"Do you like him?" Starscream asks, while nudging a feeding line toward the seekerling in Ratchet's servo.
The seekerling eagerly latches onto the offered fuel, while curiously studying the unknown seeker holding it. The red and white submissive with its deformed frame is a mystery, but the seekerling senses the importance this seeker holds through the bond with its carrier. It isn't a carrier, but more like a carra to its own carrier
"What do you mean?" Ratchet asks with a frown. He gently nuzzles the seekerling's translucent wings, which earns him a content purr.
"You're constantly casting him glances. Your wings are sending him signals that indicate interest," Starscream points out with a smirk and looks towards where Thundercracker is perched against a large boulder, watching them.
The dominant senses the attention and flutters his large wings in a flirting display, and Starscream answers the underlying message with a tantalizing display of his own wings, telling Thundercracker that he is willing.
A little more time, a few more displays, and Starscream knows that Thundercracker is going to claim one of them.
He loves to see his dominant in a blaze of fiery arousal, and it doesn't matter if it is going to be Skywarp or himself that will be the target of the lust rising in Thundercracker. It is a thrill of its own, awakening such intense feelings of lust in the Winglord.
Skywarp fills the bond with agreement, and Starscream turns to smile at him, aware that his obvious disregard of Thundercracker is going to cause the dominant to snap sooner rather than later.
"Maybe," Ratchet answers reluctantly. He has to admit that something inside him yearns to respond to Thundercracker's display, but he doesn't, because that is his creation's mate and thus in his mind off-limits, even if he is sparked up by the dominant.
Lingering on that thought, he realizes there is something he needs to ask.
"It doesn't bother you that he sparked me?" he asks, while affectionately rubbing at his chestplates and staring at Thundercracker's blatant display.
"He is the Winglord," Starscream answers matter-of-factly, as if it explains everything. And it would, if Ratchet had been as educated in seekers as Starscream now is after living almost a stellar cycle among his people.
Finally, Thundercracker rises. Starscream trills a small encouraging tune as the dominant, with wings held high and proud to show off his assets, walks towards them, his yellow optics smoldering with intent.
"He is the epitome of our people, and as such he donates his coding to the trines without a dominant. He is our mate, but he isn't exclusively ours on that matter. We need him to spread his coding to strengthen our species," Starscream explains as Skywarp is forced onto his back and mounted. Thundercracker's spike extends and drips with copious prefluids, showing how utterly they have succeeded in arousing their mate.
Skywarp keens when Thundercracker penetrates him, and Ratchet looks away, too ashamed to look at the display. Instead, he returns his attention to the seekerling in his servo and resumes nuzzling the tiny translucent wings.
"It is just like you. I can't believe you were this small," He states, desperate to change the topic and not pay attention to the mating going on right over there!
Starscream smiles knowingly, but allows Ratchet this small peace of mind.
He has been there himself, but is firmly cured of his bashfulness. You simply can't hold onto it when so much in their society centers on reproduction and dominant displays, interfacing being one of the most common.
"We have all been this small, even Thundercracker. Then we grow up and aren't so small anymore," Starscream points out, remembering Thundercracker's words when he had been introduced to Skywarp's little one at their first real meeting, the one that almost went so awfully wrong between them.
"I still can't believe that this is real," Ratchet whispers, awestruck, as he looks from the seekerling to the rutting dominant and compares the crazy size difference. It makes him wonder how big his own newspark is going to be, and for how long he will be carrying.
There is so little he knows about the seekers, and turning into one doesn't just provide him with all the answers.
"I now understand better what you saw in him," he murmurs, turning to glance at Starscream again. Thundercracker is speaking to his inner-most feelings, and he isn't sure how much of it is from the fact that the blue seeker is a powerful dominant, the Winglord, or Sire to the newspark developing inside him.
Coding, he has to remember.
The seekers are ruthlessly ruled by it, as he learned when Starscream at first refused the trine-coding.
How will it affect himself?
Is he going to have a trine someday?
Who will his dominant be?
His thoughts are disturbed by the sudden sound of keening protests. Skywarp is clearly approaching overload if the tiny whining noises coming from him are anything to go by, but Thundercracker has stopped moving, and looks up from where he is nibbling at the energon lines in the black and purple seeker's neck, his yellow optics critically scanning their surroundings.
The next moment Thundercracker withdraws from Skywarp, and Ratchet is unable to take his optics off of the spike and the lubricants clinging to it. He suppresses an involuntary shudder at the sight and notices how it retracts behind its cover, still fully erect. The movement is slow, as if it is extremely painful, but Thundercracker doesn't show any sign of discomfort.
