Sam was right about Sarah.

When he called her, Lennox opened the conversation with the ultimate bad-news-breaker phrase, "Honey, I've got bad news."

"Will? What happened? Are you hurt?"

"Well, uh, sort of but also not really? You remember that big battle in Mission City, with those can't be spoken of over an open phone line?"

"Yes, of course I remember. You couldn't shut up about your squad taking one down on your own, without outside help."

A grin flashed over his face at the memory, but was gone when he remembered the situation. "Yeah, okay those guys? They have these things called sparks. Basically like their souls except physical. And I have one. And I'm going to die in less than a year because of it. But the medic says he can save my spark and do something called flash-copying my memories, so I won't actually be dead."

After a long pause, Sarah asked, "So you'll be okay in the end?"

"Ratchet says so, yeah."

Sarah sighed in relief. "I thought you were going to tell me someone was dead-dead. Don't scare me like that!"

And that was it. She was perfectly fine with him eventually turning into a robot.

"What'd Mikayla say when you told her?" Lennox asked after he told his wife Ironhide was coming retrieve her and Annabelle and hung up.

Sam looked away. "She didn't say anything. She just hung up."

Lennox leaned forward, sympathetic. "Are you two fighting, then?"

Sam rolled one shoulder. "No, I don't think so. She just refuses to talk about it. If I bring it up, she changes the subject or hangs up."

"That sucks kiddo. I'm sure-"

Ratchet's cursing from the other side of the medbay startled them into silence.

"Hey, Ratchet? Are you okay over there?" Sam called warily.

Ratchet stood still for a moment, collecting himself, before he stomped over to Sam and Lennox's berth.

Angrily, he explained, "I'm fine, slag it, but you two aren't! You both have seeker sparks! Not just flyer sparks, that I could have dealt with, but seeker sparks! I don't have any seeker frame schematics and I'm not sure your sparks would be satisfied with mere flyer bodies! Fragging picky seekers…!"

Lennox waved Sam back behind him.

After letting the mech throw his minor tantrum, he asked Ratchet, "Couldn't you just take look through Starscream's memory files?"

Ratchet pinched the bridge of his nose and slowly calmed down. "Yes, I can look through Starscream's files, but I'd need his code from Skywarp. It could take vorns if I just tried to hack through it, but you two don't have the luxury of time. Memory codes are extremely sensitive, but I'm sure Starscream's not paranoid enough that he wouldn't tell his trine."

"Well, it couldn't hurt to ask, could it?"

"No, I suppose it couldn't. I'll give you a ride down to the brig."

-x-

Ironhide wasn't pleased that they were visiting Skywarp again, but he let them through pretty quickly when Ratchet threatened to bring him up to the medbay for a random checkup. Nobody liked Ratchet's random checkups.

Sam was the one who approached Skywarp's cell first, much to Lennox and Ratchet's dismay.

Nervously, he said, "Hey, Skywarp? We need Starscream's memory code."

The mech sat up abruptly and lunged towards the bars, snarling incoherently. Sam waited for a moment, seemingly patient, but both Lennox and Ratchet could clearly see his nervousness in the set of his shoulders and the sweat on the back of his neck.

Clearing his throat, Sam said, "Look, remember when you said you were getting weird readings from me and Lennox? Well, it turns out we have sparks. And our squishy human bodies aren't built to hold a big ball of energy in our hearts. We're going to die soon if Ratchet can't build us bodies, and he says he has to give us a certain type of body or we'll die anyway."

Skywarp quieted.

"You mean you have seeker sparks?" he asked reverently.

Ratchet answered for him. "Yes, they have seeker sparks. Look, I need to know if Starscream has any seeker frame schematics buried in his memory core, right now. Time is something that Sam and Major Lennox do not have. I need Starscream's code, and I need those schematics."

Skywarp paused for a moment, thinking. Then he said, "Yeah, I think 'Screamer has a few seeker schematics. I can transmit the code to you, if you want. 'Screamer was paranoid with his codes, and they're impossible to voice."

Ratchet shook his head. "Better copy it onto something. I can't clear you for transmission access at this time. It's against protocol, even for me."

Skywarp understood, and set a small metal object on the ground after a moment. Sam figured it was some sort of storage device, and reached through a gap in the energon wall big enough for his arm to fit through and picked it up.

Ratchet, after taking it from Sam and scanning it, sighed in relief. "Thank you, Skywarp."

The Decepticon nodded, and hesitantly added, "If… if Starscream doesn't make it, I'm willing to defect. And if he does make it, I'll do my best to convince him to defect. I promise. He might not even take much convincing."

Ironhide spluttered in shock.

