Wheeljack opened the day-care on time, like he normally did. He yawned and stretched after flipping the sign, then he padded relatively quietly back to the sort of kitchen. He ran a digit over the edge of the counter, then perched on it. Bulkhead was preparing Energon cubes for snack time.

"So, three femmes were born?"

"Three femme non-Seekers," Wheeljack corrected. He looked down at his thighs as he sighed softly. "Bulk? Can I ask you a question?"

"Sure, Jackie…"

He looked up at him. "With Prime in the core, and with 'bots pouring back onto Cybertron, shouldn't we name a new Prime?"

"I think Magnus is taking care of everything. He's hardly left Prime's office, you know."

He nodded as he jumped down. He heard the door open and he recognized Bear's squeals and Firefly's mocking voice. He swore to Primus that they were Starscream's kids, but the Seeker had not claimed them, and their carrier didn't know who Starscream was. Wheeljack was fond of their carrier, Lightburst. He was a good Seeker that respected the Autobots and their efforts. He even offered to help Magnus, but apparently the mech had slammed the door in the Seeker's face.

Maggy didn't share well.

He walked into the room, cuffing Firefly on the helm. "Hey, hey, hey, now… You guys can't tease each other. That job belongs to me." He lifted Bear up and he smiled at Light. "They're getting big…and annoying."

The mech laughed and he touched Dragonbreath's helm as she blinked sheepishly up at Wheeljack, which was strange. The little femme used to jump all over him. "Yes, they are…I'm glad Dragon is still decent."

"I know that feeling," he muttered. He set Bear down and he watched the little one tear off after his brother. "Well, now that they've settled…"

Lightburst pushed Dragonbreath forward. "I'll pay you when I get back."

"Light, you know we don't accept that." He knew that because the Seekers were still not trusted due to Starscream (the little bugger), the other mechs were wary of hiring them, so the Seekers were getting evicted from their new homes that they hadn't been in for a week. He couldn't walk down the street without seeing a poor trine of Seekerlings digging through the trash to find a cube of Energon or a candy that was left unfinished. He had tried to coax several trines out of hiding, but he supposed he reminded them too much of the mechs that had kicked them out of their homes, since they squealed and ran into their little boxes. He reminded himself to try and get Arcee to fetch them.

Lightburst sighed and he leaned back on his pedes. "I can't keep not paying you for all the good you do, Wheeljack…I feel terrible."

"Yeah, and Bulkhead feels terrible for letting me take what you have to offer." He crossed his arms. "So now that we all feel terrible, let's forget this conversation ever happened."

The white Seeker laughed and he nodded as he scuffed a pede along the ground.

"I just waxed that floor, on my peds and servos." He smirked at the mech when he jerked his helm up in shock, then he laughed. The Seeker saw that he was joking and he pretended to swat at him.

"You're an aft," he growled. He looked past Wheeljack and he smiled at what could only be Bulkhead. "Hey, B."

"Is Jackie causing trouble?" Bulkhead put his arm around Wheeljack's shoulders. The white Wrecker pretended to be offended.

"You should beat him more often," Lightburst joked. He patted their helms, since he towered over them, and then he walked out of the building. He waved over at them. "I'll be back in a couple hours!"

Bulkhead smiled. Lightburst was a favorite of nearly all of Team Prime. Even Arcee was fond of him, which scared the coolant out of Wheeljack.

"He's a good mech," Wheeljack finally said. "I'd like him more if he didn't suggest that you beat me."

"You know I'd never lay a servo on you."

"No, but you'd lay an arm all over me. And pretty much your entire body."

Bulkhead hissed, jerking his helm to the side. Apparently someone was watching them while Wheeljack flirted in his own way to his mate. He knew Bulkhead was shy about their relationship, especially around sparklings, and Magnus. Dragonbreath was watching them, her pink-tinted optics wide. Primus, she was precious with her big pink optics and her little wings fluttering.

"I saw a mech."

Wheeljack laughed. "Of course you did. If you haven't guessed it, I am a mech, and yes, Bulkhead is also a mech. And your carrier, too."

"A different mech."

