"Airachnid," Temptest scowled at the six-legged femme and folded her arms.

Knockout elbowed her. "Be nice."

Airachnid walked over. "Hi, Temptest."

Megatron looked between the three of them, considering something, and then grabbed Soundwave's arm and walked away. "We'll be contacting Agent Fowler in another room. Try to keep your voices down."

"Shouldn't be too hard," Temptest muttered. "Airachnid is really good at ignoring people."

Temptest pulled Knockout away, leaving the ex-Decepticon alone in her usually empty base.

Knockout stared at Temptest. "What a great job you did of thanking Airachnid for letting us stay in her base."

"I hate neutrals and I don't care."

"Airachnid is your friend!"

"Was."

Knockout rolled his optics. "You should be nicer to her. She's not a bad bot."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because."

Knockout stopped, pulling his arm out of Temptest's grip and glaring. "Breakdown and Starscream are both gone. We don't have a lot of options and we need Airachnid. You need to grow up."

"Did Soundwave tell you to say that?"

"It doesn't matter," Knockout groaned. "There is only four of us. We need help and Airachnid has proven time and again that she is trustworthy."

Temptest scowled. "She left us. She left us in the middle of a war for freedom so she could frolic with humans! I've got nothing against the humans, but she basically used us! We, the Decepticons, fought to free people like her from subjugation and the moment the exodus was proposed, she ran away. What does that say about her feelings for the cause? What doe-"

"It doesn't matter anymore!" Knockout grabbed her shoulders and shook her a little. "We need all the help we can get and it doesn't matter who we ask! Airachnid is here. Just because you don't like her doesn't mean she isn't valuable or trustworthy, and you most certainly can't define her allegiances for her."

"I don't have to," Temptest pulled away. "She defined them the moment she left."

Temptest turned around and started walking away, but Knockout followed. "That's not fair."

"Life isn't fair."

"That's not a good excuse."

Temptest whirled around and snarled. "I don't need an excuse!"

Knockout took a step back.

Temptest's gaze softened. "I'm sorry."

"For what?"

"I don't... I didn't mean to make you upset."

Knockout looked down, his optics pained. "The war has taken my sparkmate, it's taken one of my best friends, and it's put all of us through hell. I'm already upset, but I don't let that ruin our chances of defeating the Autobots. I don't let it control me. Breakdown wouldn't have wanted that."

He grabbed her servo. "Temptest, you make me scared of you. You weren't like this before... But you need to stop. You can't sustain anger. That's not what our cause is about. It's not who you're supposed to be."

"What am I supposed to do?" Temptest demanded. "When the Autobots are killing us left and right, am I supposed to just lay down and die? The Decepticons were built on anger, we-"

"We were built on hope!" Knockout exclaimed. "I haven't seen you hopeful except-"

His optics widened and he stared at her for a moment, the gears in his processor visibly turning. "You need to find... someone... that gives you hope. Someone who was bad once but can be good."

Temptest frowned. "Airachnid doesn't deserve... she..."

Knockout blinked. "Yeah? Airachnid. That's exactly who I was talking about. You need to forgive Airachnid."

Temptest huffed. "Whatever. Okay. I'll... I'll try and deal with her later. Nicely."

"Thank you," Knockout sighed.

"But..." Temptest smiled up at him meekly. "Maybe you want to let off steam?"

Knockout grinned, but tried to hide it. "No."

"Please?" Temptest elbowed him. "We should have a little bit of fun. Lately, we've been occupied with... stuff, and we deserve a good break."

"Maybe," Knockout jiggled his legs. "I dunno if Megatron would let us."

"Since when have we asked him for permission?"

Knockout bit his derma. "They might need us."

"Soundwave can comm you," Temptest told him. "Megatron and I synced our comms again, too, so he could comm me. And they've-ugh-they've got Airachnid. We're good. We have time. Come on."

"Okay, fine!" Knockout squealed. "You've convinced me, let's go!"

Temptest grinned and followed suit, shifting into a jet and flying after him. Once the base was left behind them in a cloud of dust, Knockout cheered loudly and drove faster, bypassing the speed limit by a landslide.

"That's the fastest you got?" Temptest yelled, easily outpacing him.

"Flying is cheating!" he yelled back.

"Wheels are for whimps!"

"Wings are for weenies!"

"Tires are turds!"

"Turbines have taxes!"

"What are taxes!?"

"Ask Jack!"

Knockout took a sharp turn at the side of a ravine and laughed, watching as Temptest slowed down to turn around. The femme didn't keep her optics on the ground well enough to follow him.