/Thundercracker?/ Starscream asks warily, following Thundercracker's gaze as the dominant scans their surroundings.
/Listen,/ Thundercracker answers curtly, not taking his optics off of their surroundings, as if he expects an attack any moment.
That is when Starscream becomes aware of the sound that has entered their surroundings.
A klaxon.
One he recognizes.
The one belonging to the medbay.
He turns towards Ratchet with narrow optics, hiding the rising panic in his spark.
"You didn't tell anyone that you left?" he asks.
"What? No! What would they have thought at the sight of this?!" Ratchet gestures down his frame, "Wasn't like I was coherent enough to think about it, either," he adds with a solemn mutter.
"Well, it looks like they've discovered that you are missing. The medbay klaxon is active. I guess First Aid got the shock of a lifetime when he realized you were missing," Starscream explains with a sigh, unaware of the telling signs of Thundercracker's claws on the keypad beside the malfunctioning door into the medbay, or the shredded door into the antechamber, leading the Autobots into an all-out panic at the evidence and unmistakable identity of the attacker.
Thundercracker is also unaware of this, as he rises to stand protectively in front of the three submissives.
He just senses a threat from the sound of the klaxon, associating it with previous experiences of similar sounds. His knowledgebase isn't large, the sound alien, but every time he has heard it, something has happened.
The sound of movement draws his attention to the crack in the ground, and with a growl slowly growing in volume, he flares his wings to their full height and width, doubling his apparent size to look more intimidating and threatening to the incoming presences.
It is this sight that greets the Autobots emerging from the crack, and when they are faced with the Winglord's impressive and threatening display, the misunderstanding just worsens.
The Autobots already have weapons ready to attack, and the display just careens them over the edge. Thinking that they are avenging their dead CMO and protecting themselves from a murderous seeker, they unleash the first volley of attacks onto the Winglord.
The full force of Ironhide's dual cannons is the first to slam into the large frame, hitting dead center in Thundercracker's chest, forcing him to stagger and take a step back to support his frame against the power of the onslaught.
The next volley is armor-penetrating bullets, the projectiles pinging in rivulets against his dense armor plating. The continued salvos connect with the weakened spots and leave dents, cracking the surface with their continued onslaught until he turns his back to them and faces them with the resilient back of his wings.
Another blast from Ironhide's cannons causes him to collapse to the ground, kneeling and trying to remain stable. He roars through the searing pain from his wings as the potent energy is absorbed into his frame.
It might not damage him that much, but his sensors are screaming their pain to him, and his wings tremble under the continued bullet attack.
He is distantly aware of Starscream screaming something, but he is so focused on his processor that he can't sense Skywarp's or Starscream's whereabouts, and he can feel how the uncertainty fiercely stirs his awakening protective coding.
He can't let it activate.
He can't!
He is going to slaughter the very beings he has vowed to protect if it does.
Then he senses Starscream at his back and he dares to glance over his shoulder to see what the submissive is doing.
He shouldn't be there!
Thundercracker, with his stronger frame, can take the onslaught, Starscream can't.
/Go! Get away from here, Starscream!/ he growls, voice strained by pain.
Starscream ignores the order, defiantly standing in front of his dominant as a shield, and Thundercracker watches incredulously as Starscream spreads his arms wide, baring the most vulnerable areas on his frame to the incoming attack as if thinking he will be able to deflect the onslaught of the attacks by his sheer presence alone.
A few of the attacks hit home, almost dead center in Starscream's chest, and Thundercracker can feel a faint surge of pain in his spark as Starscream takes damage, but he can't do anything for his submissive if he is to prevent himself from passing over the deadly edge and allowing himself to be controlled by the coding.
/Get out of there,/ he grits out through the pain in his frame, trembling violently. It is becoming harder and harder to keep himself in check.
/No!/ Starscream answers, stubbornly taking another hit for his dominant, this time to his wings.
But then it stops.
Sky Above, it stops.
And suffocating silence rings in the aftermath.
The sound of a frame collapsing to the ground is almost deafening in the silence, and Thundercracker turns around to see Starscream curling in on himself in a pool of his own energon, his wings trembling with obvious pain. Their vulnerable surface is covered in countless tiny wounds.
::Starscream…?:: he asks, voice full of deep worry. His immediate fear drowns out the coding and allows him a moment's pause as he tries to get any answer from his tricolored mate.
