Oh my lord, an update.

If people still want to read this, merry birthday!

Have another to post and one more soon after.

Not mine, enjoy!

Starscream still lay insensate in medbay.

Ratchet had told Thundercracker that the tricolored Seeker was repaired to the best of the medic's capabilities and that he wasn't sure why he was still in stasis. The consensus was that Starscream didn't /want/ to awaken yet.

Thundercracker didn't blame him, not really. Not after what he'd been through. He supposed that he really wouldn't want to online either, especially because Starscream had no idea he'd been taken away from the Nemesis. Primus alone knew what he would do once he discovered that little fact.

Histrionics were to be expected, a hissy fit damned near a certainty. That is, if Starscream still retained enough of himself after the attack. Thundercracker wouldn't be surprised if Starscream's mind had finally broken; he'd been expecting it for vorn now.

And it was all the fault of one megalomaniac bent on having what was never his to begin with.

The blue Seeker stood over his trineleader….no, /bondmate/, and sighed. Ratchet heard the sound and cocked an optic ridge in TC's direction, but he waved it away with another deep intake of breath. There was literally nothing he could do, short of shocking Starscream's systems with a forced merge… and that would almost be worse than what had been done to him already.

"I spoke to Wheeljack and Perceptor." Ratchet said softly. "If they can gain Starscream's permission, they think they can lessen the impact of the core programming hack."

Thundercracker placed his right hand on Star's shoulder almost absently. "He'll agree. I'll see to it."

"No coercion!" Ratchet said almost angrily. "We went /over/ this, Thundercracker. You will /not/ use your bond to get him to do this. He'll agree on his own, or by Primus, I'll make you wish you hadn't been sparked!"

Despite the comment, Thundercracker's lips curled in the approximation of a smile. "Ratchet, I don't think I could merge with him right now even if he begged me. It wouldn't be good for him. I will /speak/ to him. Nothing more. It's going to be enough of a shock when he realizes where he is."

The frame beneath his hand twitched, then shuddered in a paroxysm of something undefinable. Starscream's right hand shot up and grabbed Thundercracker by the throat and the tricolored Seeker screamed, the sound utterly inhuman and /terrified/. Thundercracker choked and instinctively tried to pull back, but Starscream's grip was born of madness and fear.

Crimson optics onlined and /glowed/. "I'LL KILL YOU, GET AWAY GET AWAY GET AWAY FROM ME!"

Thundercracker's spark /twisted/ at that, even though he knew that Starscream wasn't himself right now. As calmly as he could manage, hoarse because of the grip, he spoke. "Star. Star, it's /me/. Let go. I can't get away. You have my throat. You are safe."

The grip grew tighter, and the Seeker stared at Thundercracker. Ratchet rushed to the bedside, away from Starscream's gaze, a sedative-laden hypo in hand. TC raised his hand in a 'no' gesture, and Ratchet frowned.

/TC, he's going to hurt you-"

/No, he won't./ the blue flier replied via comm.

Starscream's grip relaxed fractionally. "Don't touch me don't touch me get away!" With all the strength he could muster, he let go and shoved Thundercracker backward. Starscream's gaze was wild as he twisted around and scanned his surroundings, crouching defensively on the berth. "I swear by Primus you will all die if you don't let me go."

Ratchet couldn't take it anymore. "Starscream, we're trying to /help/ you." he said calmly. Crimson optics steadied themselves on the medic, and a twisted grin lit the dark faceplates in a way that made Thundercracker want to cry. "He gave me to the fragging /Autobots/?"

"Starscream!" Thundercracker shouted. "Primus above and below."

"…TC?" Starscream glanced toward the familiar voice, the voice that had always been there…. and he felt the presence within. "Thunder, what… I….." His wings twitched madly, and he relaxed just a bit. Thundercracker placed a hand on Star's shoulder and removed it just as quickly when the Seeker flinched as if burned. "Don't touch me!" Star snarled, shuddering.

The touch burned within Starscream's mind, memories of his recent ordeal flooding back. He could feel the pain, the humiliation, and he screamed again, the sound piercing and filled with anguish. Ratchet flinched but stood firm; TC stood still, his face schooled into a perfect mask, hiding all the pain that Star had unwittingly inflicted with those simple words.

He ached to fly to the Nemesis and violently offline those responsible. He looked at Ratchet, who looked just as helpless as he felt.

