It was irony that the reason Thundercracker didn't want to return to the sector was also the reason that he came back. Passing through the spiral arms of the Milky Way, he remained long enough to complete a task that had been almost half a mega-cycle in the making.

He was satisfied with the completion of his self designated assignment. Satisfied that no one, not his wingmates, not his squadron or even Megatron knew of what he had done. By the time anyone figured out his perfidious actions, it would be far too late. There would be nothing they could do. No one would understand why he did what he needed to. And those that did, TC really didn't give a slag. He was prepared for acts of retaliation, and if he needed to, the Seeker would prove once and for all that he did not consider himself among the ranks of the Decepticons. If that message wasn't clear enough by what he had done, by what would soon be revealed.

Thundercracker had been away for even longer periods of time before. But never had he ignored messages, disregarded orders and flat out declined to return. How Starscream could expect him to return to his Trine after everything that had taken place, including the degrading manner in which the Supreme Air Commander had treated him was a further abasement that let TC discern his wingmate's estimation for him, or lack thereof. Secrets were acceptable when kept in their designated places, but he would not allow Starscream to continue to handle him.

He only stayed in touch with Rivet and Skywarp. While Warp only contacted him occasionally, Rivet continued to update and keep him informed of all that he was accomplishing. Something Thundercracker never asked for him to do, but found he couldn't ignore. So it wasn't much of a surprise that the medic was the first to contact him upon his return. Even if the Seeker had thought that such knowledge would have been out of the medic's ability to obtain.

"So you're back." Rivet gave him a small smile through the vid-relay. The Doctor had changed his appearance. His once dull coloring was now a vibrant yellow and green. His body had been slimmed down, multiple rotor blades folded behind his shoulders. The medic was happy with his decision to stay with the humans. The doctor choosing an emergency medial copter as his alt-form, another display of his cheerful acclimation to the planet and those that resided there. Being among them had allowed his optimism to shine through, his past with the Cons to rescind. And while being accepted took the medic many years, the humans held him in high enough regard to allow him to provide health care, to teach others his methods for treatments.

"I am."

"Just in time. I need a favor." He leaned forward. The screen filled with his now vibrant yellow optics before he pulled back. "And before you say no, I should let you know whom it involves. You see…" Rivet went on, and by the time he was through, TC had agreed.

Landing outside the medical compound, Rivet was waiting there to greet him. The building they stood outside had enough activity that more than a few of the wandering humans stopped to stare. Few ignored the resplendent Seeker. Others scurried along as he directed his attention down at them. His weapons had been deactivated upon his entering the atmosphere of the planet, but Thundercracker could have still done a great deal of destruction. The doctor had vouched for him, armed human soldiers still trailing their every move.

"I told her," Rivet let him know. "She seemed confused." The medic frowned hard, scratched his arm and shrugged his shoulders, causing his blades to momentary bend out. "I still don't understand why you didn't contact her, surely…"

Thundercracker cut him off. Some things would never change, including the medic's excessive inquiries. "I had things to do. She had things to do. End of discussion." His tone was sharp and absolute, despite how the medic had proved himself and was a valuable asset. But his thoughts regarding the female were not for Rivet to decipher.

The doctor only smiled knowingly, not deterred in the least. He examined Thundercracker's heavy stance, the position of his folded over arms, the tautness of his mouthpiece, the danger in his dim optics.

"She talked about you while you were gone, asked about you. I think she even worried about you."

He assimilated that information for a moment. Trying to decide if he should crush the medic's mouthpiece, or investigate further. Let the medic have the small victory he sought though.

"How is she?" TC needed to quell the vibration of Energon that had begun to swell at the further mention of the female.

The medic didn't talk much about Alexis in his communications. When Rivet did, what he said was vague, something he was sure the doctor did on purpose, trying to get him to ask directly. That tactic never worked, no matter how long he debated on asking. But now with her closer, there was no point not making the inquiry.

The medic's subtle smile bent further up, causing creases in his face that seemed to make his facial features appear disproportionate. He stepped closer and lowered his vocals.

"Good. And she hasn't taken another mate." The medic slyly slipped in, answering what TC really wanted to ask, but never would have. "But you might be surprised when you see her."

