chapter Text
"I found him!"
Those were the three little words he'd been dreading hearing.
"Chromedome, look, look! It's him!"
Rewind bounded across the room, optics flushed with delight, and grabbed Chromedome's hand, tugging him over to the workstation.
Normally, he loved seeing his smaller companion like this. The energy, the passion for his work coursing through him was enough for a mech the size of a Magnus, and it made Chromedome feel alive just to see it. He'd grin, and tease Rewind over the way he all but danced around the room, and he'd be rewarded with a moment's embarrassment before the excitement of his find would sweep him away again in a torrent of happy chatter.
This time, a curious numbness began to descend.
A short video clip played on the screen - a few seconds of grainy, black and white security camera footage, looping over and over. A mech towered over some sort of counter, talking with the tiny organic behind the desk. An inset was zoomed in on his face.
There was certainly a resemblance, but -
"The quality of this vid is terrible, where'd you get it?" Chromedome frowned, scanning the metadata of the file. "There are no ID tags or anything, just-"
"-just a timestamp, I know, I know!" interrupted Rewind impatiently. "It's Delta Ci 6, it's a low-tech organic planet. The point is, this was taken just a few hours ago, and it's him! We've finally got a location for him!"
"Not for long. Look." Chromedome pointed at sign above the counter. "Interplanetary departure lounge. Looks like he's heading off to somewhere else."
"Yes, but it's still the break we've been waiting for! Come on, we need to figure out how to get there before he leaves!"
"You want to just up and head off to Delta Ci 6, right now?"
"Well, of course! How else are we going to catch up to him?"
"What about our work here? Your research -"
"Chromedome, it's Dominus. We've been searching for him for centuries!"
"Rewind..." Chromedome hesitated. "That footage is awfully bad... it might not be him, you know. There's no way to be sure."
Rewind shot him a betrayed look. "There's one way I can think of!"
"I just don't want you to be disappointed if -"
"Why are you being so negative about this? Aren't you happy for me?"
And there was the crux of the problem. He wasn't happy, not at all. He was jealous and afraid, terrified that this might finally be it. That this amazing, unlooked-for reprieve in the disaster that was his life might finally be ending, and there was nothing he could do to stop it.
The diminutive archivist - glaring at him, waiting for an answer - had given him hope. Now the time had come - could he really deny him the same?
"I... of course I am, Rewind," he said, groping for a reason that Rewind would understand. "I just - I'm just trying to look out for you, okay? Remember that lead you had on Tanis IV?"
"We knew that was just a rumour."
"I know, but I still hated seeing you so disappointed."
"I'm certain this time though, Chromedome." Rewind took his hand, pleading light shining from his eyes. "This is it. I'm sure of it."
Chromedome took a deep breath, fuel pump choking in his chest, and nodded once. "Okay. Okay. Let's get to work then."
The delight in Rewind's face was enough, he decided.
Rewind was engrossed in his screen when Chromedome returned. The archivist waved him over without looking up.
"I did some checking. There's only one vessel due to depart from Delta Ci 6 that could carry someone his size - it's a private shuttle, and it leaves in twelve hours. These records are so incomplete though - there's no itinerary available. I couldn't begin to guess where he's headed next."
Chromedome handed Rewind a datapad.
"Well, you're in luck - I just got off the commline with the captain of the freighter that dropped off your security footage. They're heading back that way as soon as they finish refuelling. You'll be cutting it fine, but if you can get to the spaceport by then, they should be able to get you there before his shuttle leaves."
"That's fantastic!" Rewind grabbed the datapad, skimming through its contents greedily. "There's a ground shuttle leaving for the spaceport in an hour. It'll take a while to get us there, but it looks like the schedules line up!"
"Not 'us'. Not this time."
Rewind looked up, dismayed. "You're not coming with me?"
"I can't." Oh, this was going to be difficult. "No-one's scheduled to head back this way from Delta Ci any time soon. It would probably take months of hitchhiking to get back here. Command would never let me leave for that long. You're a non-combatant, they can't stop you - but me..."
Inside his fingers, the hated needles itched.
"Chromedome..."