-x-

As it turned out, Starscream had three different seeker frame schematics, and Ratchet let both Sam and Lennox choose which frame they liked best. Both turned down the triangle frame (the 'dorito' frame, as Sam had called it). That left the dart frame and the slim frame.

The dart frame, the same build Skywarp had, was shaped more human-like, with rounded digits and with normal feet instead of talon-like ones, but also fairly heavily armored. The wings stuck out from the back, where human shoulder blades would be, and Ratchet explained that it was the most common seeker frame before the War. Lennox opted for that frame.

The slim frame was similarly built, but half as wide in the waist and limbs and almost a head shorter than the dart build. The wings were split into four, and Ratchet found a note in the coding that explained that the four wings in bipedal mode were so that the mech could be more expressive. Sam decided upon this one when Ratchet mentioned that mechs with this model tended to be ridiculously fast.

Ratchet was hesitant to begin construction, however. "Are you two certain? Once I've started building, it will be difficult to re-requisition materials."

Sam groaned dramatically. "You guys don't like me fighting, so being able to run away will keep you all from badgering me! Or fly away, I guess. I'm okay with it. And if I don't like it eventually, I can always get mods, right?"

"Yes, but not an entirely new frame."

Sam shrugged. "I'm a teenager. We're used to hating our bodies."

"And you, Major Lennox?"

Grinning, Lennox said, "It's got decent armor, and plenty of room for guns. It's perfect."

Ratchet nodded. "I'll send the schematics to be built, and I'll assemble them when they arrive. Meanwhile, I want you two to go for a flight. I've managed to… convince… a pair of fighter pilots to allow you to accompany them on a routine patrol."

Both Sam and Lennox lit up.

-x-

It took a good half hour to gear up all the way. Coveralls, then G-suits, heavy boots, and a safety harness. Then, they had to sit through an hour of safety talks, and the pilots took another half hour to complain about how unsafe this was since they didn't have any training, and they should have at least a year's worth before they even got inside a fighter jet.

Sam was getting antsy by the time the two hours were up, but managed to calm down long enough to be strapped down and fitted into a helmet and oxygen mask. His pilot was a redheaded lady who was actually fairly chipper once she was finished complaining about breaking safety regs.

"Okay, Wikkity-"

"Witwicky."

"Witwicky, we're just going on a simple practice run. But after our maneuver practice is over, we're cleared to play around if you're up to it."

Lennox's pilot was much grumpier, but also admitted that he was definitely willing to play around after the standard practice maneuvers, since he didn't often have the chance to practice more drastic maneuvers.

The second the wheels of the planes lifted off of the ground, Sam cheered in excitement. He hadn't realized how much he wanted to be flying until he actually was in the air.

The redheaded lady said, "Hold on gentlemen, and if you start to feel sick let me know so we can pull over."

Lennox and Sam both knew they'd be perfectly fine, and let go and enjoyed the gentle flight. The pilots weren't cleared for anything other than simple maneuvers until Sam and Lennox both proved to have strong stomachs.

The second they were cleared, Sam's pilot twisted into a barrel roll, and Sam, once he recovered from the initial shock, screamed in delight for more. His pilot obliged, and corkscrewed up, evening out for just a moment before cutting the engines. The freefall was the best thing he'd ever felt. His stomach floated up to his throat during the climb, then sunk to his toes on the descent. Sam scream-laughed in pure joy.

Lennox was enjoying himself just as much, and ordered his pilot to keep corkscrewing. When his pilot started getting dizzy, he evened out for a moment, and then radioed his partner to bark out a command.

She flattened her trajectory, and came back to fly just behind and to the right of her partner.

"What's going on?" Sam asked.

Sam's pilot cackled and said, "You'll see. We're the best goddamn flyers outside of the Blue Angels squadron, and we're about to show you why. Ever heard of a calypso pass?"

When Lennox whooped, Sam knew that whatever the two pilots were planning, it was going to be awesome.

Lennox's pilot banked left and Sam panicked for a moment before realizing that he wasn't crashing, but flying upside down above Sam's jet. Lennox waved to him, and Sam could see his huge wide grin around the oxygen mask.

"Ready for some more, gentlemen?"

Two affirmative answers later, the redheaded lady and the grumpy man were off again.

-x-

"Man, I don't think I've heard the Major this excited except when it was his turn for a call home," Epps said over Sam and Lennox's voices from the speakers.

Bumblebee chirruped and pointed when Sam's voice drowned Lennox's.

Epps shrugged. "Yeah, the kid's pretty happy too, but he's always more excitable than Lennox. It's just weird to hear him all… normal I guess. I mean it ain't like the man's emotionless, but he's not usually this chatty, either."

