WARNING: THE FOLLOWING CHAPTER CONTAINS MATERIAL THAT MAY BE OFFENSIVE OR SENSITIVE TO SOME PEOPLE. ALSO, EATING WHILE READING THIS IS NOT RECCOMMENDED. ENJOY!

CHAPTER 22

"Knock Out!" Starscream hissed into the comm. link. "Answer me—Argh!"

He lay on the side, crouching in a fetal position, covering his arms around the burning torso of his. The sparklings were coming, the communicator wasn't working, and he was all alone to conceive in a vulnerable location. At least he had his Seekers…

"Alright Screamy," a voice that might belong to Wheeljack sounded, making him stiffen. "Give us the Predacon bone or else!"

"I…don't…have it…" he whispered, struggling to even speak. "The Predaco—OOWWW!"

"Easy, Jackie," a voice that sounded like Bulkhead's said.

"I didn't do anything. He's just being a wuss."

Starscream struggled to open his optics and saw the blurry images of Wheeljack, Bulkhead and Ultra Magnus, along with the armored Miko, all standing around him and staring him down.

"Go away…don't you dare…come any closer!" He swiped weakly out with his arm but quickly retracted it and resumed his crouching position. Before he closed his optics again, he saw the bodies of his two Seeker Vehicons, having been taken out by the Autobots. He was alone and at the Autobots' mercy.

"Wow, and here I thought you couldn't get any more pathetic," Wheeljack mocked. "How about we put him out of his misery, huh, Bulk?"

"Yeah, you can finally avenge Cliffjumper!" Miko said in agreement. Starscream's spark started to beat faster, and he took quick breaths in attempt to cool down his burning torso, but it didn't help. If the Autobots weren't going to kill him, then the sparklings would overheat him and he could possibly explode!

"Kn-Kn-Knock…O-Out…" he tried again faintly, but there was still no response. He could already feel Wheeljack's blade lightly brush his armor and felt panic rising, the stress further increasing his pain.

"Soldier," Ultra Magnus said and laid a servo on Wheeljack's shoulder before this one could kill the Seeker. "I think he has had enough. Protocol says that any enemy requesting surrender must be obliged."

"Fine, sir. So, Screamy. Do you surrender or should I just cut you to bits right away and get it over with?"

Starscream managed to get on his servos and knees, but he couldn't respond. He couldn't even breathe, it felt like there was something stuck in his throat, something which cut off his ventilation and made his torso even hotter. He felt the tip of Wheeljack's blade on his helm.

"Answer me!"

Starscream answered by puking out a puddle of blue energon under a loud exclamation, right at the peds of Wheeljack. They all took a step back in surprise, including Wheeljack who had gotten a large blue lump on his ped.

"Urgh, what in Primus' name is this…?" he said and shook the lump off.

The lump seemed to crack and blue energon poured out everywhere, along with a small, almost human-sized mechanoid. Its head resembled that of a Scraplet, but unlike the actual pests, this one had a larger, more humanoid body, two legs, two arms, a pair of blunt servos and peds, a black torso and an uncovered spark chamber, showing a small blue spark flickering faintly. It was the first of Starscream's sparklings.

The Autobots and human stared shocked at the sight. Before anyone of them could say anything, before Starscream could even recover, a blast sounded from his chest, making him fall backwards onto his back, and out flew a pink lump, along with another puddle of blue energon. When it hit the ground, it burst and out poured pink energon, along with another sparkling with a faint spark in the same color. Both sparklings had their optics closed, unconscious and unaware of their surroundings.

Starscream took a moment to breathe, in an attempt to cool down his systems, as the contractions settled for a moment, but he knew they would return. There were still four more sparklings to go. Four more turns of pain that sent him to the Pits. While he rested, he listened to the Autobots' conversation, not really caring about anything at the moment other than resting.

"What the Pit just happened?" Wheeljack exclaimed. "Are those…?"

"We should call Ratchet," Bulkhead suggested. "We'll figure out what to do with him afterwards. Sir, permission to—"

"Already called him, soldier," Ultra Magnus replied. "He should be here any moment now."

"No, don't…" Starscream gasped as another contraction made its arrival, barely catching their attention. "I need Knock Out…"

"If it wasn't for your current situation, Screamer, I'd pound you into scrap metal for everything you've done," Bulkhead threatened. "Just be grateful that we're actually helping you—Look!"