Broken bodies, Ratchet could fix. Broken minds? That was just as much up to Primus himself as it was to Ratchet.

~/.~/.~

This sucked slag.

Why had he accepted the position of Air Commander, anyway? Skywarp snorted. Oh, yeah. He remembered. He hadn't had a choice.

He simply wasn't made for this, though slag if he was going to admit it to those aftheads that called themselves the Coneheads. They'd only be worse. At least Skywarp had half a processor.

Those three? Maybe had a quarter if you counted all three.

Air Commander Skywarp gazed at his fliers and stifled a sigh. This was fragging Starscream's job, TC's if Star got slagged to the Pit. Not Skywarp. Skywarp followed orders, not gave them… and for good reason.

Most people thought Skywarp was a moron, but the truth was that Sky's processing power was mostly tied into his warp gate, assessing and discarding possibilities just as easily as most mechs took fuel.

"All right. Who's here? If ya ain't, then your aft is mine." He stated half-sparkedly.

"Don'tcha have optics, Warp?" Vortex called, cackling.

"Mute it, aftshaft." Warp advised, and his spark wasn't even in the insult and it showed. His wings weren't at their usual perk, and his face lacked the slightly malicious grin that most expected from Skywarp. "I'm your commander now an' you damned well better listen."

The copter stood belligerently. "Fragging Seeker. I take orders from my team leader, not a member of a traitor trine."

"THEY'RE NOT TRAITORS." Skywarp shouted, not thinking. The entire room full of Decepticon fliers stared at him. "What I mean is that we have no proof of where Stars…Starscream and Thundercracker went. Can't call 'em traitor when we don't know. An' that's an order."

"Cams showed that gloomgoodie Dead End and /your/ Thundercracker sneaking Screamer out. What does that look like? If it'd been all aboveboard why sneak?" Vortex knew he was right, and most of the mechs in the room nodded, murmuring amongst themselves.

The Coneheads were the exception; they'd distracted Soundwave from seeing it as it happened, and had paid for it dearly themselves. Only the fact that Thundercracker had ordered it had saved them from deactivation.

Still, they knew worse could be coming, they were just waiting for the figurative axe to fall. It always did in /this/ army.

"Frag if I know." Skywarp said honestly. He didn't know himself. The trine bond was broken. He couldn't touch them, and by Primus he needed them as he never had before. He'd never realized how much the bond had helped balance him. Starscream's capricious nature balanced Thundercracker's seriousness that balanced Skywarp's utter randomness that balanced Starscream… it was a cycle, which showed why their trine bond had grown as strong as it was before Thundercracker had shattered it in anger.

Why the Pit was he so mad, anyway? TC protected Starscream no matter what treachery the SIC had planned or perpetrated. Skywarp actually frowned at that, and Vortex snorted.

"Yeah, not gonna listen to the dumbest glitch in the army. See ya, Skydork." Vortex rose and boldly sauntered toward the door, and Skywarp scowled, intercepting the Combaticon easily to grab his left arm.

"Yeah, you are. I'm your Air Commander now, Lord Megatron said so, and if you don't wanna follow a simple fragging order I'll send your sorry spark to the Well by myself. Care to try me?" Skywarp was almost yelling by the end of that little speech.

Vortex just smiled even more widely. "Like ta see you try."

Skywarp smirked. "Fine. Be that way." He grabed Vortex's other arm and abruptly the two of them were /not/ inside the Nemesis at all, but beside it….. with several tons of water above their heads.

/See ya, fragger./ Skywarp commed, smirking. He let go of the copter and gave a little fingerwave before returning to the briefing room, a puddle of water soaking the carpet and a dying fish flopping at his pedes.

"Anyone else?"

~.~.~.~

"Starscream. Calm down." Ratchet's tone was as reassuring as he could make it; it was obvious that there were Issues here, and he didn't want his medbay trashed beyond all repair by a deranged Seeker.

"Calm down. You ask /me/ to /calm down/ when I am imprisoned on the pitfragging Ark, where people /touch/ me and /stare/ at me and and and and and-" Starscream's lips moved, but no sound came out. Thundercracker just stared at his bondmate, unable to even offer so much as a touch on the arm for comfort. He gently opened their bond, and tried to speak there.

/: Stars. He isn't going to harm you. I will not allow it. Trust in me. Trust in me as you always do. :/

/: You didn't stop what happened to me! :/ Starscream shrieked through their bond, and Thundercracker winced as if Star had physically hit him.

