Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro

Measures of Time: vorn = 83 years / breem = approx 10 minutes / orn = 14 days / joor = 6.5 hours

Note: This chapter, like the previous one, contains a bit of a time skip. Let's just say that not much more in the way of excitement happened during the sparkling years; Starscream is now approximately 120 vorns old and hasn't been in the youngling stage for terribly long.


"They don't like me."

It was the matter-of-fact tone in which his youngling spoke that drew Ratchet's attention, and he looked over from where he was taking inventory. Starscream's reformatting had gone well (even if the medic wasn't terribly pleased by how quickly the twins had dragged the seeker off to begin 'training' him in that fragging Jet Judo or whatever they were calling their tactic of literally wrestling the Decepticon seekers out of the sky) and the sparkling frame had adjusted quickly to the youngling armour upgrades as well as the alterations Ratchet had made to the basic seeker-build. The white of his armour was slowly taking on a silver cast, and if one looked closely they would be able to see that some dull pink accenting was beginning to appear in spots as well; chances were good that the pink would eventually darken to a burnished red.

By all rights, Starscream was well-adjusted for growing up in a war zone. Therefore comments like the one he'd just made set off a warning light somewhere in his adoptive creator's processor.

"Who doesn't like you, Star?" Ratchet asked, setting aside the datapad he was working on and crossing over to where the youngling was seated on a berth with his own datapad. Starscream blinked up at the taller mech, red optics oddly flat for once. Usually it was easy to tell how the seeker was feeling just by looking at his optics; everything was easily reflected in his gaze, and it no longer startled the base's inhabitants to see warmth and affection and laughter shining behind a colour other than blue.

After a moment, the youngling huffed a sigh through his vents. "That triad that came in from Tarn," he said, tone still even but a flicker of distress lighting his optics for a moment. "They keep looking at me like they expect me to bite them or something."

Ratchet quickly ran through the short list of mechs who had arrived recently and growled low in his vocalizer. He could understand the hesitation and distrust shown by Cliffjumper (who hated nearly everyone and had even accused Mirage of all mechs of being a Decepticon spy) and Bluestreak (whose city had been decimated by the seeker trine when he wasn't much older than a sparkling himself), but Ironhide had no excuses so far as the medic was concerned. If he was correct in his assessment, the weapons specialist was ignoring that the seeker acted nothing like the enemy and reacting as if someone had let a prisoner wander around loose in the compound.

"They just don't know you," the medic said, trying to comfort his youngling even though what he really wanted to do was go and have a 'conversation' with his friend involving words he didn't want Starscream to know yet. (Although considering that the seeker spent a good deal of his time with his 'brothers' the twin terrors, chances were he already knew some of the words Ratchet had a mind to use.) "Sometimes, mechs react unkindly to those they aren't familiar with."

"Streaker said that Cliffjumper is a half-clocked glitch and should be drop-kicked down one of the elevator shafts," Starscream replied, glancing up at the mech he considered his creator with something akin to a smile flitting across his faceplate for a moment.

"Sunstreaker says a lot of things he shouldn't around you," Ratchet sighed, making a mental note to talk to Red Alert about attempting to rein his brother in. "But, that was most likely his way of telling you to ignore Cliffjumper. Which is good advice, by the way. The same goes for Bluestreak and Ironhide, for the time being. Try not to let them get to you, and if they do—"

"Go to Streaker and Siders, or Bee, or Sky, or you," the seeker youngling finished with a slight nod. "I know. You've only told me a hundred times. It just... it bugs me that they look at me and their first thought is Decepticon, creator."

This is really bothering him, Ratchet thought, stepping forward and pulling Starscream into a comforting hug. The seeker rarely called him anything other than his designation, reverting to creator only when distressed. A faint, unhappy chirp sounded from the youngling and the medic automatically responded with a soothing trill.

Back when he'd first found the seeker, Ratchet had intended to ensure the sparkling's health and turn him over to a mech or femme more capable of raising a sparkling. He realized almost too late that Starscream had imprinted on him as a replacement for his deactivated creator; by then, however, he was reluctant to entrust the sparkling to anyone else anyway. A scan of his systems revealed that a tentative creator/sparkling bond had already begun to form during the time that he'd been tending to the repairs Starscream had needed immediately if he was to survive, and it only took Ratchet's acknowledgment to cement it.

