Chapter 55: The Birth

A/N: finally, right?

It was a mega-cycle till the end of Cliffjumper's short and quick educational career. His was in the midst of finals week. Not including the one he and Sentinel had just finished, there were only two more to go and if he passed them he would graduate with enough classroom knowledge to enter a high level job in Cybertronian Intelligence.

Cliffjumper walked with Sentinel towards back to the dorms, mostly ignoring the larger blue bot as he ranted on and on about his promotion. Sentinel had become a Minor this ano-cycle, like Kup, though he didn't have a tenth of experience. Sentinel had been at the Academy almost a giga-cycle, Kup has lived for over 10 thousand vorns. It was amazing what an Academy education replaced. Now, Sentinel could teach recruits and he was looking forward to the cadets worshiping him. His first group would come off the assembly line at the end of the ano-cycle or transfer into the academy from civilian status. Optimus and Elita-1 had been made Minors as well, since they were all molded in the same Ano-cycle. Aside from teaching cadets, they were also authorized to travel off planet for scouting missons. Cliffjumper was sure Elita-1 would enjoy that, as Optimus would enjoy leading others. It would help give him some confidence.

But while Cliffjumper was glad for them, he didn't feel like himself. His chassis had felt very heavy and full when he had woken up but he had felt so energized he had been positive there was light slipping out of his seams until he checked in the mirror. While the feeling was a regular thing now, the heaviness usually faded after a few mico-cyles, especially if he did some special stretches Yoketron had taught him, which he did. But the heaviness was still there. It was as though he was trying to walk across the bottom of an ocean. Now he was feeling sore and it had him in a sour mood. Hadn't he spent a night and day in the med bay to sort this kind of thing out?

The sparkling was expected to come in two megacycles, or at least that what he kept telling himself. He wasn't completely sure when the sparkling's real due date was, since it'd technically been conceived a least a mega-cycle before he was "raped" by Galvatron. Cliffjumper was more than worried that the sparkling would be too early, or too late.

Then, a sudden pain tore through him, cutting off whatever Sentinel was saying with a sharp yelp. For a second, if felt as if his spark had literally split in half! He paused for a moment in the hall, petting his chassis, taking deep intakes, trying to figure out what the slag that just was, ignoring Sentinel's questions.

And then it happened again and a gasp of pain flowed from his vocalizer as he fell to his knees, clutching at his chest. It was suddenly very hard to breath, but he couldn't move. His systems were stunned from the pain. He barely registered Sentinel kneeling down next to him, shouting concerns and haggard questions but he could only reply with gasps and whimpers as he smothered cries and curled into himself, hugging his chassis, trying to keep his spark inside. It felt worse than a shot through a joint, and that had happened before so he knew!

"What's happening!?" he wondered for a second before another ripple of pain shot through him and he realized, "Oh primus, the sparkling's trying to come out…!" Another pulse hit, making him cry in agony on the floor of the hall. "They NEVER said it would hurt so much! PRIMUS!" Perceptor said it would probably feel like a tugging sensation on his spark as the sparkling pulled away, perhaps like the jolts he got when the sparkling was testy, but this was not mentioned! At all!

"Cliffjumper!" Sentinel shouted next to him, scared out of his spark, "Cliffjumper what's wrong?! Talk to me!" He had never heard of or seen anything like this before. Afraid to even touch the bot, his servos hovered uselessly over the mini, shaking. He was about to ping Optimus for help when Cliffjumper looked up at him.

"C-call A-A-Alpha T-Trion!" Cliffjumper finally managed to whimper out between ripples, and Sentinel suddenly remembered that he was Cliffjumper's guard and had been given Alpha Trion's number just for such an event!

: Sentinel? What's going on? : Alpha Trion asked through the link, confused.

:Alpha Trion sir! Something's wrong with Cliffjumper and he told me to call you!: Sentinel explained hastily, gaze still on the red minibot as he twisted in pain on the ground.

He heard a gasp before Alpha Trion jumper into action. :Where are you?: he asked. Sentinel could hear his footsteps echo in whatever hallway he was in.

:The far east hallway, near the spec. ops classroom: Sentinel said quickly, glancing around. Most students were in other finals or back home already!

:We'll be right there! Tell Cliff to hold on—: and the line cut off.

Sentinel whispered the reassurances to Cliffjumper, who was clutching his chassis. The sound of multiple peds running towards them reached Sentinel's audios a few moments later. He looked up from his crouched position to stare at Alpha Trion coming with Perceptor and Wheeljack in tow, a medical berth being tugged along behind them. As he jumped out of the way, the three bots worked to pull the pain-riddled minibot out of his curled position and onto the berth. When Wheeljack finally managed to position him correctly, they pushed the berth towards the medical ward, Perceptor injecting something into Cliffjumper as they ran. Sentinel followed hastily.

Soon, they entered the medical ward and headed towards one of the private rooms. Wheeljack cut off from them at the door, heading for the lab to pick up the protoform. Sentinel was locked out at the room's entrance.

