They are losing him.
First Aid just stares at the horrendous wound taking up Sideswipe's whole midsection. It is a miracle the frontliner hadn't been torn completely in two by the damage.
Any energon they try to supply his frame with is almost instantly lost to the seeping lines in the wound, and anything he tries to do to prevent any further loss of fluids just ruptures the wound further. Sealing one line only increases the pressure in the other weakened lines, which burst open, splashing even more energon.
There's nothing he can do.
They are going to lose Sideswipe because he simply isn't good enough.
Starscream does his best, but the seeker isn't Ratchet, isn't designed to handle the delicate tools and more than once his claws slip and create new wounds in the injured frontliner.
It is just impossible for them to do anything.
Sideswipe's spark rate drops dangerously and Starscream screams in emotional pain at the sight, cradling the greying frame to his own, smearing Sideswipe's energon all over himself.
First Aid just sighs in defeat.
If there is a god keeping watch over them, now would be a good time for him to interfere.
And miraculously, the spark rate grows slightly in strength and a bit of the red color returns.
"Don't you dare do this to me, Sideswipe," Starscream sobs, still draped all over the dying frontliner.
"Starscream, I don't think…" First Aid tries to soothe, placing a reassuring servo on a trembling wing.
"NO! I'm not giving him up!" Starscream roars in sudden fury at the touch and First Aid takes several steps back in fear.
Starscream is onto him a klik later, tackling him to the floor and digging claws into him. The tricolored seeker's optics are wide and completely white, black flashing in them for just a brief moment before the maddening white is back and those long fangs just come closer and closer.
"Starscream!" First Aid panics, his spark pulsing so fast that it feels like it's going to break his sparkchamber.
He frantically looks around, seeing Skywarp and Thundercracker a short distance away, but both have gone into some sort of healing state. The black and purple seeker doesn't even twitch at the growing noise of panic in the room, and Thundercracker is clearly in a deep fatigued recharge.
He is alone with the rampaging Starscream.
Then the next moment some otherworldly presence lifts Starscream away from his frame and First Aid stares up into the nothingness keeping the tricolored seeker in a vice.
"No. Let me go! Sides! Sideswipe!" Starscream struggles against the god, coherency slowly returning. His optics widen as he stares at the translucent seeker suddenly materializing above him.
/Calm down, Starscream,/ The Sky Above sighs. He hadn't expected Starscream to react this strongly to his sudden presence. Then again, Starscream is not a normal seeker, and he should have predicted the rage rising at the touch of his essence and the infusion of ancient coding into the tricolored seeker.
As a 'god borne', it's no surprise that Starscream reacted strongly to that momentary infusion of root deep coding, especially with how keyed up he is at the moment. Basically, he reverted into the mindset of the seekers as they were in the earliest stages of their existence, wilder and more brutal.
/SIDESWIPE!/ Starscream's scream shatters the glass in some of the cabinets and First Aid huddles in on himself on the floor, trying to protect himself from the falling debris.
/He will be okay, Starscream, if you just calm down. Follow your instincts and everything is going to be alright,/ the god explains, his usually gentle voice slightly strained in exasperation at the seeker thrashing violently in his grip.
Starscream drops to the floor when the god releases the grip on him, and stares around confused, gasping heavily. The Sky Above is nowhere to be seen.
Seeing First Aid cowering on the floor with him, he instantly feels guilty.
"'Aid… I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to hurt you," he apologizes, scooting a bit closer, only to balk when the younger medic lets out a piteous fearful whimper.
Alerts begin to blare and Starscream straightens, his wings shooting high on his back in distress.
"No!" he whimpers, clamoring to his thrusters and staring at the growing pool of energon soaking the berth beneath Sideswipe. The monitors come alive with alert after alert as the frontliner once again begins to slip into death's embrace.
Follow your instincts. The Sky Above's voice sounds in his processor, and the calmness in it slowly eases his panicking spark.
If it had been Thundercracker or Skywarp he would have…
But Sideswipe isn't a seeker…
Will it work?
With a frown and a slight flare of hope in his quivering spark, he begins the process of coughing up the nanites. When he has spat it onto his servo, he hesitates.
The wound is so large, so deep.
Doubt begins to once again rise in his spark and his wings tremble.
Do it, the god orders.
Without further thought, he splashes the nanites onto the wound before he digs his claws into it and begins to gingerly apply the nanite rich substance to every surface. Smoke begins to rise from the wound as he works and he don't know if the smell of burnt circuitry should be there, but at least he has something to do and his mind slowly calms further.
From the floor, First Aid stares as Starscream works.
What the…?
The smoke and smell of ruined circuitry has him rising, and he carefully steps closer, trying not to distract Starscream in his work. He doesn't want a repeat of whatever madness had taken over the tricolored seeker before.
The flow of energon from the wound dwindles, until it stops completely and the several drips supplying Sideswipe with energon are finally able to raise the energy levels. One after one the frontliner's systems begin to stabilize.
When Starscream steps back with a sigh, First Aid looks down at a wound still open, but no longer life threatening. It is clean from any sign of the seeping fluids and the smoke is gone. The only thing left is plating visibly creeping along the ruined circuitry, reforming, repairing and regrowing.
He stares mutely up at Starscream when the outer plating begins to close off the wound, sealing it away behind the regrowth.
"How?" he asks, incredulous.
"It worked." Starscream sags visibly, and then he looks to the stunned younger medic with a weak smile.
"How is this possible?" First Aid asks, unable to believe his own optics.
"I don't know, but it worked." Starscream answers elatedly, misunderstanding the question. Then he looks at bit closer at First Aid, and when he sees the damage he has caused, he reaches a servo towards the younger medic.
