Disclaimer: If only they were mine.

Authors Note: This is a first part in a miniseries spanning the lives of the Aerialbots from there time in the youth center to their eventual arrival on earth.

This story is based in the Neoteric Alternate Universe that I've been developing so if you are wondering where in canon the Aerials were in a youth center hopefully that is now cleared up.

The Destruction of Innocence

Initializing Flight Plans

He didn't know what to do. It had to be one of the hardest moments in his life to date. Should he help them or stay safe and hidden. He bit his lip components as he watched in horror at what was happening- what he knew was going to happen- directly below his hiding place. He still didn't know what he would do if he built up the courage to do anything but he felt like he had to do something.

He wanted to help the feisty little flyer struggling in the rebel's grip as he belted out a series of curses that he had never heard come from a youngling before. If he helped them the rebel would surely come after him too. He had been quiet up until now, listening to the cries around him as the Decepticons systematically went through the compound killing off and destroying everything and anything that moved. He had wanted to do something then too but he had promised his creator not to move or do anything. Windswept had left so long ago and judging by the sounds of the fighting moving away from this room and the fact he still hadn't returned made him worry that his creator was gone to the well of sparks.

His denta bit harder into his lip components, trying not to cry himself as the wailing of the youngling on the floor at the Decepticons peds reached an earsplitting screech as he begged the much large mech to put the fighting jetling down. The one on the floor was slightly larger than the youngling in the mech's grip but there seemed to be something wrong with his legs. When they had burst through the door into his Windswept's quarters, the smaller one was carrying the other on his back while the larger one whimpered and whined. The little one was able to carry his companion several steps into the room before the Decepticon stomped into the room and reached for them.

The little one had then surprised everyone else in the room by dropping his companion and launching himself on small thrusters located along the plating on his hips into the soldier's face. He had smiled at the youngling's darning as he gave the 'con five rapid fire punches in the optics and mouth components, yelling out threats the entire time. Startled as he was, the Decepticon was not about to be beaten by a youngling and grabbed the much smaller mech growling low as he yanked him away. He had nearly revealed himself then, wanting to come to the youngling's aid as he kicked and screamed at his captor, but he couldn't disobey his creator. No matter how much he wanted to help, Windswept had made him promise.

But Windswept could also be deactivated…

"Fraggin' little psycho glitched pit-spawn!" the Decepticon growled as he pulled a large energon knife from subspace. The purple-blue growl coming off it briefly silenced the two younglings for a click before they began to wail and scream even louder than before. "This'll is what a real fight is like!" He was gritting his denta so hard that the cabling in his neck hurt but he still couldn't seem to make himself move as the glow from the knife played off his chassis. He looked at the little youngling in the mech's hand and then back at the youngling on the floor.

Who was now staring straight at him with wide terrified optics.

While the glow of the energon knife wasn't that bright it lit up the mostly dark room. His creator had turned the lights out on purpose, hoping that no one would think that a youngling was up in the guard unit's bunker and pass by the room without searching it. But, as the youth center began taking damage, the automatic emergency lights had come on, bathing everything in their dull red glow. He hadn't been worried someone would see him. Windswept had shoved him up into a shelf above the ceiling lights that was hidden from view from most anybot unless you took the central light fixture down or were sitting on the floor at a thirty eight degree angle from the shelf which just happened to be where the injured youngling sat.

The wide, blue, terrified optics drilled into his and he couldn't look away from them. They were silently begging him for help much more effectively than words would have been able to do. He swallowed and looked over at the soldier and the other sparkling but neither seemed to realize that the mechling on the floor had stopped screaming and was now staring at something on the ceiling. The soldier was going to know soon enough after he deactivated the mechling in his grasp and reached for the other one. His eyes gravitated to the blue optics again and he made himself wink to the frightened jetling on the floor causing the mech's optics to brighten up with hope that he hoped was not displaced.

Disobeying his creator he could live with but he would never be able to live with himself if he didn't at least try to help these two younglings.