"Don't you hurt him, /Air Commander/. He's thought of nothing /but/ your sorry aft while he and Skywarp were here, /nothing but/ your well-being and care, and I know damned well that you just tossed some acidic comment at him for no other reason than that you're scared. Afraid. Worried. No, don't bother denying it, you have a spark, and I can tell this slag because I've seen it all before." Ratchet continued, a bit less sharply. "If you promise, as your… trinemate has done, not to cause harm, then you are /not/ a prisoner, not a captive. Frag it up, and it'll be me you face."

"Oh, I hardly think that you're up to dealing with /me/." Stascream spat. "There is nothing you could possibly do that would compare to what I go through every single orn."

At that, both Ratchet and Thundercracker looked sick.

Starscream backed up into a corner, his wings high and trembling, and he glanced from one to the other and back to the doorway almost wildly. "I don't want to be here. Get me out of here. Let me go, damn you!"

"Starscream!" Thundercracker shouted. "Stop this!" And with that, he opened their bond fully and /shoved/ the truth at him.

Starscream froze in place, feeling all that TC sent…..

/: Together/close/friend/lover/mate/bondmate/what? No it can't be…I never…. :/

/: You did. /We/ did. :/

/: Lies, untruth, Thundercracker please, it hurts too much to keep doing this, you can't be telling the truth, or you'd feel what I felt, live what I lived… :/

/: Scree… I did. :/ Thundercracker's mental tone sounded exhausted.

/: THEN WHY…. :/

/: Because I thought we had no choice. We /do/ have a choice. We can be what Seekers are supposed to be… here with the Prime. The Prime is honorable. He will not do what Megatron did. :/

/: He'll find me hurt me kill me give me to Motormaster again you have to save me help me hide me TC- :/ Starscream shut down the bond as he crawled under one of the tables, hands wrapped around his knees, staring out and wishing he had his weapons.

"Come closer and I'll kill you!" he snarled. He wasn't even sure who he was addressing.

/He's… really bad off./ Ratchet commed Thundercracker. /I should sedate him while I talk to Perceptor and Wheeljack. The programming is likely intensifying his reaction to all this./

/Ratchet… please. I can't listen to this for much longer./ Thundercracker looked like he was about to break, and he didn't want to do that in from of Starscream. Ratchet nodded just once, and he fiddled with a control on his arm. A small drone wheeled itself across the floor, and Starscream whipped his head around to see what had caused the noise. The second his attention wavered, Ratchet dove toward Starscream, deftly injecting the Seeker with a sedative into his still-open medical port. Starscream fell into an undignified heap, and Thundercracker finally relaxed a little.

"Ratch, he's broken." TC said softly.

"The broken are my specialty." The medic said, almost as if it were a challenge. "And I'll be right back."

Thundercracker waited patiently, and as he waited for Ratchet to return, he gently picked Starscream up and placed him back on the medbay berth, adjusting his wings so as to not bend them and weaken the new welds. It didn't take long at all for Ratchet to return, and he had brought company.

Very /large/ company, with two smaller mechs.

The big one stopped dead, something undefinable on his face. "Starscream." He said, his voice soft and gentle.

"Skyfire, I brought you here to help." Ratchet said, not unkindly. He turned to the blue Seeker. "These three have been sworn to secrecy regarding Starscream's condition and why you brought him here. They are aware of Shockwave's…violation, and are willing to try something noninvasive until Starscream is able to consent to the full procedure."

"Messing with core programming is worse than spark rape." The red scientist said quietly. "Wheeljack and I have developed something of a patch to help balance your mate-" At that, Thundercracker's optic ridges shot up, but Perceptor pretended not to notice and continued. "-and possibly allow him to regain enough competency to make decisions for himself. By Autobot… and probably Decepticon.. standards, Starscream is not sane. Do you, Thundercracker, have the authority to make important decisions for your mate?"

Thundercracker wasn't certain that Star would thank him for it in the least, but he had to. "I do." He said softly. "He is mine until the end of days, and our third is…." He couldn't continue.

"Then by all means let's start." Wheeljack said. "Gentlemechs, clear out unless y'r helpin'."

"I will remain." TC said in a tone that brooked no opposition.

The science team bent over Starscream's form with a purpose, and Thundercracker watched it all, hoping against hope.