Inside, Perceptor gave Cliffjumper instructions and filled in information on his medical file. "Take deep even intakes Cliffjumper. Try not to tense or curl up"

Gripping the sheets desperately, Cliffjumper retorted weakly, "easy for you to say! Feels like I'm splitting open and my spark's trying to fly out."

Preceptor wrote that down. Alpha Trion stood at the berthside, praying to primus and trying to offer Cliff some silent comfort, a servo to hold. Instead, the mini-bot clawed up the sheets and gritted his denta.

The door clicked open and Wheeljack popped in with the protoform and a nurse. Sentinel managed to sneak a peek at the pained mini before the door shut again.

"The protoform is here Cliffjumper. Open your chassis so we can begin the spark separation procedure." Preceptor said as he picked up his tools.

"Isn't it too early!?" Cliffjumper cried. "You said the buffer zone was a mega-cycle! He's two mega-cycles early!" he yelled, trying to keep his chassis closed.

"There isn't anything we can do Cliffjumper" Wheeljack said frantically. "The sparkling is just ready to come out!"

Sending a prayer to primus, Cliff finally gave into to the feeling and allowed his chest plate to open, bathing them all in the blue glow of his spark. The nurse held the protoform ready as Perceptor prodded at his spark with a tool. Another scream escaped him as he cursed Percy, Primus, Decepticons and everything else he could think of as the little spark pulled away from his, apparently deciding to take a chunk of his spark with it if his feelings were right. The bright tiny white light with small tints of silver slowly floated away from him, thin blue trials from his own spark threading towards it, desperate to keep in touch, to pull it back. Instead, it drifted away with Perceptor as he placed it in the protoform, and Cliff felt a bit emptier inside as he collapsed and ignored the pain lingering in his systems to watch the newspark.

Panting heavily against the berth, Cliffjumper followed the nurse handling his sparkling with his optics, Perceptor having moved back to his datapad. He watched as she carefully made sure it was correctly and completely connected with his protoform. Its plating was already changing color and molding into shape and it began to wriggle and start to cry.

With a small whimper and a sigh of relief, Cliffjumper tried to reach out for it, his spark calling out to sooth and comfort his sparkling. With a soft smile (if his eyes were any indication) Wheeljack propped his berth up a little so he could sit up, before the nurse softly placed the sparkling in his arms. "It's a perfect little mech!" she whispered with joy. With a happy sigh and a tired smile he cooed at the new-spark as he quieted down, taking in the warmth of his spark.

He was red, like Cliffjumper, with small sensory horns on the top of his head and some audio fins on each side of his chubby little faceplate. But his face…even when he onlined his beautiful bright blue optics, which Cliffjumper thanked primus for, he could easily recognize Galvatron's face. It was rounder, sure, but the high dark cheek plates and forehead were defiantly his.

Perceptor had started filling out the padwork again, occasionally scanning the two bots on the berth for the information.

Moving towards the dozing bots, the nurse placed a soft servo on Cliffjumper's shoulder, startling him for a moment. "Do you have a name for him?" she asked softly so as not to awaken the snoozing sparkling. She'd been hand-picked by Perceptor and Wheeljack to help with this very special procedure, sworn to secrecy, she'd also be babysitting the sparkling, but that wasn't until later.

Cliffjumper looked shocked for a moment. He had never thought of a name. Had never really thought about what it would be like when he actually held the newspark in his servos. Looking down at the baby, his mind wandered back to when he first met Galvatron and the name he had used when he pretended to be a neutral, the bot he's first fallen in love with…"Axle…tron" Cliffjumper murmured, "his name is Axletron…" This little bot was at least half of Galvatron's. Cliffjumper was proud and happy for that.

With a nod, the nurse filled it in on the pad, but Alpha Trion frowned slightly from his corner as he watched the two red bots fall into recharge and the other three clean up. He had not expected this. Was Cliffjumper cursing the boy with such a name? Was it a reminder of the attack? It couldn't be with the way the minibot held the boy. He obviously cared for him. Was it a tribute? If it was, what did it mean? He didn't know where he came up with the name Axle, but –"tron"…that was…odd. "tron" was really only added to the names of military bots…or Decepticons. Did he just like the name? Could it be more than that…?

The aged bot stepped out of the room with the others when they finished. Sentinel had remained throughout the procedure, shifting nervously by the door.

"Sentinel Mino-?"

"Oh thank Primus! Is Cliff alright?" Sentinel asked hastily.

Perceptor spared him a glance before sending Wheeljack a flat look and heading for his lab. Wheeljack rolled his optics, but took pity on the poor bot. "Yeah, Cliffjumper's just fine."

"What happened? He said he had a medical condition, was it an attack or a-" Wheeljack put a hand up to cut the panicking bot off.

"He's medical condition is all cleared up, but he needs rest right now. You can visit him later." With that, Wheeljack headed off to find Percy, leaving a confused and relieved Sentinel Minor in his wake.

End chapter 55

Super Important A/N: Axletron belongs to Drago-Night! He's over on DeviantArt!