"Why is that?"

The medic turned smug and pleased, remaining cryptic. "You'll see." His blades extended and he folded into vehicle mode. The human guard backed a good distance away. "Follow me. I will take you to her. She's expecting you."

An uneasiness made his servos uncommonly tremble, made his vocals shut down. A burst of energy followed that rattled under his spark chamber, instilling him to follow.

Thundercracker located her long before they landed. Alexis still lived with the rest of her family. She wasn't at the residence when they landed. His sensors recognized her signature about a mile and a half off. Alexis was walking, following a path until his optics were able to identify her. She was carrying a small basket and someone was with her.

He didn't focus on that though. His optics seared on the female that he had wanted to see, but had been so determined not to. Thundercracker knew what the medic had been talking about the moment Alexis unexpectedly halted in her steps, mouth opening slightly before her shoulders lifted and she continued to walk toward the two mechs.

Her hair was shorter, her skin hale, her eyes once more vibrant with a light that spoke volumes of recovery. But she hadn't aged in the least. Alexis was more exquisite than he could have ever recalled. And that already stirring sensation that made his servos flex and his spark vibrate increased when her eyes settled on his optics, making his mainframe ignite.

The years that had passed before seeing her again, everything he had done and accomplished, felt insignificant. When Alexis was near, she was the purpose for his existence. Thundercracker had been haunted by her every moment he had been gone, every day, every cycle. He had rendered her more times than anyone of before. The digital, lifelike sketches that had sustained him, never able to catch the vibrancy of the actual person. But that didn't stop his digits from tracing the familiar paths of her digitized form when he was done, from rendering more.

Putting stuff down on the porch, Alexis put her hand out, a smaller one taking hold.

"You're here," Alexis spoke to Thundercracker, glancing over his form as if she couldn't quite resolve in herself that he was there. Swallowing hard, a glance spared at Rivet, something unsaid exchanged between the two. Rivet nodded his head. "This is Thundercracker, Aaron," she continued, looking proud and suddenly at ease as she spoke of the person below her. "Thundercracker, this is my son, Aaron Xavier Aih."

Bright yellow-green eyes locked onto his optics. The youngling scanned the Seeker, clear eyes lingering on the areas where his weapons were stored. A small brow lifted when his examination found the Decepticon symbol.

"He's a Decepticon, mother," Aaron informed Alexis, neither nervous nor scared just stating a fact. "Are you sure he's one of the good ones?"

Alexis nodded her head. "He is." Alexis smiled softly at Thundercracker, making the strangeness of him being called good dissipate. An involuntary step was taken closer to the female whose uplifted mouth made his internal cabling twist and pull and violently knot.

"Must we travel with him?" the youngling inquired, now in the Vildan language. "He smells different." Aaron's attention swept down the Seeker, once more analyzing him.

Thundercracker did the same. Aaron was lanky, probably considered tall for his age, of, what he realized was six years. His skin was pale with undertones of scarlet and fine patterned lines. He had dark raven hair and small pointed ears. He had his mother's mouth and had seemingly inherited the Vildan disposition.

"And what have I told you about that?" Alexis asked of her son, her words not in English either but the language of her departed husband. He had the sudden interest of hearing her speak Cybertronian, even if it was biologically impossible, even if she could only ever hope to learn the basics. His optics locked on her moving mouth, then the soft expanse of her neck.

"Not to judge people by how they smell."

Alexis laughed at that, a wide smile dominating her face from her son's factual tone. Aaron lit up, his chin lifting with pride. She hugged him tightly.

"Take the plants inside, will you?" She pointed to the house behind them. It had at least three visible additions that had been done over the years. A diverse garden of flowers, herbs, and bushes lined the front of the house and led up along the pathway to the door. "I need to talk to Thundercracker."

"Okay." He directed a sternly defiant look at the Seeker. "Should I let uncle know that a Decepticon is here? He has been wanting to test his new trippqen rifle."

"Not like that, jelly bean."

Aaron picked up the basket, gave another glance toward the medic, then a lingering stare at the Seeker that Thundercracker felt compelled to return. Neither looked away.

