Chapter 3:
By Transformersnewfan
"WHERE THE SLAG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH MY SON?!" Starscream shrieked as his younger brother walked in. The way Warp was holding the sparkling only served to make him angrier.
Little Darkwing again became frightened, more so than he was before the flying lesson.
Skywarp was a bit taken aback by the red and white Seeker's tone, "Um, sorry…We kinda lost track of time."
For his part, Thundercracker tried to stay neutral in this matter. He'd been doing his best to keep Starscream calm for the past hour, reminding him that Skywarp would never let anything happen to one of their beloved nephews, but at the same time, he understood that the triplets were ultimately not his or Skywarp's, and were Starscream's sparklings and his responsibility.
Starscream was absolutely furious, "I did NOT give you permission to take my son off the Base, Skywarp!" He narrowed his optics, "And don't hold him like that!"
"Sorry, I forget you don't like that." He nervously adjusted the Seekerling in his arms, before saying sadly, "I'm sorry, Starscream, I didn't think you'd be mad. I just wanted to show him how to fly."
Starscream: "WHAT?"
Skywarp: "I was showing Darkwing how to fly."
The red and white Seeker flew into a screaming fit, "You had NO BUSINESS teaching my sparkling how to fly! I'M their Creator and I and their Sire alone will decide how they learn to fly! You have NO RIGHT to do that! Do you hear me?"
The youngest Seeker was stunned, coolant tears threatened to burst from his optics, "S-Starscream, I didn't teach him anything bad…" The little sparkling became upset and started keening. He secretly decided it was all his fault his mommy and uncle were fighting; he vowed never to fly again.
"That's not my point!" the red and white Seeker insisted, "You had no business teaching MY son anything! You're not his Creator!"
Finally, Thundercracker couldn't stay silent any longer, "Look Starscream, you're the one that leaves the kids with us to follow Megatron back and forth from Cybertron all the time. You wouldn't do that if you didn't trust us."
Starscream turned his ire towards their oldest brother now, "He had NO BUSINESS taking MY son outside to fly!"
Thundercracker: "Well, we ARE the uncles of those sparklings, y'know!" he was angry now, "It's not like we're the slagging Autobots here!"
The two other little sparklings were getting very nervous and whimpering in their mother's arms now.
Starscream adjusted his little ones in his arms, "Look, Thundercracker, it's late, I'm tired, I'm leaving!" He was decidedly more respectful to his older brother.
Skywarp still tried, "I was only t-trying to teach him to fly…They're already eight months, Screamer…"
"Listen to me, you little fool," Starscream seethed with rage and got right in the younger's faceplates, "NEVER, EVER teach MY sparklings anything! DO YOU HEAR ME?!"
TC approached now too, "Well if you're so worried about the sparklings learning ANYTHING from us, maybe you shouldn't leave them with us ANYMORE?! HOW'S THAT?!"
"FINE AT ME!" the red and white Jet abruptly snatched the Seekerling out of Skywarp's arms stormed off with all three triplets to his quarters he shared with his Bondmate, the former Gladiator and currently Leader of the Decepticons, Megatron.
Skywarp stood there, looking down at the floor, "I didn't…" he was ready to cry, but still in too much of a shock to let the tears fall just yet.
Two days later…
Thundercracker laid on his berth, staring at the ceiling. He always worried when his baby brother disappeared for days on end. After the blow-up with Starscream, Skywarp teleported out and hadn't returned since. He sighed, Warp was most likely in New York, visiting Christopher's children, and he was debating flying up there and bringing the younger Seeker back home. On the other hand, the young human teenagers had never screamed in Skywarp's faceplates to never teach them anything. Mostly because, TC knew, they never saw his true form.
A bright purple glow suddenly appeared in their berthroom, and the blue Seeker was relieved, "Glad you're back. I missed ya."
Skywarp materialized, still looking as sad as the day he'd left, flopping down on his berth front first.
Thundercracker: "Where you in New York?"
Skywarp just nodded.
Thundercracker: "How are the kids?"