He stared at the floor, unwilling to make eye contact. "If you don't go now, you'll never get there in time to catch him."
"There must be something we can do - You could speak to Prowl, there must be some favour he owes you -"
Chromedome made an agonised sound. "Prowl would never sign off on something like this, you know that. Not when they need me so badly here."
It'd been a long time since he was thankful for having Prowl and Command interfering in his life, if he ever had been. In truth, though, this time the excuse - however valid - was welcome. Bad enough to watch the most important person in his life walk out the door; he didn't need to be there for the joyful reunion. Didn't want to be there, to watch as he was slowly forgotten. He could never compete with someone like Dominus. What did a jumped-up forensic surgeon have to offer, compared with the mech responsible for emancipating Rewind's entire social class?
Ruthlessly, he squashed those feelings down. This wasn't about him. Not any more.
"You need to hurry, if you're going to make the departure window."
Rewind stared at him, an unreadable expression on his face. "You're okay with this? Staying behind? Letting me go without you?"
Not in the slightest.
"You said it yourself. It's Dominus. You've been waiting for this moment for so long now." He tried for a smile, and almost convinced himself. "Come on. I'll help you get your things."
Maybe it was for the best.
"It's time to go."
"Walk me to the station?"
"Of course."
They walked in silence through the corridors and avenues until they reached the ground shuttle that would take him to the spaceport. They paused at the station entrance, the last pool of quiet before the bustling chaos inside.
Rewind cleared his vocaliser. "Well... I guess this is it."
"Yeah."
"I'm going to miss you, buddy."
"Yeah. Me too."
They stood there awkwardly for a moment, Rewind clutching his small travel bag while Chromedome fidgeted, unable to hold his gaze. They were only a few metres apart, but to Chromedome it already felt like an insurmountable gulf.
He had to hold it together. He couldn't let Rewind know how much this was tearing him up inside.
"Will you be okay without me?"
Say 'no'. Tell him how much you need him, and he'll stay.
He'll stay, and resent you forever.
"I'll be fine. I promise."
"I'll call you. As soon as I can."
"I'd like that."
More silence. This was unbearable.
"Chromedome -"
"You should head on inside. Don't want to miss your ride. And I'd better go myself - they'll be waiting for me in surgery."
For a moment, it looked like Rewind would argue. But eventually, he just nodded and shouldered his bag. "Take care, Chromedome."
"Take care, Rewind."
Watching him turn and walk through that door was the hardest thing Chromedome had ever done.
He stayed and watched until the ground shuttle pulled away. Then without a word he drove back to the surgery and the waiting autopsy room.
Hours later, when he stumbled back to the empty apartment and lay himself down on the cold recharge slab, his last thought before powering down was of Rewind's tiny hand pressed against the window.
A gentle, familiar touch to his helm woke him with a gasp, brushing aside the cobwebs of too many other lives.
"Rewind? What are you still doing here? The shuttle -"
"There was a change of plans when I got to the spaceport. Apparently non-combatants can't just do whatever they want, after all." He cocked his head, a fond, sad smile twisting his faceplates as Chromedome sat up. "It seems I'm needed here too."
Chromedome ran his hand gently down Rewind's back, apology in his touch. "I'm sorry," he whispered quietly. "I know how much you wanted this."
Rewind shrugged, trying to brush it off, but the carefully hidden disappointment was clear to Chromedome in the quiet stillness of his body. "It probably wasn't even him. The footage was dreadful - it could have been anyone. I was just seeing what I wanted to see."
"Still -"
"It doesn't matter." Rewind pressed his forehead to Chromedome's, his small hand slipping into the larger and squeezing gently. "There'll be other chances. Ones when we can go together. I'm not leaving you behind."
Chromedome gathered him into his arms and held him close, trying to comfort Rewind, as Rewind had done for him so many times before.
But no matter how he tried, he couldn't slow the racing of his thoughts - he was so giddy with relief that Rewind had stayed, and so riddled with guilt over that happiness, that he barely knew which way was up.
He was a terrible partner. He was selfish, and jealous, and so much less than Rewind deserved.
And he was so, so lucky to have him in his arms for a little while longer.
He closed his eyes, and thought of three little words.