Warnings include: referenced Non-Con, Mech Preg/birth( and some very unfriendly thoughts on his sparklings), victim-blaming

When Predaking returned to where the Autobots had last been, he found them sifting through the wreckage of the Decepticon warship. He circled around the debris, and while his presence caught their attention, it was Bumblebee who once again split from the others to greet him. The Predacon landed, his movements still jerky and uneven on impact, but he kept the frustration off his faceplate when he transformed.

Though their leader was gone, Bumblebee still managed to sound polite when he spoke. "Didn't expect you back so soon. Did you need help with something?"

Well, he supposed there was no point in trying to delay this. Jack needed help now. "Your medic's assistance is required. I have found Jack and he's carrying. I confess I do not know much about the actual process, but your medic surely must be able to help him."

Bumblebee stared at him, optics wide. His frame was so tense that he likely could have crashed, but slowly his doorwings unhitched and his optic ridges furrowed. "Did…did you just say you found Jack-and-and that he's pregnant?"

Predaking nodded tersely, frustration beginning to color his tone. Could this Autobot not understand how serious this was? "Yes, Darksteel and Skylynx took me to Shockwave's lab, and Jack was there." his optics narrowed suspiciously when at the mention of Shockwave, Bumblebee froze again, something uneasy passing over his face.

Suspicion turned to rage, and Predaking's own frame tensed up. Bumblebee looked guilty. "You…did you know Shockwave had Jack?"

The Autobot flinched violently, optics widening once more. He rapidly waved his arms defensively. "No, nothing like that!" he paused, his mouth pulling into a somber frown. "Well, we sort of suspected something had happened. During the final battle things got so hectic," he explained quietly, "and it wasn't until the fighting was over that we realized Jack wasn't there anymore." His optics gained a pleading look to them. "Is…is he okay?"

"I said he was carrying," Predaking repeated, his tone heavy, "and I did not say he had done so willingly."

Bumblebee's expression became horrified. "Are you saying…what I think you're saying?"

Predaking did not answer directly, but his abrupt topic shift spoke for itself. "He needs your medic's help."

Bumblebee nodded shakily, and their little meeting had garnered attention from the other Autobots. Bulkhead noticed first how stricken the yellow mech looked, and he narrowed his optics suspiciously at Predaking before gazing back at Bumblebee.

"You alright, 'Bee?"

Bumblebee tensed up. "I'm alright," he answered slowly, "but Jack isn't."

Bulkhead blinked in surprise, and he glanced back at Wheeljack, who also didn't seem to know what to make of Bumblebee's declaration.

Arcee though had reacted instantly. Her frame was rigid, optics alert. "What's going on?" her gaze shifted to Predaking, her tone demanding. "Do you really know where he is?"

"Yes," Predaking snapped; he was growing more agitated the longer he stayed here-stayed here doing nothing, "that is why I am here. He is in stasis and I do not know how to bring him out, but I find it doubtful that he would be happy to see me upon awakening."

Arcee narrowed her optics, but tapped the side of her helm. "Ratchet? Predaking is here, and he found Jack." She crossed her arms and glared at him, her features worried but covered with a mask of anger. "What happened? Ratchet's on his way out and he'll be able to hear what you're saying."

Predaking did not want to repeat himself, but he kept himself focused, and held back his irritation by their complete lack of effort at locating Jack. Perhaps they had their reasons, but he was not interested in that right now. "When I found out you did not have Jack with you," he couldn't stop from feeling satisfied by how the Autobots winced, "I took it upon myself to look for him. When I relayed to Darksteel and Skylynx about Jack, they…"

He truly debated with himself if telling them the truth about the two Predacons right now would be a wise decision, as emotions were likely running high and any distractions not immediately relevant would only cloud their judgement. Predaking choose to tell them later, when they would be more inclined to think straight.

"…took me to Shockwave's lab. I made them wait outside," he didn't say why, and probably wasn't going to be asked why when he continued with, "and when I found Jack, he…he's carrying. Shockwave told me it was an effort to restart Project Predacon."

He paused, and took in their reactions. Bumblebee still looked deeply upset, Bulkhead and the other Wrecker only stared as though they couldn't quite comprehend what they heard, but the femme…she…

A look of murderous rage crossed her face, fists clenched tight. "Where is Shockwave right now?"

"Dead." Predaking said bluntly. "I killed him, but should you wish to vent your aggression I could have Darksteel or Skylynx show you to his corpse."

