Title: Keep It Together
Author: DeviousGypsy
Summary: Unbeknown to anyone else, Starscream is a young Seeker. So when he hits his first heat cycle, he has no idea how to handle it. His trine tries to help but the plan falls apart and brings Megatron and Starscream together in a strange way...only to have Starscream ripped from Megatron's servos.
Warnings: Slash, mech-preg, the like :P
Pairings: Megatron/Starscream, Thundercracker/Skywarp
Chapter: VI
Notes: This chapter's pretty jumpy, a lot of skipping around but I hope it still makes sense. I don't know if I'll be posting this weekend, since I've got a pretty hectic schedule at work, but if not there will be a new chapter Monday or at the very latest Tuesday. I really hope this chapter makes sense, I worked on it all night, passed out still working on it, and woke up this morning and went straight on to finish it. Kind of short too, but I'll have much longer to work on the next chapter which will be when we find out all the answers to the questions I'm sure this chapter will bring out. Enjoy!
Orn = Roughly 4.7 Earth days, Vorn = 83 Earth years, Breem = 1 Earth minute, Stellercycle = 1 Earth month, Megacycle = 1 Earth hour
When Skyfire landed, Ratchet had Optimus and Ironhide carry Starscream to the med bay while he sent a com to Wheeljack to make sure that absolutely no one was to be inside the med bay. He had Ironhide and Optimus set the Seeker on a berth closest to his office, immediately setting up an energon line and a few other stabilizing and painkilling liquids into the Seeker's neck cables. While Ratchet worked to at least stabilize the Decepticon before them, Optimus turned to Ironhide.
"I am going to stay here for a while, just so that Ratchet can give me a diagnosis of Starscream's state. Will you call a meeting and explain to the others what's happened?" At Ironhide's frown Optimus almost rolled his eyes, "Then can you at least tell Prowl of the situation and have him set up a meeting?"
Smiling Ironhide nodded, "Right on it, Optimus."
Optimus turned his attention to Ratchet, who had finished attaching cables and was now examining Starscream's outer appearance trying to figure out what exactly happened. Frowning, Ratchet opened a com to Hound, not bothering to make it private so Prime could hear too. "Hound, where are you?"
There was a ping of surprise on the other end from Hound, "Well, Wheeljack's taking care of my burns in his lab since you've closed off the med bay."
"For good reason," Ratchet clipped, "I need you to tell me exactly what happened with you and Starscream."
"Oh, well I found him in the trees kind of just sneaking around, and I noticed he had a clear shot to Prime, so I jumped him before he could attack. I think he was grounded cause the twins shot him down, either way he was leaking energon from his wing I think." Ratchet frowned at that, moving to Starscream's back to see if he could find the wound Hound was talking about. Sure enough, on Starscream's crumpled wing, right at the seam, there was a gun wound, already patched up when he welded the open wounds.
"Alright, so how'd you both get burned?"
"Well, Starscream pushed away from me a little bit, and he seemed really out of it."
"Out of it, how?" Ratchet pressed before Hound could continue.
"Well I dunno, tired I guess? Anyway, I had pulled out my gun but wasn't about to shoot when I saw how tired he looked. But then he threw his hand out as if to grab for my gun and I fired, I think I missed him though. Either way, I hit some of his energon and BOOM! It was like when Wheeljack's inventions blow up, huge explosion."
"Jet fuel," Ratchet explained, "Highly explosive." He cut the com to Hound and frowned. "Starscream being tired doesn't make any sense," Ratchet muttered, and Optimus wasn't sure if he was talking to him or himself. "Perhaps Skyfire was right when he mentioned a virus, it would explain his core temperature being high."
Ratchet increased his firewalls tenfold before opening Starscream up and examining him. If Starscream had a virus, Ratchet didn't want to catch it, not while carrying at least. Moving to a panel on Starscream's side, Ratchet began the medical override codes that would open Starscream's cockpit. The yellow glass clicked, sliding open and casting blue light across Ratchet's frame. Leaning against the berth beside Starscream's Optimus's view of the Seeker's spark was blocked by Starscream's dented sholder.
"Frag," Ratchet cursed loudly, moving to increase the flow of energon in the drip as his moves became more frantic. "That certainly explains a few things."
Tensing but not daring to move in case it was a virus and he didn't have the medical firewalls Ratchet had, Optimus asked; "What is it Ratchet?"
"He's carrying," Ratchet snarled, "It explains why the energon was so thin and why his core temperature was so high. Frag he's in a lot more danger than we originally intended."
"Is the sparkling okay?" Prime asked, finally moving closer now that there was no virus threat.
