Twist

Chapter 47: Deal

Temptest left for patrol in the morning. She needed some air to cool her vents and wake her up. She didn't manage any recharge after her sparring lesson with Optimus. It was hard to figure out whether his words made her really angry or very, very stupid.

Best not to dwell on it. Now that her comms were fixed and she'd obtained her team's frequencies again from Ratchet's database on the computer, she figured it was about time she contacted them.

After some trial and error, she was able to send Megatronus her call. "Hey."

"Temptest?"

"It's me," she answered. "How are you?"

"How am I? I'm fine," he paused. "How are you?"

Temptest sighed. "Good enough."

"Are the Autobots bothering you?"

"Not anymore than I'm bothering them," Temptest grimaced. "It's complicated. I don't really want to talk about it."

Megatronus didn't press. "The mission, then? Optimus sent a report last night of the day's dealings. You got further this week over there than we have the entire time they were stuck here."

"We have Ultra Magnus to thank for that," Temptest responded.

He hummed. "Despite the fact that you're the one who called me, I get the feeling you're not in a talkative mood."

Temptest kept her optics trained on the ground below and slowed down. "You didn't tell me."

"Tell you... about what?"

"Airachnid," Temptest answered in disappointment. "I thought you would have trusted me... but I guess you couldn't. Can't. Especially not now."

Megatronus didn't respond immediately. "It was a complicated situation. I wanted to put you first and you needed the space... How much do you know?"

"Enough."

"Before you do anything crazy, I just want you to know that we understand. If you need to talk—"

Temptest interrupted. "I've got it. I talked to Optimus."

"Optimus?"

"Yeah, the Autobots have experience with this kind of thing," Temptest explained. "I'll be fine. I just... I'm a little... How is our Optimus? Is he still hiding?"

"As far as we know," Megatronus answered. "We're keeping an optic out. I'll let you know if he makes any moves while you're gone."

Temptest nodded. "Good. I'll see you soon."

"You too."

She deactivated her comms and sighed. The ground was clear enough. Temptest figured it was about time to head back to the Autobot base, but she didn't want to go yet. Maybe she could fly over Jasper and see how the city looked.

"Hey, Ratchet," Temptest reactivated her comms. "I finished patrolling. I'm going to fly a little while longer."

"I don't care," he responded gruffly. "This isn't Decepticon Command. You don't need to be so annoying."

Temptest turned her comms back off. What a grouch. She shifted directions and headed for Jasper. In her dimension, the place had been evacuated and became a ghost town after Optimus used the Omega Lock to create Omega Supreme. The fortress was destroyed now, but Jasper was still empty.

The same thing likely happened here. One of the Autobots mentioned Megatron doing something similar. What was the name of his fort? The Mountain of Darkness? Mt. Dark? Something gloomy and lacking creativity.