Yes, but-- [He clamps mouth shut around the kneejerk response. Rodimus might have been a favorite to some once upon a time, but what Drift knows of the crisis vote shines a different light on that.] I...suppose that's true. I can't exactly be a proponent of second chances if I myself don't give them...

[Those words though, they're touching and doubly so. He'd hoped that he'd be invited back, to know that he was welcome at least, and that those words would come from Rodimus. But hearing Megatron asking for him, not the first but the second time in his life, it sparks a light in the chaos of his current life's path. Not a beacon, but offering to be one.]

I have no other home than the Lost Light. Returning there--when able--makes sense. And I would stand by you. Because I know how hard the path you walk can be. And I know what a difference even one supporter can make.

But...

[Drift's face tightens with his own remembered pain, old and never healed, ready to be torn open again.]

Wing.

He dies if he goes back, Megatron. He dies because of me.

[He owes too great a debt to abandon the jet yet again.]