"Sparklings, Prime, as in plural," Ratchet corrected, gathering more tools that would tell him the sparklings' condition. "Seekers usually have three sparklings, that way if anything were to happen, the three siblings could become a trine instead of having to seek out other Seekers." Prime frowned at that, three sparklings and in this shape was not a good thing. "Luckily," Ratchet continued, breaking Prime of his thoughts, "He's only carrying two, a third would have killed him."
"How far along is he?" Prime asked, shocked that Starscream would risk his and his sparklings' lives so carelessly. He knew Seeker protocols to protect sparklings, so in order for Starscream to put himself and them in such danger, he had to have been a hundred percent positive he was doing the right thing.
"About an Earth week over two stellercycles."
Optimus inwardly cursed, "Can you fix him before they're due?"
Ratchet glanced back to Starscream, "Three weeks?" He turned his optics up to Prime, "I'll do it two."
"Lord Megatron. Starscream: located." Megatron optics darted to the side where Soundwave stood, the mech's visor glowing brightly as he was getting an information feed from one of his creations.
"Where is he?" The silver mech growled out, to say that Megatron's mood had been foul since he found out the truth would have been an understatement. Megatron had gotten no recharge, sitting in his throne as he waited for Starscream to be found and his condition reported.
"Location: Autobot medical bay."
"And his condition?"
"Status: stasis." Megatron's fists clenched tighter at that. It was bad enough that the Seeker was with the Autobots, it meant that they knew about the sparkling and that they would probably keep the Seeker prisoner. Perhaps they would even take the sparkling from him, deciding that the sparkling would need to be raised in the Autobot way. Megatron let out an involuntary snarl at that, if the Autobots so much as dared to touch his sparkling, he'd rip their sparks from their chests.
Taping his digits on the arm rest of his throne in thought, Megatron frowned deeply. He couldn't exactly attack the Autobots in order to take back what was rightfully his. There were more Autobots than there were Decepticons, and the would surely be thwarted before they even reached the Ark. In their current position it seemed that the only way for Starscream to escape was if he were to do it on his own, but if he were wounded enough to be in stasis it seemed impossible for the Seeker to be well enough to plan an escape before the sparkling was due.
"Keep your spies on him, Soundwave. If there's an opening to bring him back, alert me."
Coming online seemed inevitable when all he wanted to do was stay offline, away from the pain, away from reality. However, his systems didn't think that was such a great idea as they started onlining one by one. One of his first systems to online were his audios, just to make sure there were no enemies around as the last thing his memory banks could pull up was being in the middle of a battle against the Autobots. There were voices, voices he didn't recognize and couldn't make out just yet, his audios working to come fully online after being in stasis.
"-you sure it's such a good idea?" Came the first voice, slightly muffled even though Starscream was sure his audios were completely online.
"Yes, 'Jack. Fender will be fine in here, Seeker protocols put a sparkling's needs even above their own. And considering how hard Starscream will fight for his own life..." The other voice, clear and not muffled, trailed off, as if proving his point. Suddenly Starscream was harshly reminded of his own sparkling, memories of the battle; getting shot down, being attack...the explosion.
His spark seized at the thought of loosing his sparkling, his systems suddenly trying to come on; too quickly. His frame sputtered, his systems began shutting back down, warnings causing his processors to crash as reentered stasis.
Ratchet turned his attention to the monitors that began to beep wildly, alerts popping up on several of them. "Slag," Ratchet cursed, turning to the monitors to see what had set of the alarms. Wheeljack grasped his sparkling's sholder, pulling him closer and away from the Seeker laying completely still on the berth in front of them.
Starscream's exterior wounds had recently been patched, taking Ratchet nearly an entire Earth week simply to fix the Seeker's wings. They didn't have the necessary parts to fix the Seeker's thrusters however, only having the parts for his wings because of Prowl's door-wings. "What's wrong?" Wheeljack looked down towards where the small voice came from, Fender, grasping hold of his creator's leg and only coming up to the mech's knee, watched as his carrier hurried to attend the winged Cybertronian on the berth.
Letting out an irritable sigh, Ratchet responded, "His systems attempted to online but something seized them up. I'm not entirely sure what."
"And the sparklings?" Wheeljack asked, stepping closer to his mate while keeping a watchful eye on the Decepticon.
"No change," Ratchet sighed, putting a hand to his helm, "Truthfully I don't know if either Starscream or the sparklings will live past the birth. One of the sparklings took a lot of damage during the fall, I'm surprised it's lasted this long."
"What's wrong with it?" Fender asked, though he was too young to truly understand he was still curious.