So far as his spark was concerned, Starscream was his creation, no matter what his true origins may be.

And if Ratchet had to go knock some sense into his best friend's head because of it, he would do so gladly.

Starscream finally seemed to calm, and Ratchet pulled away to stand just as he heard pedefalls in the hallway outside the repair bay. It sounded like three mechs, two of whom were trying to go slowly while the third was intent on rushing them along. The door slid open to admit the twins, Sideswipe looking a little the worse for wear despite his broad smile and Sunstreaker singed and disgruntled, followed by Ironhide with a hand on each one's shoulder. Ratchet didn't miss the fact that Starscream's expression shuttered immediately upon sighting the large black mech, and he glanced towards his tools briefly.

"What did they do this time?" he asked instead, giving both the smaller mechs a dark look that was returned by a brighter grin (Sideswipe) and a glare (Sunstreaker).

"Caught 'em both in the Delta quadrant taunting the seekers," Ironhide answered for them, giving the pair a shake and ignoring that Starscream was even in the room. "I had to drag 'em back because it didn't look like this one" – another shake for Sunstreaker – "had any plans of laying off Thundercracker till he was deactivated."

"Almost had the slagger offlined, too," the gold mech grumbled, drawing a snicker from his twin and a faint twitch of a smile from the seeker youngling.

Ratchet heaved a sigh and rubbed at his optics. "I'm not their creator, and they're obviously capable of walking, so repairs can wait. I need to speak with you, Ironhide. You two, report to Prowl and tell him why I'm sending you to him. Starscream," he added, turning and giving his youngling a warm smile, "you get to go tell Red what the twins were up to."

Sideswipe's grin vanished instantly and he shot a pleading look at Starscream. "Hey, Screamy? Think you can, I don't know, walk slowly to Red? Please?"

Starscream smiled sweetly in reply as he hopped nimbly from his perch, walking casually to the door and pausing next to Sunstreaker. "I would get to Prowl quick if I were you. You shouldn't give him time to confer with Red, you know." The gold twin made a grab for the seeker, who yelped and darted off down the hallway. The twins immediately turned and bolted after him in an attempt to make it to their destination first. Ironhide watched the three as they went, optics narrowed and keeping the youngling in his sight at all times until he'd vanished around the corner.

"What is it you—" the mech started to say as he turned back around, only to cut his words short when something blunt and moving very fast collided with the side of his helm and knocked him off balance for a moment. Ironhide shook his head and glanced at the floor to see what had hit him, spotting one of the various wrenches that the medic kept on hand. "Slaggit, Ratch, what's your malfunction?"

Ratchet growled low in his vocalizer, picking up another tool and tapping it against his other hand. "My malfunction? My malfunction is I just spent over a breem in here with a very unhappy youngling, and that tends to put me in a foul mood."

Ironhide rubbed his helm, wincing slightly at the dent he felt there. "So? He'd just a 'con. He should be locked up like any of the other 'cons we capture." This time it was a spanner that made contact with Ironhide's head, clanging loudly before he even had time to duck.

"Do you pay any attention?" Ratchet snapped, optics flashing in anger. "I know slagging well you got the reports from the Altihex mission just like Prime did. What can't you understand about the only survivor being a sparkling? How that pit does one assign a faction to a sparkling, for Primus' sake?!"

"All seekers are 'cons," Ironhide growled in reply. "Everyone knows that."

"That seeker isn't," the smaller mech snarled back. "That seeker has never known any faction but this one. That seeker frets every fragging time those two idiots you dragged in here go into battle because he worries that they won't come back. That seeker does everything he can to assist me when our mechs come in after a skirmish, even if it's just talking to those with less serious injuries.