Bee shrugged.

-x-

It was nightfall by the time the pilots finally landed. The jets were close to running on fumes, and the pilots were exhausted, but Sam was practically vibrating and Lennox had a little bit of a bounce to his gait.

Ratchet sent Bumblebee to keep track of Sam and keep him busy, and sent Ironhide to fetch Lennox so he could scan him. He knew what pace Sam's spark was growing at, but he didn't have enough data to say for sure how quickly Lennox's was growing. And since he had just gotten back from a flight, he was sure to be much more amiable to sit still long enough to be scanned, and with minimal complaining.

Lennox practically bounced into the room. "Ratchet! You rang?"

"Yes. Sit. It's long past time for your daily scan."

Lennox laughed loudly. "You're the one who set up the flight! Why didn't you call us down if I needed to be scanned so badly?"

With a withering glare, Ratchet replied, "Because as much as I dislike saying this, getting you in the air for a while was more important than these scans. And you'll be going on weekly flights until you have to be transferred. After that, you'll be going for daily flights until your spark stabilizes completely."

Lennox grinned, but sat still once Ratchet started the scans.

A thought occurred to him while he was waiting to be dismissed. "Hey, Ratchet. You said that adult mechs who touched the Allspark got glitched, right?"

"I did," Ratchet replied distractedly. "Why?"

"Well, I was wondering if Sam and I counted as adults, or if it went by spark age."

Ratchet's fingers froze on the data pad.

"Ratchet?"

"Scrap me!" Lennox wasn't actually surprised by the cursing, but the questioning that followed it,"Have you had any weird urges that you didn't have before? Obsessions? Irritability over anything?"

Lennox shook his head. "No, none of that. Jesus, there's no need to get worked up, it was just a simple question…"

"There is a 'need to get worked up', as you put it. I'll have to get Bumblebee to get Sam in here as soon as he's come down from his flight-high to check for personality glitches in him too." Ratchet growled wordlessly while watching the data pad in his hands. "You very well could develop a personality glitch. When you're in your frame I'll do periodic processor checks. Red Alert's glitch didn't manifest until a few orns after the battle at the Allspark's temple, and Prowl's even longer after that. Both manifested at the worst possible time, and I'll be damned if you two do the same thing."

Lennox snorted. "Yeah I suppose it would fit with my terrible luck if some weird glitch kicked in just as Decepticons were attacking."

Ratchet groaned. "Don't borrow trouble, Major Lennox."

Lennox held his hands up in surrender. "Sorry, sorry. I'll let you know right away if I start acting weird. I'll even tell Ironhide and Sarah to tell you if I start acting weird."

"I've already ordered Ironhide to keep an eye on you and Bumblebee's been warned to keep an eye on Sam, as well," Ratchet replied, "And I'll also be sending out a memo to all humans who know about this to keep an eye on you two."

Lennox grumbled at the thought. Epps would be up his ass from now on, watching him for any sign of weirdness. Paranoid bastard.

-x-

The exact second Sam finally started winding down from the flight-high, Bumblebee herded him to the medbay and Ratchet scanned him and asked him all the same questions he had asked Lennox.

"No, Ratchet, I feel fine! Normal! No weird personality traits here, I promise!" Sam insisted.

Ratchet rumbled his engines and warned Bumblebee, again, to keep a close eye on him.

After he finally escaped from Ratchet, he wandered off aimlessly, chatting at Bumblebee. Bee wasn't paying attention where they were going, and the pair found themselves at the door to the brig.

Bumblebee stopped short when he realized it. "Sam - danger ahead- do not engage!"

Sam gave Bee a dirty look. "I wasn't going to. Why'd you come down here anyway, Bee?"

"I didn't do it! – I was - following you—"

Sam frowned. "Well I was following you!"

Before Bumblebee could argue back, there was a crash and a cry of pain from inside the brig. Both Sam and Bumblebee were surprised when Sam bolted for the door and rushed in.

"What in the pits did you do that for, Decepticon!?" Ironhide growled, checking him over for energon burns. "You're not supposed to touch the damn energon wall! That's why there's an electric fence in front of it!"

Sam skidded to a stop right by Ironhide's foot. "Is he okay!?"

Ironhide looked down. "What-? The hell are you doing down here, Sam?"

Sam ignored the question. "Is Skywarp okay?"

"Yeah, yeah. He's fine. He barely touched the energon wall. What do you care, anyway, kid? He's a 'con, for Primus' sake."

