Okay, this is for you, MeZaKi93 – even I'm not cruel enough to force you to learn German just for a little abridgement of one of my seemingly never-ending stories. :D

It's just a small part of a fic I'm writing, and I'm not sure if I'm ever able to finish it, but I think this part can stand on its own without much explanation. Just a little snapshot and my try to post something more than only reviews.

Any mistakes are made by my own and they will remain in here now, because every time I read it I find one more, and I'm tired to read my own story over and over again in search for mistakes.

Every character you recognise doesn't belong to me. If it were so, "Dark of the Moon" would have ended otherwise...


With a deep sigh Megatron expelled air from his ventilation system and gave his mate a look in which, if nothing else, someone could see something similar to a reproach, but when Starscream gave him a tired but overjoyed beam out of red optics he couldn't stick to that any longer and gave up, although not completely unwilling. He wasn't in the mood to argue, not exactly now. And it was senseless to argue later.

He bent down over the Seeker, who lowered his head again, and gave some smaller clicks, a series of sounds which seems foreign to himself because it was millions of years ago when he had given them the last time.

But the tiny being that snuggled curled into a ball against Starscream's chassis reacted. The sparkling, who clasped with small claws at the energon line with which the Seeker feeded him, stilled when he heard these sounds, and he even stopped sucking when he seems to listen. Encouraged with this behaviour Megatron let three further clicks follow.

The sparkling chirped.

It only sounded muffled because his basic need denied him to take the feeding line out of his mouth as long as he was still hungry, but it was clear that he responded to his father. Even only for a short time until he started to eagerly suck again.

That was enough to let a pride form in the huge warlord like he never had felt before. During his existence he experienced nothing, absolutely nothing that could match with that. He just stood there and stared with big optics at the tiny wonder that he and his SIC had created, fascinated by every little movement which he absorbed, every swallowing, every ventilation, every trembling of the still underdeveloped limbs. The stubs on his back were almost not visible, but in the course of time they would turn to such magnificent wings like the ones of his carrier.

Only when Starscream carefully tapped his shoulder with a claw he noticed that he probably must looked like an idiot. The soft snort of his mate confirmed that. But that didn't matter. Here, there was nobody whom he had to prove anything, there was no necessity to defend his reputation as Commander of the Decepticons. There was only him, Starscream and their common sparkling. At the moment that was his entire world. All that counted.

He leant down and snuggled his cheek gently up to the Seeker's one who returned this touch thankfully but weak. At the same time Megatron noticed the unnatural heat of Starscream's face-plates, even though they were not as scorching hot as some hours before. He hoped that this was not a reason to worry but only a temporary state – the strain had drained the strength of his SIC enormously. The Decepticon leader would have preferred there would have been medical supervision present, but Starscream had always been stubborn in every possible way.

He d't say anything. He didn't reproach him. He enjoyed the happiness that had set on him like a warming coat too much for that. In silent fascination they watched as the sparkling, finally satisfied, detached himself from the feeding line before he shakily stretched tiny limbs and teared the mouth wide open to yawn. The fangs of his father. Starscream had to feel them already, although they were not much more than small pinpricks. Half-lidded optics looked sleepily at the Seeker's face before they went on and attached to the Decepticon Commander.

Carrier and creator. The sparkling might only be some hours old, but that he precisely knew. He could feel it, through the bond which had developed on and on since his procreation. He could feel this unbelievable love sent by his parents, heard the tender whispers they exchange with each other, praise, gratitude, relief. The promise for everlasting protection, the anchor in his life. They would be there for him during his whole existence, they would never let him down. The small newborn being could not yet foresee what an importance it had for them – that is was finally a new beginning. A chance to make up so much, to do it better, to left the just as cruel as hurtful past behind. A hope that was like a supernova, the beginning of a new era. It had begun with desperation, with resignation, with fear, with the need to just give up.

That they had left behind. Irrevocable.

Megatron extended one of his overproportional long, razor-sharp talons to the being that snuggled against Starscream's chassis and ran with unthought-of gentleness over the head of their sparkling – with a claw which had teared the armour of his opponents in pieces without a single effort in the past. The Seeker would have taken apart any other person long ago if he had gotten so close to his offspring, but here was the creator of said sparkling. In spite of his programming that made Starscream like every seeker extremely overprotective towards his offspring he did not go that far that he showed the same behaviour to Megatron.

