Author's Notes: This chapter is one I've had planned for a while now, and it still didn't turn out exactly how I thought it would. I still think it turned out pretty well though. I hope you guys are enjoying reading this story as much as I'm enjoying writing it! Please don't forget to leave a review :)

Chapter 4

War-Make

9 million years ago.

Ariel couldn't get over her beautiful new son. He was perfect, and she knew that Orion would think so as well. He had been gone for an orn and a half on a business trip, so he wasn't around when the spark was coded into the protoform. She couldn't wait for him to see it! She had selected this frame type especially for Orion, and she knew he would be so proud of his new son!

There was a rapid knock on the door, and Ariel instantly recognized the knock as her father's. He was going to see the newspark for the first time, and Ariel was both excited and nervous about presenting her sparkling to his grandsire. He would also need to watch the sparkling while Ariel went to work, so she hoped her little darling wouldn't be too fussy.

Ariel opened the door and ushered her father inside. She had left her little sparkling on the couch in the back room in a sitting position. He was a little off-balance but so far hadn't had any accidents.

"Ariel, my daughter! So good to see you!" Her father, a gunmetal grey mine-cart former, greeted her warmly, "Ah, look at that face! That's the same glow your mother had when you were born, may her spark rest in peace. So, does motherhood agree with you so far?"

"Actually, yes," Ariel replied with a sincere smile, "The sparkling is three cycles old now, but I haven't programmed a name yet. Orion and I are going to do that together after we get off work tonight."

"I hope the newspark is better looking than Orion Pax," Ariel's father teased as he slowly made his way to a chair, "Well, what are you waiting for? Bring him out! I want to see my grand-mechling."

Ariel giggled at his impatience and went to the other room to get her little angel. Her father was going to be so surprised to see her son, but she feared he might not have as positive a reaction as she expected from Orion.

"By the way, Father," Ariel shouted into the other room, "He has your face plate, and Orion's color scheme everywhere else."

"Oh joy. Red, white and blue," her father sighed, "I'm sure that'll look swell covered in dirt when he grows up and joins the working world."

"I like the color," Ariel replied defensively; taking her time rejoining her father, "It's full of contrasts. The purity of white, the passion of red, and the calm serenity of blue. Besides, you can't honestly think your own grand-mechling is ugly, now can you?"

"I won't know until you let me see him! Get him out here, Ariel!" Her father shouted impatiently.

Ariel sighed and entered the room holding onto her little bundle of joy. Her father was a kind mech at spark, but he could be impossible to deal with sometimes. Always so demanding and impatient...

"Pick Axe, may I introduce you to your new grand-mechling!" Ariel said with pride as she set the sparkling down on the table for her father to examine.

The older mech's optics glanced at the sparkling up and down. Sure enough, he was red and white with blue appendages and a dark metal face. That wasn't the only thing Ariel's father noticed, however…

"What the pit is wrong with this kid?" Pick Axe asked insensitively.

"Father, please! He's old enough to understand what you're saying!" Ariel cautioned her father.

"Seriously, what happened?" Ariel's father asked again, "His back looks like it was pulled apart!"

"Those are wings, father! He's a flier!" Ariel shouted; finally at her limit with his boorish questioning.

"A flier? You can't afford an upgrade that expensive," her father said suspiciously.

"I could afford this one, father," Ariel explained, "This is a new war-make model known as a seeker frame type. It's very popular right now due to its low cost and added mobility. Isn't it wonderful, father? My son will be able to fly! This is something previous generations could only dream of!"

"Ariel…" Pick Axe's voice took on a grave tone, "...Ariel. What have you done? You have condemned this sparkling to death."

"Father, what are you talking about? He's fine," Ariel replied; her tone growing more nervous as she saw her father's demeanor shift from mildly argumentative to genuinely disturbed.

"Ariel, you know energon is becoming scarce," her father reminded her, "Our own rations have been cut back despite our work output being the same; sometimes more. Cybertron hasn't had a war in millions of years. A war-make's only job is to march around the city-state they live in and pretend they are making the world a safer place even though they don't have to. Their energon rations reflect this general uselessness. Your son will be forced into military service by the senate and starve when the fuel crisis reaches its crescendo. How could you do this to him?"

"No...You're wrong!" Ariel shouted fervently, "My son can do anything he sets his mind to! He can fly, and he will reach for the stars one day! I still remember that night when I told Orion we were having a sparkling. We stood under the twinkling stars and looked out at the golden spires of Iacon and the Crystal Gardens below us. We stood on that bridge, and Orion made a promise to me, that we would do whatever it took to give our new sparkling every advantage and that our child would reach for the stars and follow his dreams. The Functionalists are wrong. My sparkling is not a tool of war. He will fly up to the heavens one day and see all there is to see."

