The Golden Age had returned to the planet called Cybertron, though some mechs (mainly Wheeljack) called it The Age of Gold of Cybertron 2.0.
Although his long name for the great age did not immediately become fond with the Autobots, they were impressed that he was right about several things. Refugees started pouring back onto Cybertron, and families were started. Ultra Magnus still refused the details of how those families began, but he had developed a soft spot for the little ones that chased after him while he walked the streets. He was one of the tallest mechs there, and all of the mechlings looked up to him (literally).
There was something the Autobots were wrong about, however. Wheeljack did start the day-care, and he opened the doors four days after the Autobots arrived on their Cybertron. At this moment, he had six sparklings to care for, and he was doing very well at that.
In the Day-Care for Sparklings (2.0), he had a trine of Seekerlings, twins, and a little femme that belonged to Arcee and Bumblebee.
The trine of Seekerlings consisted of Firefly, Dragonbreath, and Bear, who belonged to a recent wave of Seekers. The two brothers, Firefly and Bear, always drug their baby sister into trouble, trouble that Wheeljack had to scoop them out of. He didn't mind it, no matter what he said about their ancestors.
The twin boys, Stargazer and Skywatch, reminded Wheeljack of Nemesis and Optimus, and no matter what he liked to think, neither mech was the reincarnation of Optimus Prime.
The femme that was Arcee's first (and possibly only) daughter was called Trax, and she was as fearless as her mother and her sire. She had taken on Bear the first time she saw him, but Wheeljack told Arcee that it was because the femme had feelings for the larger mech that she would (hopefully) outgrow before her "teen" years.
As well as these sparklings, Wheeljack often found the Thirteen and Stormchaser wandering around in the playroom, which further convinced him that one of the twins was Optimus reincarnated. But he missed the fact that if the Prime was reincarnated, Wheeljack wouldn't be able to greet him as the Prime stood by their fort.
The Thirteen were interested with the young sparklings because they were the first of the new race of Cybertronians, not because one of them was reincarnated, and Stormchaser adored sparklings so much that he visited them, even in death.
Yes, the Thirteen had stepped back into the roles of Cybertron's Guardians due to the sudden interest in the revived planet. None of them could have predicted Cybertron's revival, so they were impressed with the amount of refugees and the number of sparklings that were being born.
Wheeljack stepped into the playroom, kneeling to rub Trax's helm. "How are you, baby girl?"
She gave a fierce growl, not meaning it at all, and she hugged his servo tight. "Hi, Uncle Jackie!"
He smiled and he stood up while she ran behind him. The Seekerlings followed, and so did the twins.
"Tell us about Optimuth Prime!"
Wheeljack set the box of Energon down, shrugging his shoulders. "What haven't I told you guys? He was one of the Thirteen, then he was a data-clerk, then a Prime, and now he's back to being with his siblings. He was the greatest one of us and he didn't care about someone's outside so long as they proved that they were good mechs and femmes."
"Tell us how you first met him!"
He laughed and he set the Energon cubes out on the counter. "I threw a data-pad at his helm."
"Now tell us why!"
Primus, these kids are demanding. He looked back at them. "I threw a data-pad at his helm because…"
"Jackie, I thought we agreed that we weren't going to tell violent stories to our kids."
He looked over at Bulkhead as he set down a bag of donated toys.
"Well, these aren't our kids, so…"
The sparklings mobbed Bulkhead as he dumped the toys out onto the floor. Wheeljack leaned against the counter and he smiled at them. He was glad for the distraction. He didn't want to talk about Optimus, not for a while yet. He had said a lot of mean and questionable things to the Prime, and now he couldn't take them all back.
Bulkhead looked over at his mate, frowning. He could see his mate was distressed, but there was no reason for him to be. "Jackie, why don't you take a walk?"
"I might not come back," he joked, but he sounded tired. He pulled a massive grin, which Bulkhead could see right through and he knew it.
"You always do, Jackie," he mumbled and he turned his attention back to the sparklings while Wheeljack slipped out of the building. "Did Jackie tell you about the time he fought Soundwave?"
Wheeljack closed his eyes when he heard the excited squeals from the sparklings. He hurried as he walked. It occurred to him later that he had no idea where he was going, but he wasn't going to stop and find out now.
Which is why he crashed helm-first into a sign.
THE WELL
He looked up at the new sign and he heard Smokescreen mock him.
"I just put that sign up, Jackie. I was pretty proud of it, and now you're going to take it down? Does it look that bad?"
He shrugged. "Maybe Prime wanted to read it?"
Smokescreen frowned as he walked over to the older mech. "Why are you suddenly caught up with Prime. I thought you hated his circuits."
Wheeljack looked down the Well. He swore that he could see the faint glowing of Cybertron's core. "Do you think he's happy?"
"He's tickled pink that he's dead, now tell me why you're suddenly intrigued."
He looked at him. The kid never quit, did he? "Well…"
Smokescreen leaned closer.
"I was mad at Prime because Bulkhead went and joined Team Prime."
"That's it?"
"I thought he stole my bonded away from me."
Smokescreen nodded slowly and he rubbed his helm. "I see now. So you're worried that you think Prime hates you?"
"I know he hates me." He crossed his arms and scowled down at the core. "He's probably got this whole plan of doom and despair laid out for me."
"That doesn't sound like Prime at all," Smokescreen laughed. "If anything, he's probably planned a quiet life for you."
Wheeljack elbowed him. "See? That's his first mistake. I'm an explosive-loving Wrecker. A quiet life would destroy me."
