WOW! I can believe how many reviews I've gotten on this story!
112 reviews total! You all who enjoy reading this and left those wonderful reviews, You all are AWESOME!
Okay, I've blabbed long enough. on with the story!
Autumn's P.O.V:
I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I have seen Starscream beaten up before from his energon hunts but that was usually only a few cuts and burns; never as extreme as this. Dents covered his chassis, cuts deep enough to slip my forearm in them, his left optic was completely white while his right was just an offline blackness and his wings were bent but his right wing was so bad that its tip was touching his back.
Starscream's breathing had a hiss to it and every time he exhaled it was laced with a groan. "Starscream, what happened to you?!" placing my hands on his cheek I watched as the black optic moved to look at me (the white one might have moved but I couldn't tell).
"… T-the Wrecker…" Starscream's voice was filled with static; so much that I barely got what he said. As my tears trickled down my face, I took notice on the energon sliding over my hands from a cut on Starscream's cheek. But I could care less about the bleeding liquid.
"Autumn, what's the matter?!" I could hear Optimus' voice coming down the hall but what I heard next made me turn around to stop Optimus from coming in. "Sire, what's wrong with Carrier?" Starshadow, my little sparkling was coming with Optimus. Starshadow didn't need to see something like this so I quickly ran out of the cell and stood in the middle of the hall to stop Optimus from bringing him in.
"Optimus don't bring Starshadow in there!" once I saw Optimus just a few feet away from the door, I saw Starshadow sitting on his shoulder leaning over with worried optics. But it wasn't just my little sparkling's optics who looked at me worryingly.
Optimus, Ratchet, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Jack and his mother were all looking at me, or more like they were looking at my energon covered hands and sleeves. "Primus! She has energon on her hands." Ratchet shouted in concern, if that was even possible, and turned to Bumblebee. "Bumblebee take her into the med-bay and wash off the energon quickly!"
Bumblebee didn't think twice as he stepped forward and scooped me up. "Don't worry about me; Help Starscream he's the one who needs it! Optimus Please help him!" I shouted as Bumblebee carried me off.
The last look I saw on Optimus was pure shock and the look on Starshadow was nothing more than that he was terrified. Starshadow shouted out for me once I was out of view and I could hear Optimus trying to calm him down.
Once Bumblebee brought me to the med-bay, he placed me down on a table and rush off to a cabinet looking for something. Once he found what he was looking for, Bumblebee ran back over to me and gently but vigorously began to rub away the energon with a black cloth.
Bumblebee than beeped something at me as he tossed the rag away and he rushed off to another cabinet looking for something else. "BeeBee I don't understand you; what are you looking for?" I asked as Bumblebee quickly came over with a small box, well small for him it was a little taller than me, and placed it next to me.
Bumblebee beeped quickly as he pointed to the box. I stared at it and I repeated to Bumblebee, "BeeBee. I. Do. Not. Understand. YOU." I sounded a little harsh but I was worried about Starscream so I figured I had the right.
Bumblebee shook his head and opened the box and pulled out a small scanner and began to scan my body. The light was not blue like Ratchet's was but this one was purple and it stayed purple as it traveled up and down my body. Bumblebee gave off a puzzled beep, from what I could make out, and placed the scanner back in the box.
As he placed the box back where he found it, he came back and this time he had what looked like a glass robot sized notepad. Bumblebee typed something on it and turned it for me to see. 'Are you in pain?' it had on it and I finally out what Bumblebee was doing.
"No, I feel fine." I said calmly. Bumblebee nodded and typed something else on the notepad. 'No dizziness? No blurry images?' I shook my head. "No, BeeBee I'm fine. What I'm more worried about is Starscream." Bumblebee stood there a moment without moving and then typed something new on the pad.
'I have to tell Ratchet about this. I'll take you to the couch so you can wait with Nurse Darby.' I nodded and stood up. "Alright BeeBee, but you have to ask Ratchet for me what happened to Starscream." Bumblebee nodded and quickly typed once more. 'I will. And don't call me BeeBee.'
