The Autobots were caught off-guard by Jetfire suddenly bursting into sobs. He'd been fine just a moment before, and then he gave a slight whimper, his bottom lip quivering, before dropping to his knees and beginning to cry.

"Enough of that, soldier." Sentinel ordered, but Jetfire didn't let up. "Pull yourself together!"

"I cannot...!" The orange twin gasped, "He is afraid...!"

"He's reacting to how Jetstorm's feeling...!" Prowl informed, bending down to the junior elite guard and rubbing his back as Jetfire expressed his twin's sorrow.

A few minutes passed before Jetfire was finally able to pull his emotions back under his own control, and he wiped tears from his faceplate. "Brother... We will find you...!" He whispered, "...Somewhere."

"You good, 'Fire?" Jazz asked, earning a nod from the younger officer. "Good."

"Now can we please get back to the task at hand?" Sentinel muttered, "We don't have time for over-emotional outbursts."

"Sentinel, come on. Have a spark." Optimus started, but paused as fire flared up from Jetfire's wrists.

"Over...Emotional...!?" Jetfire hissed. He got up to his feet, shoving a flaming finger in his superior officer's face. "You are saying you did not be emotional when you thought Elita-One was offline!? That you were not worried when you did not know for certain!?"

You could have heard a pin drop all the way across Detroit with how quiet it suddenly got.

Bumblebee leaned down to Sari's level, his voice barely a whisper. "...I think that's the clearest sentence I've ever heard him say..."

Sentinel didn't seem sure what to do next. His optics were wide, looking at the flames licking off of the twin's palms and dissipating just under his nose. He had expected this kind of disrespect from Optimus or any of his team, but one of his junior officers?

Jetfire just stood there, panting hard before finally extinguishing the flames and walking out of the medical bay. "I am going to find my brother." He informed firmly, and then he hurried out of the plant.

Finally, Sentinel spoke, glaring at Optimus. "You see what kind of poor influence you're being, Optimus!?"

Optimus' optics darkened at the accusation, but only for a moment before Optimus waved a hand in dismissal. "It's not me, Sentinel... Jetfire's just finally taken off the rose-colored glasses and can see reality clearly now."

"What in the Allspark are you talking about!? Rose-colored glasses."

"It's an Earth saying." Prowl informed, "It means to see without a blinding belief in something...or someone."

"Are you threatening me, Organic-Moder!?" Sentinel growled, glaring at the cat-bot but not getting too close to him. Prowl's tail lashed back and forth a few times, but he said nothing more. "You'd be wise to remember your rank."

"And you would be wise to remember who saved your sorry aft when you made that deal with Lockdown." Optimus retorted, "You only show respect to anyone who outranks you, and you're an exhaust pipe to everyone else."

"Oh, like you're some saint! It's your fault we lost her on Arach 7!"

"Black Arachnia's fate is on many heads, Sentinel. Mine, yours, the High Council's for not letting us go back for her. And that doesn't affect how you treat people not even involved in the incident. Jetfire and Jetstorm both have served under you faithfully despite you always insulting them when they fail or even when they succeed!"

"You don't get to tell me how to treat my officers, Optimus! Just because you took Ultra Magnus' hammer and got a lucky shot on Megatron that does not make you a hero!"

Optimus' eyebrows furrowed as he lowered his tone, "Neither does schmoozing your way up the ranks and then treating everyone else like the ground you walk on."

Sentinel probably would have responded, but Optimus was already walking out of the room. They heard him transform and then drive out of the plant, leaving the others in an awkward silence until eventually they all hurried in their separate ways.

Ratchet sighed, overlooking the readings he'd gotten when Jetfire had been calm enough to let him. "...I just hope the other kid's okay out there..."

___________________________________________________________________________

Even Jetstorm had been taken by surprise by his brother's outburst. He'd forced himself to pull himself together, especially once he'd seen how it was affecting Jetfire.

But the amount of rage that had come slamming into him like a wave had startled him; he hadn't felt his brother get that angry since the training exercise where Starscream's coding had injured him and Jetfire had torched the decepticon, nearly burning down the training facility in the process.

That day had been the one where they'd discovered their elemental skills: fire and wind. Jetstorm could put his brother's flames out, but he could also feed them, depending on the situation; it was one of the reasons the two worked together so well, on top of them being literal two halves of a whole.

When Jetfire had stormed out, Jetstorm wasn't sure whether to follow him or not. Logically, it would be wiser to stay at the plant and rest, but with his brother in such a state, he was also concerned that Jetfire might get himself in trouble by not thinking straight.

The blue twin limped to the door, watching his brother walk out into the snow once more, but this time he stayed on foot. Deciding not to investigate the shouting now coming from the medical bay, he made the decision to follow.

Jetfire's heated chassis left melted footprints in the frozen landscape, so keeping track of him on the ground was easy, as long as he didn't take off into the air. Jetstorm took this time to think things over.

"Okie dokie... I am seeing things but not touching them... No wondering I was not running into things. I can hear things too, but nobody else is able to hearing, or seeing, or touching me..." He paused as he saw his brother stumble to the side as everything suggested a strong gust of wind, but he felt nothing. "...It is colder with the wind, but I do not feel it, so it is warmer... Where am I being...!?"

He gave an exasperated facepalm, but was suddenly reminded of his helm injury as a jolt of pain shot through it and he grimaced as his vision fizzled out for a moment. "Augh...Slag...!"

