Fallen Angels

Academy

Prowl should have known Star would never have gone for his story. He really should have. That didn't stop him from telling it, however.

Star crossed his arms over his chassis. He stood in front of Prowl's berth. Prowl merely sat there and stared at him – he didn't have the energy to stand up at the moment since most of it was feeding his self-repair systems – while TC and Warp were on TC's berth, watching everything from the top bunk. Star glared hard at Prowl. "Tell me what happened." he demanded.

"I already told you." Prowl said wearily. "I ran into one of the – "

"Don't give me that slag, Prowl – you're too agile to do something that stupid." Star snapped. "Someone hurt you, and I want to know who."

Prowl shuttered his optics for a moment. "Whatever lead you to that conclusion?"

In a flash Star knelt in front of him, gripping his hands tightly. The trine bond suddenly flared to life. Prowl could feel Starscream's frustration, anger, and fear simmering through him, barely contained. TC and Warp were echoes through Star, mirroring their leader's emotions. "Do you think I'm stupid?" Star hissed. "You have dents where you shouldn't be dented, you vanish for long periods of time without telling me what's going on or where you're going, and most importantly of all,your chevron is being held together by the grace of Primus." Star's wings suddenly sagged, laying closer to his back than Prowl thought possible.

"Frag it, Prowl, how am I supposed to protect you if you won't tell me what's wrong?"

Prowl smiled slightly. "You are protecting me. I'm not alone. This is me protecting you."

Star growled. "Prowl – "

"No." All hint of humor vanished from Prowl's faceplates. "I told you no one would ever lay a hand on you if I could help it. I'm doing it."

TC chose that moment to speak. "It's not one of the students hurting you, then."

Star didn't even look away from Prowl as he responded. "Why?"

"We can take anyone here. That means it's an adult – they're the only ones who even might be able to hurt us."

Warp considered. "But the teachers are all nice." he pointed out. "Why would any of them want to hurt Prowl, especially like that?"

Prowl refused to look at them. How was he supposed to explain what he himself did not understand? What had he done to incur Sentinel's wrath? Even more than that, what had Soundwave and Bluestreak done? Prowl didn't know.

Star let go of Prowl's hands and cupped his face, forcing the other to look at him. "Prowl. Who hurt you?"

He couldn't lie any more. Star would know if he did. He couldn't say anything – Sentinel would kill them! He began to shake with the stress.

"Screamer, you can't keep pushing him!" Warp protested. "He looks like he's going to break as it is."

"What am I supposed to do?" Star demanded, voice cracking. "I can't help him if I don't know what's wrong, and he won't tell me if I don't push him!"

"Let him be." TC said gently. "He'll tell us when he's ready."

"And when will that be? When he's dead? Will we find out who when it's too late to save him?"

Prowl flinched at the accusing words, doorwings trembling in agony. He couldn't – but he had to. Because Star was right. If he didn't tell someone, it would be too late. Not just for him (but he couldn't go either, he had promised Star he wouldn't suffer anymore) but for Bluestreak and Soundwave too. For the others, because Prowl knew there were others.

He spoke in barely a whisper, but Star heard him anyway.

"Sentinel."

He shuttered his optics and let the world fade away.

/-/

Ratchet sighed. "Good catch, First Aid." he said wearily. "You're right. The pattern is there."

First Aid heaved a sigh of relief. "Good. Well, not good – but at least I'm not losing my processor." He smiled faintly. "You look like you've seen this before."

"I have – but not with younglings before." Ratchet shuttered his optics, his fists clenching. "He's gone too far this time."

First Aid blinked, completely lost. "Who?"

Ratchet ignored him for the moment, reviewing what he knew about the younglings in question. Most of them had come from either youth centers or foster homes – the kind of younglings no one would ever believe and no one would question too closely about strange wounds. Prowl, however –

Prowl had a record already with the Academy for striking another student across the face when the youngling refused to stop poking his wings. Prowl didn't take slag from anybody. What did Sentinel have on him to make him lie so blatantly?

"Does Prowl have any close friends here?" he asked suddenly.

First Aid nodded. "Rumor has it he's been adopted by one of the trines." he said with a shrug. "I highly doubt it, but there's no doubt that he spends most of his time with fliers."

Ratchet nodded. "So that's how he did it. Okay." He heaved a sigh, spark aching.

"Ratchet!" First Aid snapped, grabbing the older medic's arm. "What is going on? These are my students that are being hurt – include me, please!"

There was a brief pause. Then Ratchet nodded sharply. "I'm going to tell you a secret, and you have to swear to not tell anyone. This is going too far, but I need to think about what to do first."

First Aid nodded. "Okay."

"Sentinel Prime has a glitch. A serious glitch that I've been trying to fix for some time now. It makes him – lash out, so to speak."

First Aid's optics paled. "You mean – he's hurting the younglings?"

"Yes. I believe he is. It fits his pattern rather nicely."

"Sweet Primus." First Aid breathed. "What do we do?"

"I don't know. Before we do anything though, we need to find out if Sentinel is the one who's doing this. For his sake, I hope not."