He slide off the shelf soundlessly but the only thing that muffled his peds hitting the floor was the sounds of the little youngling's screams of profanity which he kept yelling at the top of his vocalizer even though he could now easily see him. He silently thanked him for his performance and moved before he could really process what he was doing. He grabbed the back of knife and twisted it out of the Decepticon's servo. "What the frag?" the large mech said as he turned around to see who had stolen his knife. He didn't give the solider another chance to do anything, stabbing him quickly in a transformation seam in his side with his own knife and then swiftly slashing at the cabling in his neck.

Energon poured freely from both areas as the soldier grasped at his neck, trying to stem the flow of energon running down his chassis, dropping the little jetling in the process. An odd gurgling came from his damaged vocalizer but he didn't want to run the risk of the Decepticon calling for back up through his internal communications equipment. He slammed his shoulder into the taller mech's chest and stabbed in from the side seam on the mech's armor. The large mech jerked and twitched before slumping to the ground, the energon knife was pulled from his servo as the mech dropped with it still embedded into his spark chamber.

He didn't move for a full astrosecond after that, trembling slightly as energy continued to rush over his circuits from the brief but violent fight. At least that was what he told himself as he tried not to process the fact that he had just offlined another mech. Windswept had always insisted that he learned how to defend himself, especially with Cybertron on the brink of civil war, but he never thought he would ever have to use any of those skills. He turned towards the door, straining to listen over the rushing of his systems to make sure there wasn't another Decepticon waiting out in the hallway from his friend. The two younglings were also quiet, but whether they were listening for more Decepticons or not, he couldn't tell.

After a breem of no movement or noise coming from the door, he vented a sigh of relief as he tried to prevent his servos from shaking. As if by some unsent signal, the three younglings in the room looked at each other. The larger of the two youngling's optics looked like they were about to pop out of his helmet as he clutched both of his servos to his chest plates, shivering so hard his plating was faintly rattling. He looked so innocent and terrified that he slowly reached out and patted the youngling on the helmet, careful not to injure him further. "I know you're scared but don't worry, your safe now," he whispered quietly, surprised that his voice stayed steady and his servo stopped tremblingly for a klick. He didn't know why he made that promise when he wasn't even certain he could keep it but it seemed to put the youngling at ease as he relaxed marginally. Even giving him a tentative smile.

"Right," said the other youngling who had his arms crossed and a hip thrown off to one side. He was frowning and the visor over his optics gave him a more distrusting look than thankful. "And what makes you say that? Once the other slagheads realize he's missing they're going to come looking for him and then we're really going to be in trouble. I don't think dropping out of the ceiling is going to work on a whole group of them." He groused kicking the graying form next to him and grumbling a few choice words under his breath.

He could tell he was going to have a problem with the visored flyer's attitude. The youngling he had just reassured looked like he was about to start crying now. "That would indicate that we are going to be remaining here which we're not." His creator was going to have him by his ailerons at this rate but the visored mechling was right. "We have to move and get out of the youth center. If we stay here any longer there is a good chance we will be found and offlined."

"We can't leave the youth center!" snapped the smallest mech. "If we're caught outside the gates, we'll be separated and put in the detention wing!"

"Then stay here," he snapped losing what little patience he had in his frayed nerve circuits though mindful to keep his voice down. "I would rather end up alone in a detention wing then offlined in a pool of my own energon!" He yanked the knife out of the Decepticon -trying not to look at the wounds he had caused- if things were going to get rough he was going to want to have a weapon. He stepped over the gray chassis and hurried to fill his subspace with several containers of energon that his creator had kept on servo in a cabinet on the side of the room. He also snatched several datapads off the desk nearby knowing that he would most likely never be coming back to his Windswept's rooms. He wanted to keep a piece of normalcy with him, no matter how small. He just hoped that he would be able to find Windswept again.

He paused in rifling through the desk, and headed for his creator's berth room. If he wasn't coming back he might as well take his creator's pride and joys with him. Despite the fact he wasn't allowed to touch them. If anything it would be a welcoming sound for him to hear Windswept yelling at him for not only leaving the room and his hiding spot but also taking his spare rifle and blaster. He subspaced the knife and the rifle as well as the extra energy packs stored under the berth for them.