At the touch the sparkling twisted the small head and chirped, a soft, warbling sound. He extended the tiny claws and clutched the single digit of his father without being able to clasp around it properly. Big red optics looked up and the sparkling chirped once more, almost a bit inquiring. Megatron answered with a line of clicks and watched amused how the tiny thing yawned again before he carefully tried to detach his digit from the grasp of his possessive offspring.

So small, so terribly vulnerable. Hardly imaginable that such a tiny being had brought the by far bigger Seeker so much pain and agony. This danger wouldn't have existed if he had stayed at the headquarters where there were with Ratchet and Hook two medics who maybe had hardly experiences with the birth of sparklings, but they would have known what to do if the carrier threatened to offline. Damn, probably even Knockout knew what to do in such a case.

Starscream's Seeker programming had had other plans. Three days ago he had disappeared without any word, without an announcement, and in a condition that had Ratchet raged that the Seeker still flew at all. Hook and Knockout hadn't seen it so tense. Starscream might have gained in size, but it wasn't by far bad enough to think he would burst on next occasion – it needed much more to keep a Seeker away from sky. It might be the Air Commander's first sparkling, but his programming was reliable enough to prevent him from everything that could have damaged the small unborn being in him.

Unfortunately his programming had the not so insignificant disadvantage to act extraordinary willful. Starscream had disappeared without a word and just this once Ratchet wasn't the only one to find it worrying. The last time it had taken ten months until they had found him – he wouldn't survive a repetition of what had happen during these ten month again. He wouldn't go through that.

It had cost Megatron two days to find his mate. Starscream had left the bond between them open, albeit he reacted to nothing, no begging, no threatening. He hadn't even wanted to answer the simple question for his position. Megatron had tracked him down by following the call of the bond and then, when he had been close enough to catch the energy field of the seeker, he had trusted his sensors.

How angered and worried he had been about this stubborn, strange behaviour, he had become aware of one thing: If Starscream hadn't wanted that he found him then his search could have dragged on for a far longer time. He had shut down the bond to Thundercracker and Skywarp, his own unit and brothers; something he had never done before considering their upset behaviour. But he had left the bond to his mate open, even though he hadn't answered to his urging. He had wanted to be alone, but he trusted his commander so much that he had wanted only him. Him alone.

It had been hard for Megatron to appreciate this proof of trust. When he had finally found Starscream and had touched down – an uninhabited island somewhere in the Pacific Ocean; for a being of his dimension the SIC knew extraordinary well how to hide – he rather would have roared at the Seeker and dragged him, gripped by his wing, behind himself back to the base, but this plan had scattered into meaninglessness after a fleeting greeting of the Air Commander who had buried the face in his leader's neck for a short time and then looked up at him with big optics.

The smell of fresh energon. Starscream's distinct tension. His slight trembling. The effort that it had cost him to stay up on his legs at all.

Here the birthing process had started yet. He had found his mate just early enough to back him up.

Even now Megatron didn't doubt that Starscream would have birthed the sparkling on his own. That seemed to be something that was anchored in his programming, because as upset as his brothers had been they hadn't made any attempts to join their supreme commander with his search. It was like they had instinctively known that their brother had wanted to be alone and that he wouldn't even have allowed them to be present.

That was almost twenty-four hours ago now. The leader of the Decepticons never hadn't considered it to be possible that it could be such a torture to have a sparkling. He knew Starscream's high tolerance of pain, but this here even had almost been too much for the Seeker. He had tossed and turned, he had whimpered, he had cursed his commander and caused him deep scratches in blind rage when the latter had tried to help him into a more comfortable position, when he had taken him into a comforting embrace and whispered to him how well he would do – as if he had had any idea! –, how proud he was of his little Seeker, he would manage it.

In the end Starscream had screamed in pain.

