Nightshade was doing research on old road signs in the Dugout, on the hunt for something circular and large enough to function as a pin or button. They’d had the grand idea that they would acquire an out-of-service ‘No admittance to unauthorised personnel’ sign, strip the paint, and repaint it with the nonbinary flag colors. And possibly pronouns, as well. Sam had really been an inspiration, but all the online transactions involving identification pins were human-sized.

“I’m going to see if there are any at my mom’s workplace. As a park ranger, she may have obsolete signage, and it would not be possible to use them for scrap metal, as I understand the core of these signs is plastic and the outside a thin aluminium... Just a moment, Sam.”

Their discord lit up with an incoming call from Hashtag, and given the discussion they had earlier, Nightshade thought it best to answer as quickly as possible.

“Hello Hashtag!”

“Ohmygosh you gotta help! Are you busy? I have a serious emergency here!”

She did sound incredibly upset. Nightshade leaned in to the screen a bit to try to see better. The feed, from Hashtag’s shoulder mounted webcam, depicted woodland outside, and no other visible person. So she hadn’t been captured, at least?

“Your Decepticon friend? Be calm, I will help. I promise.”

“Okay. Okay, okay, okay.” Hashtag took a moment, apparently galvanzing herself with effort. “So. He’s captured by GHOST already. I kinda started it by messaging him first. And he was just, okay? I mean he’s never gonna win mister personality I guess but he doesn’t deserve to get tortured. And I think they’re torturing him. And I have no idea how you can help me with that, because, what, are we gonna like break into GHOST HQ and bust him out like Ocean’s Eleven?”

“Ocean’s...?” Nightshade’s fingers were already moving across the keypad of the computer under them, an absent question followed by a much more serious one, “What makes you think they’re torturing him?”

“I dunno. It’s - it was late at night, and I heard him make a bad noise like he was hurt and if he was in the cell all by himself how would that happen? And he stopped answering me.”

“I understand.” Nightshade consoled, “And I promised I wouldn’t tell mom or anyone else, so you have to tell me what you think we should do now.”

“Could mom help?” Hashtag asked, in a very quiet, sad voice, “Or would she just get fired? Or locked up somewhere else for standing up to them?”

Nightshade drummed their talons lightly on the desk, thinking. It was not their tendency to panic, not even in a very bad situation; theirs was the gift of composure in almost every circumstance. “All right. We won’t tell mom yet either. What about Megatron?”

Hashtag’s face wasn’t visible, but the wince was very plain, “I ... don’t think that’s a great idea either, sorry sib. Megatron’s kind of the main reason he’s in there.”

It clicked, after a second.

“Wait - is this Shockwave you’ve been talking to?”

“Yeeees...?”

“Please send me your coordinates. I’ll be there soon.” Nightshade switched tabs, disconnecting their call from Hashtag and then reconnecting to Sam, “I’m terribly sorry. There’s a family emergency and I must take my leave. Give my best to all the chat.”

“That’s okay. Good luck, be safe, and let me know how it turns out!” Sam, while affecting cheerful, did sound worried.

“There’s no need to concern yourself.” Nightshade reassured, recognizing in themself that the need to protect and be guardian extended also to the feelings and distresses of others, “Everything will be all right.”

They left the computer and took note of Hashtag’s coordinates, transforming once they had left the Dugout, and climbed toward the freedom of the skies. From that height it was hard to be too concerned themself, even with everything that could be happening. The Earth was beautiful, any time of day or night, trees and mountains in effortless splendor. They saw and understood why Dot wished to protect this planet, and why Alex gravitated toward fiction that did the same.

Come to that, they could even understand Hashtag’s willingness to build bridges with Shockwave. How much better for him, as well as for the Terrans, if he could see and appreciate this place as more than a base to conduct a conquest?

Nightshade transformed out of alt and landed with grace in the small rocky clearing, which they noted without emotion was very close to the area Hashtag had told them held the GHOST detainment facility. Almost as if Hashtag had panicked, headed for the place, idled outside in understandable fear, and then decided to contact them. This whole business would have to be handled very carefully.

“I’m glad you called me before you committed to a plan.” Nightshade looked toward the general direction of the headquarters. “Would you like to tell me what happened in better detail now that the secret is out?”

“So you’re not mad? That it’s Shockwave? Not that you could forget, but he tried to kill us so I’m feeling like it’s a little more serious than mistakenly kidnapping our parents, which, is kind of a low bar as it is.”

“I’m not mad.” Nightshade confirmed, “I don’t think you did anything wrong by talking to him. Or even believing in him. If we didn’t believe reconciliation was possible, we would be trying to offline our enemies permanently, and that would be the war outcome that even Megatron has told us it is our duty to avoid repeating.”

Hashtag opened her mouth, closed it, looked baffled, then opened it again. “...Thanks. Hug?”

Nightshade opened their arms and Hashtag enveloped them firmly in an embrace. They could feel her armor running hot, recognizing that she was even more upset than she was letting on, and murmured by her head, “The past and future have no power over the present moment.”

Hashtag let out a surprised little barking laugh, letting them go, “Is that from one of your owl books?”

“Marcus Aurelius, actually! A human leader from several centuries ago.” Nightshade was pleased to have blunted the stressful nature of this interaction, and then turned their attention to forward planning. “We must decide now whether we are to involve others, or solve this problem ourselves.”

“I was thinking about asking Optimus.” Hashtag sat back against a rock, “But... I’m scared he already knows.”

Nightshade looked up, startled, but Hashtag didn’t elaborate. In a sense, she didn’t need to. If Optimus did know what GHOST was up to, it was very bad for them all. "I... I admit that is possible, if exceedingly concerning. And while Megatron almost certainly does not already know, given his compassion toward his old friends," They guessed at that, based on how they had observed him interacting with Shockwave, "He may ultimately decide it is an acceptable price to pay to maintain this uneasy peace with humans."

Their sister did not seem remotely satisfied with that explanation, and got up again almost at once to pace back and forth like a caged cassette bot. "But it's not peace if they're doing this! If they hate us enough to pit us against each other in deathmatches? That's not peace. That's just -- finding acceptable sacrifices for your own safety."

"I agree." Nightshade intercepted the ramping up of her upset again, realizing that they needed to take swift, joint action if she was to remain calm enough to execute a plan, "And Megatron must be aware, at the very least, of Earth sentiment toward Transformers. This is why I think he moves so enthusiastically to curb Decepticon aggression against humans. I don't envy him his position; it feels impossible to navigate a compromise, as the spacebridge is destroyed and they cannot go home, they need energon to live... their war experiences which have already brought them into conflict with humans and created enemies like Doctor Meridian." Their processor felt as though it was racing, but they still vented out cool air, "--Can you hack the facility's computers? Or have they improved their security?"

Despite the stress, she snorted, in full understanding that she had caused as many problems previously to GHOST accidentally. Perhaps no one had mounted a proper defense against GHOST, individually picked off as they had been, and fractured in want of a leader. "Sure I can hack them. Just tell me what I need to do to help Shockwave."