I smiled and only shook my head. "Whatever you 'say' BeeBee." I teased and it only caused Bumblebee to beep in annoyance. Lifting me off the table Bumblebee walked out of the med-bay and placed me near the couch where Jack and his mom, Nurse Darby, were waiting.
Once I was out of his hand Bumblebee ran down the hall to go help the others. Turning to Jack and his mom, I saw the worried looks on them and it caused me to wonder what their deal was. "Something wrong?" I asked. "You okay? You had a lot of energon on you." Jack asked as his mom pulled me to the couch and made me sit down as she looked me over.
"I'm fine; I'm more concerned about Starscream than anything." I stated as June pushed her fingers on my neck. "You pulse is normal and your eyes don't seem glossy." As June placed her hand against my forehead, I began to wonder if she had done this kind of checkup before. "And you're not running a fever. This is strange."
"What's strange?" I asked. "The last time one of us had gotten in contact with energon, it nearly killed us." Jack said as he took a seat next to me. I looked at the both of them in confusion, "You're not serious are you? I've been in contact with energon countless times and it's never caused me any problems." The looks on both Jack and his mom's face told me that they were being serious.
"That's… that's impossible. Raf nearly died when he had energon running through him." June said as she took a seat on my other side. "Raf?" I asked; hearing that little Raf had gotten hurt made my already worried heart jump when I heard that he was almost killed. I had taken a liking to Raf, he reminded me of my little brother a little and I didn't like to see him hurt either.
Before any of them could answer me, I caught the image of Ratchet walking down the hall and in his arms was a limp Starscream. Jumping up from the couch, I rushed over to the railing and watched as Ratchet carried Starscream into the med-bay.
Not too soon after Ratchet came Bulkhead, Bumblebee, and Optimus. As Bulkhead and Bumblebee stood near the med-bay doors, Optimus came over and I saw that he had his hands cupped over his chest. Once he was next to the railing Optimus opened his hands and I saw a startled Starshadow waiting in the hold.
"I made sure he didn't see the incident." Optimus voice was soft and I could hear the care in it as he set Starshadow next to me. "Thank you. Is Starscream going to be okay?" I asked as I pulled Starshadow close and he dug his head into my chest.
"Ratchet is working on stabilizing him but he should be alright." Optimus sounded like he was unsure and that didn't help my nerves any.
"I say let the 'Screamer offline. He's done enough harm to fill a canyon; he deserves worse." Bulkhead said aloud and it caused my eyes to fill with angry tears. "Shut Up! Starscream doesn't deserve this; how dare you say he does!"
Bulkhead looked over at me with hated optics, "He nearly killed you today and you're still defending him? Arcee was right; you are suicidal!" Bulkhead shouted and looked ready to say more but Bumblebee placed a servo on his shoulder and beeped something in an angry tone and it shut him up.
"Carrier didn't mean it! It was an accident; Carrier would never mean to hurt Sire!" Starshadow barked out as he pushed away from my hold. You could see the tears running down his face and the anger in his optics showed that he was not happy to hear someone talk bad about Starscream.
"Autumn, is what Starshadow say true?" Optimus asked and I nodded. "It… it was only supposed to be a joke. We've done it a dozen of times and we never hurt anyone." I explained slowly; knowing that no one here was going to like where I was going with this.
"What have you done before?" June asked as she stood up with Jack. Everyone's eyes/optics were on me and Starshadow, waiting for an answer. "I don't like that we have to this but what else were we going to do?… This wasn't the first time Starscream and I have done this 'act' before."
The tension in the room quickly grew as everyone looked at me with mixed emotions. After a few seconds with silence Jack decided to end it. "You mean you and Starscream are the K.O Hostage couple?" everyone turned to Jack than me and I slowly nodded.
"The K.O who now?" Bulkhead asked a little stupidly. "Starscream and I steal from places; mostly K.O drive ins and that's the title the news gave us a year ago." Everyone looked at me in shock and I only looked down at the floor; I never enjoyed having so many people looking at me.