Her father harrumphed and turned away, and the sparkling followed his movements with his little yellow optics. Pick Axe looked down at his grand-mechling and couldn't help but smile a little despite how he felt about the gaudy winged frame Ariel had chosen.

"I have to go to work, father," Ariel announced as she headed for the door, "Watch out for my sparkling. Orion and I will be back tonight, and you're invited to the designation ceremony. Bye!"

When the door closed, Pick Axe turned back to his grand-mechling. He picked the sparkling up and set him down on his lap. The sparkling looked up at him with wide curious optics, and then put a little blue hand in his mouth.

"You know something?" Pick Axe said to the sparkling, "If you're anything like your father, then you will try to fly up to the stars. And you know what? Some senator's hand is going to be there to pull you right back down to Cybertron. Our family is of a low caste, and you have an expendable frame type. Times are gonna be hard for you, my little one. I promise you this though, I won't let you starve. I'd sooner give you the energon from my own fuel lines than let you starve. Dreams won't save you, little one. Someday your parents will understand."

The sparkling wasn't old enough to understand every concept, and didn't have the vocalizer control to respond, but he listened intently to every word pouring from the old grey mech's mouth. Pick Axe gingerly ran a finger over the newspark's right wing and smiled when the sparkling started giggling at being tickled by the touch. They had to change this sparkling's frame code before it was too late. He would pay for the procedure himself, but he had to talk to Ariel when she got home.

Later that day Pick Axe was rocking the newspark to sleep and watching his all-time favorite show on the broadcasts when it was interrupted by the news.

"Oh, come on! She was just about to tell him the rust was terminal!" Pick Axe hollered at the screen; waking the sparkling.

He stopped complaining however when he saw the Iacon Energon Depository on the screen. That was where Orion Pax and Ariel worked. Did something happen? He turned up the volume to hear what they were saying.

"I am here live at the scene of a brutal terrorist attack," the news anchor said in a clipped tone of voice, "The Energon Depository was blown up when the energon was ignited after a failed robbery attempt. The attack has been blamed on a small rebel faction known to citizens of Kaon as the Decepticons. They are a small group of lawbreakers led by a gladiator named Megatron. Seen here in this file footage ripping apart an opponent's chassis, Megatron is to be considered armed and extremely dangerous. Hold on, I'm getting confirmation that there were three fatalities in the attack on the depository. The names of the victims are Dion...Orion Pax…"

Not the sparkling's father...No. Please don't say...

"...And Ariel," the news anchor finished, and Pick Axe convulsed as he slumped back down in his chair, "Video footage shows the dock workers being shot down in cold blood by the murderous Megatron. Only Dion's body has been recovered. It is believed that there wasn't enough of the other two victims to salvage."

Pick Axe watched in horror as the footage of the attack played out. He saw that evil creature shoot Orion Pax in the shoulder. It wasn't enough to kill him, but then he saw Ariel, his only creation, actually run toward that gun-toting psychopath to defend her boyfriend! Megatron shot her as if it were nothing to him, and then the footage showed Orion try to tackle Megatron to the ground before he too was shot in the spark chamber.

Pick Axe, without even thinking, grabbed the sparkling and transformed into his mine-cart form. He drove out into the city and toward the Energon Depository. He had to see for himself. This couldn't be real! His daughter wasn't dead...she wasn't…

He replayed the last conversation he had with her before she left for work. Why did he argue with her? On one of the happiest days of her life, why did he argue with her? She was going to be bonded in an orn. She and Orion Pax were going to start a life together with their sparkling; the sparkling now huddled inside his open cart. He knew the sparkling could sense the danger. He wondered if the little thing understood that his parents were…?

Pick Axe made it there by dusk, and camera crews were swarming the place. He asked a few bystanders what happened, and he heard stories about guardian robots, Megatron fighting a new mech named Optimus, and about some strange robots carrying away the bodies of Orion Pax and Ariel.

He pushed past the crowd, but he didn't go inside the depository once he saw the sheer carnage of the scene. Parts from the victims were scattered on the ground, and the black marks spoke of places where spilled energon had been before the entire building exploded.

Everyone turned around sharply when they heard and felt a shattering explosion in the distance! They saw people running and screaming as they fled the city-state of Iacon! Pick Axe looked up, and saw the golden towers burning. They were actually burning! Lots of lookalike soldiers fled the city, and it was obvious what they had done. The Decepticons had set Iacon itself on fire!