He frowned. He didn't let mechs run rampant through his day-care. He was very particular about who entered and who didn't. Bumblebee and Smokescreen were probably the only other mechs that Wheeljack let step pede into the day-care. Of course he had no control over the Thirteen or Stormchaser.

Bulkhead stiffened beside him and he knew that that same thought had crossed through his processor.

"What did he look like?" Wheeljack knelt.

"He was tall, and he was blue, and he was red, and he was white, and he was very nice and he was gentle."

Wheeljack looked nervously up at Bulkhead. He saw his own worry reflected in his mate's optics.

"He said his name was Oh-five," she offered helpfully.

O-5? Not exactly a common name, or even an actual name. It was probably a nickname, or a code for something.

Bulkhead seemed to choke.

Wheeljack touched her shoulder. "If Mister Oh-five comes back, I want you to run and get me, okay?" He was concerned for this little femme.

A long time ago, before the Golden Age, there was a massive femme-sparkling-boom. The little infants were precious, and everyone adored them. For some reason unknown to anyone, they started to wail during the night. When nurses and medics came to check on them, they were dribbling Energon from between their legs and they were often stained with fluid. The medics and authorities had tried to identify the mech by the fluid, but they received numerous results. It seemed that dozens of mechs had slipped into the nursery and targeted the little babies before they had even lost their pink tinting. The younger the better, and most of the younger ones died due to the violation. The mechs were not gentle.

Wheeljack was wondering if that was happening again. He didn't see anything obvious that meant the little one had been attacked and violated, but she was a good deceiver and she could pull a lie with as much ease as Megatron had. It made since if the little ones were being targeted again. The femme sparklings were becoming popular again and more and more mechs were coming back…

But who had snuck into the day-care? And why?

He decided to go to Ratchet, who was pretty much the oldest of them all. He wasn't sure he wanted to pull out a dusty book or try to fire up an ancient data-pad.

When he told Ratchet Dragonbreath's story, the medic frowned and he shook his helm.

"Those mechs died long ago, Wheeljack."

"I'm not saying those mechs are back and out to rape sparklings again. I'm suggesting that another group, an entirely different group, of mechs is out and about, doing what the original mechs did."

"And we only have the word from a sparkling?"

"Yes," Wheeljack admitted. He lowered his helm. Maybe he was panicking just a little bit too much.

"Well, keep an optic on her. I can't do much about it if she's just having dreams."

Dreams were a possibility. Why hadn't he thought of that? He snorted to himself as he walked out of the MedBay. Then he saw Bulkhead, and his tank dropped to his pedes.

The Wrecker was pale.

"Jackie…"

Wheeljack pushed by him, stopping when he saw Dragonbreath lying limp on her pillow. Her brothers were shaking her, whimpering and crying for her to wake up. Her optics were wide, but they were white and sightless. Her breathing was impossibly slow.

And then Wheeljack saw it. The Twelve were gathered around her, their optics glowing as they swayed back and forth, back and forth, back and forth.

The world spun, and dimmed, and flickered. And the last thing Wheeljack saw before his optics closed, was Bulkhead's worried face over his.

oOo

When Wheeljack came to, Bulkhead was cradling his helm in his lap, Lightburst was bent over him, and Ratchet was snapping orders around. Pain swept over the white Wrecker like a brutal black wave. "Agh…"

"He's awake!" Lightburst hugged his neck, making another wave of pain sweep over him.

"Easy, Light…" Ratchet pulled the Seeker off of the Wrecker. "How are you feeling, Wheeljack?"

"Like Bulkhead sat on me with his fat aft…" He struggled to sit up, but his legs failed him and he began to panic.

Then he saw that Ratchet was sitting on them with half of his weight. He sighed and laid his helm back down, groaning. "How's Dragon?"

"In shock, but she will recover with flying colors. I believe she had some kind of seizure."

"No, the Twelve were around her."

Ratchet frowned and Wheeljack bit his lip. He had hit a soft spot, he knew.

"Optimus wasn't with them?"

"No, he wasn't, not that time. He wasn't by our fort, either, which is where he usually is. Do you think he's okay?"

"He's dead," Ratchet snapped. "There's no way he is 'okay'."

Wheeljack closed his optics. "I didn't mean that, doc, and you know that."