He left his creator's room and headed for his own but paused as the entire room swayed causing the youngling on the floor to squeak and the visored one to stumble as he tried to regain his balance. He paused and listened for a moment, but he couldn't hear anything. He looked longingly at his berth room, wanting to go in and grab what he could, but something in the back of his processor told him that if he didn't leave Windswept's rooms now he never would. "Alright I'm leaving," he turned to the two other younglings in the middle of the room. As much as he wanted to snatch the two of them up and get them as far away from the youth center as he could, he knew that they deserved to make that decision on their own. Even if he didn't like it. "Are you two coming with me?"

The smaller mech opened his mouth, obliviously about to snap at him again judging by the way his servos were in tight fists at his sides, but stopped when the other youngling put a servo on his arm. "No Slingshot, don't," he said in a very quiet voice. "We should stay together. It'll be safer." Slingshot gave the youngling next to him a look that said exactly what he thought of that, but it seemed he too was susceptible to the mech's wide blue optics. He huffed and crossed his arms.

"Alright, then where are we going to go?" Slingshot asked sounding resigned but still willing to argue his point.

"Anywhere but here," he said as he strode towards them. For a minute he saw both of them start and realized that it wasn't till now he was actually standing up to his full height. He was huge compared to his age group, almost a full helmet large than the size of an adult minibot frame, which put him about two helmets higher than the taller of the two mechlings and almost three higher than Slingshot. He could imagine that he was more than a little intimidating to the two smaller mechs.

"Don't worry," he reassured them as he knelt down and lifted the injured mech up onto his back. "I'll do everything I can to keep you two safe," Slingshot scoffed at that but didn't actually say anything. "Hold onto my shoulder plates and don't let go no matter what happens." He waited until he was sure that the mechling had a good grip on his shoulder before he stood up. Noticing the sudden lost look on Slingshot's faceplates, he added, "Do you want me to carry you too?" He wasn't sure how far he could go with both of them hanging off him.

An indignant look spread across his face. "I can walk just fine!" He snapped and then his thrusters pushed him up in the air so he was optic level with him. "And I can fly without transforming!" he said smugly pointing a finger into his chestplate. "And don't you forget it."

"I won't," he said trying to resist the urge to grab and shake the youngling's attitude out of his chassis. "Let's get out of here."

Slingshot landed and then hurried towards the door, holding up a hand for him to stop. "I'll check the hallway. Stay back."

He sighed but followed obediently behind the other mech who had let the door cycle open and was peaking past the doorframe to look up and down the hallway. "Sorry about him, Slingshot means well." The mech clinging to him whispered in a soft voice so that Slingshot won't overhear him. "He's just trying to protect me." That explained his lost look a few moments ago when he picked this mechling up. Slingshot had wanted to carry the other jetling but he had unintentionally taken that away from him. No wonder he wanted to run point now. "By the way I'm Fireflight, what's your designation?" The mechling said.

Slingshot was waving his hand, silently calling him forward so he assumed the hallway was clear. "I'm Silverbolt," he said priming the gun in his servos as he crept forward and out the door, Slingshot was moving quickly down the hallway. Moving from cover to cover, taking a moment to scan every time he paused. "Keep and optic out behind us, we don't want somebot sneaking up on us."

"Gottcha 'Bolt," came the near silent whisper as he felt the mechling twist around enough to guard their rear.

Silverbolt tried to ignore the shaking in his components as he followed Slingshot carefully down the hall.

-Break-

When the first explosion rocked the youth center and woke the other younglings from their recharge causing them to scream and chirp in distress, Skydive had known exactly what was going on. He had heard the rumors of civil war that the caretakers had talked about when they didn't realize he was listening in. He noticed the strained looks about their optics as they reassured him and the other younglings in his wing that there was nothing to fear, that they were safe as long as they were in the youth center. He understood why they had been lying to them but now it was only going to cause confusion and anarchy. If they had just told them up front and set up a well thought out and logical escape or an emergency plan none of this chaos would be happening.