::I'm… going to be… okay. Just go! Burn it off. They didn't want to hurt me – any of us – not truly. We will be okay. Right now you are the greatest danger to us. Go! Sort it out in the sky. Just…don't unleash your rage on them,:: Starscream answers, whimpering slightly when he moves to look up at Thundercracker. Energon bleeds from a wound at his right temple and drips down into his optics coloring their sparkling yellow a dull brown.
Skywarp rematerializes a safe distance away from them and stares warily at the Autobots before turning his attention to Thundercracker, his wings twitching nervously. It is obvious that he itches to tend to Starscream's injuries, but is hesitant as long as Thundercracker remains within reach of any of them, and Thundercracker knows that Skywarp is waiting for the reaction he knows is going to come from the dominant's protective coding.
::It's okay, Sky,:: Thundercracker tries to soothe, before kneeling beside Starscream and caressing the trembling white wings. The tricolored submissive whimpers in pain at the touch, and Thundercracker can feel the inevitable happen. Finally giving in to the protective coding, he rises and nods to Skywarp, before he launches rapidly into the air and blasts away at high speed, his engines a deafening roar.
The Autobots cower at the sound and feeling of the devastating sonic boom Thundercracker unleashes as he flies away, but Skywarp and Starscream stare, relieved, at the departing figure of their dominant.
Then Starscream begins to cough and Skywarp diverts his attention back to him, running to where he is curled into a ball on the ground and instantly begins to assess the extent of damage done to Starscream's frame.
/Frag it, Starscream. Why did you have to do this?/ Skywarp growls, noticing the wound at the shoulder joint where the plating has been stripped almost completely to reveal the circuitry beneath. If that hit had been dead on… He shudders at the thought of how fatal the wound could have been, and is thankful that Thundercracker didn't see it. If he had, then nothing Starscream could say or do would have saved the grounders from their fate.
/I couldn't let him kill them. I wanted them to stop,/ Starscream answers, wincing when Skywarp digs claws into the wound and begins to open it so that he can work with the nanites properly.
/He didn't kill them. I have never seen him manage to suppress the protective coding and the crazed madness it causes. It makes me wonder what is going on./ Skywarp muses thoughtfully, coughing up the nanites and beginning his work on the wound.
/I want to know why the Autobots panicked like this,/ Starscream contemplates, lifting his helm to look at the group of Autobots standing a distance away. Optimus is nowhere to be seen and he frowns. /Where did you take Ratchet by the way?/ he asks, his attention returning to Skywarp.
/Up there./ Skywarp gestures with his helm to the volcano, where Starscream can just barely discern the red and white color scheme of his creator. /I will take you up there when I am done with you. He is still pretty freaked out and I couldn't get him to calm down,/ Skywarp adds in apology before returning his full attention to Starscream's wounds again.
Starscream rises from the ground a few breems later when Skywarp has done what he can to the wounds, and he turns to face the Autobots with a rare expression of fury.
"Do you even know what you have done with your utter stupidity!?" he roars, thoroughly enraged.
Optimus choses that moment to emerge from the crack, a scowling Sunstreaker following. The Autobot leader remains silent in the back of the group, not drawing any attention to his arrival. Instead he stares at Starscream, apology clear in his blue optics; the attack hadn't been sanctioned by him.
Sunstreaker remains beside the Prime, scowling menacingly as he crosses his arms over his chest and glares around at his comrades while Starscream continues ranting, telling them how foolish their actions had been and how suicidal they must be to attack Thundercracker.
The yellow frontliner knows that Thundercracker never would hurt Ratchet. He saved Sideswipe, and that is enough for Sunstreaker to change his attitude towards the Winglord.
"Right now, he is up there burning off coding that would otherwise have forced him to slaughter you all for this foolish endeavor. I have never before seen any dominant manage to suppress it like he did, so he truly didn't want any hurt to come to you, even if you attacked him and threatened Skywarp, Ratchet and me by doing so. It is completely unheard of! You should by all means be dead right now!" Starscream finishes, yelling, and the intensity of his words are intensified by the tears falling from his optics at the thought of them all dying because of their foolishness.
It is an unbearable thought, and he sags when Skywarp hugs him before teleporting them away, leaving the stunned Autobots alone to think about their actions.
"Ratchet?" First Aid mutters, stunned, optics glazed over as he stares at the purple mist where Starscream had been just a moment before.
A special thank you to T'Reilani for betaing this chapter.