"Be sure to get something to eat. There is a sandwich in the fridge."

"Yes, mother."

Alexis turned back around after her son disappeared inside the house. Now that her attention was off her son, she seemed a little flustered.

"It's strange to see you again, Thundercracker." She bit her lip and frowned. "And I wouldn't ask for your help, if it wasn't important. If it wasn't so hard trying to get transportation to where I need to go. Are you still able to give me a ride to Renth?"

Alexis pushed her short hair behind her ears, fidgeted a little. Adorned in simple pants and an attractive one-sleeved shirt that rustled with the light wind, her pale skin glistened under the sun above. If he hadn't been going to that sector, TC would have been now. His optics rested on the conjugal band that was still wrapped around her arm, his processor taking off in a whirl of activity as he tried to decipher what that could possibly mean.

He crashed those investigative protocols, knowing the answer would hardly benefit him, knowing her reasons would have mattered too much.

"I am going to be in that area anyway. If you wish to accompany me, I have no objections," he told her, his tone flat and sounding disinterested, even to his receptors. Things were uncomfortable between then, even worse than that, strained. But she was willing to travel with him and able to request his help, and that took part of the undefinable edge off.

Alexis swallowed hard and peered up at him. "Then we can leave tomorrow. If that is okay with you? I still have some things that I…"

TC interrupted, "Fine. I will have one of my men come for you with a shuttle."

"Okay. Good. Great." She let out a long sigh. Her eyes were focused on him and hadn't left. "I really didn't expect to see you again. Not after not hearing from you in so long..." Alexis dropped her own words, shook her head. She turned to the medic.

"Rivet, I wanted to talk to you before you leave. Do you have a moment?"

The medic gestured toward TC and then waved his hand in the direction they had come from.

"Let me show…"

"I can find my way back," TC informed the two, wondering when the two had become such friends. Remembering, that he had been her medic during her pregnancy, was there when her son was born and had seen him grow.

More than could be said about Thundercracker.

Alexis, Sharaih, and her son had been settled on his ship for three days already. Traveling to Renth would take weeks. Finally getting a good look at the Vildan female now that she no longer wore her face veil, he found her to be different than expected. She still watched him, but no longer tried to keep him from interacting with Alexis.

He had forgotten how whole his ship felt when Alexis was on board. How balanced his existence felt. Cleaning out and reformatting a storage compartment, the three resided there with more amenities than they would ever need. But the thought of providing for Alexis, no matter how short a time frame, roused his systems in a pleasing disarray that only the female was capable of inducing.

But things were still stiff between he and Alexis, even awkward at times. And sometimes he would catch the female staring at him, a glimmer of unspoken resentment coloring her eyes a darkened green. She wanted him to leave all those years ago. But perhaps she didn't want him to disappear as he had, nor as long as he did.

What would she have thought if she knew he never meant to come back? What would Alexis say if she knew he never wanted to leave her? Not back then, not now, not ever again? He had been entirely determined not to see her again, knowing that Alexis did not want him, nor need him, and he could no longer face that decision she made, not rationally.

And yet here they were. But only because she needed to get to her husband's homeworld, for reasons she had yet to explain. Alexis was preoccupied with her son, watching over him, feeding him, teaching him. And they played together, filling his ship with laughter and happiness and a joy that only family units would have been capable of creating.

Thundercracker could resent her as well. Never forgetting that his willingness to take care of her and her family, to assist in raising the half human, perhaps not as his own, but with extreme care, had been rejected. And while he understood her reasoning, that didn't stifle the pangs of dismissal.

Aaron was so much like his mother. Unique, strange, but with a goodness, a blatant curiosity, and an intelligence that had already astounded him twice. He'd never had a sparkling before. But in the youngling he saw so many missed opportunities and experiences.

He could have never given Alexis a child. But the way she loved her son, protected him, looked out for him and nurtured him, made him crave a reality with her that he could never provide. TC found her independence more frustrating than beneficial. And knowing he had no future with her left the Seeker astoundingly bereft for things he'd never have. Alexis always did evoke anomalous emotions from him, affect his cold logic and tear through his core programming.