Caretakers and younglings alike were running about, screaming and yelling, creating such a canopy of noise that it all sounded like one loud scream of panic to his audios. As far as he could tell, he was the only one not giving in to his fear and screaming his helmet off. He grabbed the collection of datapads out of his trunk in his room and tucked them away in his subspace before looking about trying to get an idea if there was some form of system or order to what was going on. He wasn't surprised, but very disappointed, when he saw none.

The next explosion shook everything so hard that everyone fell from their peds and the sound of falling and breaking debris drowned out their terrified and panicky screams. He had fallen on his chestplate but was quickly rolling off to the side as a loud crack sounded above him. He caught a glimpse of a section of the ceiling giving way and falling towards him as he rolled away and it clanged on the floor next to him so hard that it sent his denta rattling causing him to bounce more than roll away.

The sudden collapse had caused everyone to stop screaming and in that moment of silence he heard the whine of engines as they swooped down closer. He scrambled back to the collapsed ceiling section. He had a feeling he knew what was going to happen next. He needed to hide. He could see several bodies, some of younglings and some of caretakers, laying about limp in the debris. The energon that was slowly trickling away from their frames had given him and idea. It was a desperate bid for survival but he knew that he didn't have time to be picky.

Trying not to process too much on his actions, he smeared the energon of other younglings and caretakers on his chassis. He sent a silent pray to Primus for them as he shifted himself around and under some reinforcement beams so it looked like he had been caught in the collapse too. Energon was still trickling out from somewhere deeper in the pile, making it look like he had a fatal wound. He powered down as much of his systems as he could, adjusting the setting on his laser core every few klicks making it fluctuate abnormally. He let out a vent of exhaust, nervous that his quickly done hiding job wouldn't be enough, but hoping it was.

What happened next was something he would never forget. They killed them all. He laid there, faking his imminent deactivation and listened to the sounds as the rebels massacred everybot that had been on his floor. In his wing. He ended up shutting off his audios after barely a few klick into it. He kept his optics off line, distracting himself by going over his previous flight lesson and the tips that his instructor had given him. He thought of the thrill of flight. He wondered what it would be like to eventually be able to fly on his own over Vos with nothing but the stars above him and the city below him, sparkling together in harmony.

He lost track of how long he laid there, faking deactivation, but every time he tried to dredge up the courage to see if the coast was clear he would doubt that enough time had passed and go back to his internal turmoil. It felt like cycles went by but just over a breem and a half later, he on lined his audios again. He heard nothing so he slowly powered his optics back up and glanced around the room.

The devastation was immense causing the entire room that once looked so familiar to suddenly look alien and unforgiving. Where once there had been a room full of toys and comfort for him and the rest of his fight there was now nothing more than rubble, debris and bodies. He recognized some of them, others he'd never seen before, and some were missing entire parts of their frames. His engines cycled and he quickly turned away from what he was seeing, shuttering his optics and shivering. He had guessed that what was going to happen but he never thought it would be this graphic.

He forced himself to cycle several intakes of air before he began to wiggle his way out of his disguise. He made absolutely sure not turn to look towards what had once been the common room for his wing. He was sure that if he looked again he'd be unable to stay quiet and if any member of the rebel group -known as the Decepticons he remembered hearing one of the caretakers say- would surely come back if they heard a wailing youngling.

As he slowly began to free himself from underneath the debris he hid under, something above him shifted and the pressure on his back suddenly tripled in its weight. He wasn't able to prevent the squawk that escaped him and for a horrible moment he thought he was going to be crushed. After a couple astroseconds of nothing happening, Skydive realized that the debris had caught on something. He vented a shaky sigh of relief and tried to free himself.

He twisted, he turned, and he wiggled to the best of his abilities but no matter what he did Skydive could not free himself. He did what he could to keep himself calm, knowing that panicking would only make the situation worse, but no matter how much he told himself that he couldn't stop trembling. He tried to look up over his shoulder to see if he could figure out what was pinning him and maybe a way to free himself but all he could make out was a mismatched collection of debris that seemed to have no organization or pattern to it.

