To take back what's mine.

Summary: Skyfire witnesses a rather brutal beating that Megatron gives Starscream and decides to take back his Star and not let him shoot away again.

Pairings: Skyfire/Starscream, implied-past- Megatron/Optimus (Orion), Thundercracker/Skywarp, Prowl/Jazz, Ratchet/Lambos, Optimus/Bee, Ironhide/OC (Changling), Megatron/Soundwave

Warning: Beatings, cursing, side switching, mech on mech, Mech on Femme (Maybe), OC (Changling), sparking sparklings, past abuse, trauma, Skywarp being Skywarp, glitching.

Time:
Joor - 6.5 earth hours
Solarcycle - one earth day
Astrosecond - .483 earth second

Ch 2

Ratchet growled in frustration and anger as he called for Swoop to bring him some of his smaller laser scalpels so he could cut away the more delicate armor that encased the seeker. He had taken most of Starscream's outer armor off with a small amount of pressure or a slide of his servo then he had to take the secondary armor that the seeker had on. He had reattached Starscream's arm as it had been hanging loosely by small amounts of wiring and tubing. The frame had been snapped and was welded back into place, luckily the wires weren't strained at all in the journey from where he had been to Ratchet's medbay.

Over to the side of the medbay was Wheeljack and Perceptor working on reconstruction of the seekers wings, which had been the first things to be taken off so he could fix the back struts easier, as well as the outer armor. The CMO had cursed his programming and Skyfire's pleading to help the seeker who had harmed his bondmates on several occasions, even if he had been provoked by their pit slagging Jet Judo he didn't have to do so much damage to them to where one or both of them be confined to his medbay berths for a few solarcycles. Though he didn't like the seeker much, he couldn't help but curse whomever did this damage to him, it was simply too much done to a single mech to be a "punishment", as he heard that the Decepticon tyrant dealt to his subordinates for failed missions.

This was done to offline a mech, Ratchet was sure. He cursed as he called for First Aid to bring more energon to help jump start the seeker's spark again, fourth time in the last joor! He was getting angrier and more concentrated by the astrosecond as he cut away the last of Starscream's under armor and saw the damage to his protoform. This damage wasn't just from this last punishment, but from several punishments and patchy repairs from a semi-adequate medic. Many craters and cannons littered the seekers protoform from his thrusters all the way up to his neck tubes.

"Frag it to the pit!" he cursed at the seekers form, his programming was on high from the sight of the seeker and he knew his protégés' were the same, he heard Swoop whine from his right and felt Hoist comfort the Dinobot before returning to his post of setting up necessary parts to be used when Ratchet needed them, such as wires and tubing.

"Swoop, tube clamp" he called out and held out a servo, turning back to his work when the tool his servo. He quickly clamped off a torn energon tube, overly glad that his main tube lining had not sustained any damage as that was harder to repair than the tubing itself. Working quickly, Ratchet started switching out torn, melted or simply unsalvageable parts an replacing them with quick ease then melting some metal to make it liquid so he could wield back the protoform shell.

"Wrench" he called out and swapped the clamp, as it was no longer needed, for a socket wrench to start loosening the cockpit top off so he could work there.

"Why you Ratchet no work on he seeker cockpit sooner?" he heard Swoop ask. He checked First Aid, who was assigned to watch the seeker's vitals along the way and see if they dropped. Seeing that the seeker was stable and out of immediate danger, Ratchet answered the Dinobot.

"The seeker protoform is far fragiler than a groundling's form. If I had worked on his cockpit while his tubing was uncovered and his protoform was still not repaired, I would risk in harming Starscream farther. I have to intentionally cut part of his protoform off to get to his wiring under the cockpit's frame" he explained, "and since his protoform was already opened in another area, I had to close that or risk in losing Starscream from over bleeding" he finished before calling for a scalpel again and quickly, cleanly and gently cut at the protoform before lifting the frame out, with Hoist's help.

"Slag" he hissed out at the mangled wires he found and quickly gave Swoop the frame to give to Wheeljack and Perceptor, who had finished Starscream's wings and part of his outer armor, to work on.

"Looks like we're not getting recharge anytime soon" Ratchet heard Hoist say and silently agreed before calling out for a larger scalpel and tweezers. He then cut away the frayed wires and replaced them for new ones while reconnecting the strained and broken ones.

~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~~0~

Jazz was laying against his arms while draping himself across one of the benches in the rec. room, having fallen into recharge while waiting for Ratchet or another medic to come and tell him and Skyfire the news on Starscream's condition. Skyfire was sitting not that far from the saboteur. In fact he was on the floor next to the bench that Jazz was recharging on, unable to recharge himself as he was filled with worry.