His life had been so much more orderly before her, so much simpler before he had been capable of sentiment and yearning.

Working on the remote access relay that allowed his ship access to the Decepticon made jumpgates, he still felt when Alexis entered the engine room. He continued with the task at hand, a delicate task that required his full attention. But he felt Alexis staring at him, couldn't shake the feel of her eyes, nor the loud exhaled breath that parted from her mouth.

She slowly came toward TC, stopping a couple of feet short of him. "You're… you're so small." Alexis breathed out, her mouth provocatively parted, her thick gaze on his reduced Cybertronian body.

"Compression chamber," he stated calmly. He had always been able to mask what he thought and felt, to displace and bury his emotions. He had to with his emotional wingmates. One of them needed to remain objective and undisturbed. And even if the three Seekers were intimately bonded as only a Trine could be, he still managed to keep a part of him hidden from the two, a required necessity in order to survive in such an environment.

With Alexis though, all those mega-cyles of self-induced restraint, of effortless detachment, warred with one another, making his responses to the female unexpected and unplanned, no matter how much he tried to prepare for them.

She bit her lip, and it took her a moment to process what he said. By the time she did, the female had moved two steps closer. His analytical systems spiked, his sensors desperate to expand their minimal scan of the female.

"What?" Alexis asked, wanting more information.

"Compression chamber, it allows me to contract my overall size. How else do you think us Cybertronians managed to fix, or even install such small components?"

She stepped closer. He was still taller than the female, but now, for the first time, without him becoming human, they were relatively the same size.

"Forced labor?"

This time it took him a moment to respond. Were her eyes always that green? Was her scent always so compellingly potent? Her mouth so soft and full? He could see the reddened tendrils mixed through her brown hair, the tiny pores on her porcelain flesh. Being on her level made his scanners more clear, no longer distorted with over processed data.

"Slaves?" he spoke with repugnance. The tool fell out of his hand when she stepped impossibly nearer.

"Yeah." She allowed a small frown to peak through, her chin lifting up to meet his eyes.

"Truly unnecessary," he rasped out.

"I see."

Alexis was distracted by her own curiosity. So distracted that she didn't notice that he had moved closer and that she was now backed against his workstation. Her gaze swept slowly along his form.

"Does it hurt?" She brought her hand up and in front of his shoulder panel, barely touching him before drawing back.

"Sometimes."

"Does it hurt now?" The female tilted her head and wet her mouth, making his focus sharply drift.

"No."

Her touch was back, mesmerized by the Decepticon symbol. Fingers brushed along the front of his wing, causing his whole body to jerk, for festering desire to catapult a most disturbing sound out of his mouthpiece.

Alexis' flesh colored, but she didn't back away, even as her hand fell solidly along her side.

"Did that hurt?"

His right optic ridge lifted, his spark rattled within its chamber, shadows of her touch still resonating on the sensitive flesh of his wing. His optics found her eyes. His hand caught her own. Thundercracker didn't move closer, but he didn't back away. Alexis lifted her other hand up in the air, and it took a moment to realize what she wanted. Lifting his arm up, he pressed his flat palm against her own.

"Same size," she said, fascinated.

"I'm still larger."

Alexis smiled at that, eyes falling down his body only to rise back up when she realized what she was doing. She blushed. "Yes. You are." Alexis got up on her tiptoes, looking directly into his optics. And then she moved away from him, rounding around his body, her eyes on his wings that had instinctively folded outward and up during her acute attentions.

"Can you still fly?" she asked of him, ever eager.

"I can," he answered, his low-pitched tone revealing just how much her curiosity was disturbing him.

Thundercracker wasn't one for spontaneity. So he startled more than just Alexis when his thrusters ignited. He grabbed to Alexis, lifting them off the ground. She clung to him, looking below on the deck then back at him. Her fingers tightened around his neck, her body snug against his own.

"Wow."

It wasn't the word, but the way she said it as she looked at him with awe that made a smug smile stretch his mouthpiece with satisfaction.

"Hold tighter."

"Why?"

Alexis didn't need an answer when he twisted them around and lifted higher up, when he took off in a rush of speed that made her wrap her legs between his own, her heart thumping soundly against his chassis.