A desperate whine broke free of his vocalizer and he struggled to pull himself out. It didn't work just like before but that didn't stop him from struggling. He was scratching his servos, wings and arms as he fought free himself but none of that mattered. He had to get free. He hadn't done all this just to be pinned there until he deactivated. Another whine escaped him and he was astroseconds away from trying to thrash himself free when he heard a quiet, disbelieving voice echo loudly throughout the room.

"Is-is someone there?"

He knew he shouldn't say anything, it could just be a trick to tell the Decepticons where he was, but he couldn't stop from saying, "Please! Please get me out of here!" His voice was boarding on the edge of panic.

The response was immediate along with the sound of someone hurrying across the rubble strewn ground, stumbling occasionally in their haste. "Don't worry, I'm coming! You're going to be okay!"

In mere moments, a dirty white and red jetling came hurrying around pile of broken steel and shattered glass. The mech was no older than him judging by his size and looked vaguely familiar under the layers of dust and grim marring his chassis. He rushed forward and swiftly dropped to his knees, hands going up to the pile of rubble above Skydive. "Don't worry. I'll get you out here," the young mech said reassuringly and Skydive could hear the sounds of rocks being shifted back and forth and tumbling down the pile. "You're lucky you weren't crushed. How did this stuff fall on you and only pin you?"

Skydive could feel himself trembling, his intakes were working twice as fast as they were supposed to. He closed his optics and forced himself to calm down. Panicking would only be detrimental to their current situation. He had help, he wasn't alone anymore, and he had to calm down. "It didn't fall on me," Skydive was happy that his voice was only a little shaky. "I crawled underneath it to hide from them. I faked my deactivation." The shifting sound of rocks and rubble above him pause momentarily before continuing. "I neglected to ensure the pile wouldn't fall on me and trap me here."

"Judging by the sounds of it, you didn't have a lot time to do anything. It's a miracle you were able to get this far," the mech working to free him said. "I'm an Air Raid by the way. What is your designation?"

"Skydive," he heard about Air Raid before. He was in his wing but was getting into trouble so often that he was always on the disciplinary list. He had never seen Air Raid up close before. He had definitely heard about him and seen some of his most infamous pranks. Most were hard to miss. From what he had been able to tell from the rumors, Air Raid had a knack for pissing mechs off, getting into places he wasn't supposed to be, and had an impulsive streak an astromile long. While he was glad someone had found him, Skydive would have preferred someone other than his exact opposite.

"The showboat in flying class?" Air Raid asked uncertainly, pausing again before continuing to work on digging Skydive out.

"I'm not a showboat," Skydive said indignantly. Just because he studied his lessons and did his best during flying class did not make him any better than the other jetlings.

"Right, sure," Air Raid said his voice full of sarcasm before continuing. "Alright, I'm going to lift up this beam and you should be able to wriggle out from under it. Just do me a favor and move fast. I'm not sure how long I can lift this." Skydive nodded his helmet, while the pressure was still there it did feel lighter than before. "On the count of three. One. Two. Three!"

There was an unhealthy whine of gears at the same time as the pressure completely vanished off his back and Skydive was scrambling forward on his servos and knees. His wings became caught up on something but he managed to twist his way free causing metal to screech against metal that definitely lost him some paint. Air Raid's vents were working triple time as Skydive crawled forward. He had barely moved more than an astrofoot away before Air Raid dropped the girder he was holding up with a relieved exhausted. Skydive stood up and took several steps back from the pile, noticing that where he had been was twice the amount of rubble as before. He started trembling again as he realized how close he had been to actually deactivating.

"Well, now that you are free-" Air Raid began but stopped when he noticed Skydive's camouflage. "Oh Primus, please tell me that isn't yours." He said as he trotted over to Skydive and began looking over the energon staining Skydive's chassis, holding him still with a servo on Skydive shoulder. Skydive hadn't originally heard Air Raid –to focused on realizing just how stupid it had been to climbing underneath all that debris, despite the fact that it had been a life or death choice- and jumped slightly as Air Raid touched him. Air Raid made a comforting sound in the back of his vocalizer as he continued to look over Skydive. Before Skydive could tell him he wasn't injured, Air Raid looked him the optics. "This isn't yours, is it?" he asked in a low voice, his optics dimming slightly.

