Sentinel left elsewhere, leaving Y/n alone. Despite the light from the outside, her surroundings seemed dark. The Energon cube was the only thing emitting light in her vision.

Before they married, he promised her whatever she desired.

In an act of mutual kindness, an office was built for her.

In her head, she heard a ringing noise in her audials. She heard guards in the distance speaking, and to distract herself from the throb in her helm, she went to the headquarters. When she got there, she saw many bots lined up. Their helms were down; they were waiting. The guards near her continued talking, and the ringing in her audials worsened. She shook it off, hoping it would end. She wondered what was going on.

She managed to pick up some information from the conversations of the guards: the bots were captured on the surface by Airachnid's forces. She noticed many of them looked similar; they were Seekers of the High Guard. She'd heard of the High Guard during the exodus from the surface but never knew why they were formed.

Among the Seekers, she saw two familiar bots: D and B-127. They looked different. She noticed they were no longer cogless by their armor.

Why were they here?

Where were the other two?

Then, she remembered the hologram. The life signals were grouped up in a single area. Putting pieces together: Those were members of the High Guard-- the quartet must've been there as well. The other disc...

Airachnid had it.

Y/n continued to survey the bots, specifically the two friends. She hopelessly thought that she was dreaming--none of this ever happened.

The friends noticed her, and D glared at her.

B had a plea for help in his optics.

Y/n looked away. She was powerless. D's glare remained in her mind.

B glanced at his friend and whispered, "I don't understand, why are we still alive?"

Sentinel appeared in the corner of her vision; he noticed her, and she looked away. The ringing returned.

"Look at this rowdy bunch! The High Guard!"

His words made her turn back to the scene before her.

"You know, you guys have been tough to find. Every trip to the surface, I've been searching for you," Sentinel looked at her. Airachnid followed his gaze before looking back at him.

"Tracking the bots in the cave led me right to them," she smiled at Y/n, "with the help from my lady herself..."

She held the disc in one of her servos and passed it to Sentinel. He smirked as he examined it, particles of dust floated to the floor. Some bots looked up at Y/n, seemingly wanting to ask her, 'Why?'

Sentinel crushed the disc and threw it behind him, sparks set off as it hit the floor.

Y/n fidgeted with her digits. D's glare returned to her.

"You captured Starscream!" Sentinel exclaimed.

Airachnid grinned, "it was too easy."

Starscream became vexed, ready to attack Sentinel if given the chance. "I'm going to rip you apart piece by piece so that your death is painful! You'll regret the day you were-"

Sentinel rolled his optics at the sound of Starscream's damaged voice box and laughed. "You sound ridiculous. It's weird."

Sentinel turned to D, "Oh, D-16, what a tragic story you'll be--atop the leaderboard in your sector, and secretly a traitor..."

D clenched his teeth in anger, "I'm not the traitor--you're the traitor."

Sentinel approached the front of the group. "Nuh-uh. You--all of you, are traitors. You've been working with the Quintessons to sabotage my expeditions. You're the reason why I haven't found the Matrix of Leadership yet."

This confused Y/n further. Sentinel was trying to manipulate the truth. She shook her head in disagreement as she glared at Sentinel. Sentinel frowned at her.

How could he?

B looked at the two and sided with Y/n, "None of that is true!"

The Sentinel approached him, "Oh, trust me, it'll be very true when I'm executing you in front of all of Iacon. " He leaned closer, "because down here, the truth is what I make it."

His words stuck to Y/n's mind.

She felt betrayed.

The throb in her helm worsened.

She then saw how D struggled, but managed to stand tall. Y/n looked at him, concerned. What is he thinking?

Sentinel came up to him, "Well, well. What's this about?"

D glared at him. "I'm not kneeling in front of you."

Sentinel smirked, "Feeling confident, are we?"

Everyone in the headquarters observed them. D lowered his voice, "You don't scare me. You want to know why?"

Sentinel continued, "Please."

"Because I don't have anything left to lose. You took it all..."

Y/n neared the two, noticing the escalating tension, but Airachnid stopped her.

Sentinel grinned, "I sure did." He raised a fist and punched him.

"Sentinel!" She shouted. He turned to her and grabbed her shoulder.

"Stay out of this."

Sentinel turned back to D on the floor and approached him. He noticed a Megratronus Prime sticker on his shoulder.

"Ah, Megatronus Prime," he tore it off. He kneeled in front of him. "Of course, you were a fan--Megratronus was the coolest Prime! The biggest! The baddest! The toughest!"

Y/n managed to leave Airachnid's sight, wanting a better view of what was happening.

"That's why after I killed him..."

The ringing in her audials left her for a second.

The truth.

N̶o̶. N̶o̶. N̶o̶

The ringing returned.

Sentinel showed D the T-cog in his chest, "I took his cog for myself."

Y/n gaped as she heard this.

Living a lie.

Sentinel killed them.

He lied to everyone.

He lied to her.

"You're who I care about most, my dear."

This is a lie now, isn't it?

"He was greater than you'll ever be!" She heard D shout.

Sentinel remained nonchalant, "I don't know--I'm pretty great. But I can understand why you'd want to wear his face over mine..."

Airachnid carried a welding rod, Y/n immediately assumed what Sentinel was about to do as he put the sticker on D's chest.

She sped- walked to the lieutenant, and snatched the welding rod from her. She wasn't willing to see Sentinel hurt someone else--someone else who's been through so much already.

Y/n approached Sentinel, and Airachnid was stunned.

"How could you? He did nothing wrong-"

Sentinel shook his head, "I asked you to stay out of this. You've become a moron..." he said in a low voice.

Y/n's grip on the rod lightened, and Sentinel took it.

Moron.

"...but don't worry, Y/n, perhaps I could...get you back."

Sentinel turned back to D.

"Now you...let's make sure it doesn't come off..."

The welding rod dug into D's chest. The volume of the ringing in Y/n's audials increased as she heard D's screams of pain.

Airachnid approached her and drew her back.

Sentinel retrieved the rod from D's chest.

She saw the poorly traced weld of the sticker; smoke danced in the air, and Sentinel smirked.