In the deserted "Visages", Getaway teaches Tailgate chirolinguistics, but soon digresses long enough to recount the story of his birth during the Corcapsia Incursion, and how he earned his name by shamefully running from the battle. After using Nautica's wrench to uncover Ravage drinking nearby, Getaway invites Tailgate to return to his quarters with him so he can give him a present, which turns out to be a set of clip-on mnemosurgery needles. Tailgate is a little confused, as he cannot ever remember claiming to want a set for himself the way Getaway claims he did, but Getaway soon changes the subject with a surprising revelation: he has, in actuality, been secretly walking Tailgate through the Conjunx Ritus, the four ceremonial acts which will make them Conjunx Endura. The "Act of Intimacy" was their holding hands as he taught him chirolinguistics; the "Act of Disclosure" was his tale of his birth; the "Act of Profference" was the giving of the needles as a gift; and now all he needs is for Tailgate to carry out the "Act of Devotion" by performing a spectacular demonstration of his love...

Elsewhere, Cyclonus awakes in his and Tailgate's shared hab-suite to see that his room-mate is not on his recharge slab. He silently heads to "Swerve's"—observing Chromedome and Rewind holding hands as he goes—where Swerve offers him an Old Corroder as thanks for saving him during the "Swearth" debacle. Cyclonus takes the drink to "steel his nerves", then strides from the bar... but rather than go looking for Tailgate, he instead heads to Whirl's quarters. He expresses his concerns about Tailgate and Getaway to the one-eyed watchmaker, fearing that the escapologist does not have his little friend's best interests at heart, but Whirl simply laughs in his face and tells Cyclonus that Tailgate will be better off with Getaway than he would be with him. Whirl asks why Cyclonus has even bothered to come to him with his problems, and Cyclonus responds that Whirl is the only one he could rely on to tell him the painful truth, because he knows he doesn't care about his feelings.

A few minutes later, an attack of conscience has Whirl call Getaway and Atomizer to his room. This pair, it turns out, were the ones who conspired with Whirl in the recent past to bait Megatron into a fight in hopes of disgracing the ex-Decepticon and forcing him out. That remains their goal, and is the reason that Getaway has been "grooming" Tailgate all this time; he has no feelings of love for the minibot and has simply manipulated him into the "Act of Devotion", requesting that Tailgate prove himself by using the mnemo-needles to reprogram the sleeping Megatron's mind. Or rather, that's what Tailgate thinks he is going to do—the needles are only fakes, but when the mnemophobic Megatron awakes, Getaway expects him to murder Tailgate on the spot, resulting in Megatron either being killed by the ship's security or shipped back to Cybertron for imprisonment or execution. But Whirl isn't willing to go through with the plan anymore—not at the cost of Tailgate's life. Unfortunately, it's too late; Tailgate is already on his way to Megatron's quarters, and Getaway promptly has Atomizer shoot Whirl with his old nudge gun, wiping his memories of their plan. As his memories slip away, the drowsy Whirl manages to project his holomatter avatar to various locations around the ship, eventually appearing outside the window of Cyclonus and Tailgate's room. Realizing something is wrong, the startled Cyclonus sprints to Whirl's room, but by the time he has arrived, Getaway and Atomizer are gone and Whirl has forgotten everything. Cyclonus is confused, but then spots a clue Whirl managed to leave before Atomizer pulled the trigger: he has set all the chronometers in his room to "113", Megatron's hab-suite number.

Tailgate, meanwhile, has managed to screw up enough courage to sneak into Megatron's quarters, sweeping the room with Nautica's wrench to search for the lurking Ravage. Unfortun

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