"No," Skydive said looking at several of the shattered frames sticking out of the debris. He stepped away from Air Raid, optics still locked on the bodies that had helped him even after their frames had gone gray. "Thank you," he said softly as he tipped his helmet to the offlined. He turned from the pile, back to his new companion, focusing on Air Raid and not on the deactivated and destruction around him. "Come on, we need to get as far away from this place as possible."

"Great idea, except where are we going to go?" Air Raid asked with a shrug of his shoulders. "We're not supposed to leave the youth center and what if there are others still trapped here?"

"Given your reputation, I find it hard to believe that you would obey that rule." Skydive said incredulously.

"Well it makes sense. I may not like rules but that doesn't mean I'll break them just to brag about it. I'm not stupid. Youth centers were built for a reason, and a very good reason at that. It's dangerous out there for younglings, especially with those off world slavers running around."

Skydive was a bit amazed, according to what he knew about Air Raid, he would have leapt at a chance to escape the youth center. Instead, he was hesitant and, judging by the way he had crossed his arms over his chest, it was going to take a very good reason to get him to leave. "Do you really think that matters now?" he asked calmly as he gestured to the shattered room around it. "The youth center is in ruins, our caretakers are dead and if the rebels find us there is a good chance we'll be offlined too. A civil war has been starting up, the caretakers were trying to keep it from us, but it seems that has come to us whether we wanted it too or not. If we don't leave now, we'll be offline too."

"And if we go out there we could be taken as slaves or offlined anyways," Air Raid had finally uncrossed his arms but had kept his defensive stance. "Besides, there may be more youngling trapped here, we should look for them."

"Do you really think any of them are still alive?" Skydive asked quietly. Air Raid shook his helmet and Skydive decided that it wasn't worth it. "I won't make you leave, Air Raid, but just understand that no one else was expecting this. I doubt anyone could have pieced together the fact the youth center was going to be attacked. It probably wasn't the only thing attacked either. There are no rescue crews here yet when they should have been here breems ago. Even if you found mechs still alive, how would you repair them? I can understand if you care for them but there is nothing for you to do but deactivate here with them." Skydive stepped further away from Air Raid, optics focused on the ground. "I'm leaving, I want you to come with me but I won't make you. Thank you for your help, please be careful."

Air Raid released a burst of exhaust and uncrossed his arms clearly frustrated, "You too. Don't deactivate after I dug you out. That would be a waste." He smiled cheekily at him but Skydive noticed the worried look in his optics or how he took a sight step towards him. It was obvious that Air Raid didn't want him to leave.

"I don't intend too," Skydive said as he turned and started to pick his way across the remains of the rec room, avoiding as much of the debris as he could. In his processor he had already laid out the most likely route to be passable and the less likely to have any rebels in it. Thinking of a way out of the building helped to keep him calm. If he thought about what could have possibly happened to the city or if he thought about what may still happened, Skydive was sure his systems would shut down in sheer terror.

He had just reached the door to head down towards the commissionaire when Skydive realized that the sound of Air Raid moving away from him had changed and now it sounded like the other mechling was heading towards him. He paused for a moment and listened only to confirm that Air Raid was indeed heading towards him. Patiently he waited and soon the other mech was standing in front of him with a sad look on his face that was completely out of the character he had been demonstrating. "What's wrong?"

Another deep exhaust left the other mech. "I just… realized," Air Raid began in a very quiet voice. "That counting you and the other three bodies in that pile I dug you out of, that I've accounted for all the mech in our wing." Blue wavering optics met Skydive's. "They're all deactivated, they offlined everyone. We're the only ones in Beta Wing still online."

Knowing what had most likely happened to his wing mates was one thing but to have their fate confirmed was an entire other. Skydive felt a shiver race through him and he covered his mouth with one servo pressed to it as he tried not to purge. A servo touched his shoulder lightly. "Yeah, that was my reaction too," Air Raid said softly. "Come on, hotshot, don't freak on me now. If we're going to stay alive then you got to keep your head on straight."

