Chapter 10

The trio of CyberSorcerers bounded into the room. "We won!" They cheered, finally silenced when their father looked at them.

"You do rightly by celebrating, now the Rebellion can prosper" Optimus said. Astra smiled,

"I heard a few taps from the eggs" she said. Soundwave looked at Shannon.

"We should claim them" she said, the parade of organisms following the couple to the nest. Shannon nuzzled each of the four eggs, they glowed after being claimed. Soundwave touched each one carefully. Shannon then found that it was time to contact her sparklings inside. She touched the first and opened a comm link with her mate to let him hear.

'Hello my child' she thought into it.

'~ *static* ~' she heard from it. The parents smiled. She moved to the next egg and nuzzled it.

'Chir-beep' the next thought, Shannon bit her tongue to try not to laugh at the perfect mix of vocals from both species. Soundwave smiled, Shannon looked at him and stared in awe.

The masked mech was no longer masked. The dragoness stared into Soundwave's purple optics, a perfect aura of relaxation and peace. His mouth was curled at either end, clearly amused by her reaction. She looked around to see the seekers and Rebellion Cybertronians were as amazed as her. "Soundwave, how come you never told us that the mask wasn't your face?" Knockout asked. Soundwave kept his gaze on his mate, her form's colours were previously tinted by his dark mask.

"There was no need, but now I know the true beauty that I was missing" he said, Shannon blushed under his loving gaze. She waved her tail, embarrassed by the extra attention. She then turned her focus on the third egg and touched it. 'Hello' she thought to it. She listened hard but heard no reply. She panicked and nuzzled the fourth, no reply from that one either. Soundwave didn't know what to do, his mate was acting strangely, and the Sorcerers held their heads low. Shannon turned into a human and stroked each of the unresponsive eggs. A hand laid on her shoulder, it was Nick Juron cheif medical officer of the D'rachanya. "We've got three experienced doctors, and I would like to think that I'm a specialist in the Sorcerer species" he said. The Sorceress smiled at him. "Bring them to medbay" he continued. Soundwave carefully held two whilst she took the other two. They walked to medbay, the unresponsive eggs were placed on a small human-sized berth. Nick threw a bolt of dark blue magic at the two Cybertronian medics and they shrunk to the size of humans. Knockout quickly got used to his size and stood next to Nick. "Is there something wrong?" He asked. Nick sighed.

"I hope these sparklings are just not responding because they are Shannon's sparklings" he said. Ratchet had a good idea on the situation, Soundwave knelt down to watch them. Shannon shed a tear.

"The Sorcerers are notorious for bearing the occasional egg that doesn't respond, that don't make it to hatching" she said. Ratchet put his servos around her.

"I'm sorry-" he began. Nick nearly knocked him over with his tail when he whipped around.

"I don't give up that easily. Autobot" he almost growled as he scanned the two eggs. "You're just two stubborn sparklings, just like your mother" he whispered to himself. He stroked the shell and felt a bit of warmth. He nodded to Shannon. The Sorceress lifted an egg and held it close. 'Please answer my child' she thought sending waves of emotion into the egg. She waited whilst Soundwave did the same to the other. She joined a telepathic link with the responsive sparklings, the two other eggs and her mate. '~ *stat-* hic ~' one of the sparklings said over the bond.

'Chirp be- *static*' the other said. Shannon listened to them.

'~Hello my sparklings~' Soundwave thought to all four eggs. The first two chirpped happily at finally hearing their father's thoughts. The parents concentrated on the two sparklings who seemed to rouse their siblings. '*chirp*?' she heard a voice lazy with static say. The presence then turned it's attention to the other previously unresponsive egg. '*Beep!*' it shouted, both parents cringed at the loudness of it's vocals.

'*yawn* *static*?' Another voice said. Shannon began crying, a smile growing on her face. She started laughing and the other people in the room were clueless.

"All four are okay. The third was woken with a bit of persuasion. The cringe you saw a minute ago was the third shouting into our minds, it managed to rouse the fourth" she said. Nick hugged her and motioned for Soundwave to shuffle next to them, he did and the Sorcerers pulled him into the embrace.

"Thank you, Doctor" she said.

"Don't mention it Shannon, I'm only doing our race a favour. And the favour of a good friend" he said. Shannon turned into a dragon and opened her pouch. The mechs stared at her. Nick smiled. "Female Sorcerers have pouches that only show when they need to transport substantial clutches" he said. Soundwave lifted a purple/blue egg and Shannon put it in the pouch, the other three were put in. She let her mate guide her to their dorm. He sat her down where she let him take the eggs out and put them in the nest. Shannon curled around the mech, he lowered the luminance of his purple optics. His mask was on the desk and he glanced at it. She then nuzzled her snout against Soundwave's exposed face and kissed his lips. "You know that the sparklings can hear us" she said wrapped around him.

"~The trio are with Optimus outside~" he said.

"No I mean our sparklings, once claimed they are awakened and listen to their parents' voices in order to learn. They will be hatched with half of their life knowledge, with your code in their genetics I'm sure that we'll have very intelligent sparklings on our hands" she said, she felt something hack into her personal comm link.

'~Chirp :)~' a sparkling thought to it's parents. Soundwave felt proud at one of his sparklings hacking systems before it had even hatched.

"How did it transmit a smiley faced emoticon?" She asked the mech. He stroked the culprit egg.

"~My code must have given it some extra language, most likely Unicode~" he said.