"You're right. Primus knows you can't go one day without blowing something up."
"I will shove you down this Well."
"I bet Prime will save me. He adores me."
"Ah-huh, yeah, let's test that theory."
Smokescreen hightailed it as far away from the Well as he could, but Wheeljack tackled him. Smokescreen went frameless.
"You fragging aft! You did not just go frameless on me!" Wheeljack tried to lift him. "I will kiss you."
Smokescreen squealed and scrambled to get away from the Wrecker.
"Do you two want to explain yourselves?"
The pair looked up to see Ultra Magnus, the new "leader" of Cybertron, the tallest mech on the planet so far.
And Smokescreen's mate.
"We're just, ah, discussing…"
"Battle tactics!"
Magnus arched an optic ridge. He opened his claws and Wheeljack released Smokescreen so he could return to his mate.
"Next time you want to discuss battle tactics, perhaps you should ask permission from me first?"
Wheeljack nodded. "Next time I want to kiss and cuddle your mate and call it battle-tactic-discussion, I will ask first for you permission."
Ultra Magnus scoffed at him, then he pulled Smokescreen away.
"So, is that a no or a maybe, or what!?" Wheeljack leaned against the sign and he sighed. He looked down at the Well. "You've got it easy, big boy, you know that?"
He swore he heard Optimus' laughter and he looked around, half expecting to see him. But he didn't, and he made his way slowly to the day-care.
He found Bulkhead laying Bear down to nap and he swatted the mech's aft as he walked by. "You're it," he whispered. He shrieked quietly in delight when Bulkhead gave chase and he led him into the kitchen.
His comm link was chirping for attention, and he ignored it as long as he could before Bulkhead told him to answer it. He reluctantly pulled away from Bulkhead's kisses. "Hello?"
Ratchet's excited voice filled the room. "Jackie, we have a healthy set of triplets!"
Triplets were rare in non-Seeker couples, while Seeker trines were common and just a single Seekerling born to a couple of Seekers was unusual.
In other words, Cybertronians are weird when it comes to the number of young they produce.
Wheeljack bit his lip as he looked at Bulkhead, who nodded. He was dismissed from duty for the second time that day.
He ran into the MedBay and he found Ratchet feeding a tiny sparkling out of a bottle. He instantly stopped running. If he was feeding a sparkling with a bottle, that meant…
Ratchet looked at him. "The mother is too weak. We may lose her."
He sighed and he sat down beside him. He hated this part of Cybertronians. If there was a large number of healthy sparklings born to a femme, she would be too weak to care for them, and more often than not, she died the next day. Carriers do a lot for their young. As far as carriers went, they were more like octopi mothers than human mothers.
He looked over at the other two sparklings, surprised to see that although they were still pinkish, they were silent and smaller than usual triplets were. And they were all femmes.
"I know, it's unusual, but we seem to be specializing in rarities." The medic smiled at him. Wheeljack hadn't seen that big of a smile since Optimus was alive. It hit him that he had not asked the Prime's mate how he was coping.
"How are you, sunshine?" He touched his knee, remembering their own Golden Age during the actual Golden Age of Cybertron. He looked at the medic for the first time directly, finding the mech he had fallen in love with.
Ratchet looked down at the servo on his knee. "Recovering. I still can't go to the Well, but I don't have to, unless someone is injured by it." He growled when Wheeljack pretended to jump out of his seat, as if to run to the Well and get injured accidentally on purpose.
"Easy, sunshine. I'm just playing." He smiled down at his pedes. The sparkling had begun to get restless, so he took the bottle which allowed Ratchet to use both servos to soothe it.
"And if I bit you, I would say I was only playing."
"Yeah, Bulk would buy that in an instant." He played with the bottle's rubber nipple. He could see bite marks on it, and he wondered what famous mech or femme had gnawed on it.
"How is your mate? What of your little day-care?"
"Bulk's fine. I surprised him by pulling through with that whole I-want-a-day-care business. We have six sparklings under our command, muahaha, I mean…care…."
"Ah. Building a sparkling army?"
"To overthrow the fierce Magnus."
"He is not gentle. He would possibly kill them before he processed it was a joke." He set the sparkling down beside her sisters.
"He's getting better…ish. I joked about kissing his mate and he just walked away."
"He has added you to the list of Will Die Soon."
"Who else is on that list?"
"Who isn't on that list?"
"Good point." Wheeljack played with the femmes' servos for a minute, then he sighed. "I have to go now. The babies are having snack time soon and I want to be there to throw their ration in their faces, I mean, give them their monthly ration, I mean…"
"Just get out of here, you little warlord, before I have to turn you in to the authorities."
"Bulk would bail me out."
"Perhaps it will be a quiet arrest."
"You crafty little…"
Shhhh, Ratchet hissed. He pointed at the sparklings, but he was smiling, and he let Wheeljack call him Sunshine as he left.
oOo
Dragonbreath opened her optics slowly and she smiled at the mech that was watching her. She felt strangely connected to him.
Hello, little one, the mech whispered. He put a digit to his lips, hushing her giggles. Dragon returned the gesture. It made the being smile. My name is O-5.
She smiled more as she nodded. She went to tell him her name, but he hushed her again.
I know your name, Dragonbreath. I know everything about you.
She blushed a bit at that.
I have something to show you, Dragonbreath. You are a very special Seeker.
She watched as he opened his chest plates.
There will be a new leader of Cybertron, Dragonbreath. I want it to be you.