"Here, let me tend to your injuries," he offers, and begins to gently apply what remains of the nanites on his servos onto the puncture wounds created by his claws.
The wounds begin to sizzle, smoke drifting up, and First Aid stares at Starscream in shock when the pain from the small wounds is instantly soothed to nothing. Soon there is no sign at all on his frame to show that the tricolored seeker had attacked him.
Once again he just stares at Starscream.
No wonder the seekers are so resilient if they are all capable of this sort of healing.
The war has only revealed the enhanced internal self-repair. This superior healing ability is completely new knowledge to them.
"I'm going to rest," Starscream adds tiredly. Now that Sideswipe is going to survive, all the stress that kept him standing has left him. Overtaxed systems desperately need to recover and his energy levels are dwindling towards red levels.
His seekerling is safe with Skywarp, but he needs to be fit enough within the next cycles when it is going to demand food. He could let Skywarp do it, but that close connection to it during the feeding is something he has come to cherish the most.
Stumbling away from First Aid, he grabs a cube from the stash before collapsing fitfully beside the pile of his mates. The energon is downed in several large gulps, and soon he is resting flush against Thundercracker, his helm leaning against the dominant's shoulder. His right wing lazily drapes itself over Skywarp, resting on top of Thundercracker, and a content purr flows from his lips as he enters recharge.
Left alone to tend to the rest of the damage done to Sideswipe, First Aid casts the seeker-pile a last glance before he turns to his work.
When Sunstreaker bursts into the medbay a cycle later and zeroes in on his brother's prone frame, Sideswipe looks almost as if he is just resting, the lingering damage behind the closed plating left to the seekers strange way of healing.
"Careful, Sunstreaker," First Aid protests when the yellow frontliner climbs onto the berth with his twin and curls protectively around the still healing frame.
"Let him." Optimus breaks in with a tired voice as he steps into the medbay and glances at the pile of recharging seekers before turning his attention onto the red frontliner.
"How bad does it look, Prime?" First Aid asks, scanning Optimus to make sure that the energon covering the Autobot leader's frame isn't the mech's own. He sags in relief when no severe damage shows up.
"We have a few badly injured, but no one as severely as Sideswipe," Optimus answers. As if on cue, the injured then walks in or are being carried in by their less damaged comrades, the worst of them being Ironhide, who had clashed with Soundwave.
The weapons specialist is missing one of his cannons, carried in his left servo, while his right arm is amputated just below the elbow joint. His left leg is amputated as well, the remaining stump seeping with a steady stream of energon from sloppily sealed lines.
Orders are being yelled by the younger medic, creating order in the chaos of the injured. Soon almost every berth is occupied, and Ratchet has been placed inside one of the antechambers to give the dying CMO a little peace.
When the worst of the commotion is over, Optimus turns to the three seekers still sound in recharge, the noise from the several mechs in the room not jostling them in the slightest.
"Sir, I wouldn't…" First Aid warns too late when he sees the Prime walk closer to the seeker-pile.
Yellow optics online with fierce intensity at the sensed proximity of the Autobot leader, and Thundercracker lets out a warning hiss beneath Skywarp's frame. A small cycle of his powerful engines adds to the threat with a rumble, but nothing else happens while the two leaders stare at each other.
"Thank you." Optimus pours all his gratitude into the two simple words. Then he slowly and carefully backs away in respect for the Winglord, acknowledging Thundercracker's superiority by not turning his back to the massive seeker.
You don't turn your back on someone you consider a threat. He begins to understand how symbolic the seekers are, and if he did turn his back to the Winglord, he is sure Thundercracker – in offense at the action – would be onto him in less than a klik.
Thundercracker just releases a grunted gust of air in reply, and his optics offline again.
"Prime, I hope you are aware of how stupid what you just did was?" First Aid scolds from where he is sealing the lines in Ironhide's injured leg. "He might seem unaware, but never believe that about any seeker. See those minute flutters in the wings? Even now he is watching us intensely, even if his optics are offline," the younger medic sternly explains.
And Optimus does see them.
The small movements he had thought to be a result of the Winglord's recharge are too controlled to actually be such. The small jerks this and that way are telling, and the inconspicuous pattern repeats endlessly only to be disrupted when the wings detect movement and stiffens to measure the threat. Like this, it is obvious that Thundercracker is on high alert while looking completely non-threatening to his surroundings. At least until someone oversteps the invisible line defining the safe zone around the Winglord and his mates.
"He is protecting his offspring, Sir. Starscream gave birth to his creation while he was back on Cybertron. I briefly saw it when he handed it to Skywarp before assisting me with Sideswipe. I don't recommend anyone getting close to any of them at the moment, unless they themselves invite it," First Aid continues in a lighter voice, garnering the attention of most of the mechs in the room.
"What did it look like?" Optimus asks, voice delighted, and he looks closer at Starscream before glancing to Skywarp. No visible cockpits. He will have to ask when the seekers rouse.
He remembers his first meeting with Starscream, but back then the tricolored seeker had been a seekerlet and not a seekerling. He can't help wondering what such a young individual looks like.
"It is hard to describe. A transparent wriggling puddle of shiny gooey metal?" First Aid muses. How do you explain the visible spark and translucent colorlessness to a mech who hasn't seen it before?
As if sensing what they are talking about, Thundercracker onlines his optics again and, with a growl, pushes Skywarp down along his side, beside Starscream, before he rolls and shields both his submissives and creation protectively from sight with one of his large wings.
"At least he doesn't see us as a threat. If I'm right, he wouldn't have done that if he did, would he?" Optimus asks curiously.
"I think he's annoyed at the attention focused on his mates. Let's get back to work. They are going to come around whenever they feel like it," First Aid shushes.
A special thank you to T'Reilani for betaing this chapter.