A. N: I'm writing this as sort of a victory celebratory thing. My reasoning? I got the job I was desperately hoping for. YAY! Sadly, this may mean slower updates. I know this chapter is late updating again, but I have honestly just been like extremely busy!
ANYWAY...
ON WITH THE NEXT EPISODE OF DAUGHTER OF DECEPTION!
Episode 3.
To Hold A Sparkling.
He could have done it. He could have been done with Megatron. It was all so perfect. He was all alone with Megatron in his clutches. All he needed to do would have been to pull the dark energon from Megatron's chest and be rid of him. No more ruthless ruthless beatings, no more belittling, no more wounding of his pride: none of that. However, there were two things stopping him.
The first thing, was the fact that just as he was about to let Megatron just die, Soundwave's idiotic little surveillance drone Laserbeak showed up, so he knew Soundwave was listening. The second reason he couldn't just kill Megatron was something his spark couldn't ignore. Each time he thought about it, it didn't make sense, but it was the thought all the same. He couldn't stop thinking about the pleading little green youengling optics of the little sparkling of Megatron: the true heiress of the Decepticons. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't justify taking a sire away from his young sparkling.
He didn't know why. Starscream had never liked his own sire and carrier. His carrier was a weak-minded cowardly little thing who never stood up to his cruel, sparkless sire. He had run away from that house the first chance he got. The only family that he had ever loved were his tryne brothers, and they had tragically perished in the war. Starscream had no one left, so he knew the feeling of having no one to love, no one to care for you in your time of need, and no one to hold close. It was for this reason, that he was traveling back to the quarters of the young Decepticon heiress now to deliver the news of the fate of her sire.
...
"So," Knockout said, confusion evident in his vocalizer. "Why'd you stick up for Starscream like that? Didn't your sire tell you anything about how idiotic he is?"
"Only a little." Rowan said, not turning away from the computer screen that was now clearly showing the very faint spark signature of her sire. "But doctor, I did have a very good reason. All of the things the commander was saying about me ruling the Decepticons are so true. I lack the military experience necessary to lead us to Victory. I don't know what I'm doing. I am still very young. I may know a few things about the war, but I haven't seen enough. I haven't been through enough. The reason I defended the commander so greatly, is because if my sire trusted him with that high of a position, then he must be worth something. Right?"
"I guess." Knockout said. "But I think you should know, now that you've defended him in the way that you did, Starscream will not hesitate to rub this in everyone's face."
"Eh, let him flaunt what is meant to be his." Rowan said. "I will take my place when the time is right."
"You know," Knockout said. "The fact that you know you arren't meant to rule the Decepticons now, shows that you are indeed wise beyond your years."
"I..." Rowan said trailing off. "I get my wisdom from my sire. I hope he is o..."
Rowan didn't get to finish her sentence, as she felt a stabbing pain in her chest. When she grabbed hold of it, Knockout immediately went to her side.
"Ro?" Knockout asked. "Are you alright?"
Rowan couldn't do much through the Searing pain, except to look to the doctor and Whisper, "Something's wrong."
It took a few moments, but the pain did eventually subside.
"What in the universe could have caused that?" Rowan asked.
Sparing the little one the obvious truth, Knockout simply said, "Not sure. The point is, that it's over now."
"Yeah. Right." Rowan said not entirely convinced.
The conversation might have continued further, but it was at that moment that Starscream chose to walk through the door of the quarters.
"Young one," Starscream said, only a slight hint of sadness gracing his vocalizer. "I bring you sad news of the condition of your sire."
"What happened?" Rowan asked both sadness and anger in her voice as she got closer to the commander.
"I sadly found your sire in a terrible state. Most of him is severely ingered by the destruction of the space bridge. While he is alive, he is very weak. I do not know what we can do to help him. I am sorry to bring you this news young one. I am sure it troubles you. You must understand however, that while we can do much for your sire, we may not be able to completely ensure that he will live."
"I'll go have a look for myself Starscream." Knockout said as he hopped down from the platform. Having finished giving Rowan her energon IV, he took off the mass shifter, and was just about to leave the young one to herself, when he heard a question that took him and Starscream completely by surprise.
"Doctor, Commander, May I please come with you?" Rowan asked with all the sweet innocence of the universe.
Starscream and Knockout had to double-take and think this over. To Knockout's surprise, it was actually Starscream who responded with a question of his own.
