Flashback: Mere seconds pass as Chromedome overcomes his brief paralysis and races to open the slow cell Overlord left him in. But thirty minutes have passed outside the cell, and Chromedome steps out into a warzone!

Thirty minutes earlier...

Present: As the Lost Light is currently passing through an asteroid belt, Blaster has been charged with cutting a path for the ship through the space-rocks, but lets Whirl vent a little of his frustration by allowing him to blow up one of the asteroids with the ship's targeting system. The pair are then joined on the bridge by Pipes, who is inquiring if Blaster has made contact with Cybertron yet; he has not, and is unlikely to, but Pipes leaves him with a message to send to Hubcap on the offchance that contact is made while he is attending movie night. Puttering down the ship's corridors in vehicle mode, Pipes rounds a corridor and bumps into someone's foot, and briefly starts to apologise before looking up to see the sole of Overlord's gigantic boot coming down toward him. Stomped repeatedly by the Decepticon until his body is utterly shattered beyond repair, Pipes's spark extinguishes, but not before he is able to trigger the alarm system.

Across the Lost Light, life is proceeding as normal. Rewind visits Brainstorm in his lab, concerned from recent nightmares of Chromedome's that his partner and the scientist are up to something, and is accompanied by Swerve, who accidentally subjects himself to the effects of Brainstorm's metafictional bomb, which makes him think he is a fictional character; Perceptor tells Rodimus that the map within the Matrix of Leadership cannot be copied; Rung visits Fortress Maximus in the brig and forgives him for his actions; and Tailgate works on an unseen project in Hoist's workshop, until Skids rushes in to warn him that Cyclonus is furious, having discovered that movie night is to be held in the pair's quarters. All of these domestic scenes are loudly interrupted by the sounding of the alarm, which also prompts Ratchet, down in the medibay, to radio up to Rodimus for information. The medibay is also chosen by Overlord as his first port of call, but Ratchet is able to detect his presence and hold him off long enough for Drift to arrive and join him in squaring off against the Decepticon titan.

Rodimus and the vast majority of the rest of the crew arrive to the sight of a legless Drift and a badly beaten Ratchet, and Ultra Magnus is the first to charge into action, still carrying guilt over the fates of the Wreckers he left to face Overlord on Garrus-9. After a brief beating, Overlord seizes Magnus's fist with ease and begins to laugh: he has realised that Ultra Magnus has not been holding back, while he himself has. Overlord stabs Magnus through the spark with Drift's Great Sword, and is then set upon by the rest of the crew; First Aid rushes to the fallen Magnus's aid, but regretfully confirms that while he may be able to slow the rate of his spark's shrinkage, he will not be able to save him.

Chromedome arrives on the scene just as Overlord seizes Rodimus and prepares to turn his finger-drills on him, asking the Autobot leader for any last words. When Rodimus replies "'Til all are one", however, the result is most unexpected: Overlord goes wide-eyed, drops him, and begins panicking. As the liberated Fortress Maximus appears on the scene to take up the fight, eager for revenge against Overlord, Chromedome explains to Drift that while in Overlord's mind, he carried out a process known as "Trepan's Trigger", altering the Decepticon's memories so that the phrase was associated with all his past defeats; thus, when Rodimus inevitably said it, it would trigger Overlord's pathological fear of defeat. Hurt and confused by what he hears of the conversation, Rewind tries to talk to his partner, but greater matters take priority: Chromedome assures him they will talk later as he has Maximus force the shell-shocked Overlord back into the slow cell, intending to

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