From then on Megatron had had fear. During his existence Starscream had suffered quite different injuries, but even those had gotten him to express his anguish only in rare cases. He was accustomed to pain, at the very latest since his imprisonment by the mechanical xenomorphs. How distressful must this sparking have been when it had caused him to such pitiable screams? How could that be? He had known that his mate hadn't exaggerated because of the scorching hot waves of pain which rolled him over through their bond. At the same time he was almost sure that Starscream had somehow managed it in spite of everything to pass that fiery blaze through a cooling filter – out of respect for his leader.

Stupid little Seeker.

During these almost endless hours he had felt helpless like never before. He would have done everything to take the pain off of Starscream, he would have endured any agony for him if he couldn't have done anything else. He had wanted to help, had wanted to do more than just putting him in a halfway upright position when the devitalised frame had become rigid in his arms once more, when the Air Commander had begun to whimper and a new wave had washed through him. When he had screamed, the pain that had rushed through their bond had been unbearable enough that even Megatron had gasped when it had hit him. But he wouldn't have hesitated a single second if he could have taken this agony off of Starscream.

He just hadn't had deserved that. Not after all he had experienced. For hours he had writhed and screamed in anguish, and eventually he had been so exhausted that he almost couldn't have fulfilled what his programming had demanded from him – he had threatened do drift into unconsciousness. They hadn't known if something had been wrong with the sparkling; maybe he had laid the wrong way and Starscream had suffered for nothing, because none of them could have changed anything, because only a medic could have helped. And when the Seeker had begun to loose energon eventually, Megatron almost would have done exactly that and would have alarmed one of the medics. To pit with Starscream's wish to be alone. He wouldn't have risked to lose his mate.

Not another one. Not after such a short time.

But Starscream was a tough fella. Always had been. And he had wanted this sparkling. He had wanted him like nothing else in his life before. That had given him strength, that had kept him up and kept him going, although a part of his mind had advised him to give up long ago – his body simply had had no further reserves to go on.

Not that the Seeker had been influenced by that. There was no Seeker who wouldn't have sacrificed his life for his offspring. And the Decepticon SIC was a fighter. He had given up just one time in his long existence, and back then it had been Megatron who had stopped him. Now it had been time to reciprocate. He had owed his commander and their common sparkling.

He had known why he had done it, why he had continued, though he hadn't been able to do so any longer, when finally the little head had emerged and the tiny being had informed them even before its final birth that it was strong and healthy despite all fears.

A tweeting chirp had sounded.

When he had heard that Starscream had burst into tears because of joy and exhaustion. All pain had faded into meaningless, however he had had the feeling that it would have torn him inside out, but that had been irrelevant, as irrelevant as all the tiredness and the beginning desperation after so many agonising hours. The tiredness had been swept away by the overwhelming joy that suddenly had been flared up in him, and the desperation literally had been pulverised by new hope. And when his mate then had sent a wave of confidence and deep love through their bond, it almost had been too much for the Seeker. The tips of his claws had buried into Megatron's forearm while he had laughed and cried at the same time and had tried with some effort to snake a peek at their sparkling. The little creature had been excited, maybe a bit upset in its own way – it had wanted outside, finally outside! –, and it had trilled once more, so Starscream had reached carefully for the breakable bond between him and their creation and had whispered calming nonsense.

From then on everything had moved very fast. Only few efforts had been necessary and the sparkling had been, accompanied by a gush of energon, nourish fluids and a last freeing cry of his carrier, pushed in a new world which was completely new for him.

This had been the last thing Starscream had been able to muster before he had fallen that hard against his mate that Megatron almost had lost his balance, but his Second just had twisted his head and had buried his face with a deep sigh in his neck. His claw had glided over the heated face-plates of his Air Commander and he had whispered loving nonsense to him, before a small chirp had remembered him that suddenly there was another one who demanded his attention.

Carefully he had lowered Starscream to the ground, and the Seeker, knowing that he had bled, had clenched his legs instinctively before he had been trying to bring his cooling system to a normal level with a deep vent, watching his mate how he had bent over.

A look out of fiery red optics which seemed far too big for that small face had met him and had featured a remarkable astuteness yet. The little thing – their creation – hadn't even flinched when he had bent down to give it a close inspection, and he soon had noticed that he had been mustered the same way as he had done. When he unconsciously had blew out a warm stream of air towards the mite, the little one had given a trilling and clicking that had sounded joyful, and he had dabbed his still damp face-plates with his little servo. Then he had looked at his creator again, had reached his arms in a demanding gesture for him and had squealed, a long, unmistakable sound.

