Hello Darkness my old friend, I've come to talk with you again...

Cybertron always had this bleakness that was beautiful to him. Its barren land was simple and calm, just the way he liked it. There was only the occasional wind, or the rare cloud that covered the sun.

This simple landscape was where the Autobot's Second in command now found himself standing. Prowl shifted his weight just a tad, leaning against the door to the base. The sun was setting on that cycle. He could spend joors out here if he were given the chance, or if he had the choice.

Prowl sighed, he hadn't had this kind of quiet time in a long while. This quiet had ended when he was promoted to Second in command several orn ago.

Things had changed then, and he had changed.

'Smokescreen to Prowl,' his comm crackled.

He sighed and answered, though he was tempted not to, 'This is Prowl, what is it?'

'Blue and I were worried about you Brother,' came the clipped answer.

Prowl flinched and turned back to the barren land.

He and his two brothers, the younger Bluestreak and the older, Smokescreen, had not been on good terms for a while. On accounting for his closing off the bond they shared.

All siblings were blessed, or cursed depending on who your siblings were, with a familial spark bond that connected them to each other's mind and emotions.

Prowl had closed the bond to his brothers shortly after being kidnapped a few vorn ago. He could not let his brothers know what he had learned in that hell, he could not let them in. The Second in command shook his head, ridding himself of those memories for the moment.

He turned away from the wasteland and reentered the base, Prowl prepared himself for the scolding he was going to get.

/?/

"What the frag were you thinking, going off like that?!" His brother hissed at him. Smokescreen paced in front of his desk in the office for the Second in command. He had been waiting there for Prowl when he had entered.

"I was thinking I could survey the land to confirm an experiment of mine," Prowl said.

Lies

"So you couldn't just drop us a fragging line, or something just so we'd know where the frag you were?!" His voice was rising now and the curses were flowing freely, Smokescreen was very angry.

"It did not occur to me," Prowl replied, his voice void of all emotion, as per usual.

More lies

Smokescreen slammed his servos on the metal desk with a loud 'Clang.'

"Frag it Prowl, how could you be so fragging emotionless about this? Don't you care what we think or say?!"

"It is my job as Second in command to-,"

"Not as Second in command! As your brothers!" Smokescreen cut in.

Prowl felt the twinge in his spark and covered it, "It is my job as Second in Command to care what all of the mechs on the base think or say," he repeated, finishing his previous sentence.

False

Smokescreen looked as though he had been slapped. Then his face morphed into one of calm and cold fury.

"You are not my brother any more," he spat the words with such venom Prowl was tempted to cower back but he resisted, his emotionless mask never slipping. "It seems that my brother is dead." With that he spun on his heels and stormed out the door.

Prowl's optics stared ahead, never dimming. He forced air through his vents in quick bursts, the only sign of his anxiety.

He stood up and walked from his office to his room next door. He lay down on his berth and closed his eyes.

Prowl sank into the blessed, addicting darkness.

Breem- minute

Joor- hour

Orn- day

Vorn- year