Right in front of them opened a GroundBridge portal, and seconds later Ratchet stepped out of it with his medical kit. He looked concerned at all of them.

"I heard there was an emergency. Who—" His gaze fell on Starscream on the ground, leaking and screaming while holding his arms around his chest. He frowned at the sight. "You again?! Can't your own doctor take—"

He silenced as the Wreckers pointed at the ground, particularly at the two sparklings lying unconscious. His gaze went from the sparklings to the suffering Starscream, and he understood what was happening. "Set him up."

While Ratchet opened his medical kit and Bulkhead lifted the Seeker on the back to get him to sit up, Starscream felt another sparkling stuck in his throat, cutting off his air supply and further heating up his torso. Miko stood around and stared at the scene – she didn't understand what was happening at all.

"What's going on here? What are those things coming out of him? What are you guys doing?"

"Starscream is having sparklings," Ultra Magnus answered her. "The first stage in Cybertronian life."

This confused Miko even more. "Wait, Starscream is having babies?! But he's a guy! You're robots, how can you even—"

"Later, it looks like there's another one coming," Ratchet said and held his servos out at the Seeker, preparing to catch the next sparkling.

He wasn't exactly comfortable with all these Autobots scurrying around him, especially with Bulkhead holding a tight grip around his arms to prevent him from holding around his torso which was leaking like crazy. He had no idea how to handle this, and all this pain, energon and overheat was overwhelming. He had never been so terrified in his life before; it felt like he was going to die, right there and then. But at least he wasn't alone with this situation anymore, even if his helpers were Autobots. He decided it would be best to do what they said until this nightmare was over.

"Come on, out with it!" Ratchet urged him.

Starscream tried to spit out the sparkling stuck in his throat, but the lack of ventilation caused one in his torso to simply blast out like the previous one. Bulkhead held tightly as the blast pushed the Seeker backwards, and Ratchet managed to catch the green lump in his servos. The sac breached itself and out came a sparkling with a green spark, soaked with similar green energon, also unconscious. Ratchet put it down beside him and held out his servos again, drawing his attention from the newborn to the ones still coming.

"Don't just stand around, take the newborns and clean them up," he told Ultra Magnus, Wheeljack and Miko. "You'll find what you need in my medical kit."

Starscream did not want the Autobots to touch his sparklings, but instead of words he coughed and harked and finally he emptied his bowels and puked out a puddle of blue energon along with a yellow sac, which Ratchet caught in his servos.

"Good, good," Ratchet praised and laid down the sparkling for the others to clean. "Now that you can speak again, I need to know how many sparklings are you carrying?"

"S-s-six…" Starscream coughed, still trying to recover from the puke. "Th-they are…"

Before he could continue, another blast came from his torso, hitting Ratchet right in his stomach. The red sac breached from the impact, and along with red energon came a fifth sparkling, this one with a blood red spark.

"Here," Ratchet said and handed the sparkling over to Ultra Magnus, ready to clean the newborn. "Six, you say? That means…" He counted the ones already born. "There's one more to go, then. Hang in there, we'll get it out."

While taking a rest from the previous contractions, Starscream stared at the Autobots with his blurry vision. He had a bad taste in his mouth, he couldn't think clearly because of his massive energon loss, and most of all he just wanted to lie down and join with the AllSpark.

"Why…why are you…doing this…" he asked in gasps, struggling to keep his optics open and look at Ratchet.

"What you're carrying is beyond valuable, and it is our duties as Autobots to make sure they are unharmed. This has nothing to do with compassion for you," he said. "We'll never forget what you did to Cliffjumper, for what you did on Cybertron, for anything you've done. But I won't blame your offspring for the damage you have caused. That is not what Autobots do."

Starscream was trying to process all this, but they were just empty words, even the ones that should sting. He felt another contraction and let out the loudest scream he could produce. He felt like this last one wanted to come out from both his mouth and his chest at the same time. It was the worst and longest pain he had ever felt in his whole, miserable life, and he just wanted it to stop.

"Come on, hang in there!" Ratchet encouraged. "Out with it!"