"I'm familiar with the concept, our sparklings are going to be a handful" she said, an audible chirp was heard from an egg. Shannon curled around the nest. She nudged the tapping egg. She nudged it again to beckon it to tap harder. She saw a small beam of Blue Fire slit a crack in the shell. Then a blue and purple striped feeler emerged, cracking the shell to one side with micro tweezers that had protruded out of it. The parents watched it roll the egg a few times before bursting out. It was faceless, but then Shannon remembered that Soundwave only wore the mask. It didn't have wings, but they assumed that because it's front legs resembled Soundwave's arms, it would use them for flight. The sparkling jumped around. "He looks just like his father" Shannon said nuzzling the newborn. She inspected it; mostly a metal finish that was blue with purple swirls and patterns. It clawed off it's dark mask and revealed it's face; it had bright blue biological eyes. Shannon raised an eye ridge at the mechanical mask hiding an organic face. The sparkling put the mask back on and turned its attention to the second egg. It tapped on the shell, earning a high pitched growl in return. The second was chipping away at the shell for a while with its nose horn. It poked its head out of the shell and smiled at her parents. Soundwave bent down near the sparkling and inspected his femmeling. She was purple with some blue markings, she had a mostly biological head apart from a visor. Her wings were mechanical and so was most of her tail.

"I suspect that the other two are late hatchers-" Shannon began, just before the third egg exploded open. The mother shielded the two newborns from pieces of shell. The third hatching was a mechling, he was light blue and had purple wings. He was mostly biological, apart from his back half including the top half of his wings. The parents smiled at the peculiar hatching and Soundwave stroked the fourth egg. It rolled in a circle, due to the shape of Sorcerer eggs, until the smaller femmeling slid out of her egg. She was almost half and half like her brother, but was quad coloured. She was blue, purple, red and silver. Shannon held her head down and let the child nuzzle her mother's snout. "Sounds, you partially overrode the code for this femme. She is hatched as the product of non-consensual breeding" she said, her mate turned around and frowned at the guest at the door.

"~Starscream~" he said. Shannon looked at the femme, she was the result of a Sorceress and two mechs. The child watched Starscream, half her sire, and trotted over to him. The dragoness sighed. "Starscream, she was created by the three of us. She wishes for you to hold her" she said.

"But she is yours and Soundwaves child. I regret it" the seeker said. He stared at the sparkling at his pedes and lifted her up gently. This was the result of his power hungry nature, and the sparkling in his arms fell asleep next to his spark. "She is the daughter of the three of us" Shannon said.

"But. I'm sorry. She should have been yours. She's-" Starscream began. Shannon walked over to the red and silver seeker. She reared up and cuddled up against her femmeling and the seeker.

"Starscream, every birth counts. Both of our races are on the edge of extinction, with the war over we can all focus on sustaining a prosperous future. You should think about carrying yourself, there have been CyberSorcerer births excluding the ones I have bared" she said, "Soundwave and I will need an extra mech to raise these troublemakers." The seeker raised an optic ridge at the three other sparklings around Soundwave's pedes.

"~This one here~" Soundwave started motioning to the blue sparkling that had his front servos, "~hacked into mine and Shannon's personal comm link before he hatched.~"

"With a smiley faced emoticon" Shannon added.

The blue and red prime watched the normally silent mech walk along with his dragoness, with their four recently hatched sparklings. He vented deeply at the sight, and looked to his pedes where his trio of children sat; he narrowed his optics at the mech. You think that you have her… I have grown children to prove that I still have her he thought. The blue dragoness shot a frown at Optimus for she had heard his thoughts.

I am nobody's possession; I thought that you knew that she thought to him. The dark mech had his facial mask on, expression gone, and he watched the four young sparklings grow uneasy at the tension between the mechs. Even Optimus' own children, being juveniles, still stood uneasily and watched their half-siblings. Of course, they would be protective. Shannon flicked her tail and stood in front of Soundwave, the mech knelt down so that his vulnerable new-borns would be able to climb onto him for protection. The quad-coloured child backed off. Optimus raised an optic ridge at this femmeling. She was blue and purple, from her parents, but was also red and silver. He moved towards her, the dragoness watching his every move. He bent down and inspected the sparkling; she had the code of her carrier and Soundwave, but also of another mech. He extended his digits to touch her when he heard heavy pedes behind him. His turned his helm and saw the head Decepticon, the seeker Starscream, vent threateningly. "It seems that you have crossed the line Prime," he said. The Autobot leader stood up and smiled.

"And what line would that be" he said smugly, at the back of his processor he tried to figure out why the seeker had the nerve to take on a prime. Starscream furrowed his optic ridges and his wings twitched. "That line is getting too close to the femmeling" the 'con said. Shannon sat by eager to watch this argument.

"And why would you bother about her wellbeing" Optimus said, getting closer to the femmeling. She squeaked and ran into Starscream's servos.

"Prime, the elder" he said glancing to Rodimus who stood amongst the gathered crowd, "I care of her wellbeing because I am half her sire."

The prime then scowled at the small sparkling in the seeker's servos. The sparkling was covered in darkness and her Shadow Dragon pounced on Optimus' helm. Shannon shot a cloud of Dragon Dust at the mech and attacking Shadow sparkling, they fell to the floor unconscious. "Starscream, her name requires 'Shadow' as per her actions" she said. Soundwave looked at the blue mechling on his shoulder that wore a face mask, "~I think that you should have 'hack' in your designation~" he said. Shannon smiled and nuzzled said mechling.

"You shall be named 'Soundhack'" she said. She smiled at the mechling who had literally exploded out of its egg. "Sounds, his name should include 'blast' for the explosion you made earlier" she continued. Soundwave removed his mask.

"~Wingblast~" he said smiling. He looked at the remaining femmeling, the second born and the femme with a visor. "~Designation requires 'light' or 'slide'~"

"My little Lightning" she replied humming to the femmeling. Starscream smiled.

"Lightning, Soundhack, Wingblast and Shadow. Four lovely little CyberSorcerers" he said.