The medical bay was in the same floor as the washing bay -each covering half of the tower section-, just underneath the royal quarters, throne room and grand hall.

The quarters of the other nobles, who resided in the palace, lay beneath; and the bottom of the palace tower was used as treasure chamber.
Cloudwing walked the young prince down to its light blue door, keeping his hand placed on his backstrut, slightly shoving him all the way.

The door slid open and three nurses bid their greetings.

"Doctor Hazeglide is awaiting you in the large examination room." One of them informed them with a low bow and a smile, before returning to their posts.

Not being in the mood for formalities, Cloudwing brought his protégé to the assigned chamber.

"Hazeglide? Are you there?" He called upon entering.

A few klicks passed, until a snow white stealth jet came in to the room from a side door.

"Ah, your Highness. Cloudwing." The medics' soft voice sounded in the large room. "Prince Starscream, if you would please take a seat on the berth over there, so I can examine you."

The prince nodded gloomily and did as he was asked. Cloudwing moved to stand with his trinemates.

"I heard about what happened from Coldwind and Firestorm and I really think you shouldn't do things like that, your Highness. It is dangerous. You could have gotten killed." The gleaming white stealth jet chided his patient, while searching for serious injuries. "You three are lucky to not have suffered any wounds. I see no external damage." He said, standing up.

"Like your wingmates you will need to go to the washrack over there. After the cleanser did it's job, you will need to lie down on one of the medical berths, so I can do a full scan on you."

When Starscream entered the wash rack of the medical bay, Skywarp and Thundercracker had just finished their washes.

"I told you to not make me regret it, Star." The blue seeker growled.

With an annoyed huff, Starscream answered back. " Oh please Thundercracker. I know, that we have made a big mistake and I'm sorry to have dragged you into this with us, but I'm really not in the mood for arguments right now."

The right Wing deflated. "You're right. Arguing will get us nowhere and I already gave Skywarp here a piece of my processor. Apology accepted. Let me help you wash up, so we can get this over with."

Skywarp moved to help. "Sorry guys, it was my Idea... but you have to admit, it was kinda fun. 'Though I think we're in a lot of slag right now."

The others shot him a 'you don't say'- look before the royal trine walked out of the wash rack. Each one of them was guided to a berth and hooked up the computers.

"I see nothing fatally wrong with them." Hazeglide said pacified, after checking all of their data with utmost care.

"You are free to go."

"Thank you Hazeglide. Come, prince Starscream." Cloudwings voice was sullen and stern.

Still having his wings in a downward angle the four-colored seeker let himself be led away by his advisor, while watching his trinemates over his shoulder with longing, apologizing optics, as they were led into different directions by Coldwind and Firestorm.
The walk along the corridors and up the stairs seemed like an eternity. The young prince dreaded the consequences of his actions more and more with every step they took. The familiar hand, that resided on his backstrut, giving him a constant push was like a herald for bad news.

A cold shiver ran down Starscreams frame as they came to halt before the private chambers of his minder. Cloudwing entered the code to his quarters and nudged the other in. Locking the door behind him, he strode to his berth and sat down. To calm his riling systems a little he exvented, before he beckoned the young seeker closer.

"Come here."

Starscream looked up, surprised by the harsh tone, then set on a pleading look.

"Cloudwing, I'm sorry really. You can't possibly mean to -"

"-get your aft over here!" He hissed out.

The young prince gave a start at his advisors' sudden outburst and walked over hesitantly, wings dropping further down.

The angered mech patted the berth to his right side and waited until Starscream had sat down, to slowly grab his neck and drape him over his lap. The princes' wings began to quiver slightly in fearful anticipation, as a firm hand was pressed between them, and another lightly touched his tail.

"You really have gone too far this time Starscream. I'm disappointed in you." Cloudwing said, slowly raising his hand.

A loud yelp escaped the adolescent's voice box, when it was slammed against his backside, leaving a stinging sensation.

"It has been a long time since I've had to do this to you, and I really hoped, I wouldn't have to do it again."

He harshly brought down his hand once more, making the other wince and squall in pain.

"But you leave me with no choice."

Another fierce spank fell onto his aft and Starscream began to thrash around, trying to get out of the offending grip. As the hand between his wings only pushed down harder, he set his sharp talons onto Cloudwings thigh and started to scrape. The advisor flinched and struck Starscreams aft hard.

"Don't you dare! You have brought this on yourself and now you will sit through it!"

The red- white mech increased his force and set a brutal pace for his strokes. The adolescent on his lap clawed into the tarp on the berth, squirmed and wailed loudly as he was mercilessly spanked. After a few breems the squirming slowly stopped and the wails turned into soft whimpers and sobs. Cloudwing still continued to chastise the young Prince, who winced, wings twitching downward in pain with every whack.
With one final hard strike, that made him scream in pain again, his tormentor finally released the hold on his back.

Starscream kept lying where he was, soft whimpers still escaping his voice box. His wings trembled, and his aft burned from pain. He felt his advisor pick him up and carefully lay him on his side, softly stroking his cockpit to comfort him.
The Turbines of both seekers whirred astir.

"I'm sorry..." Starscream whispered faintly and shyly, apologetically snuggled up to Cloudwing, who lay down beside him, caressing his cockpit, clicking and cooing until he had calmed.

"Just don't make me worry like that again."