Smiling at his mechling, Ratchet set a hand on Starscream's recently repaired wing. "Well, nothing to deform it or anything, the protoform it's self is fine. But it's development is off, something I can't pinpoint." The youngling replied with an 'Oh', most of what his carrier had said going over his processor's current state.
This time, Starscream made sure to online slowly, his frame sore from his last attempt. When his audios came online, he was greeted by silence, unlike the last time. Slowly onlining his optics, he attempted to sit up, only to find cuffs on his wrists and a heavy weight on his chassis that wasn't there before. He groaned, wanting to rub at his sore chest but unable to move his arms.
"Ah, finally online?" A voice asked to his left. Moving his optics in that direction, Starscream found the mech the voice belonged to. Ratchet slipped from the berth he had currently been resting on, going to stand next to Starscream's berth.
"Why the slag am I pinned to this Primusforsaken berth?" Starscream asked, his vocals raspy from lack of usage. "I hardly have the energy to move let alone escape."
Unlocking the cuffs around Starscream's wrists, Ratchet frowned, "Well, you attempted to online twice before. When you did your frame spazzed and we didn't want you to end up hurting yourself."
As soon as his servos were free they flew to his cockpit, now much more swollen and heavier than he remembered. "How," he paused, vents starting to heave in panic. "How long have I been out?" Starscream watched as Ratchet walked towards a small crib like berth at the foot of the adjacent berth. "That's not..." Starscream trailed off, Optics dimming at the small frame inside the berth.
Ratchet waved him off, "No, this is my sparkling. Birthed only two Earth days ago," turning back towards Starscream after giving the small femme a feeding line. "Your sparklings are still within your chassis, though you've been out for a little longer than two Earth weeks so you can expect to be seeing them shortly."
Frowning, Starscream gripped at his cockpit, "They?" Fear gripping at his spark, Starscream sat up. "I have to get back," he muttered, his processors finally realizing where he was and if he didn't get back to the Nemesis soon everything would fall apart. However, as soon as he stepped off the berth and placed his weight on his thrusters, pain sent him pitching forward. Luckily Ratchet was expecting this and held a hand out to push him back to the berth.
"Yes, they, as in twins," Ratchet explained, "I don't have the parts to repair your thrusters, and I'm afraid I can't let you leave."
Starscream groaned as he laid back in the berth, "Why? So you can keep me prisoner? Learn all the Decepticon secrets while you take my sparklings away from me to teach them like an Autobot?" The Seeker asked sarcastically, his optics bright in pain and anger towards the entire Autobot faction.
"That's basically the plan."
Starscream scoffed, "I won't speak a word, and you aren't getting your filthy soft-sparked servos near my sparklings."
Ratchet frowned, moving back to rest against the berth behind him after taking back the feeding line from the recharging sparkling. "Who's the other creator?" The CMO asked, crossing his arms over his chassis and ignoring Starscream's previous comments. He couldn't imagine Megatron keeping the sparklings online, specially if they hindered his Air Commander. The only logical explanations that Ratchet had were that either Megatron was not aware of the carrying Seeker or Megatron had intentionally left Starscream alone and dying on the battlefield in an attempt to finally be rid of his obnoxious Air Commander.
Starscream frowned, clenching his fangs in irritation, "That's none of your business, Autobot."
Holding his hands up in surrender, Ratchet fought back a smirk, "Just curious." Ratchet's demeanor became serious again, optics dimming as his optics shot to Starscream's chassis before moving back to look Starscream in the optics. "As a medic, it's my job to tell you the cold hard truth, and you're not going to like what I have to tell you." The Seeker's frame tensed, guessing that the words coming from the medic's vocalizer next would be about his sparklings and would not be good.
"Spit it out, Autobot, before I go into recharge on you," Starscream growled, his systems already slowing as exhaustion took over.
"I can't assure that you'll stay online during the birth, your systems are still a mess from the explosion, and I don't have the Seeker programming to repair you. I also can't assure that your sparklings will be birthed online either, one of them I honestly don't know how it's lasted this long."
Starscream's spark jumped at that, and he didn't bother hiding the fear that took over him. After everything they'd been through; hiding from Megatron, bringing the trine closer as almost a make-shift family for the younglings. And now everything could be taken away from him, his fists clenched at his side weakly, processors running wild. "You should just let me leave, Hook has the repairs I need."
Ratchet let a heave of air out of his vents, "Think about it Starscream, if you had Prowl wounded in your med bay, would you let him leave?"
An angry Vosian chirp erupted from Starscream's vocalizer, "I thought you Autobots were soft sparked, weak willed, and understanding."
Ratchet was quiet for a moment, "This is a war, Starscream."