"Brother, are you okay?" Jetfire murmured, probably picking up the twinges of pain pulsing through their bond.

"No, I am not okay!" Jetstorm announced, "I am very...very frustrated."

"Hey Jetfire, hold up a cycle!"

Both twins paused, turning to see Optimus rolling up to the orange twin and then transforming into bot mode. "Hey...Sorry about what happened back there in the plant. I-"

"You have no needing to apologize, Optimus Prime Sir." Jetfire assured, "You and your team are being very... understanding. I never noticed how much believing I am in Sentinel Prime until seeing it now."

Optimus sighed, "I know... He was that way even before the accident on Arach 7, but after losing Elita... I think he's just trying to avoid feeling the pain of that sort of thing happening again. And now your brother, one of the officers he's responsible for, has gone missing."

Jetfire nodded, "But we will be finding him... I can feel him. He's still online, I am knowing."

Optimus patted the orange twin's shoulder, and Jetstorm gave a sigh of relief; they weren't giving up hope on him just yet.

But his attention was caught by a soft scraping, and he looked over and saw several bots limping across the road towards them. Many of them had mangled arms and legs that dragged or hung limply at their sides as they moved; their optics were empty of emotion, but were focused on the prime and his brother, whose backs were turned to them.

"B-Brother, watch out!" He shouted despite knowing that they could not hear him. Perhaps his panic would carry over and they would look around for the cause.

But Jetstorm gasped and backed away as the other bots then turned his way, their optics focusing on him while they walked right through his allies.

If these bots couldn't touch the other bots like he couldn't, but could hear him...

One of the bots lifted a gnarled finger, "...Him...!" They rasped, and then they reached towards the blue jettwin.

Jetstorm bolted, the pain of his injuries shoved to the back of his mind as he took off down the street on foot.

These bots were trapped in this realm too, probably for far longer than he was, but he wasn't interested in knowing more at the moment. He had to lose them, and he had a feeling that being in such a large city would be to his advantage...

...Unless there were other groups of these half-dead bots wandering around.

He decided not to think about that, instead ducking into a parking garage. He ran up the levels, hearing them pursuing, metal scraping on the concrete as they hauled themselves up the ramps. Some human cars came and went past them, now that the roads were cleared, but Jetstorm just passed right through them.

He reached one of the middle-levels before launching himself off of the edge and crashing back down to the road below. His ankles screamed from the impact, but he forced himself to keep moving.

He heard their voices hissing in frustration, some telling others to jump down as well.

Jetstorm limped away from it, zigzagging through the streets and never staying in one direction for very long. He kept going until their screeching movements were long since silenced, and he found himself not far from where the plant stood.

His systems wanted to shut down, to rest, but he didn't let them until he was inside the plant itself. All was quiet, which was a relief as Jetstorm collapsed to his hands and knees. His limbs were shaking, screaming out in pain as he crawled into the medical bay, and then hauled himself up onto the medical table.

Tears spilled down his cheeks as he closed his optics, letting himself go into sleep mode for the first time since all of this had started.

Just a few cycles, he thought, I just need...A few cycles...

__________________________________________________________________________

Jetfire had been quietly discussing Sentinel with Optimus Prime when a surge of emotion had bounced into his helm like a lobbing ball. He had paused mid-sentence, looking back behind him with furrowed eyebrows.

"What is it?" Optimus inquired.

"...He is in trouble."

His fire matrix flared, sending smoke pluming out of his wrists. "S-Something is chasing him!"

"Do you know where?"

Jetfire closed his optics tightly, trying to focus on the bond. His brother was terrified, and pulses of pain were coming through, but he could only determine one fact. "...He's close. BROTHER!"

The orange jettwin took off into the air, flying up over the buildings while Optimus transformed into vehicle mode and followed on the roads below. "Brother, I'm here! Where are you!?"

The bond tugged on him like a towline, pulling him closer to the streets. His optics skimmed amongst the white for any flashes of blue, but every time he'd see it, it would be a human's automobile or a dumpster in an alley. He was pulled along, weaving in and out of alleys and following a trail that he couldn't see, sometimes even circling around one area more than once. But it finally ended, and he landed to find himself standing in front of the plant. "...What is going on...!?" He whispered to himself.

He hurried into the plant, looking around the space. "Brother? Did you make it here now?"

"Did you find him?" Prowl asked as he and Jazz entered the front room.

"I...I was following, and...It brings me right back here." Jetfire murmured, and then he wandered into the hall. "...Have you seeing him?"

The two cyber-ninjas shook their head, "Nothing, 'Fire." Jazz admitted, "You sure he's here somewhere?"

"Yes! I...I know it."

He wandered the hall for a few seconds, and the pull was tugging at him closer to the medical bay. He ran to the door and opened it, but found the room empty of any bots other than Ratchet. "...I...Don't understand."

"Jetfire..." Prowl started, but then he paused and was quiet for a moment. "...I will search the lower levels."

Jetfire sighed, trudging over to the medical table and plopping down on it.

"You gonna be here for a while, kid?"

Jetfire shrugged, "I do not know... Brother, where are you being?"

He had expected no answer, just the continuing silence, but then he heard a soft voice in his helm.

I am not even knowing how to answer that...

Jetfire then sat up again, his optics wide. "Brother!?"