It had been several joors since he had brought Starscream to the ark and since the whole regime had been debriefed on the subject. Even though Skyfire and Jazz hadn't been at the meeting, Jazz had linked his overhead com. up to the meeting room so they could hear it, it wasn't pretty.

Several mechs had outright said they should just let Starscream deactivate. They said that he wasn't worth the resources and time plus he had harmed and even killed several of their own. They completely forgot that they did the same to other Decepticons. Few said that while Starscream wasn't a particularly a good mech, he didn't deserve to die. Not while they could help him, it wasn't the Autobots way. A handful had no real opinions on the matter. Those of the handful said that would withhold judgement until they got a clue upon how Starscream reacted to them. That is, if he survived. Jazz had cut it off after that, knowing that Skyfire didn't need to hear anymore of the negative comments towards the seeker.

The shuttle sighed and prayed to Primus that Starscream would survive, prayed that he would be alright and live. Only Skyfire knew what Starscream was truly like behind his insane facade and treachery towards the 'cons. He knew that there had been several factors in play that lead the red and white seeker to follow Megatron way back on Cybertron all those millennia ago. He just couldn't prove it to the others, they wouldn't believe it unless they had solid hard evidence, not just the words of one mech that personally knew the seeker and that was where he came to a head in his decision.

Yes he had saved Starscream from offlining out in the middle of nowhere, but for what cause? A place among the Autobots, the same ones he attacked, killed and tortured before and had made many enemies of them? Pah! He may have saved him, but he ultimately might have damned him to hateful comments, sneers, dirty glances and fights from the others. When, not if as it wasn't an option to the shuttle, when Starscream got better he might leave and then be isolated and alone...that would be worse than his beating, near death experience and his rescue from his enemy.

The door to the rec. room opened and Ratchet stepped in. Immediately Skyfire stood, accidentally waking Jazz in the process, and looked at the medic. He was silent for a bit before sighing to the shuttle and giving a soft smile.

"Starscream is stable and mostly repaired. He's out of stasis and is recharging now. He won't be waking for the next solarcycle as his body is finishing his selfrepairs, but he's safe now" Ratchet told him. Skyfire gave a relieved breath and smiled tiredly, now realising how much energy he had been running on for the past - he looked at his chronometer - 6 joors. He'd need to recharge soon, but right now he needed to see Starscream.

"May I see him?" he asked Ratchet politely. The CMO nodded and motioned for him to follow, dismissing Jazz at the same time. The saboteur waved Skyfire bye and said he'd check on him after he recharged for a little while longer, Skyfire nodded to him and continued to follow Ratchet when Jazz went his separate way.

The medbay was quiet, unusually quiet in Skyfire's opinion. He only ever heard yelling and the bang of medical equipment connecting with either somebot's helm or the wall when one of the lucky slaggers missed the flying object by ducking. Now though, it was calm and peaceful, the only sound was the beeping of the monitor that was connected to the recharging seeker.

Skyfire went over to Starscream's side and looked over him. He looked a lot better, though he was only covered by the under armor as his cockpit cover and outer armor was still in repair. His wings were fixed and reattached and his cracked optics were filled in and repaired, though since they had no red optics Ratchet had to use some blue ones. This gave Starscream the illusion of having purple optics, from what the shuttle could see in the lighting. Skyfire liked it and found it more suiting for the small seeker. He certainly was smaller than his trine mates and every other seeker that Skyfire had ever met, which was just fine him. The shuttle couldn't see Starscream be anything but smaller than the others.

He smiled and placed a servo on the peaceful face, no longer was it in a contortion of pain, but instead it showed the peacefulness of rest and healing. Skyfire smiled softly when the seeker unconsciously leaned into the warmth of his servo, almost like one of the earth felines, before resting in it. He felt the soft puff of air that came out of Starscream's intakes against his servo, feeling a small shiver go up his back struts as he felt a almost forgotten feeling he had for the seeker go through his spark.

Love.

Of course he would never tell the seeker that he loved him. No, he knew Starscream would never agree to be in a relationship with him with the fact that they were just too different to be compatible, but a mech could dream couldn't he? Skyfire lifted his other servo up so he could take one of Starscream's smaller ones and rub a thumb over the top of it.

Welcome back my Star he thought to himself before placing a soft kiss on the servo, all the while forgetting about Ratchet, who was still in the bay watching him while filling out reports.


Me: Hey look it! Chapter 2 in under 3 days! Something good must be happening! Ah~ Again, plz review and let me know what you think!