[Audio] [Transmission from: Solian Temple] - Twelfth Offense

[namesnotprowl]

[The audio starts up out of the blue, with only a brief pause at the beginning. Even so, every word seems deliberate and carefully chosen.]

Sorry about the timin'a this, but... I've been thinkin' a lot lately. Dangerous habit, I know.

This is the third multidimensional hub I've been in. I've gotten ripped out of dimensions more than I can explain. I've gone backwards in time twice... forwards once. Turned into a human and a cat. Heh, got haiku-powered jet boosters for a while. I rebuilt my own legs from scratch. I've had my processor picked over more times than I'd like. I've lost more friends than I ever wanted to... and made a few more than I've expected. Including a few that were too stubborn to give up on me when they should have. I've seen how how our wars start... and I've seen them end.

And the one ending was enough. Three hubs has been too much, and I'm too old. I know too much that would compromise this Cybertron's chance at having its own future.

I can't stay.

I have a few things to finish up, still, but in a week... I'm leaving. I've heard rumors of a place in the Outlands that could use someone like me, and I've dug out the clues I need to get there.

I'll be contacting a few of you individually; this is what the humans call the Season of Giving, and I have things to give you. Call them parting gifts if you will.

{{Individuals on this list will be getting special presents as listed, though if Barricade is so much as a passing acquaintance of his you can expect a few cubes of high grade left outside your door (or a six-pack of beer if you're human).))

Comments

[namesnotprowl]

[It takes a few moments but Barricade settles his plating down and regains a little composure. Enough to notice that Mirage is being surprisingly shy about what just happened.]

You's better. I'm counting on you, you know.

[He pauses a moment, considering, then practically bounds this distance between them to wrap his arms around Mirage. He shifts to put himself in range of the other mech's audio receptor, lips brushing the plating as he speaks quietly, tone almost... Worried? Desperate?]

And be careful about Chromedome; mechs that poke in folks' processors don't give that up. Don't end up as someone's data sink.

[Don't end up like me.
He pulls back himself at that point.]

[perfavore]

[Mirage was ready to leave it at that, at the final piece of closeness he could have with his mentor's killer. It was easier this way, for the both of them.

I'm counting on you.

That's not something he expected to hear, for sure. Even more so when he feels the box-like arms of the police car wrap around him. Like Barricade, he wanted to struggle, only knowing in the back of his mind that this wasn't meant to harm.

The whisper is strange, as he tilts in to hear. His eyes shutter at the name, wings slightly flicking.]

Polizia...

[namesnotprowl]

[Barricade could have left it at that. That confusing, pleasant intimacy... but he knew at the same time that he couldn't. He couldn't just walk away, worrying about things as he was, not without trying to give a few people some warning.

Not so long ago, he wouldn't have bothered trying to tell Mirage. They were supposed to be enemies. It used to be so much simpler.

Barricade shakes his head slightly, plating twitching oddly.]

I don't want you to get hurt. I can't explain; call it personal experience. Just trust me. Don't take chances.

[perfavore]

I won't. Not unnecessary ones.

[Simpler. That was the perfect summation of what it was. ]

The next time I see you it won't be you, polizia.

[It's soft, as his plating shifts. It's starting to sink in just what this is going to do.]

[namesnotprowl]

Good. Good.

[Someone's processor ought to leave intact, and if there was some better way to make sure he'd do that.]

No. It won't be.

[A fact that Barricade has pondered, from time to time. And he's not entirely sure what to say here. His shoulders sag a little as he thinks.]

If you see him, after all is said and done... you'll have two choices. Kill him and send him back to Frenzy - and if he's anything like me he'll be grateful for it - or take him back with the Autobots for you and yours to deal with.

If you do neither... he's likely to show up again. As that thing that I was, when the Pillar dropped. And he will destroy the Autobots down to the last before he's finished.