The crowds began to transform to flee the chaos faster, and Pick Axe hugged his grand-mechling before also transforming and driving away with the crowd. He was not a very fast mech. His job only required the ability to carry heavy loads, but he drove with all his might to escape the razing of Iacon! His daughter was dead, her lover was dead, but Pick Axe still had something to live for...his grand-mechling. He would not allow the Decepticons to claim another life on his watch!

Along the road Pick Axe nearly ran over two other Cybertronians! A femme was crouched over the injured form of her bondmate, and Pick Axe begrudgingly allowed both of them to climb inside his alt mode. He had room, and they wouldn't slow him down.

Once they were on the outskirts of the city, ironically enough at the Crystal Gardens, Pick Axe let the grateful couple out of his alt mode and then transformed. He held his grand-mechling tight and silently started to cry. The drops of cleaning fluid dripped onto the sparkling's helm, and this did not escape the newspark's notice.

The sparkling looked up at his grandsire's tired face plate, and then looked out at the burning city, and started crying for all he was worth! It was the most deafening, audio sensor shattering scream Pick Axe had ever heard, and it broke his spark to know the first memory this precious sparkling would have was the burning of his city and the murder of his parents.

There was no beauty in the city anymore. Only ugliness. So Pick Axe looked up at the sky; the only spot of beauty left. There were many stars out in the sky that night. If Pick Axe only looked up then everything would look beautiful, but he couldn't ignore the horrible screeching cries coming from his last surviving family member.

"Little one, I think it's time I programmed your name," Pick Axe said as he rubbed the sparkling's tender wings to comfort him, "There is only one name that fits the night you have experienced, and the hopes your family had for you…"

"Starscream! Wake up!" Skywarp shouted at his trine commander, "Come on! If your late Megatron's gonna have both of our afts in a sling!"

Starscream rolled over on his recharge berth and grumbled unhappily. He hated it when Skywarp woke him up, and he hated it even more when Skywarp was doing so on Megatron's behalf.

"Get scrapped, you fragger…" Starscream muttered in his half-online state.

"Oh, come on! I think you're gonna like this mission…" Skywarp said in a sing-song voice.

"I don't care if it's an all-expenses paid trip to the universe's most luxurious pleasure palace, I'm not getting up!" Starscream yelled at his trine mate; who then started jumping up and down on his berth.

Starscream was jostled by the annoying jumping until he was thrown off the berth and fell on his face plate! He growled and slowly sat up; glaring daggers at Skywarp. Skywarp still had that stupid smile plastered on his face, and Starscream looked ready to rip out Skywarp's spark chamber and feed it to him.

"Trust me Screamer, you're gonna want to go on this mission," Skywarp insisted.

"Fine! What the frag is it?" Starscream finally relented, as if he ever had a choice.

"You are going to lead a mission to capture a group of Autobots on Cybertron," Skywarp said proudly.

"So? How is that different than what we do on earth?" Starscream asked crossly.

"Because these Autobots are all femmes!" Skywarp announced excitedly, "That's right Screamer! Real, live, actual femmes! Oh, I hope Megatron lets us keep a couple of them on the Nemesis! It's been so long since I…"

"You idiot, he probably wants me to kill them," Starscream replied dismissively, "They are Autobots, and Megatron wishes all Autobot femmes terminated so they can't create more Autobots. And of course he won't do it himself! Oh, no! He has to send me down there like some sort of glorified exterminator! Why do I always get stuck doing his dirty work?"

"Dirty work? Screamer, you are going to be alone with hot Autobot prisoners!" Skywarp exclaimed enviously, "Not to mention be the one to execute the Prime."

"Wait, what was that?" Starscream asked; suddenly interested.

"Oh, yeah. That was the important part," Skywarp said absentmindedly, "Elita One is still alive. Megatron wants you to use her as bait to lure Optimus Prime into a trap."

"Hm...If I killed Optimus Prime, that would prove to the Decepticons what a capable warrior I am…" Starscream pondered the possibilities, and then finally said, "Fine. I'm in. So, do you know who I'm working with?"

"Yeah. Ramjet, Rumble, and Astrotrain," Skywarp recited.

"I finally get Astrotrain on my team and I don't even need him this time," Starscream lamented, "Seriously though, Astrotrain, Ramjet, and Rumble? How did Megatron think of this motley sort? What does he expect us to find exactly?"

Skywarp just shrugged and teleported out of the room. Starscream sighed and decided he might as well prepare to meet with His Royal Hindness. He would need to wash himself first, and then fuel up before the trip. Hopefully Megatron's long-winded speech wouldn't take too long before Starscream was allowed to leave on his mission to torment soft-sparked femmes. He seriously wondered why he kept taking jobs that were below him, but if it meant he could deny Megatron the chance to kill Optimus Prime then it would be worth it.