#houndrift

But at the same time Hound holding off. He still has time before he has to decide. It’d be best to do before the spark is ready to drop into the soft metal that will form its frame, a simple destabilization to let its energy rejoin his own spark. It would be possible after that but there would be too many risks of complications and he isn’t going to cost the team their medic. But that point is still almost a year away. He can take a chance on something, maybe, given their new situation. It’s a long shot but it could be worth asking.

So he does. He asks it casually, from the stance of the team medic rather than a carrying bot. Telling Cade about how they used to convert dying suns into energon but humans are clever with their seemingly endless types of power. Maybe he could look into finding a way to make it? Hound would be happy to get him whatever he needs for it. Cade agrees, but it isn’t exactly the highest on his priority list with so many new bots showing up.

Hound being ok waiting for a while but as soon as he'd found out he'd stopped smoking just in case and while the others probably won't notice it's only a matter of time before he runs out of excuses so he gets Drift to go out somewhere private with him (not unusual at that point for them) and finally telling Drift about everything. Drift being so startled that Hound even considered keeping it given their current situation, but also knowing he would likely have also tried waiting. A sparkling, however bad an idea, is still a small glimmer of hope things will get better for them. But it's no guarantee so they agree on a time where if it gets to that point and Cade doesn't seem like he will be able to create an Energon converter at that point they'll continue with terminating the carrying process.

Drift pestering Cade about it when it seems like he's dragging his heels on starting the process and despite their agreement to keep it a secret, Drift ends up telling Cade the truth about why they need it so badly and Cade, while surprised and confused and in need of a bit of an explination, also understands to an extent and gets his ass in gear working on it in all his spare time. Unfortunately it's slow going and every time he thinks he's gotten it working, it ends up not. And getting towards the end of their time frame everything goes to shit with getting attacked and Cade going off to play Chosen Hero in England so they're left picking up the pieces and holding things together. But In the time Cade's gone Izabella takes a look at it and does get it working, though it's still untested, and insists on bringing it with them just in case (she managed to fix it, she doesn't want to risk it getting messed up by the others!)

So after everything with Quintessa and Cybertron imagine them being the Bigger People and dropping some people off back home with their alien space ship and Izabella lets Cade know she thinks she's got it working. And Cade's thrilled! They just gotta test it out and hope for the best. Optimus offering to be the test subject and while Bee's definitely going to have words with him about self-sacrificing, nobody else really wants to do it and they can't find Hound or Drift so he may as well. Thankfully it does work, and very well too, but Cade realizes then that Hound and Drift have Gone Off Somewhere. Alone. Him getting whipped up into a frenzy and causing the others to go into a panic looking for them. They do, and both seem relieved that it's working.

Cade hanging back with them after reassuring the others that everything is fine and Hound is NOT dying (which is probably what the general thought probably was) and checking in with them about if they're doing ok after all that. Them admitting they were hoping the fight would take what they were going to do out of their hands, but were getting ready to do it themselves when he found them. Both going to get some energon but still deciding (with Cade) to keep it a secret for a while longer because Optimus is going through enough guilt over everything without having to hear that a carrying bot was in that fight with him.