Friends We've Made Along The Way (And Other Mistakes)

- 3 -

"Rewind! That's incredibly disrespectful! You can't do that!" Tailgate sounded terrified. It was hilarious. So genuinely worried that he might get in actual trouble for being an accomplice to harboring embarrassing footage of Rodimus Prime.

"Relax! Primus, Tailgate, you're so panicky," Rewind choked out between laughs. "It's good clean fun. Like you said, it's funny when people make fools of themselves. I'm an archivist. It's my job to keep track of anything even remotely important."

Tailgate made a face. "Yeah. I guess it's not that bad, then. Does Rodimus know?"

"Nope. I mean, even if he did, I feel like he'd laugh. He's got a decent sense of humor. And Rodimus isn't the only one, obviously. His... definitely has the most material, though. I have one for Chromedome, but that's... More of a silly conjunx thing. One for Whirl, which he actually asked me to start so he could 'assess his errors, absorb them, destroy his faults and ascend to godliness'."

"...What?"

"I don't know either. All I know is: he's six times my size and armed at all times. I'm just doing what he says."

"Fair enough. Anyone else?" Tailgate looked at the lens of Rewind's camera, almost as if he expected to be able to see in and watch movies or something.

"Uh..." Rewind began skimming his neocortex again. "I have one for Brainstorm, but that's... Sort of the same deal as Whirl. Like, he asks me to film test-runs and prototypes and the like. Honestly, I think he just wants me to send him the footage of the explosions." Rewind tapped his headcam, turning to the nearest flat surface and turning on his projector. He flipped through footage of something that got almost monotonous after the seventh time he was called in to record it. Sure, it was cool to watch a gun blowing up maybe six times, but after that it's just excessive.

"Cool," Tailgate breathed.

"Not really," Rewind sighed. "It got boring pretty quick. There's like... maybe fifty of those. This is just the highlight reel." He flipped through clips of the self-appointed "ship's genius" and his failed creations, which, at this point, Rewind was nearly positive weren't supposed to do anything other than blow up in the first place.

"Seriously? Can we watch 'em all?" Tailgate whispered, awed.

"Uh. I guess? Later, though. I should probably be going back to Swerve's soon, Chromedome's there with no one to monitor him except Trailcutter, and, well..."

"Oh! I can walk with you, Rewind!" Tailgate picked himself up and helped the other minibot to his feet. "Might not be allowed in, though. I think I'm still banned for trying to liberate a part of Swerve's waitstaff... was Nutjob there?"

"I- Yeah. Whirl was there. Why?" Rewind was almost impressed by Tailgate's immediate sidetracking.

"Curious. He's banned too. For a lot of reasons, but most recently for helping me help one of those little waiter drones escape Swerve's tyranny. So if he's there I guess I'm okay?" Tailgate followed Rewind closely, almost skipping.

"I... Hm. You're aware that he's not one to listen to authority. Like, at all. If he wants to go, he'll go. Swerve be damned."

"Very true." Tailgate paused, placing a hand to his facemask pensively. "D'you think that we're ever going to actually find the Knights?" Again, that is some discourse, Tailgate.

"That's... Completely out of nowhere. Wow." Rewind stammered. "Me personally? Probably. I mean, we have to, don't we? I feel like the quest isn't stopping until we do."

"But it'll be ages. Are we even close yet?" Tailgate groaned, in the most 'are-we-there-yet' tone Rewind had ever heard in person.

"We really don't know. Without a map or a guide or- really anything more than a feeling, I guess we can't tell, huh?" Rewind sighed. "I'd be okay if we just wandered forever, really. This has been more of an experience than a proper quest."

"Yeah." Tailgate sighed, too. "It is nice, y'know? Just wandering. This ship is like a family, Rewind. It's home." Tailgate adjusted his visor to mock a smile. Damn his visor and faceplate. Too unexpressive for such an amiable mech.

"That's really cheesy, Tailgate," Rewind sighed. "Home. For you, yeah. Definitely," he rambled. "For me, too, I guess. It's not quite a family, but I see where you're coming from, and- Home is a good word. Yeah."