Later the three punished seekers met in the crystal garden near the palace. They nestled up, stroking each others wings in concern.

"My aft hurts." Skywarp wailed.

"You too, huh?" Starscream gave him a sympathetic look.

"Well, you really did deserve it this time. I'm lucky I got away with a sermon." Thundercracker said, rubbing his trinemates' wings consolingly.

"Are you ready to go, your Highness?" Dreadwing stepped forth.

He and his trine had been given the order to accompany the royal trine to the neighboring city Stanix, for a luxurious care Hazeglide had prescribed, to rid their intakes and tank of the filth and help them relax again. He really was the best medic one could wish for.

"Yes, we are ready to go."

-x-

Stanix was definitely the most beautiful city the grounders had built. It was the home to fashion obsessed cars and sports cars. There where rivers flowing next to some brilliant streets and the bright, slightly auburn tinged metal buildings where clean and polished to an elegant shine. It was the richest grounder city on cybertron, having earned its credits from bartering with Vos. The vosian space-explorers brought useful organic materials they found on other planets and sold maintenance products and other things they manufactured from them to Stanix. Stanix perfected the usage of the products and sold its spa services back to the vosians.
The royal trines favorite spa belonged to a red sports car named Knockout and his blue jeep partner Breakdown.

"Woah, what happened to the three of you?" The red sports car exclaimed taking in their frames, before he got a grip again. "Your Highness, I apologize, I was just startled. Please come in, I will ready the bath. Breakdown!" he called over his shoulder. "The Prince and his trine are here, go fetch the products for them, will ya?."

Smiling he led the Seekers into the largest bathroom they had, Dreadwing and his trine standing behind, to guard the doors. As the warm water-solvent mix filled the large pool, Knockout began his smalltalk.

"So~ do you want to talk about it?"

"Ah, it's a long story Knockout."

Taking that as a no, Knockout nodded understandingly.
He stopped the flow of the water, when the pool was filled and watched as the seekers gracefully slid in, happily fluttering their wings and swaying them back and forth in content.
The Trine washed each other, rubbing small circles on their plating with the soft sponges and bathed in the pool for a long time, before they got out, to be blow dried.

Content the seekers stretched elegantly, pleased with the bath, that had even removed the smallest grit out of the narrowest seam. Knockout led them to another room, to relubricate their joints with high-quality oil and coat their plating with a fresh finish after removing the old one. Breakdown brought the wax and polish, carefully picked for each seeker and helped Knockout buff and apply them to every part of the seekers that wasn't too private to touch. Being the codpiece, wings and thrusters. Those parts where handled by the trinemates.

Every treatment in Knockouts spa came with a free cube of refined energon for the costumers. Since Stanix was home to mainly sports cars, their refined energon was good in quality.

Racing tournaments and finish contests, where many mechs would show off their extravagant finish, were common here. Something the city was famous for.
Seekers couldn't have patterns and pictures on their frames, having to stick with only one layer of paint for every part of their frame. The extra paint would make it difficult for their wings to sense the air currents and climate changes, wingstripes being an exempt, as they acted as protective stabilizer and identifying symbol. So the paintings were something the flyers were a little jealous of. Though none of them would ever admit such a thing.

-x-

Enjoying the treatment, Starscream thought back to the events in Kaon. Or more specifically to a certain gladiator he had met there. Never before had he been so stunned by something, or someone. Surely, he had seen his fair share of things at his off world excursions with his academy partner Skyfire, but nothing came close. When his studies, journeys and findings had made him excited, Megatron had him enthralled. Violence was not something, Starscream had liked very much, especially not when gratuitous, but when it was Megatron who was fighting, he loved it. There was something to the way the gladiator champion fought. He moved with so much grace. Every step he took, every strike he landed was carefully planned in the middle of the heat of battle. Megatron fought expertly, it almost came close to the gracefulness of a flying seeker, almost. And being the best flyer in all of Cybertron, Starscream had all right to say that. Megatron reminded him of glory.

And he hated it. How could a ground pounder, a mere pit fighter, have so much influence on him?! If he ever met him again, he had to show him whom of them was the superior one. He had to stun the gladiator out of his mind, his pride could not allow anything else. The gladiator surely thought of him as weak and useless, the way he had protected them all the time! And he had to prove him wrong! But he was sure he couldn't meet him so soon. He wasn't even sure if he would ever meet him again. It definitely wasn't worth the trouble of sneaking out again. His spark constricted strangely at that thought. Why did he want to meet him so much?

-x-

"Your Royal Highness? Are you alright? Your frame is radiating heat..." Knockouts concerned voice startled him from his thoughts.

"Yes, I'm fine." Starscream appeased him, waiving his hand dismissively.

After a knock on the door Dreadwing entered the room.

"The has been a message for you, your Highness. It is from Skyfire, he invites you to visit him for the science festival in Iacon."

TBC...

Nothing much to say here, aside from the usual 'no it is of course not ok to hit a child, or adolescent in this case'.

The title might be somewhat confusing, but it just had to be.

It's a german-english wordplay. In german 'to bathe something out' means 'to pay for what one has done' and I decided to use the german wordplay because there was indeed bathing in this chapter and I thought it was funny. But that shouldn't be all to much reason to complain about, in my opinion.

Well, anyways, I hope you enjoyed the chapter.

Oh, and thank you for the reviews, it's really kind of you.