"But the one thing I want you, and your mechs, to keep in mind is this: that seeker happens to be my sparkling, and when he's not happy, I'm not happy." A dangerous smile crossed Ratchet's face as he concluded, "And if I'm not happy, nobody's going to be happy. Now. Get out of my repair bay."

oOo

Ironhide was still grumbling to himself a joor later, annoyed by Ratchet's unfounded outburst and the general attitude that most of the mechs on base seemed to have towards his mechs. Most of them were polite enough, but Jazz acted as if they weren't in the room and Prowl kept shooting disappointed looks at Bluestreak.

He honestly didn't understand how they could just ignore the fact that a Decepticon – albeit a youngling, but a 'con all the same – had as much freedom around the base as any one of the underground.

"It's a sign of madness to talk to yourself," a voice spoke up to his left seemingly out of thin air; a moment later Mirage faded into view, yellow optics peering at the taller mech with mild disapproval.

"Yeah, well, no one around here seems to have any sense," Ironhide replied, frowning darkly.

Mirage's frame stiffened and his gaze sharpened. "Oh, we had the sense to move to a new base when our previous one was compromised vorns ago," he said evenly, only the faintest hint of his aristocratic upbringing coming through in his tone. "Especially once we learned that Skywarp can carry at least one other mech with him on a teleport."

The black mech raised one optic brow. He'd heard that the Iacon base had been compromised about ninety vorns ago, leading the group stationed there to relocate to their current base on the outskirts of Vos. No one discussed what had happened, only stating in reports that they had needed to move quickly to keep the Decepticons from achieving their objective.

"What was it that the 'cons were after in the first place?" Ironhide asked. Mirage blinked coolly before turning his optics towards the rec room; the larger mech followed his gaze and found himself looking at the silver-white youngling that was currently trying to wrestle an energon cube away from a laughing Arcee. "You're kidding me, right?"

"No," the blue and white mech said shortly. "Skywarp and Thundercracker teleported into the Iacon base with the intent to retrieve Starscream. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker were the only ones with him at the time; he was only about thirty vorns then. None of us even wants to think about what they would have done to him if they'd succeeded in their mission. You've read the reports on the Altihex experiments, I trust?"

Ironhide's optics dimmed slightly as he accessed the reports, his fuel pump sinking a bit when he realized the implications. He might not be sympathetic towards the Decepticons on the whole, but even he wouldn't deny a mech the right to make his own choice; two-thirds of the seeker trine and the triple-changing lunatic had never been granted that luxury.

Mirage's faceplate shifted to a faint smile. "So you can understand why Red Alert gave the twins portions of that information; he may be somewhat paranoid, but no one can say that he keeps his brothers out of the loop. To hear Sideswipe tell the story, he kept Starscream hidden beneath Ratchet's desk until help arrived, although he admits to pulling the scraplet back once and to being confused as all-pit when his twin jumped one of the seekers; according to Sunstreaker, Star directed his attention to a make-shift weapon and he used it to take Thundercracker by surprise." The spy's optics dimmed for a moment as he mused, "I think Ratchet's still got that arch welder somewhere. Never could get all the dents out of it."

Ironhide stored away this new information, deciding to thoroughly process it later. "Is that why those two lunatics are so pit-bent and determined to take down the seekers whenever they're in a fight?" he asked.

"Yes," Mirage confirmed. "It was right around the same time that they started referring to Star as their little brother. All of us who've been around since he arrived are fond of him, but the twins love him. Why the slag do you think they're teaching him how to fight on the ground? They're scared to deactivation that one day, some Decepticon is going to drag him out of the sky during a battle and do some major damage to him. At least this way, they know he can hold his own. I don't think Ratchet is pleased with it, but it's not like we can keep Star locked inside forever. Seekers gotta fly, even seekers with ground-agility mods."

Ironhide made a non-committal sound and turned his attention back to the rec room. The impromptu wrestling match had ended with Arcee victorious, but there appeared to be no hard feelings as the youngling leaned on the table and chatted with the scout. They were joined in short order by Wheeljack, the conversation turning towards more technical things that the weapons expert didn't understand.

He didn't notice when Mirage left, lost in his thoughts as he processed what he'd learned and what he was witnessing. It was starting to look like he owed Ratchet and his youngling a huge apology... and it was possible that he'd need to have a word with the mechs in his unit as well.