The rage tempered, but Arcee looked bitterly disappointed. And when she spoke, Predaking realized it appeared to be partly self-directed and not just angry that she didn't get to kill Shockwave, "We should have tried to find him better, I should have tried to find him better."

Bumblebee looked at her sadly. "There was so much going on, and none of us knew if Jack was even still alive." Arcee didn't look placated by this. "Yes, we could have done better, but what matters now is making sure Jack's alright."

Predaking narrowed his optics. It was a flimsy excuse, but for now would suffice in keeping everyone on track. His gaze shifted when out of the wreckage to the ship came four bots, the other Wrecker, that medic, the blue and yellow one and-

-Knock Out. Predaking felt anger burn inside of him. Even putting aside how much he despised his rival, there was a vastly more important question to ask. "Did you know?" he asked, and elaborated when he saw the confused glances sent his way. Of course the Autobots wouldn't know what he talking about. "When I gained access to the Nemesis' files on Predacons, I realized it was queued to the officers' numbers. You, Knock Out, would have been privy to Shockwave's plans for Jack, wouldn't you?"

The red mech blinked. "Well, yes." He answered casually. Arcee's fists tightened more. "Though I don't see how it matters since Jack is dead." He frowned when he noticed how tense everyone looked, and a suspicion started to form in on his face. "He is, isn't he?" But even as he asked, realization started to dawn on him, and he scowled, his expression now completely offended. "You all told me he was dead!"

"You kept asking if you could see him and it was creepy!" Bulkhead shot back.

"And there was no guarantee you weren't lying." Wheeljack added. "You could have just been looking for a lighter sentence."

"I wouldn't have lied, not about this." Knock Out said seriously. "Shockwave was always weird about Jack, ever since I found the spark energy in him. Pit, he told me to stay away from Jack because he thought I'd interfere with his 'experiment', and well, what he had planned was all sorts of suspect."

The blue and yellow one looked lost. "Why? What's going on?"

Knock Out's bravado seemed to wane under the scrutiny he was being given, and for once his expression became unsure. "Jack was supposed to be our…our new Well. Shockwave said he would make him compatible with us."

"This…" Arcee tensed, her optics narrowing, "is all because of you!"

"Arcee, stop!" Bumblebee yelled, managing just in time to catch Arcee before she could lung at Knock Out.

The femme wrenched herself out of his grasp, glaring at the yellow mech. "He's the reason this happened! If Jack were with us we could have caught the spark energy instead and-"

"-and what?" Knock Out retorted. "You think you could have stopped it? He was always going to change; Shockwave just turned him into what he wanted."

Arcee scowled at the red mech before glaring at the ground bitterly. "We're wasting time." She muttered. "Predaking, where's Jack?"

It hurt.

That was Jack's first thought when he awoke. Pain throbbed through his stomach, horror filling him as he could feel something moving. His optics widened, sore from the bright light but even that didn't compare to when he felt the second thing move.

What…The protoforms…It's time. That bastard woke me up to give birth. Energon rose in his throat, but he forced it back down to glare through the pain at Shockwave. He still felt fear grip him and the urge to close his legs, but he was too pissed right now to let that stop him. "You…you…!"

"Save what strength you have, you're going to need it." Jack snarled at him as the mech leaned in closer to him, optic so close that Jack could see his reflection. "It is fascinating though. I have spent your gestation watching the progress of the protoforms, seeing your body nurture them, but you hate them, do you not?"

Jack growled, but it was cut off with a whine as he felt the protoforms wriggling around inside of him. What was the point of asking him this? Did he just like watching him suffer? The answer to that was obvious: yes. "I do," he muttered, "but I hate you more. You're the one who's behind this."

"I inseminated you, yes," Shockwave said calmly, and Jack scowled at him, "but it was ultimately your body that chose to accept the samples."

"Don't you fucking dare say it's my fault!" Jack snapped, hissing as he felt one of the protoforms move again. "You were the one who raped me for hours on end, and you were the one who forced my body to react like it wanted it."

"It was no act, you did want it."

Jack froze, pain still shooting up spine, spark throbbing in his chest, but he focused on those words with all the focus he had. He…he just said that…His optics slowly glowed green, and a rage like never before swept through him, his words quiet but there was more venom in these words than anything else he'd said, "I'm going to kill you."

There was no reply, that red optic only looking at him with an unnervingly blank expression. Shockwave only glanced away when the door slid open, and Starscream came in carrying a large container lined with mesh cloth.

The seeker glanced between them, a derisive and revolted expression on his face. "Enjoying your test subject's misery?" he chuckled humorlessly. "Or are you just waiting to enjoy him?"