"I…" Sam hesitated. "I dunno. I heard him screaming, and I just took off. I thought he was hurt, I- I'm not sure why I was worried…"

Ironhide scowled. "I got a bad feeling about this. Bee, take him to Ratchet, tell him what happened. And don't let Sam come back down here, do you understand me?"

Bee saluted. "Yessir!"

"Good. Now get out of here before I put you both in the other cell."

Bumblebee scooped up Sam and practically bolted from the room.

Sam watched over Bee's shoulder the whole way out, eyes locked onto Skywarp's optics.

-x-

Ironhide connected to Lennox's phone.

"Will, Sam and Bumblebee were just down here. I'm sendin' him Ratchet's way."

"What!? I'm going to kick that kid's ass, I swear…"

Skywarp, meanwhile, was sitting much more loosely than before, and he hadn't reverted to his alt-mode like he usually did when someone wasn't talking to him.

"Also, the prisoner is actin' weird."

"'Hide…"

"He ain't bein' violent or nothin'. He's actually calmer than he usually is. Just warnin' you in case he does try somethin' stupid."

Lennox sighed. "Thanks, Ironhide."

"No problem, Will. We still on for a ride tonight?"

"Unless Sideswipe manages to get into more trouble, then yeah. Later, 'Hide."

Ironhide grunted and cut the connection.

-x-

Lennox had a few choice words for Sam when he came back to the medbay for the second time in a day.

"You idiot, what if he was loose!? He could have killed you, do you understand that?" Lennox shook Sam by his shirt. "Or worse yet, you could have accidentally initiated a trine bond with him!"

Sam's face went white as a sheet. "Shit."

"Yeah, kid. Next time, think about-!"

A clatter of tools, frantic beeping, and Ratchet's shouting cut them off "Slag! Damn it! Smelt me and toss me in a scrap heap! Bee, give me that tool next to the humans!"

Bumblebee obeyed the order immediately, and backed away.

Both Sam and Lennox were suddenly gripped with panic. Sam crumpled to the ground, and stared at Ratchet. Lennox, more used to the feeling, shook himself rushed over to the edge of the table.

He waved at the yellow and black mech wildly and said, "Bumblebee, pick me up and take me over to see what Ratchet's doing."

Crkzz. "That's a negative, Ghost Rider."

"Look, I don't want to interrupt, I just want to see. You can hold me out of the way, I just-!" Lennox raked his fingers through his hair and took a breath. "I need to see."

Crkzz. "Why?"

"I- I don't know! I just do, okay!?

Bee flicked his doorwings and looked over at Ratchet apprehensively.

"Now!"

Bumblebee's doorwings sagged, and he held his hand out reluctantly for Lennox to stop onto.

Lennox relaxed minutely. "Thanks."

Crkzz. "If I die- I'm gonna be—haunting you."

"Yeah, that's fine. A little higher, Bumblebee."

Finally, Lennox could see what was going on. Starscream's spark monitor was beeping erratically, and Ratchet was hovering over the seeker's chest, trying to find the anomaly that was causing his spark to do such a thing. The seeker's optics were blinking on and off, and his wrists were twitching against the restraints that Ironhide had insisted upon.

"Slag it! You shouldn't be waking up yet, you rusty scrapheap!" Ratchet muttered to the still-inactive mech, "Did you start waking up when I snatched the schematics? No, you couldn't have, that was hours ago…"

Realization dawned on Lennox.

Sam had been down in the brig with Skywarp.

Sam came back weirdly calm.

Ironhide reported that Skywarp was calmer than usual when Sam left.

Lennox ran his hand down his face. "I hate being right sometimes! Ratchet, I think Sam accidentally started a trinebond connection!"

Ratchet cursed, this time in Cybertronian. "If he did, then that's what woke Starscream up! Get him over here, maybe that'll calm this crazy fragger's spark enough that it won't bust out of its chamber! Quickly, Bumblebee!"

With his free hand, he scooped up Sam, who was still limp with terror, and deposited him on Starscream's belly. Instantly, cool relief washed over both Sam and Lennox, and Starscream's twitching came to a halt.

"I really hate being right, sometimes," Lennox murmured, "this is one of those times."

Ratchet pinched the bridge of his nose. "Alright, now that the crisis is averted, for now, how did you know that Sam started the trining process, Lennox?"

"I think…" Lennox sighed. "How'd you put it? I think he and I have that trine bond you were talking about."

"Slag it all."

Over the course of an hour, Lennox explained how he always seemed to have an uncanny ability to pinpoint where Sam was and what he was doing (preventing a prank war by just-so-happening to stumble across Sam and Bumblebee prepping a trap for Sideswipe and Epps, finding Sam and shoving him in a closet when one of Soundwave's symbiotes slipped into the base, rushing in and rescuing him from one of Wheeljack's experiments gone explosive).

