Title: Let Him Run, Let Him Live

Author: DeviousGypsy

Request: Second is peppymint, whom I wish to thank so much for all your reviews on Keep It Together. The request is; the Autobot's reactions to Starscream going missing as well as them finding out who their father is.

Warnings: Mentioned Mech-preg

Pairings: Megatron/Starscream, Wheeljack/Ratchet

Orn = Roughly 4.7 Earth days, Vorn = 83 Earth years, Breem = 1 Earth minute, Stellercycle = 1 Earth month, Megacycle = 1 Earth hour

Sub-spacing his gun, Prime watched as Megatron took off, strangely in the opposite direction he had come from. "Mirage, follow the Decepticons and send an alert out of they attack somewhere else. I'm unsettled that they are not returning to the Nemesis," Optimus ordered, turning to watch as Mirage disappeared with a nod. Feeling the ping of a com, Optimus opened the link, not surprised to see that it was Ironhide who had led the team against Devastator. "Yes, 'Hide?"

"Devastator's pullin' out, Optimus," Ironhide reported, "We're on out way back to the Ark."

"Any casualties?"

There was a pause as-Optimus presumed-Ironhide looked around, checking over everyone in the team. "Bumblebee's walking with a limp and Wheeljack's arm's got a few gashes from where he pulled it out of Devastator's grip."

Nodding, though Ironhide couldn't see it, Optimus responded; "Alright, I'll have Ratchet waiting in the medical bay for the two of them." He cut the com and turned to the medic, "Prepare med bay for Bumblebee and Wheeljack." Ratchet's optics practically rolled at the sound of his mate's name, knowing that if anyone were to get wounded it really would be Wheeljack.

"Alright, Prime," Ratchet groaned, heading back into the Ark towards the med bay. "What's the damage?"

Following the CMO, Optimus dismissed the rest of his army, though they knew to stay on guard in case Mirage alerted another attack. "Ironhide reported that Bumblebee's walking with a limp and Wheeljack tore his arm out of Devastator's grip leaving multiple gashes and I'm assuming a dislocated shoulder joint."

Rubbing his helm at the oncoming processor ache, Ratchet groaned. "Alright," he started, going through a long list of what he had to do for the remainder of the day. "Starscream's still in stasis and the sparklings still need their energon feed, so there's three energon feeds in use right now. Hopefully both Bumblebee and Wheeljack won't need one because I only have one free."

Optimus stopped, holding Ratchet back from entering the medical bay they were now standing in front of. Before Ratchet could object, Optimus pointed down to the ground where there were a few drops of energon here and there and Optimus couldn't figure out if the bot who left these trails were heading into the med bay or out. Pulling out his gun in case of a possible Decepticon intruder, Optimus walked into the med bay first, looking around. Finally when he came up with nothing, he put the gun away, "There's no one there."

Hearing that Ratchet swore, "No one there? That's not possible," he groaned, looking into his med bay to find that the berth Starscream had occupied was empty, the sparklings gone as well. "How the frag did he even wake up? His energy readings were so low, and he was in stasis," Ratchet rambled, "Let alone the wounds on his thrusters. Starscream shouldn't even be able to walk!"

"Well then he couldn't have gotten far," Optimus responded, heading back out of the med bay, following the occasional drops of energon. However, the farther along Starscream seemed to have gotten, his wounds must have opened up because the few droplets eventually turned into full out trails.

"Looks like he was trying to find the tunnel," Ratchet muttered, "Will all this energon I doubt he found it before he offlined."

"No," Optimus corrected, "Looks like he found it alright." The trails ended at the hidden door, though Optimus was rather surprised to find that Starscream had the strength to pull the door shut behind him as well. Sliding the door open, Optimus first noticed the pools on energon where Starscream must have landed, shards of his broken thrusters amongst the energon.

Jumping down himself, Optimus followed the trails, Ratchet close behind him. How the Seeker could have mustered this much strength was beyond him. Let alone while having just given birth, and even carrying the two sparklings with him on this journey. Following the tunnel, and the now sporadic energon spatters as it seemed that Starscream had run through the tunnel, Optimus half expected to find Starscream deactivated at the end of the tunnel.

However, when the two mechs got there it seemed that the only thing they could see was black dots high in the sky, the Decepticons. Hearing rustling in the brush beside them, Optimus tightened his hold on his gun, pointing it in the direction of the sound. "Woah! Hey, Prime," Mirage called, becoming visible. "Easy, just me."

"What happened here, Mirage?" Ratchet asked, moving forward to stand beside Optimus who had sub-spaced his weapon.

"I swear," Mirage started, "You guys wouldn't believe me if I told you." The blue and while mech rubbed his optics with his servo, shaking his helm lightly. "I don't really believe it either, and I'm the one who saw it."

Optimus frowned, "What was it, Mirage?"

Crossing his arms across his chest, Mirage let a heave of air from his vents. "Well, I followed the Decepticons like you said, and was actually really shocked to see that they had stayed so close to the Ark. I was actually just about to send an alert because I saw that they were right at the exit of the tunnel. Then I saw Starscream," Mirage told them, before Ratchet interrupted.

"Was he online?"

"I think he went back into stasis, his signal hadn't left so I don't think he was deactivated. Anyway, Megatron was leading them, and he stopped by Starscream's side. I was slightly curious as to why Megatron would go through all this trouble to find Starscream, but then when Megatron knelt next to Starscream, a little tiny noise came from Starscream's armor. And I swear to Primus," Mirage added, raising a servo to the sky, "That that sparkling was calling to Megatron."

Optimus turned to Ratchet, "You don't think," he trailed off, the words that he was about to say making no sense to him at all though all evidence in front of him proved otherwise.

Waving Optimus off as he rubbed at his servos, he asked Mirage; "Where are they now?"

"Well, Megatron just kinda picked Starscream up and they headed back in the direction of the Nemesis."

Pinching the bridge of his nose, just above his battle mask, Optimus offlined his optics. "You mean to tell me that we had the sparklings of Starscream and Megatron in our servos, and now they're gone?"

Frowning, Ratchet nodded. "Yep."

Sighing, Optimus headed back inside the Ark. "I need about four cubes of high-grade."

I hope it was to your liking peppymint, I'm really sorry if it's not, I'm entirely amazing with the Autobots since I haven't worked with them a lot. So I really appreciated this opportunity to play around with them. I'm also sorry that Optimus was rather out of character at the end but it made me laugh; not only that but it would have been my reaction to that kind of news. Anyway, feel free to send some more requests my way!