Instead of coming out, however, the pain only decreased for a while, as if this last sparkling was intentionally tormenting him for as long as it possibly could. "…kill me…please…" he whispered in brief breaths, taking advantage of the pause. "Make…make it stop…"

"Sorry, did you think I'd ever let you get what you wanted?" Ratchet said with a hint of mocking. "You were lucky those times you got me to patch you up. You're simply getting what you deserve right now."

"Yeah, it's karma!" Miko said in agreement, but was silenced by Bulkhead.

The contraction returned, even worse than before. He let out a scream so loud that he was certain Knock Out or even Megatron could hear him from the warship, however far away it was at the moment.

"MAKE IT STOP! PLEASE, MAKE IT STOOOOP!" he screamed.

"The sooner you get this over with, the sooner the pain will stop," Ratchet replied impatiently.

"SCREW YOU! SCREW THE SPARKLINGS! JUST KILL ME ALREADY!"

"Can't we for once do as he says?" Wheeljack asked irritated. "He's really getting on my nerves…"

"No, we have to save the sparkling!" Ratchet said. That seemed to be all they cared about. Sparkling, sparkling, sparkling! No one cared about the pain Starscream was going through right now! Oh, if they knew how he was feeling right now, then they might think otherwise…

"LET ME GO! LET ME GOOO!" he screamed and twisted and turned in Bulkhead's grip in panic while the contraction was still going. He had had enough. "HELP! MEGATRON! KNOCK OUT! ANYONE! HELP MEEE!"

Everyone but Ratchet and Bulkhead covered their audio receptors – and Miko her ears – as he continued screaming through the unbearable pain. This sparkling just didn't want to come out. He didn't notice his optics were filled with oily tears and the brown lubricate poured down his faceplate. He tried to turn his servos into lasers, but he was too depleted of energon. He then tried to fire one of his missiles, but Bulkhead noticed what he was doing and held tightly on the arms where the missiles resided.

Then, finally, after several cycles of pain and suffering, he felt the pesky little lump cutting off his air supply and bended over to gag, preparing for one last puke. Just this last one…and then it's over… he thought desperately to himself, trying to keep his suicidal thoughts away.

"Yes, that's it, get it out!" Ratchet encouraged and held his servos impatiently under the Seeker's head.

He coughed for about half a cycle, then he felt the lump slide through his throat and puked it out under a loud bawl. It seemed as if the little remains of energon within him poured out along with the small purple sac into Ratchet's servos, breaching and revealing a sparkling much smaller than its siblings, having a spark flickering purple. As soon as the sparkling left his body, along with all the blue energon, Starscream went limp, prompting Bulkhead to finally let go of him. He let his body fall flat down on the ground, exhausted and completely drained of energy and energon.

"Uh…Scream?" Bulkhead said cautiously.

"D…don't mind me…" he mumbled, laying his head on the side. "I just…need to rest…for a few…hours…"

"Hey, you promised me I could kill you afterwards, don't take the fun away by falling asleep!" Wheeljack exclaimed. "...Screamy?" Starscream did not respond, simply lay still. He had lost consciousness.

"So, um…what now?" Miko asked unsure. "What do we do with these…sparklings?"

Ratchet looked from the unconscious Starscream to the Autobots and Miko, each holding one or two sparklings, then down at the sparkling he was holding himself. "We have to take them back to base. The Decepticons will find him eventually, he'll be fine. But we can't let Megatron get hold of these sparklings."

"Then let's take the GroundBridge back to base!" Miko said and carried the pink-sparked sparkling into the GroundBridge portal. Wheeljack took the red sparkling through, Bulkhead the green one and Ultra Magnus the blue and yellow ones. Ratchet took his medical kit, looked at his servos, soaked in blue and other colors, then down at the unconscious Seeker, who was still leaking blue energon among the huge blue puddle surrounding him - some parts stained by the other colors of energon - and the colorful sacs laying here and there among the energon. He made a decision and picked up the energon sacs along with the purple sparkling, and then he went through the portal to join the others back at base.

Merely a cycle after the Autobots' GroundBridge disappeared, another one appeared somewhere behind Starscream, and a figure stepped out from it. It was Knock Out. He had received Starscream's emergency transmission after all.

"I'm here, are you—Oh, dear Primus!" he exclaimed as he saw Starscream lying in a lake of his own energon. "I knew it! I knew it was a bad idea for him to stray off on his own! Starscream, what were you thinking? Starscream? Scream!"