"So you two are thieves? That is a real good example for the little one to follow." Bulkhead said sarcastically and I was just about to blow a fuse at him soon if he didn't shut up. "We tell him what we do is wrong, he knows that, but what else were we going to do?! We couldn't stay in one place for too long because of the energon limits and we need the money."
I tried to explain but the looks I got told me that they weren't believing me. "What use does Starscream have with money? It's not him who needs it, it's you!" Jack said but his mom slapped him behind the head making him shout out in pain.
I was about to say something to them but at the sound of the med-bay doors opening I snapped my head to see Ratchet stepping out with an annoyed look. "How's Starscream?" Optimus asked before I could and Ratchet just shrugged. "I got him stabilized. He should be alright later on."
At hearing the sound of Starscream being alright, I let out a sigh but then I remembered something. "Who here is the Wrecker?" I asked randomly and the Autobots looked at me in shock. "Where'd you hear that?" Bulkhead asked and I couldn't help but see the worried looks he shared with Ratchet with Bumblebee.
"Starscream told me that the one who did this to him was called a Wrecker. Now who here is the Wrecker?" I asked again, now losing my patience. Optimus looked over at Bulkhead and I didn't need an answer after seeing the look Optimus gave.
Bumblebee beeped quickly to Optimus and the looks on Ratchet and Bulkhead gave me the idea that he was spilling the beans. "Bumblebee!" they both shouted but I guess it was too late at the way Optimus walked over to the three.
"Bulkhead under the orders I gave Ratchet I told that Starscream not be harmed." Optimus tried to sound his normal monotone self but I could sense the anger in it. "It was the only way we were able to get Autumn's position Optimus; it had to be done." Ratchet said in a matter-of-factly voice; trying to make what had happen reasonable.
"You all did this to Starscream?!" I shouted and I ran down the steps two at a time. Bumblebee beeped quickly raising his hands up and waved them around; I don't know how but the way Bumblebee acted told me that he had to physical part in this.
"I would have done worse if Bumblebee here didn't stop me." Bulkhead shouted and stepped closer to me as I did him.
"Bulkhead stop, she's only a human. Even if she's a horrible excuse for one, you can do deadly damage to her." Ratchet snarled and I couldn't help but snarl back at him. Once I was near Bulkhead foot, I could feel my anger grow and I felt a sudden heat cover my body and if I was looking in a mirror I bet my eyes would be glowing red.
"You're all a bunch of glitched Aft-heads! How Starscream ever thought you all would be any help to us is beyond me! You know before I met you all, Starscream and I were living a nice happy life but now all were getting is the short end of the stick. Besides Optimus, all of you are definitely going to the pit!"
My shouting grew with each word and I barely noticed that the sudden warmth I was feeling around my body slowly began to rise. Raising my hand into the air, I slapped it against Bulkheads leg with an extremely loud bang and to my surprise he let out a painful girlish scream.
"Sire No!" Starscream shouted from top of the railed area and quickly rushed down to me. Once Starshadow reached me he pulled me away from Bulkhead and pulled me into a tight hug while whispering to me, "Clam down, Clam down, Clam down,"
As Starshadow repeated this, I soon found my body becoming very cold and I nearly fell to the floor at the sudden loss of balance. Looking over at Bulkhead, I saw that he was now leaning against the wall and the leg I had hit him had a huge black mark on it.
Before I could even think I was pulling Starshadow into the med-bay to hide from this chaos.
Once we were in the med-bay, I saw Starscream up on a bed with many different cables coming out of him. To best describe him, he looked like he had three or four octopuses attached to him. As we walked closer to him, I saw that one cable was touching the floor and it went all the way to Starscream's chest.
"Climb on Starshadow." I said as I took hold of the cable. Once Starshadow was clinging to my back, I somehow managed to get us up the cable to where Starscream lay resting on the bed.
