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As the Second to the Air Commander of the Decepticon army, Skywarp liked to think it knew every flyer. Even if they didn’t talk, and Skywarp was definitely terrible at remembering names, it was sure it at least could remember a face after so many vorns. All the flyers had allied themselves with the Decepticon forces once the war started, but some it’d even known long before the war-
The ship had just crashed on this…icky organic planet. The thick atmosphere had clear skies, which Skywarp couldn’t be mad about, but it hadn’t had an opportunity to explore. Thundercracker seemed to have commendeerd its ability to teleport with how quickly he appeared each time Skywarp even felt the slightest itch to shrug off helping repair the Nemesis and take off.
And well, maybe it liked that Thundercracker was watching it, they’d never really gotten over…
Well, Slipstream was an okay replacement, even if she wasn’t trine.
Nobody was watching those clear skies, except it. There’d probably be more panic if there was.
Three unfamiliar…Seekers(?) hovered high over the Nemesis. It thought they seemed like Seekers, but it felt that one’s wings were shaped oddly, and that one didn’t have-
Seekers. Definitely.
They hadn’t seemed to have noticed it was watching them, the one in the middle had their arms crossed, and as Skywarp increased magnification on its optics, it almost mistook that sneer for someone else.
They were Seekers but they didn’t belong. Curious, curious. Maybe Skywarp really had lost its mind and would be joining Blitzwing, or maybe it had forgotten bots in this crash even though its processors felt fine.
Skywarp didn’t even give Thundercracker a warning sign by trying to teleport, and shot into the sky on its thrusters. The mystery Seekers turned in its direction, and aw, cute, one of them had actually yelped as they drew closer to one another.
The first thing Skywarp figured was that they looked so wrong because they lacked the extra armor any of them should have, base forms sticking out between gaps in whatever made up a basic alt mode. The second thing it noticed was that their eyes were blue.
“----!” The one on the left called, pressing into their trine leader’s (?) wing. Any cheeky comment or threat Skywarp could make died on its processor at the pitch of their voice.
Thundercracker had already caught up to it with a roar, and it pointed sharply at the mystery trine before Thundercracker could get a word in. “This planet has younglings!”
Despite nearly matching Skywarp in size, the sounds the two outer Seekers were so clearly…well, Skywarp wasn’t very good with sparklings and younglings and wasn’t usually allowed around them or the hatchery, but they were definitely not too old.
Thundercracker softened just slightly, it could tell. He studied the younglings, and then placed a hand on his sparkchamber. “I am Thundercracker. What are your designations?” He spoke slowly, testing their reactions.
This didn’t go anywhere as the younglings looked between each other, and then shook their heads.
“---Cybertron---?” The one in the middle spoke, and Skywarp couldn’t pick out a single word except for ‘Cybertron.’
“Yeah, Cybertron!” Skywarp cheered. “Now you can tell us what the frag you’re-”
“Skywarp.” Thundercracker said firmly, optics narrowed.
Skywarp teleported around them in rapid succession. “They don’t have any insignias?”
Neutrals after all this time was simply preposterous so Skywarp didn’t believe this for a second. Maybe it really had damaged its internals. Ugh, it hated every single medic on the ship! It didn’t want to go!
The younglings pulled up in the air slightly, the outer two looking to their leader. The leader sneared again, and put their hands on their hips, and all Skywarp could think of was-
“Starscream was lost in this quadrant, wasn’t he?” Thundercracker said the quiet part out loud. Thundercracker had said his name.
Starscream. Their lost trine. He’d always been too flighty to be anything expected of him. Had to go off and become a scientist. Had to go and get himself lost on an expedition.
They had begged for anyone to look into the disappearance. When the war broke out over 60,000 vorns later, they fought the injustice of the autobots in his honor.
Now there were three younglings hovering in front of them who looked remarkably like him. With voices too young to match the over 168,000 vorns he had been gone for. Something resembling hope had Skywarp’s tanks twisting, especially since the younglings had definitely reacted to that.
“---Starscream---” The leader finally matched Thundercracker’s gesture and put their hand on their spark chamber. “---um…’Cre…ator?” The youngling struggled with the word and their accent was thick but the sentiment was clear.
“Thundercracker,” its partner repeated. “Starscream was trine.”
“Trine!” The one on the left cried out, seeming the most excited to have finally got somewhere. “---trine..---”
The fact really sunk in.
Starscream was alive.