"Starscream, I usually wouldn't approve of actions as foolish as your own" Optimus looked down at the seeker, "But your actions brought us back our friends... Vital parts of our family. And we will never be able to thank you enough" he gave him a small smile.

Starscream looked up at the Prime and then around the room at the faces of Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Ratchet, June, Agent Fowler, Arcee... And his sparklings.

He smiled before looking back to the large mech stood before him.

"I think enough thanks would be allowing me a place in the Autobot ranks and allowing me to stay with my sparkmate" he told Optimus. In his mind he was also saying 'I want to be here with my sparklings' but knew it would be a bit strange if he said it aloud.

"I think we can-"

"Look, Starscream we are all very thankful but-" Bumblebee interrupted Optimus.

"We'd love to-" Arcee interrupted Bumblebee.

"I think we need to perform a few trust exerc-" Bulkhead interrupted Arcee.

"BE QUIET" Ratchet boomed and everyone shut up, "carry on, Optimus"

Optimus chuckled slightly before he turned to his team and the seeker, "I'm sure the team will be very welcoming" he held his hand out to Starscream.

Starscream beamed as he shook Optimus' servo in agreement, sealing their alliance. However the seeker knew he was still unwanted by some members of the team.

"Thank you, Optimus"

The Prime nodded before reminding his team that they had things to do and went back to work himself.

Starscream turned to Arcee and saw she had their sparklings in her arms and smiled when he saw they were smiling up at her and chatting away.

Starscream walked over to Arcee and brushed a finger over the three children. They all jumped and turned to look at the new Autobot.

"Hey, Starscream!" Miko smiled widely.

"Hello, Miko" he chuckled, "Still loud are we?" Arcee laughed at that remembering those times well and Miko playfully scowled at him.

"We're happy you're an Autobot now, we didn't want you to have to leave" Raf told the seeker.

"Yeah, we didn't want to see Team Prime kick you out straight after" Jack added.

"I'm glad you appreciate my help" he smiled at them.

"Okay, you guys go play" Arcee lowered them to the floor.

"Really?" Miko raised an eyebrow with an unbelieving look.

"What?" The femme questioned.

"Play?" Jack dead panned.

Starscream chuckled as he watched them. Clearly Arcee was having trouble getting over that by human terms they were younglings not sparklings.

"Well go do whatever you do" she playfully scolded.

The trio laughed before they walked over to their area. Jack and Miko began wrestling over what video game to play and Raf pulled out his laptop and occasionally glanced up and laughed at his older friends.

"Doesn't that remind you of when they were younger?" Starscream whispered to his sparkmate as they watched their human trine interact.

"Yeah, and it makes me want them to be back in their original bodies even more" she sighed.

"I would love that too but I love them regardless of how they are" he said softly as he kissed her lips lightly.

"Who knew you would keep your word, Starscream" Arcee chuckled against his lips.

"What?" He asked confused by her statement.

"When we discussed the children and somehow went from me shouting at you to letting you frag me. You told me you would change and you did" she licked his lips and he growled suggestively.

"I would do anything for you" the seeker responded to her tongue against his lips by dragging his claws lightly over he interface panel.

"Starscream"

"Hmm?"

"Not in front of the sparklings" she smirked.

"I will get you later, I can promise you that" he smirked back at her.

"Sure you can" she teased "But right now I have to go on patrol" she walked away from him, transformed and was ready to leave when-

"Arcee! Can I come with?" Jack asked from his place on the couch where he had been playing a game with Miko.

"Jack, you just got back and preferably I don't want to be trying to retrieve you from Megatron ever again" she said sternly.

"Fair point" Jack turned back to his game with Miko.

"He will never hurt any of you again"

"Arcee, guess what?!" Miko shouted to her.

"What is it?"

"Megatron didn't actually hurt us" the young girl sounded confused.

Arcee transformed and Starscream internally growled. He had an idea why that slagger hadn't harmed them. Not that he wanted them harmed but he didn't want that brute anywhere near his children.

"He didn't?" Starscream asked covering for Arcee who had the words stuck in her vocal processor.

"No, well once but he came back almost instantly and was apologising saying he was only worried for our safety so overall he was just really protective" Miko shrugged her shoulders.

Arcee could see Starscream's hands shaking in rage and she placed her own hand over one of his to show her support.

"We'll keep this between the five of us" Arcee said.

"Why?" Raf was baffled by this.

"Because Optimus won't be able to do anything about it anyway" she said as calmly as she could.

Raf nodded in agreement and looked back down at his laptop continuing what he was doing.

Jack and Miko had already continued their game and it was clear to see that all three children were paying completely no attention to their surroundings so Arcee decided to turn to Starscream.