Walking over to his chest, both Starshadow and I laid down and just stayed there. This was our only way of comforting Starscream at this point so we just laid there still as could be.
After a while Starshadow soon fell asleep in my arms and I looked up at Starscream's emotionless face. "What's wrong with me?" I asked as I finally fell into a deep concerned sleep.
OoOoOoOoOo
No P.O.V:
To say that Optimus was mad was an understatement; he was downright furious to the Pit and All Spark and back again. He knew that his team never favored the seeker but considering the situation surrounding Starscream with the human and sparkling, he had hoped that they would put their hatred aside.
But from what he just witnessed, sad to say that he was wrong.
As Optimus watched Ratchet and Bumblebee help Bulkhead to a berth they had out, he noticed how Bulkhead's leg had a large black mark that looked almost like a burn mark. But Optimus knew that this wasn't what he needed to have his attention on.
"What happened?" Optimus asked but as Ratchet scanned over Bulkhead's leg, he was ignored as Ratchet's expression became concerned.
"Primus. The wiring been burned completely; it's a wonder how you're still walking Bulkhead." Ratchet said as he stood up to go get some medical tools to fix Bulkhead's leg but was stopped when Optimus raised a servo at him.
"What happened when I was not in the base?" Optimus asked sternly and from the looks on both Ratchet and Bulkhead he wasn't going to enjoy the answer.
"Starscream wasn't talking Optimus; if I didn't do something who knows what he could have done to that little glitch." Bulkhead answered and now he started to think if he should have even worried about helping Autumn.
"Starscream was talking Bulkhead! You just didn't want to wait to see if anything he was saying was useful." Bumblebee shouted at Bulkhead, who looked ready to smack the yellow Autobot across the room.
"What was Starscream saying?" Optimus asked, trying to get any information from this mad conversation. "Nothing of importance Optimus. He was just saying 'I hurt her' over and over again." Ratchet explained.
Optimus didn't know what to believe; first he finds out that Starscream and Autumn were thieves and now he finds his own team disobeying orders. Today was just filled with lies and rule braking.
"But he was also crying, Ratchet. he looked pretty hurt before Bulkhead even laid a digit on him." Bumblebee stated as he walked away from both Ratchet and Bulkhead; he couldn't believe that his team was acting like this.
"Maybe the gilt was finally getting to him? Whatever the reason I still say he deserved all of it." Bulkhead said as Ratchet finally got onto repairing his leg. Optimus took his optics away from the three other Mechs and saw what time it was.
"Bumblebee, would you go pick up Miko and Rafael? And inform Arcee that Jack is already here." Bumblebee nodded and began to walk over towards the exit. "Why is 'Bee going to go pick up Miko? Once Ratchet fixes my leg I can go get her." Bulkhead asked, also taking in the time and seeing it was about time to go pick Miko up from detention.
"Unfortunately Bulkhead you will be unable to pick Miko up for some time now. You will be on base hold for the next two earth weeks." Bulkhead looked at Optimus with shock, "You can't be serious Optimus?" Optimus only shook his head, "I am sorry Bulkhead but this will be your punishment for acting out of turn. I ordered that no one harm Starscream and you broke it."
Bulkhead looked down to the floor with anger in his optics and Ratchet could only give a quick smile before Optimus spoke to him next. "As for you Ratchet; you were the one I passed the order to and you allowed Bulkhead to commit the act so I am placing you in constant watch over Starscream."
Now it was Ratchet's turn to look up at Optimus in shock. "Optimus really. I already have Starscream hooked up to the self-repair cables and he-" "You will watch over his condition until he has fully recuperated. And you are forbidden to work or have your time spent on something else."
Optimus turned away from the remaining Autobots and looked over at the two humans who just stood there silently. "June, did you get a look over Autumn's condition?" Optimus asked. "She seemed fine but I only managed to give a quick look over before this all started." June spoke with a hint of worry in it.