"Um," Skywarp was sad yet, not looking up, "Ti-Ti's done with her finals. I didn't…y'know, wanna leave til she finished all her essays and stuff. Not that I'm smart or anything to help her." There was a sob in his vocalizer, "S-She likes to talk things out and stuff, and I just listen."
"That's nice," TC smiled, getting up to come over, showing interest in his little brother's friends, "I'm sure you helped by being there."
Skywarp was still depressed, "I guess…"
Thundercracker sat on the edge of the berth, by the other's hip, and started stroking the younger Seeker's wings, trying to comfort him. He knew they were avoiding the subject of Starscream, and they would have to talk about it sometime, "You ever gotten around to telling her who you really are?"
"No…" the darker Seeker just sighed.
TC: "Maybe she knows…"
Skywarp turned to look up at him, "She doesn't know! I never let her see me!"
"Maybe she remembers you. She was three and a half when he died after all." Thundercracker shrugged, thinking out loud, "I remember a lot from when I was that age."
"No," Skywarp insisted, "She tells her mom that I'm an angel sent down from heaven by her daddy to look after her. I just let her think she's right is all." He started to cry again, "She's eighteen…Christopher's gone 15 years…"
Thundercracker tried rubbing his younger brother's back, "I know, I'm so sorry. Doesn't seem like that long."
Skywarp was still crying, "H-His son looks just like him…"
Christopher was an African-American human that befriended Skywarp in 1985 when the young man was just twelve years old, and the Decepticons were in New York, back when Megatron attempted to commandeer the Empire State Building. The unlikely pair stayed friends for the rest of the human's life, throughout his rise from the mean streets to a successful career in music. During that time, Christopher had two children, a daughter and a son, whom he always shared with Skywarp. Before his death in a drive-by shooting, Christopher apparently had a premonition of his own murder and asked Skywarp to always watch over his young toddlers if anything were to happen to him.
The black and purple Seeker had been devastated by his friend's death and had never fully gotten over it. The son was an infant at the time, far too young to understand, but his daughter was nearly four years old, and would cry herself to sleeping sobbing, "I want my Daddy!"
It broke the Seeker's already hurting spark, forcing himself out of his web of grief and spoke to the girl, telling her that her daddy was in heaven now. She could only see his winged shadow in the alley outside her bedroom window at the time. Later, she would tell everyone that her daddy had sent an angel to watch over her, although most of the adults dismissed this as an imaginary friend.
"It's nice that you've kept your promise to him…" TC noted, "I'm sure he appreciates it, wherever he is now."
"Yeah, he never told me that they were HIS kids and to stay away!" Skywarp spat bitterly, "At least someone l-loved me o-once…" he was hurt and crying again, both for the loss of his friend and over their brother's hurtful words.
"Well, you know I love you," Thundercracker said softly, "If it means anything, I haven't spoken to Starscream since. Megatron asked me if I'd take the kids tomorrow, but I turned him down, I told him I was busy." He sighed once again, "I'm not gonna watch the kids if Screamer's so afraid they'll learn something from his 'evil' uncles!"
"I-I'm never gonna try to help with his squalling brats ever again!" Skywarp sobbed, "H-He never used to yell at me like this, TC! E-Ever since h-he…he…"
"Yeah, I know," the blue Seeker admitted, "ever since he Bonded with Megatron." He had seen the change too, "Sometimes I think when they merged sparks, some of Megatron's gruffness crossed over into his spark or something." He tried to smile, "Eh, look at the bright side, kiddo. We don't haveta be stuck sparkling-sitting every day!"
The younger Seeker didn't say anything. He suddenly seemed to be very tired from his flight from the East Coast. Thundercracker saw this, so he stood and covered his little brother with a blanket, "Get some rest, Warp…" he told him softly before going back to his own berth.
An hour later…
Thundercracker was reading his datapad again when Skywarp suddenly was online again and stated out of the blue, "I want a sparkling."
Thundercracker: "HUH?"
"I want my own sparkling!" Skywarp was very serious, "I'm tired of Starscream dumping his sparklings on us and snatching them away! I'm tired of being told how I hold them is wrong! I'm tired of being told not to take them off the Base or teach them anything, TC! I want my own sparkling!"