"We'll speak about this later" she kissed his cheek before transforming and racing off to patrol the area, leaving Starscream sitting on a crate watching his children protectively and wondering what it would've been like if they had grown up as Cybertronians.

Well technically they would still be sparklings, very young sparklings as human lives were a nibble of a bite compared to Cybertronian life spans. It did make him worry about their short amount of time if they were to remain human but he pushed that thought aside as he watched them act as children should.

Starscream had stored one thing in his mind already. Should Megatron ever even look at his sparklings he would kill the ex gladiator. He was not going to allow the spiteful warlord to take them from him. He would take great pleasure in killing him if he were to even attempt.

/-\

To say Megatron was upset was an understatement, he was beyond furious and Soundwave was giving it his all to try and console his distraught leader.

Vehicons were thrown and curse words echoed in the main room as Megatron continued in his rage rant about sneaky treacherous seekers.

Finally the old mech had retreated back to his quarters where he decided he would tear the walls apart as he had run out of vehicons to throw in the main room. The room looked like a storm had gone through it by the time Megatron was finished with it and the mech still vibrated with anger.

He slammed himself onto his berth, still angry but tired from the amount of effort that had been lost to the destruction of his room. He glanced down at his broad chest where his sparklings should have been, he couldn't believe he had allowed the only things left of his mate to get away so easily!

Then he realised who they had gotten away with, they hadn't gone with the Autobots. They had gone with Starscream but the ground bridge didn't make sense. Maybe the slagging seeker had found a way of creating one of his own it would only make sense since he was the one who had been directing the creation of the space bridges and space bridge technology had always been extremely complex, therefore a ground bridge would be simple to build for the mech. That was one of the main reasons Megatron wished the seeker hadn't left his ranks. Starscream was intelligent, had great tactical thinking and was the reason for quite a lot of Decepticon victories although Megatron would never admit he acknowledged that to Starscream.

The silver warlord could only hope that Starscream had made an alliance with the Autobots. Although he hoped that if he did that it was a temporary one. He didn't need his ex second in command blurting out all of the Decepticon secrets and warning them of future plans.

What if Starscream had hurt his sparklings? What if Starscream didn't hand his sparklings over to the Autobots and was holding them prisoner?

Starscream had given him a weird almost "what the frag" look when he had shouted at him to stop swearing in front of the children.

What if the little fragger knew about how they were most probably his sparklings and was trying to mess with his head by taking them?!

No! He wouldn't let it happen! He would get his sparklings back!

And he would kill Starscream.

With a growl Megatron commed Soundwave to look for Starcream's energy signature. He didn't need any form of response from his loyal communications chief as he respected his reasons for being silent and knew that the mech would get it done straight away.

He then decided he would pay KnockOut a visit in the med bay to see for himself the machine that had been finished just a tad bit too late.

About seven vehicons were waiting outside when Megatron walked out.

"Lord Megatron, we were told to fix your quarters" one of them said.

"Oh and who said that?" Megatron seethed. Who dared to issue commands without him saying so?!

"Commander Soundwave, sir" the same vehicon replied.

"Well, get on with it then" he ordered them. Maybe he should've thought it would be Soundwave, the mech had earned so much of his trust that he was able to issue commands.

As the vehicons entered his quarters he walked towards the med bay where he would view this machine.

/-\

A few hours had passed and the Autobots had come to a final decisions that the children would be living at the base for a while. Agent a Fowler had contacted Miko and Raf's families with the cover that they were currently being located. The families had already realised that their adopted children had gone missing when June could no longer take it and broke down crying about Jack.

"Where in the base will they stay?" Ratchet asked Optimus.

"With their guardians obviously" Bulkhead said as if it were the simplest thing in the world.

"Actually, Bulkhead, I believe it would be best to keep the children together after their experience on Megatron's warship" Optimus placed a hand on the green mech's shoulder.

"Well then they can stay with Starscream and I" Arcee said with a smile "After all, Bulkhead would probably keep them up all night, Bumblebee is still young himself and I doubt Ratchet would want to keep them with him. I also know you have work to complete and the children would only serve as a distraction"

"I don't want Miko staying in the same room as him" Bulkhead almost growled.

"I don't believe I want Raf there either" Bumblebee buzzed but sounded less threatening that Bulkhead.

Starscream internally growled. If only these imbeciles knew that these children were in fact his sparklings.

"Either way Jack would've ended up with Starscream and I and believe me, if Starscream knows what's best for him he won't even look at any of them the wrong way" Arcee flicked her sparkmates wing just to show she wasn't kidding.