The medic pulled away. He didn't want to hear anything more, Wheeljack knew, and Bulkhead was going to peel his paint once he was cleared for duty. He sighed.

Ratchet went to examine the little Seekerling and he frowned. There was something different about the little runt. She looked…bigger…

He grabbed one of her brothers, the biggest, and he found Firefly was dwarfed by her. He stepped back, his servos shaking. "Get Magnus."

When Smokescreen and Magnus arrived, the former expected to see happy team mates, but he was surprised to see sorrowful mechs and a still Seekerling. He wondered if they had been called on accident when they really wanted Ratchet, but the old medic was standing there next to the femme.

Magnus went immediately to the sparkling. "She smells of Optimus." He took another deep inhale and he exhaled as his optics closed. "He has been here."

"Why?"

He slowly looked around the room, and his massive shoulders rose and fell. "Perhaps when Primus called him, he did not want to die."

oOo

Ratchet laid in his room, his face pressed into Optimus' pillow. He whined as he searched for the Prime's scent of Earth's spring blossoms, of the fierce wilderness, of the pines, of the mountains, of the scent after it rained…Optimus had adored Earth after it rained… Ratchet had despised it, and that had made the Prime smile more, but now he wished it would rain. He tried to conjure the scent, the sound, the feel, but all the sensations were lost to him now. They had left with Optimus.

He rolled over and he stared up at the ceiling, where he had pasted a picture of the Prime and of him back on Earth. The human girl child had taken it when, Ratchet supposed, she and Jack had entered a bet.

His first kiss with the Prime on Earth was caught on camera for the whole base to see. He was surprised at how the team had accepted him and Prime, but he now knew that Bulkhead was hiding his affections for Wheeljack as well as he could, and Bumblebee was trying to get Arcee to forget Tailgate and Cliffjumper. He wanted to go back to Earth. They were outmatched, outgunned, and in danger everywhere they went, whether it was from humans or Decepticons, but at least he had Prime. He regretted coming back to Cybertron. The trouble didn't start until he returned to the planet.

He felt that he would never get to sleep. It would just be his luck if he continued to stay awake when he just wanted to sleep. But surprisingly, he felt his optics dim. He felt his body start to shut down. He felt Sleep wrap him up in her delicate claws. He was asleep before he could register what was happening.

Optimus was stroking his arm, watching him with serious optics as he pressed his lips to his helm. I will return to you, my dear lover, with all the ferocity and power of a dragon's breath.

He got up slowly, then returned to his new "body". He was not reincarnated, but he had slightly taken over the body of the Seekerling. He had advanced her growth due to his interference, and she was going to get bigger. He didn't like using sparklings, but he wanted nothing more than to be with his family, with his mate, and with his friends. He whined for them now.

Dragonbreath woke up. "O-5?"

He soothed her, laying with her as he curled her against his chest. The Matrix hummed in her presence. She was what was considered "Prime material".

Sleep, young one. He stroked her helm. He smiled down at her as she purred and fell asleep again. He sighed against her helm and he heard his siblings start to pour into the room.

Lightburst had been injured, so he had asked to leave his sparklings in the day-care. Wheeljack was asleep in the kitchen, on the floor, with an Energon cube still in his servo. Vector was with him now, smiling down at him as he was amused.

Solus looked down at the sparkling. "You've Claimed?"

Along with Clicking, Marking, and Bonding, there was Claiming, where the dead latched onto the living and fed them parts of their energy in exchange for the chance to live again.

Only two out of twenty mechs or femmes would allow that, and Dragonbreath was one of those few. He was lucky. If he had Claimed Firefly or Bear, they would have rejected him, and would have caused a fuss, something that the Twelve would have to take care of.

"I want to be with my family," he whispered.

Solus kissed his forehelm. "You still have a family here, you know…"

He nodded. Solus was good at the art of Guilt-Tripping.

"I love you, Solus, and all of you others, but I love my team more. You must understand that I don't want to be dead."

"Sometimes," she sighed as she stood up, "you don't get a choice. Primus called you back for a reason. He needs you for something."

Optimus looked down at the Seekerling and he considered what she was saying. "I am sorry, Solus…but I want to be back to my team."

"You don't always get what you want, Optimus." She crossed her arms. "But Primus has a tendency to give you what you need."