Before Megatron had been able to react Starscream had recovered enough to ask for their little sparkling. The commander of the Decepticons had taken their terrible small and fragile offspring in his one hand and had closed the overdimensioned digits just far enough to prevent the small being from falling. It was so incredible tiny that it even hadn't filled his palm.

The sparkling had chirped in joy when his creator had taken and then given him to the expectant claw of his carrier. Right away he had subjected Starscream to the same curious muster like his father some minutes ago, absorbing every line of this new face and saving them the same way as the familiar energy field. The Seeker had given a chirp, broken by a few clicks, which had been very similar to that of the sparkling, whereupon he had answered with a series of warbling sounds. Then he had snuggled against the chest plates where the SIC had lowered him on and had waited patiently until the Seeker had cleaned him in laborious work.

There he still laid, clean, full and apparently as satisfied as tired enough to sleep while his parents still weren't able to detach their gazes. Already now it was clear what the sparkling was going to be since he had inherited many of Starscream's physical characteristics. Indeed, Megatron had wings, too, but that didn't make him a Seeker, those mechs who were created for the sky and nothing else. The tiny stubs on the little one's back might not cogently point to what would become of him, but the rest of him – like the double jointed legs and his already now extremely streamlined frame – was betraying enough: Once he would be such a proud Seeker like his carrier. In contrast, he only seemed to get the head, a part of the aggressive-looking chassis and his silver-grey colour from his creator, but that was meaningless anyway. Probably Starscream and his brothers represented the bigger part of a nation that had never a particularly strong population – every little Seeker meant new hope for their dying kind.

The Decepticon Commander ex-vented an amused snort when he imagined how an already completely keyed up Skywarp might reacted to this addition to his family when he would see the little thing, what made Starscream watching him puzzled. Carefully his claws danced on his tired mate's face-plates, before he bent the head once more and rubbed their cheeks against each other.

"Do you regret it?" he heard the voice of his Seeker very near his audio. His words sounded rough, his voice scratchy, but that was no wonder after the torture he had endured.

Without pausing to caress his face and shoulders Megatron returned the look of the Air Commander inquiring.

"Regret…?"

Starscream closed his optics and for a moment he nestled to the touch of his leader with a pleasant purr. He even stilled long enough that Megatron almost would have repeated his question.

"Me," Starscream whispered almost inaudibly, and a gentle shiver, filled with fear, came through their bond to his mate. "Our sparkling. Us. Everything."

Still doubts. After all he still had doubts. If Megatron had said him that a family would have been the last thing he had planned for his life, Starscream surely would have taken their offspring and disappeared as wordless as he had done three days ago, only to stay out of his way.

Of course he hadn't been planning to have a family. He never would have done it, simply for the reason that he didn't know if he was good enough to be a creator and could be a good mate for the carrier of his offspring. Because he didn't know if he could handle this responsibility.

Now he could prove it. He accepted to rebuild an entire planet; now he could demonstrate that he was able to manage the biggest of all challenges. That responsibility that started with the task to take the insecurity off of Starscream.

"Stupid little Seeker," he reciprocated the purr gently and laid down beside his SIC who moved closer carefully, intent of the precious being that clung to his chassis, to nuzzle against his mate.

"Do you think I would be here if I regretted it? Do you think I would have searched for you after you have been ran away, if I regretted everything that exists between us? Do you think so?"

He rolled on his side and possessively put his arms around Starscream's slender waist, paying attention to not crushing the little sparkling as well as his partner.

"Rest now, heavenstriker. You've deserved it. Everything else can wait until tomorrow."

Starscream identified a hidden order when he heard one, even more when it came from his commander. But for now, he had no ambitions to argue. Megatron was right: He had deserved it and he needed recharge.

Today he wouldn't be able to fly anywhere.

Albeit his frame still ached, his exhaustion was big enough to let him fall asleep just as he had nestled to his mate.

Tomorrow, yes. Tomorrow they would see.