In the prison cell, Getaway tries to remind Skids of who he is with a friendly punch, an old act of intimacy between the two, but with no success. He relates Tyrest's plan to Rodimus, explaining that the Chief Justice's portal—pieced together from the inner workings of the dead Titans—supposedly leads to Cyberutopia, and Rodimus resolves that they will all go through it together after they stop Tyrest. Swerve points out that they will need to escape before they can do that, prompting Chromedome to wonder where Ambus has gone. A confused Getaway tells them that Ambus was responsible for luring them to Luna 1, and that he wants them to be there.

In Tyrest's control room, as Pharma salivates over the universal killswitch, Tyrest reminds him that he was only saved from Messatine to be one of the switch's test subjects. Pharma proved that forged Transformers were immune to the switch, so Tyrest abducted the Circle of Light to be his next guinea pigs, successfully killing the constructed cold Circle members with it. Tyrest is alerted to the Circle's escape by Star Saber and approves Saber's request to intervene. Star Saber teleports into the midst of the battle and is soon confronted by Dai Atlas, furious over his betrayal: Saber is revealed to have been a former Circle of Light member who deactivated Crystal City's defenses when the Legislators attacked. With the final insult that his faith is real and that Dai Atlas's was only an affectation, Star Saber plunges his fist into Dai Atlas's chest and crushes his spark.

Back in the cell, Swerve calls upon Getaway to finally fill Skids in on his missing memories. Getaway explains that they were both members of Autobot Special Operations, a covert organization headed by Prowl, and had been tasked with tracking down the obviously-unstable Tyrest with the intent of using a New Institute "nudge gun" to implant a foreign thought in Tyrest's brain, convincing him to retire. Unfortunately, the gun's "thought bullet" failed to work on Tyrest's damaged brain module, and their actions only convinced him of the rightness of his crusade. Both deemed guilty of thought warfare, Getaway was captured by the Legislators, but Skids was able to escape, leaping aboard a shuttle made of Legislators, trapping them in that form with some mode locks. Per his orders, Skids activated a homing device that would lead him to his nearest handlers (the Duobots), and used the nudge gun's second charge to wipe his own mind of any incriminating knowledge of his covert actions (including knowledge of the gun itself). Skids wonders how he is able to retain memories of Getaway now, and Chromedome theorizes that the trace memory he detected months before is acting as a foundation for new memories. Tailgate, meanwhile, is more interested in Getaway's expertise as an escapologist; although he has been unable to escape up until now, the assorted bits and pieces the other Autobots have brought with them give Getaway all he needs. The clasps of Brainstorm's briefcase and Chromedome's finger-needles are combined to create spring-loaded syringes that topple their Legislator guard from afar, while Rung's energon sticks are used to short out their cell bars, setting them free.

Meanwhile, Ratchet continues to toil over Ambulon's bisected form, refusing help from First Aid. The frustrated junior medic allows some long-standing resentment to boil over, accusing Ratchet of refusing to believe that anyone will ever be as good as him. Ratchet insists that First Aid cannot save Ambulon any more than he can... because he is already dead. Ratchet has, in fact, converted his remains into a giant cannon that he uses to destroy the Legislator guarding them. First Aid tries to apologize, but Ratchet agrees with his accusations and promises to make him Chief Medical Officer if they survive their ordeal, though he insists they will do so without killing Pharma. Moving out, the pair are met by Rodimus's team; Tailgate tells Ratchet about Tyrest'

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