It was harder than he thought to pull himself back together, Air Raid just kept a servo on his shoulder, squeezing it lightly. "Why me?" he asked after a moment. Air Raid should have been just as capable of figuring out a way from them to stay alive. "Can't you do something?"

"Doing isn't so much the issue." Air Raid said fidgeting slightly as he finally let go of Skydive's shoulder. "I can do stuff, that's easy, but I've never been good at planning stuff. You seem like you have a much better understanding of everything anyways… so… what's the plan?"

Plan indeed, Skydive took a deep ventilation and stopped processing over the loss of his wing to focus better on how to keep its two remaining members online. He would have time to mourn properly later. He started by quickly separating priorities into two categories. Long term and short term goals were separated at high speed and, after a moment, he looked at Air Raid. "Alight, first thing we need to worry about is being discovered. How did you manage to escape the initial attack?"

Air Raid shrugged, "I was in solitary and got bored so I popped the screws on the ventilation cover and was exploring the vent system when the attack started."

"How much of it were you able to map?" Skydive said as he quickly began to process how likely it would be to use the vents to move about the compound more stealthily.

"Um… it wasn't so much mapping as much as it was, 'I wonder what's over here.'" The other flier said looking apologetic as he shrugged haphazardly.

"Still…" Skydive brought up the map that he had created of the compound during his first vorn there. If he could keep track of where they were using his maps as a reference, they could figure out where they were in the compound at all times. He glanced once at the door he was about to go through before making up his mind. The vents would be a lot safer, provided they didn't make any noise. "It would be safer to use the ventilation system instead of the halls. The rebels are most likely in their final frames and have armaments, it's doubtful that any of them can fit in there. If they are using a drone to check the system we should be able to overpower it before it can get word back to them. We just need to be quiet."

"Easy enough," Air Raid said brightening slightly. "I'll go first, I'm great at wrestling. I should be able to rip their little processors out!"

Skydive frowned, "That's not exactly what I meant."

"Don't worry, I'll rip them apart quietly."

"No, I meant we shouldn't be talking out loud. The noise of our voices will echo through the vent system and alert them to the fact that we are in there." Air Raid slowly started to nod his helmet. Skydive's processor whirled through various solutions before settling on the quickest and easiest one. "We'll use touch," he said after a moment. "If I grab you're ankle it means stop and don't start moving again until I let go. One tap means go left, two taps take a right and if I draw a line on your ped it means go straight. Every time you reach an intersection stop and wait for me to direct you. If you need to slow down I'll tug on your ped."

Air Raid sighed and rubbed at his helmet, "This would be so much easier if we had our comms unlocked."

"I know but it won't be until our next upgrade and we won't have another upgrade if we don't get moving."

"Don't worry, we'll get out of here," Air Raid gave him a smile which was fairly reassuring despite the strain around his optics. "Follow me," he said and started back across the room, staying low and moving fairly quietly for a mechling his size. Skydive was glad that Air Raid had enough sense not to bumble through the room and adopted the same movement pattern. The lack of height would make it harder to spot them and, without them making too much noise, it should also prevent them from attracting any unwanted attention.

Air Raid wound his way through the room, leading Skydive towards the vent he had first crawled into the remains of the Beta Wing rec room. He purposely took a path that went around some of the more graphically killed mechlings and caretakers. He didn't want Skydive to see them. He wished he hadn't. A tremble raced up his spinal strut and he quickly forced himself to stop processing about them. He had to stay focused. He had to keep himself and Skydive alive.

As he reached the wall vent and turned to watch Skydive as he came up beside him, Air Raid had made up his processor. He and Skydive would make it out of the youth center online. He would see to that, even if it eventually cost him his spark in the end. He would do everything he could to keep the remains of Beta Wing online. Skydive reached him and cocked his helmet to one side, "What's wrong?" he asked in a hushed voice.

"Just making a promise to myself," he said off handedly before turning to the open vent. "Ready?"

"As I'll ever be," Skydive whispered and Air Raid ducked down and started into the vent. Skydive tried not to think of the confining space as he followed the other mechling into the ventilation system. Instead he focused on what they should do next and where exactly they would go when they did escape.

And he tried not to think of what would happen if they were found.