"Optimus you say what happened when Autumn hit Bulkhead, what do you think that was?" Jack asked and Optimus could only shake his head. "I do not know Jack. What happened is a mystery to me." Optimus looked over Ratchet as he finally finished repairing Bulkhead leg.
"If I had to take a guess, I say that the energon might had to do something with it. She could have had some of the energon still on her when she hit Bulkhead." Ratchet thought aloud. "Possibly but we will have to speak with Autumn to make sure." Optimus said as he walked over to the med-bay doors.
As he stepped inside, he found Autumn and Starshadow laying on Starscream's chest plating just above his Decepticon symbol. For a moment Optimus just stood there in silence but when he heard the soft sound of sobs he walked in and closed the door behind him.
Walking over to the larger seeker, Optimus saw that the sobs were coming from the smaller black and red seeker. "Starshadow." Optimus spoke softly but it still caused the youngling to gasps out in surprise.
Starshadow looked up at the Prime and Optimus saw the large stream of tears traveling down his face. "It is alright Starshadow; I am not hear to harm you." Optimus reassured the seekerling but the way Starshadow gripped Autumn and ran his other servo over Starscream's chassis he knew that he wasn't worried about himself.
"And I am not here to harm them either." At hearing this from the Prime, Starshadow loosened his grip on his sire and pulled his servo back away from his carrier. "Why are you crying little one?" Optimus asked as he stepped closer to the berth.
"Carrier is hurt badly on the outside and Sire is hurting on the inside; I don't like to see them hurt Optimus." Starshadow's voice squeaked as more tears flowed out. Optimus knew that Starshadow was still considered a youngling in Cybertronian age but the way he spoke made him think he was smarter than he looked.
"Your bond with your carrier is strong if you're able to feel Starscream's pain young one." Optimus knew that the bond between a young one and their creator was different each and every Cybertronian; one might be weak while one can be as strong as the one he was seeing with Starshadow and Starscream.
"Not just Carrier; I can feel Sire's pain also. Sire's pain is different than that of Carrier's. Sire cry in her sleep." Optimus was a little confused at what Starshadow said. Autumn was human and that meant she had no spark to bond with Starshadow so how was it that Starshadow was feeling Autumn's pain.
Looking down at Autumn Optimus saw that Starshadow was also right on her crying in her sleep. Autumn had her own trail of tears crawling down her face and her eyes behind her eyelids were moving back and forth quickly in a crazed dream.
"Starshadow, I promise that I will make sure that no more harm will come to your creator and Autumn. You have my word." Starshadow looked up at Optimus and he nodded with trusting eyes. Stepping away from Autumn, Starshadow walked over towards the Prime and held out his arms to him.
Optimus understood that the youngling wanted to be held and lifted him up to where he was next to his neck cables. Starshadow wrapped his pointed servos around the Primes neck and began to sob quietly. "What do the others hate Carrier? We did nothing wrong while here and yet they still hate him."
Optimus smiled quickly at how Starshadow was so innocent and so empty to the war that was going on around him. "Things are complicated Starshadow; there are things that went on long before you born." Optimus explained to the young seeker and Starshadow nodded in understanding.
"You have had an adventurous morning little one, you will need some rest. I will take you and Aut- your sire into my room to stay. Ratchet will be in here to watch over your carrier." Optimus pulled Starshadow away and saw smile on his face. He knew that the youngling trusted him better than the rest of his team and he knew that if he wanted that trust to grow he needed to show that he wouldn't treat Autumn like the rest were.
No matter what Autumn did she was still Starshadow's sire in his eyes and she meant a lot to the small seeker. As Optimus lifted Autumn up from Starscream's chest into his servo, he allowed Starshadow to crawl down next to her and he left the med-bay.
As he came out, Optimus became the main focus in everyone optics; or more likely the ones in his servos. As Optimus walked past the others he saw how they looked at Autumn with untrusting looks.
4,100 words, WOW! Another long CHPTR done.
Hope you could tolerate this one because I think this is not one of my best. :(
Review please, but with KIND words. :)