"Uh," Thundercracker was stunned by this, "Skywarp…you know how much trouble a sparkling is?!"
Skywarp: "I want a femme sparkling. Why not? He's got three mechlings, so I want a femme!"
TC: "Warp…"
Skywarp: "I wanna name her Crystal, after Christopher."
TC: "You don't have a mate…"
The darker Seeker's vocals were scared to ask, more scared of the answer, "Will you help me raise my sparkling, TC? PLEASE? I know y-you can do anything…"
Thundercracker bit his lip components, "I…I…"
Skywarp was suddenly in love with the idea, "You can help me raise her! I'll never tell you not to take her out or not to teach her anything! PLEASE TC?"
The blue Seeker was suddenly met with some bad memory files of his sparklinghood, and his own birth-Creator, "Skywarp, you know I never wanted any sparklings."
"Why not?!" the younger flyer moped, "Just because your real dad kidnapped ya and stuff?"
"Well, yeah!" TC rolled his optics, "That kinda thing has a tendency to affect a Seeker, y'know?!"
Thundercracker's own traumatic experiences had made him reluctant in adulthood to get seriously involved with any potential mate, preferring instead to just look out for his two younger brothers. Skywarp was four years younger than him and from his mother's second and current marriage; Starscream was two years younger than him and two years older than Warp. They'd met Star at the Cybertron War Academy and became a Trine there. The three of them had never treated each other as anything lesser than full brothers. It was only after Starscream Bonded with their Leader that the two younger Seekers seemed to butt helms.
"But you liked Dad and stuff," Skywarp smiled, referring to his own Sire, "So it's not like you're gonna turn into that nutjob that took ya…"
"This isn't about me!" TC got defense, "You're TOO YOUNG to have a sparkling by yourself! He's got a big Gladiator to help him!"
"I-I can do it if you'd help me raise her," Skywarp begged, "PLEASE, I really, really want this! More than anything I've ever wanted in my whole life!" he was keening and sobbing now, the sounds of this breaking his older brother's reserve.
Thundercracker sighed, "You just like Ti-Ti and that's why you want a femme sparkling of your own. But we don't know anything about raising sparklings."
"Christopher didn't plan on having Ti-Ti, and h-he was a good Creator," the black and purple Seeker insisted, "His girlfriend just told him she was carrying one day, and he said okay, that he'd figure out how to support them. H-He told me this himself! Thundercracker, if I came home and told you I was carrying, wouldn't you help me?"
A thought suddenly occurred to the blue Seeker, "Are you carrying already?" looking over the other's chassis suddenly, suspiciously.
"No, I'm…not," Skywarp insisted, "but how is this any different. Wouldn't you help me?"
"Of course, I would," the other admitted. After a pause, he continued, "You know I'd do anything for you."
The darker Seeker got up, "So, I wanna have my own sparkling and I'm asking you to help me!"
"Gimme a minute…" Thundercracker turned away, memory files suddenly flooding his processor of his violent bio-Creator, vowing to kill the sparkling their Mother was carrying. And…that time he'd stuck her and knocked her to the ground. She had almost lost Skywarp that day. Thundercracker couldn't picture his life without his cheery sibling, who always seemed to find the good in others. Someone who loved his brothers so much; someone who told a young man in New York to follow his dreams of becoming a musician…
Skywarp: "TC?"
He was pulled out of his thoughts by his little brother's vocals, "Huh?"
Skywarp: "Will you help me? I can get a donor spark. That way the Sire can't come and take her away from us the way your dad did that time."
Thundercracker's processor was reeling now, "You really want a sparkling?"
Skywarp: "YES! PLEASE YES!"
He couldn't believe he was saying this, "I-If you really want a sparkling…then, I'll support your decision." He was suddenly glomped by his baby brother, sobbing for joy and keening, "THANK YOU! THANK YOU, TC! I'll take care of her, honest! I promise! We won't bug you and stuff! And you can teach her to fly or shoot the clouds or anything you want! I promise!"
Thundercracker was still hesitant but wrapped his arms around his brother and stroked his wings, "I'll help you. I promise."