As Starscream didn't respond, didn't even move an inch, Knock Out went over to him and laid a servo on his neck. There was a pulse. He was still alive, thank Primus…

"Fine, you want special treatment? Here you go!" he said and lifted the leaking Seeker up. He was too big for him to carry in his arms, but he managed to carry him through the GroundBridge on his back. As he arrived back on the warship, he attracted quite a few curious looks from passing Vehicons and Insecticons. He ignored them and made his way to sickbay, where he put Starscream down on the operation table and connected him to a lot of cables, desperately trying to close his wounds and supplying him with fresh energon. He checked his status meter: It wasn't good. He was very low on energon.

"Come on, Starscream, I know I didn't hear your transmission until a few cycles ago, but you gotta stay with me, okay? Alright, let's get this over with…"

He ran his scanner across the Seeker's body and was stumped to find nothing. No colorful balls, no extra energy signatures, nothing.

"Where are the sparklings…?"

Back at the Autobot base, Arcee was waiting with the children, holding the GroundBridge for Ratchet, awaiting his return. He had told them there was some kind of emergency in Scotland, but not what kind.

"What do you think the emergency is?" Jack asked Arcee. "Do you think any of them is hurt?"

"I'm not sure, Jack," she replied. "We'll just have to wait and see."

"I hope it's not Miko," Raf said concerned. "I haven't seen her around for a while. I'm sure she went with them there."

"I think so too," Jack replied and laid a hand on the younger boy's shoulder. "But Bulkhead and Wheeljack are with her. She'll be safe…hopefully."

"The native is being rude," Ultra Magnus' voice sounded as he entered the GroundBridge, holding something in his servos. "He forgot I was there."

"Ultra Magnus! Sir," she added, to not sound rude. "What happened?"

"We had a little…emergency," Bulkhead answered as he got through, also holding something in his servo. Wheeljack and Ratchet came through as well, each holding something in their servos, and Miko arrived as the last one, wearing the Apex Armor. What she was holding, however, was big enough to notice the difference – well, more different than her wearing the armor, anyway. It was a human-sized robot, silver with a black torso and a head looking suspiciously a lot like a Scraplet.

"Miko? Is that you?" Jack said, relieved she was okay, but also confused. "You're wearing the armor!"

"Gee, I didn't notice!" she said teasingly while carrying her luggage in her arms like a person.

"What's that you got there?" Raf asked, pointing at the sparkling. "What you all got there?"

The newcomers were being looked at and examined for what they were holding; six small robots, all alike except for their various colored sparks. They had all been wiped clean of energon, but they still seemed to be unconscious.

"Put them on my work table," Ratchet said to the others. "I have to examine them."

They did as told and put all six sparklings down on Ratchet's work table with inches distance from each other. Each one of these sparklings was barely the size of the children, being about Jack's height. Right at the moment, however, they had all crouched together into fetal positions, so it seemed they were not so unconscious after all. Occasionally they let out faint squeaks and coos. They started to look a little more alive as they moved their heads and curled up more tightly, perhaps in an attempt to keep themselves warm. One of them rolled over and interacted with one of its siblings. They both seemed to feel the sensation of warmth and crawled toward each other. Soon their four other siblings started to feel this same sensation and joined with them in a pile to keep each other warm. They settled down a bit, feeling safer in numbers.

"Fascinating," Ratchet said, staring at the sparklings. They all looked intrigued at the little figures, including the humans, but the latter ones were most of all curious about what was going on.

"Could someone please explain what's happening here?" Raf asked impatiently. "What are those? Where did you find them?"

"They are sparklings," Ratchet explained. "Cybertronian infants, if it's easier to understand that way. They are the offspring of Starscream."

"Wow, Starscream?" Arcee repeated, just as shocked as the humans. "Of all bots who could deliver these, it had to be Starscream?!"

Ratchet noticed Arcee's angry expression as she stared at the sparklings. "I know how you must feel about this, Arcee, but we can't blame the sparklings for what their parent did. Starscream was the one who took Cliffjumper's life, not them."

"I know, but…but…why? Why did you help him?!" She was furious. "You had the chance to take him out, and you didn't do it?!"

