"They say for every wish you ask Primus, he will later collect his debt. I never doubted this, but I did what I had to. I spent half of my entire life searching, fighting, reaching for a goal.

I've finally reached it, and now its time to pay the price."

Drift watched helplessly as the glass pod closed with a hiss, he was aware of everything, every control the medics issued to the system, every gurgle of the sludgy green liquid starting to fill the recovery pod, every little snap the machinery did, and even the silent stirring of the newborn mechlet in his arms, wrapped in a warm thermal blanket, still blind and his protoform bare, too unaware of what was going on.

Yet he couldn't take his optics off of his mate's form, her colors dull and almost gray, a sick decaying color. Her optics were still focused on his defeated figure, looking down with a bittersweet smile, they slowly lost their light.

The mechlet in his arms let out a tiny whimper, stirring closer to his chassis, as if it could feel the start of the separation from his carrier bond. He could feel it as well, the barest of feeling was still there, hanging on tight, trying to hold on until the very last moment.

He wanted to beg, to ask her not to go, to stay with him, he didn't know what to do, how to continue going, Primus how to even take care of his family, he was just lost. But he couldn't ask, he wouldn't.

Asking her not to do this would mean her death, and ultimately his and his sparklings.

' Drift...' he looked up back up, focusing on the small light still in her optics, his own shinning bright.

'I'll be back ...before...you know it...' and with that, it went silent, his bond felt like it suddenly went missing, a vacuum taking its place.

Snap Shot woke with a start, wailing loudly into the quiet room, a series of distressed calls could be felt in his spark, all four of them clinging to his like a lifeline.

It took him all he had to stand firm and not fall apart like they were, sending them their love and comfort.

He only had the mindset to lift the newborn closer to himself a little better, letting himself be guided out of the darkening room and back out into the general medbay, instead of being sent off, he was taken to Ratchet's office, where he was sat on one of the chairs.

Ratchet sat opposite of him, watching silently, giving him his time.

Drift didn't have it in him to talk, the only thing he could do was whisper soft sounds to his youngest creation in a futile attempt to calm him down. He didn't feel like he had the right to talk, to listen, to vent, to live for that matter, it just didn't feel right when your mate couldn't be there by your side.

After what felt like nothing but had probably been for over an hour, little Snap Shot's wails died down, the mechlet falling into an uneasy recharge due to exhaustion.

"Drift" Ratchet's voice was like a piercing blade, cutting through his barely standing wall of paper shielding him from the world. "I know this is hard for you." the white mech didn't look up to the medic, his optics were stuck on his little creation. "But I need you to focus here, this won't be for ever, and as you know you have all the support you need from everyone on the Ark, scrap the Autobots even, every last one of us." he said seriously.

"Its not the same Ratchet." the mech finally spoke up, his voice sounding oddly displaced. "none of them can replace her, none of them can fill her place."

"No." the medic spoke with his typical bluntness "But we can help you hang on until she can return again. This is a ten year medical sleep Drift, all things considered we're lucky that's all she'll need. Her spark is a mess right now, I've had to operate on it six times already, there's so much of a beating a spark can take before it starts to fade. Snap Shot there was the last straw." he said in all seriousness, making the white knight flinch at the words.

Snap Shot had been...a very unexpected accident. Not only was he unplanned, but his spark reacted in a rare and unusual way, it sucked its carrier's spark's energy with an unhealthy speed, making the spark smaller than it should, and nearly draining its carrier very suddenly. There had barely even been time to consider if they wanted him, not that they would have said no, but that was just how fast it happened.
The result was a very rushed protoform for him, a basic minibot protoform, nothing fancy, he didn't have time for better and AshBringer had been too weakened from the sparkling's constant energy drainage to forge the frame herself like she had before with the triplets.

"There's a whole lot of technical things I'll have to discuss with you. Namely about him and his development to make sure nothing goes wrong. Right now he can't even see, we need to fix that quickly so he doesn't have any sort of lethargic optic systems. Wheeljack's working on it as we speak, but there is a more important matter at hand." Ratchet spoke, bringing the mech once again back to reality.

Drift held his creation fondly, as if afraid Ratchet's words would take him away from him as well.

"Feeding. As you know, at this stage he should still be feeding off of his mother's spark energy, as it is, that is out of the question. We're going to have to give him alternate fuel, hopefully he will accept it, most sparklings do, but there is always the chance that he refuses, if that happens we're going to have to go through alternative ways." Drift shuddered at that, the image of Snap Shot on a medical berth, being fed by a drip line sending him the shivers.

"I want you bringing that mechlet here everyday for the next month, and then every week after that so we can make sure he's developing like he should be."

Every day? That was absurd, impossible even, he had shifts after all, he was bound to be unable to come over once or twice, especially now, five mouths to feed, one being a newborn...

"I'm afraid I can't-"

"Prowl is looking into your situation, I made sure to get it through his thick processor that you're going to need the free time for these things." Ratchet cut him off. "Sparklings are rare Drift, right now, they're everybot's top priority, if a few work shifts have to be moved around, so be it."

He didn't get to say more as someone knocked at the door at that time. Ratchet looked up as the door opened behind Drift.

"I have the energon you requested." Infrared's now familiar voice spoke up as she moved around Drift and deposited a box on the desk.

"Ah, great, this is what you're going to be feeding the little guy Drift" The CMO said, motioning for the box. "should last you three weeks for now, until we can make more. Two a day and no more, I mean it."

Drift could only nod at this, getting up from his seat carefully, his body didn't feel his at all, it felt weightless, like there was nothing to carry inside it.

"Infrared will help you with it to your quarters." with another nod, the white mech made to leave, Infrared quickly picking up the box to follow. "Oh and Drift?" the mech stopped, just slightly looking over his shoulder towards the medic. "Don't be a stranger to ask for help. In anything."

"Thank you Ratchet." he spoke hollowly. "Please take good care of her." it pained him to say it, a sharp deep pain straight to his spark.

"You know I will."

Author's note:

So, this is an experiment of mine, where I take people's opinions on what they want next for the story, and write based off of that.

The choice this time, is if I should continue with Drift alone from here on out, or if I should go to when his bondmate wakes up.

take your pick, or don't.

Reviews are apreciated as I am still a noob at writting and could use the moral.

thanks for reading!