Then another jet suddenly flew out of the ravine, perpendicular to her trajectory, and took off in another direction. Knockout slammed on his breaks and Temptest nearly fell out of the sky.

"Starscream?" she whispered.

Without another second of hesitation, the femme flew after him.

"Wait!" Knockout transformed and growled at the retreating jets. "Gliding is for glitches."

Admittedly, it took Temptest about 10 seconds to remember that there was an alternative dimension with evil Decepticons, including Starscream, but that was long enough for her to foolishly fly after him. The realization, however, was not enough to deter her from continuing to follow him.

"Hey!" Temptest yelled out. "Land on the ground and transform!"

"No!"

"Why not!?"

The seeker turned sharply. "Fine!"

Oh, well that was easy.

Temptest followed the other Decepticon down to the ground and landed next to him, sucking in a breath when the silver seeker turned to look at her with those strikingly red optics.

"Hello," she greeted with a frown.

"Where is Megatron?" Starscream demanded.

"Errr," Temptest tilted her helm. "Mine?"

"Yes, yours," Starscream sneered. "Why would I want anything to do with the pompous glitch from my dimension?"

Temptest perked up. "You don't like your Megatron?"

"Did calling him a pompous glitch not answer that question?"

"Right," Temptest nodded. "He's at our base."

"Where?"

Temptest frowned. "I'm not sure I should tell you that..."

Starscream pointed one of his rockets at her. "I'm not giving you a choice."

"Why do you want to see him?" Temptest questioned, looking at the rocket disapprovingly.

"Because my Megatron is here," Starscream glowered. "And I know three overpowered mechs on this planet that want to kill him."

Temptest grimaced. "He's here? Who else is here?"

"Doesn't matter," Starscream snapped. "Take me to your leader."

Temptest crossed her arms. "Well, what if I say no?"

"I'll shoot you through the spark," Starscream waved his rocket arm like she was stupid. "Duh."

"If you shoot me, I know one Knockout who saw us disappear together and three powerhouses who would want to kill you."

Starscream paused, stared at her, and then put his arm down. "That's a fair point. What do you want?"

"I just want to talk," Temptest took a few steps closer. "I knew another Starscream, but I don't know you. I want to make you an offer."

"An offer?"

Oh, Megatron was going to chew her helm off and use it as gum for the next three decades. But she did know another bot who was particularly willing to rehabilitate bots. Even if Starscream was a tad more screwed up than the Starscream Temptest used to know, she was confident that she could help fix him.

How different could he really be?

There was a small voice in her helm screaming about the differences between the Optimuss, but Temptest quickly pushed it down in favor of the other voice.

"You surrender to me," Temptest began, "and join my team of Decepticons by vowing to uphold our ideals of justice and peace."

Starscream cackled. "Do you think I'm stupid?"

"No, but I believe you don't want to be evil."

He rolled his optics. "Where did you get that idea?"

"TEMPTEST!"

Oh, frag and a half.

Temptest turned around to see a groundbridge opening not far behind her and a stream of bots flowed through. Megatron was first and his optics blazed with anger. Behind her, Starscream squeaked. The other Decepticons and-ugh, even the Autobots were about to witness Megatron embarrassing her.

"Step away fro-"

Temptest got in Megatron's way as he tried to get to Starscream. "Wait."

"You don't understand," Megatron glared at her. "He's not our Starscream. Everyone from the other dimension is evil."

Bumblebee whined. "He still hates us."

"Other than the Autobots," Megatron admittedly half-heartedly. "But we have no idea what kind of Decepticon this Starscream is."

"He's a traitor, a liar, and a manipulative fragger," Arcee summed up. "I wouldn't trust him as far as I could throw him."

"I know from personal experience that I can be thrown pretty far," Starscream looked between Optimus and Megatron. "But you two have a very good reason to trust me this time."

Almost mirrors of each other, the two leaders frowned at Starscream and raised an eyebrow.

"Megatron is here," Starscream told them. "And I've come to help you take him down."

"Why should we trust you?" Optimus asked. "Last time we did so, you stole the keys to saving our planet and handed them over to the very mech who you now offer to destroy."

Starscream looked at Temptest and smirked. "Well, because I've accepted the offer to surrender and join the Decepticons, of course."

"What offer?" Megatron looked at Temptest, his optic twitching with restrained fury.

"You didn't know?" Starscream asked. "Temptest offered to personally oversee my activities and help me become a better bot. She promised."

That wasn't entirely, true, but-

"YOU DID WHAT!?" Megatron stomped over and grabbed her audio receiver before dragging her through the groundbridge.