"YOWCH! Really, Arcee?" Starscream glared at her as he rubbed his wing "Anyway, I wouldn't dream of hurting them. I can see how close they are to all of you and if I am to join the Autobots then I must allow them at least a chance" he stuck up for Arcee. All of what he said was true but he seriously would say anything just to get his sparklings back.

Before anything else could be said Optimus cut it "Starscream, I do not see you as a threat to the children due to your actions and partly your sparkmate" everyone laughed at that "So I think the children will be fine staying with you and Arcee as Jack most likely would have done so anyway"

"Thank you, Optimus" Arcee smiled at him at which he smiled back.

Starscream couldn't help but think there was something more to that smile but he shrugged it off blaming his thoughts on his over-protectiveness that had recently been kicked into overdrive which he though was mainly his Sire instincts.

As it had been decided Bumblebee and Bulkhead left to their rooms in a huff complaining about trusting the seeker. Ratchet and Optimus also left to do paper work in their rooms and no doubt go to recharge shortly which left the little family in the room with Agent Fowler and June who had stopped by to drop off things that they would need for the duration of their stay at the base.

"Thanks, Mom" Jack smiled as she pulled him into a hug.

Arcee felt her spark twist but ignored it and mentally scolded herself.

"Yeah thanks, Mrs Darby" Miko and Raf added.

She hugged both of them too as if they were her own children.

Arcee's felt a flash of jealousy at the sight and crossed her arms, beginning to get annoyed with the presence of the nurse. But she seemed to be taking her time to leave!

June kept telling the kids that she would be back tomorrow and that they should listen to the bots and brush their teeth and then whispered something into Miko's ear which made Miko blush with a little nervous laugh. She then went onto saying that they must be in bed on time and do this and do that and that she would bring homework for them... Oh Primus she wouldn't stop.

Finally she and Agent Fowler left the base and Starscream was thankful as he could feel his mate becoming agitated and he didn't want to have to deal with it. He knew it was dangerous.

"Come on then. Time for recharge" The femme looked at the three children.

"But we're not tired" they moaned and Starscream couldn't help but laugh at this. This is exactly what they would've gone through every night with their children had they not sent them away.

"What's funny?" Jack asked.

"Oh nothing" he smirked with a chuckle at them.

"It's just you guys are so... Kiddie" Arcee half laughed half cooed at them.

"Come on guys! Why not movie time?" Miko asked giving them puppy eyes. They had to admit she was pretty good at it and soon enough Arcee was suppressing "Awwwwww"s when the other two had joined in and all three looked insanely cute.

"Movie time it is!" Starscream declared and the kids cheered.

"What movie?" Jack asked his two younger friends.

"Forest Gump!" Raf chimed.

"EW. No. Let's watch The Grudge!" Miko grinned.

"Miko, I'm not sure Raf would-"

"Let's watch it!" Raf said interrupting and surprising Jack.

"Um, Raf are you sure?" He raised an eyebrow.

"Yep. It'll be new to me" he stated.

"You do know it's a really strange horror film?"

"Yeah but to be honest I've never watched a horror and I really want to!" Raf begged.

"Well, I suppose it's not too scary. It just has a few jump scares" Jack sighed.

"The Grudge it is!" Miko whooped and let her fist fly into the air as a victory punch.

"Miko, if Raf gets scared and anyone finds out I'm going to blame it on you" Arcee dead panned.

"That's fine" she shook it off.

Soon enough the five of them had retreated to Arcee's (now Arcee and Starscream's) room and they had started the film on a telecom.

They were all on the large berth where Raf was becoming scared. Maybe watchin this wasn't the greatest idea ever he thought.

Starscream and Arcee picked up on the fear through the bond and they looked at each other before Starscream picked the youngest child up careful not to scare him.

Starscream thought it would be great if he could prove himself amongst the Autobots and put Raf on his chest on top of his spark housing allowing him to bathe in the warmth and comfort being sent over the mystery bond.

Miko and Jack were still sat watching intently although Jack felt as though he was going to fall asleep any second.

Arcee saw Jack drooping where he was sat and lifted him to rest next to her as she turned on her side so she was facing him where he could still feel the warmth of her spark.

Both boys were still watching but were close to falling asleep as Miko looked like she was absolutely shattered where she was still sat.

Arcee moved her back so she was next to Jack and she was so tired she didn't even realise but she still tried to watch the film.

About half way through the film the sparkmates looked down and smiled at the sight yet they were also shocked at how some of the smallest things could stay the same.

Just like the time when they were sleeping a week after their birth. Raf was snuggled up next to Starscream, Jack was snuggled up next to Arcee and Miko was sprawled out in the middle of the berth taking up more room than she needed.

Arcee pulled out the cover and pulled it over all five of them.

Starscream then leaned over and kissed her.

"We almost have them back" he whispered.