Sam tentatively offering moments he remembered of somehow knowing just what to say or do to cheer him up/calm him down instead of his usual foot-in-mouth-ness (telling Lennox that none of his men got hurt this time, telling him that Sarah was with Ironhide, knowing when to pat him on the back after a mission-gone wrong, asking him to teach him how to shoot when he got back from a mission that ended before his adrenaline high had).

While listening, Ratchet scanned their sparks and compared frequencies, and came to the conclusion that they really were in the beginning of a trine bond.

With Starscream's spark monitor at a steady pace, Ratchet finally admitted, "I don't know how to handle this. The Autobots only ever had one seeker trine, and they were wiped out all at once in one of the earlier battles of the war."

Lennox nodded tiredly. "What's this mean for us, doc?"

Sam stared at the floor. "I think it means we're stuck with each other. And probably Skywarp and Starscream, too. Which is all my fault- I shouldn't have been down in the brig, I don't know what brought me there-"

Lennox reached over and smacked Sam upside his head. "Shut up and let the medic speak, Witwicky."

Ratchet cleared his throat. "Sam is right that you're probably stuck with Skywarp and Starscream, but it isn't his fault that the bond started. It's likely that one or both of you would have made your way down to the brig at some point anyway. Both of your sparks are on similar frequencies to both Skywarp and Starscream's. You would have gravitated to them, and you would not have been able to prevent it."

Lennox could feel a headache creeping on. "Starscream's stuck in stasis for now, though, right?"

"Yes. Although if you move too far away from his body you might wake him up by straining the bond," Ratchet warned, "and I'll probably have to move Skywarp up here as well because of it."

Sam stood up. "Wait a minute. How is the leader decided in a trine? Is it possible to convince Skywarp that Lennox is the leader instead of Starscream, and then deal with him later when he wakes up?"

Slowly, Ratchet nodded. "I've heard of trine leaderships changing when one mech was in stasis, so it could work, but you must remember that Starscream is a tenacious glitch-head. By all records we have, when he wants something, he stops at nothing to get it. If he wants leadership of the trine, you, Lennox, will have to hold your ground. It won't be easy."

Lennox waved at Starscream, "why can't we just offline him now? Or is that too dangerous for Sam and I?"

Ratchet scoffed. "Not only you two, but Skywarp, as well. Not that you could order Starscream's execution in the first place. You can try, but the second a finger's on the trigger, you'll call it. You won't be able to stop yourself from calling it, not even in the beginnings of a trine bond."

Sam slid into his chair as Lennox stood up defiantly.

"Go on," Ratchet said as a cannon formed out of his arm, "order me to kill Starscream."

"Do it."

Sam and Lennox both watched as Ratchet's cannon slowly powered up and hummed higher and higher-

Lennox's fist clenched.

-until it was at the peak of its power and would go off any second-

"…Stand down! Fuck. Fuck." Lennox kicked his chair.

Ratchet powered down his cannon slowly. "I warned you, Lennox. Not even in the beginning, when it can still be rejected. You can try initiating a trine bond with one of us grounders, but I highly doubt it will work."

"Why?" Sam asked, letting Lennox pitch his fit, "why won't we be able to? Wouldn't, I dunno, actually knowing the bot we're supposed to bond with be easier for our sparks?"

"Seeker sparks trump grounder sparks when it comes to trine bonds." Ratchet shrugged helplessly. "I'm sorry, but the best you can hope for, really, is that Starscream dies peacefully."

Lennox took a calming breath and righted his chair. "How likely is that?"

"Actually? Very likely. Just because he's stable right now doesn't mean he'll stay that way. I don't have the capabilities to keep his spark one hundred percent steady after a first trine-break. If we were on Cybertron, before the war? He'd have lived with no problem. As is? He's got less than an eleven percent chance to live."

"…get Skywarp up here. He should be with his trinemate while he's dying."

-x-

Ratchet comm'd Optimus to relay the request.

Can I get the prisoner up in the medbay? His trinemate's on the edge of death.

Can you prevent Starscream's death, Ratchet?

If I had certain supplies, I could increase his chances, but I can't prevent it, no. Even if I could, would his life really be worth that of William Lennox and Samuel Witwicky's lives?

…I see your point, old friend. Do you believe Skywarp's promise?

What, that he'll defect is Starscream doesn't make it? Yes. I believe it. As do Sam and Lennox.

Then I will grant this request. He will, however, still be in an energon containment field until he proves that he isn't lying to us or tricking us. Make sure he knows this.

I will, Prime. Sam and Lennox will be grateful.