"That's what I said," Wheeljack said in agreement. "Right now he's just lying out there in Scotland, leaking out until—"

"My ship!" Ultra Magnus suddenly said. "I forgot my ship! I need a GroundBridge back to where you found us, Ratchet."

"Arcee," Ratchet requested, and the blue femmebot opened a GroundBridge, still locked onto the coordinates of the Iron Will.

As soon as the portal opened, before Ultra Magnus left, Arcee said: "Can I come with you? Sir?"

Ultra Magnus thought for a while. "Affirmative. We'll be back soon," he added to the others, and then they left the base. Wheeljack shut down the GroundBridge, as they wouldn't return through that.

"I'm not sure how wise it was to let Arcee go with him to seek revenge on Starscream," Ratchet said, "but we can't worry about that now. Right now, we need to stabilize these sparklings."

"Stabilize?" Raf replied in confusion. "They look pretty stable to me."

"Yeah, they kinda look like newborn babies," Jack noted. "Well, except they're bigger and more metal, I guess…"

"You don't understand what I mean," Ratchet replied. "These sparklings are used to being inside Starscream's warm body, filled with energon. Now they're out here, in cold reality and without the lifeblood of all Cybertronians. I need to stabilize their temperature and give them energon, or they will perish."

"Well, get on it, then!" Miko exclaimed as she had gotten out of the armor, with a little help from Bulkhead.

Ratchet nodded and put on a pair of wires on each of the sparklings, connected to a termo-device. As he turned the devices on, the sparklings seemed to loosen up a little, relaxing a bit more than before when they were shuddering with coldness. They seemed to like the heat from the thermo-devices.

"Good, their temperatures are stabilizing. Now all we need is to give them energon…"

A GroundBridge portal opened, and Arcee returned, without Ultra Magnus. The others looked confused at her.

"I thought you were going with Ultra Magnus?" Ratchet asked.

"I…changed my mind," she simply said. "He wasn't there. Someone must've taken him while you were gone."

"Oh, you're talking about Scream," Wheeljack said. "For a second I thought we had to go look for that—"

His words were cut off by a sudden loud wailing. It was coming from the sparklings, not just one, but all of them. Their wailing sounded very strange, much different from the cry of a human baby, more similar to that of an animal baby, like a bear cub. They wailed loudly in distress, catching everyone's attention. Even Agent Fowler exited his office covering his ears, to see what was going on.

"What is that cursed noise?!" he asked loudly, then spotted the crying sparklings on the table. "What the heck are those?"

"Sparklings," Ratchet said loudly. "I'll explain later. We need to give them energon right now! Arcee, Bulkhead, Wheeljack, go fetch some cubes!"

They did and returned with six cubes, one for each sparkling. Ratchet put a small hose in each of them and handed them to the sparklings.

"Aren't you going to give them drip?" Raf asked confused. "Like usual?"

"They are too small and vulnerable right now," Ratchet replied. "It's safer if they drink it."

As each of the sparklings were given a hose, they stopped wailing and seemed to examine the objects given to them by sniffing them, though still with closed eyes. They still seemed to be getting used to being out in the light after five months of darkness. One of them, the one with the blue spark, put its hose to the mouth to test it. A few nano-cycles later, energon flowed from the cube to the end of the hose, getting sucked up by the sparkling.

But just as Ratchet was about to sigh of relief, the sparkling threw the hose away and spat out the energon in its mouth, followed by an even louder wailing. This prompted the rest of them to throw their own hoses away and wail as well, as if waiting for their sibling's approval or rejection, in this case rejection. Ratchet stared on in disbelief.

"But…what? This shouldn't have happened," he said, starting to feel a sense of panic. "Why won't they drink? Something's wrong here…"

"Maybe it's too cold?" Jack suggested. "If they're used to heat, then they must be used to warm energon too, right?"

"Used to…used to!" Ratchet said and slapped his forehead. "Of course, it's the wrong energon!"

The Autobots and humans looked at each other and him, confused. "Wrong energon? You have to explain yourself," Wheeljack said, breaking the ice.

"I believe these sparklings will only take one kind of energon," the medic said. "The same energon that they have lived in for their whole lives, the energon that has kept them alive until this very day they arrived."

They started to realize what he was talking about. "You mean…" Arcee said.

"Yes," Ratchet confirmed. "Starscream's energon."