"Are you quite sure?" Starscream asked. "Your sire is in quite the terrible state. He is not something for the faint-of-spark to see at the moment. I do not want you to worry anymore by bearing witness to his terrible condition."
The Commander was interrupted once again by Rowan. With a look of pure pleading, worry, and sorrow in her optics, she said, "Please? I need to see him."
"Well..." Knockout said. "Alright. Which one of us do you want to carry you? You can't walk there on your own Rowan. A vehicon might accidentally squish you. I can carry you if you want."
"Actually Doctor," Rowan began. "I think it's best if the commander carries me, as you will have your servos busy attending to my sire."
Starscream was taken aback by this, but ever so timidly, he approached the platform on which the little halfling was standing. He held out his servo, and the little one gingerly stepped onto it. She was honestly quite surprised at how thin it was. However, she did remember that the commander himself had a very thin, almost beautiful physique about him. She held onto one of his long slender digits to keep herself steady, and they began to proceed towards the medbay.
...
Starscream had never been so careful with anything in his life. He had never handled humans like this before. The only other human who he'd ever had to deal with before this point was agent Fowler, and he didn't have to be nearly so Ginger with him. With this little half-human however, Starscream had to be extra careful. He held her tight enough to make sure that she wouldn't fall, but not so tight as to squeeze her. In all honesty, holding her in his Servo, Starscream admitted to himself that she, being so small and helpless, was actually quite sad, yet also, strangely cute. He would never have said that allowed though. He felt the tension begin to increase as they got closer and closer to the medbay. He desperately wanted to do something to break this awful silence, but even he knew that would not be appropriate. Therefore, he silently held the grieving litle half human sparkling as they all walked to the medbay.
...
For Rowan, her first experience of leaving her sire's quarters was very tension-filled to say the least, The tension was mainly due to the fact that she was grieving over her sire. However, she couldn't help but feel a slight hint of happiness. After 16 years of having been trapped in one room for all of her life, she was finally out. Granted, the rest of the ship looked pretty much the same as the quarter she had grown up in, but it was just the mere fact that she was out of that one room, that made her spark warm up.
That was, until she entered the medbay.
She teared up as soon as she saw the state of her sire. She had never seen anyone hooked up to so many tubes in her life. Not to mention the fact that pretty much all around his chest area, her sire was completely torn up. Luckily, she did not have to prompt the good doctor to rush over and immediately began his work. She stood there, trying not to cry in the servo of the commander, as she watched the doctor perform his task. It took what felt like a lifetime but finally, he turned to her.
"Rowan," said the doctor. "I'm going to be completely honest with you. Starscream may jn fact be right. I do not believe that your sire can pull through, at least not yet. It's going to take a lot of time for him to heal. I've managed to close up his wounds and stabilize him at least a little bit, but the rest of the work has got to be left to Primus himself.
Although she tried desperately not to, the tears finally began to fall. She did not even know what she was doing as she curled up in a ball and snuggled up against something and began to cry ever so softly over the loss of her sire.
...
Starscream just stood there, his spark almost broken. Here was this little sparkling in his servo crying over her fallen sire.
He honestly felt both sad and helpless at the fact that this little one was curled up in HIS servo, seeking HIS comfort. Sadly, he didn't know what to do to comfort the little one. This hurt his spark because Seekers are natural caregivers of sparklings.
He finally realized that this was the reason that his spark had been aching about all this. Although she was quite mentally capable, given her age, she was, by all manner of technicality, still a young sparkling. His Seeker nature just wanted to care for the little one. He knew he could say no words to comfort the little one, so he did the only thing he figured would help. He curled his Servo tighter around the little one, allowing for a warm gentle embrace that would hopefully give some comfort.
The worst part for him was that it was all his fault. He tried not to feel guilty. He tried to be his normal self and think that this was all for the best: that he would be a much better ruler for the Decepticons than Megatron would be. While that may have been true, he could not quell the guilt he felt in his spark. Looking down at the Weeping little sparkling, he ever so slowly and gently, walked over closer to Megatron. Ever so gently, far gentler than he had ever been in a very long time, he shifted the little sparkling from his servo to her sire's shoulder, and it was there that she stayed, right by her sire's side for the duration of his atay in the medbay.
That was, until she was unexpectedly needed.