Jack sneered at Starscream, disgust curling in his chest. "What are you doing here?"

The seeker snorted. "Believe me, I would rather be anywhere but witnessing this," he rolled his optics, "miracle of science. Once they emerge though, they are going straight into the hyper chambers."

"Not the parental type I take it?" Jack asked snidely, but winced as he felt another movement inside of him.

"Well, you didn't really think we could be bothered to wait for them to grow, did you?" Starscream questioned. Jack furrowed his brow, and the seeker actually laughed at his confusion. "That would be a waste of time and effort. No, these protoforms are going to experience a rapid age acceleration in the hyper chambers," he smirked, "two instant Predacon soldiers."

While Jack could feel nothing but bitterness towards the things about to come out of him, even he found that to be cold. "So this really was just about making me suffer." He growled at Shockwave, who didn't so much as blink.

"Defiance must be punished. I would not have resorted to these extremes had you been compliant."

Jack hissed, his optics glowing brighter. "It's your fault, all of this is your fault!" he snapped, but screeched as a hard shove hit the inside of his protoform. His optics glanced down, and he could feel the bile rising up again. Two silver forms were wriggling around inside of his emergence chamber, tossing and turning before one began to press tiny servos against the jelly-like stomach matter.

Pain shot through him, and Jack clenched his jaw tight as the protoform began to quake, but Jack noticed that the thin protoform had amassed much more substance to it, and all he could think of was how much this was going to hurt.

Jack snarled through his denta as the small form at the top of his stomach began to press further into it, it's servos scraping and clawing through and sending more shots of pain with each movement. He stiffened up, wishing nothing more than to pass out, to punch these bastards in the face, to do something than just wish he could do anything.

He leaned as far back into the slab as he could, even if escaping the sight of that thing clawing out of him didn't negate the pain spreading through him. Squelching, disgusting wet noises followed the rush of fluids running down his sides from his stomach.

"Starscream, prepare to catch the Predacon." Shockwave said, and Jack growled while Starscream grunted in disgust.

"It's so vile." He muttered.

Jack sucked in a sharp breath, tiny claws scratching his thin stomach lining, and he couldn't keep the scream back when those little servos breached through, jelly-matter parting but it hurt like hell! "Get it out, get it out!"

"It is bemusing you would scream the same thing that you did when I inseminated you." The scientist said calmly.

Jack snarled at him, but choked at the sight of two servos wriggling in the air through his stomach. He froze when Starscream reached down, catching the flailing limbs, and pulled. "Fuck!" He felt a continuous pain shoot through him as the protoform was pulled swiftly out, leaving behind a residual that made his entire stomach matter shake.

High-pitched screams rang out, and the sound rang in Jack's audios. He was dazed, wincing from the continued pain running through him, but he knew that was the sound of the Predacon. For a moment, his spark pulsed warmly, but he closed his optics to keep from looking at it.

These things were not his children.

He braced himself for his body to expel the second one.

Arcee knew what they would find in the lab, but it still wasn't enough to prepare her for it. She stared at Jack, his face uneasy in stasis, but then her optics focused on the open stomach. She heard Ratchet make a sound of surprise, and heard Bumblebee suck in a sharp gasp.

There was a curled form inside the chamber of Jack's stomach, leeching from his systems to develop-and Shockwave did this to him, her charge, her friend, her partner.

Arcee's fists clenched. The only regret is that I didn't get to kill him myself. Her gaze only tore away when she caught sight of the door and noticed those other two Predacons were peering in, their optics focused on Jack rather than them. It was hard to discern what they were feeling, but they looked…worried? Concerned? Did they just think that Jack was nothing more than clone like them?

"Leave." Predaking growled. Arcee stiffened, but it took only a moment to realize he wasn't talking to them. Those two Predacons looked at him sullenly, but they slinked away without a word, and he looked at the Autobots.

Due to the delicate nature of this, Ratchet hadn't wanted to crowd Jack when he was brought out of stasis, so only Arcee and Bumblebee had gone with him and Predaking. The femme was a given, but 'Bee went to keep them calm.

Arcee knew that Bumblebee thought she might snap again, while both of them hadn't missed how out of sorts Ratchet had been on the way here, which might have been due to the fact he'd been with Jack last. It was for the better it was only them, though she glanced disparagingly at Predaking as he stood by the doorway, arms crossed and shoulders tense. He certainly hadn't thought well of them, and she could see that he looked uneasy beneath his anger.

There was something he wasn't telling them.

Ratchet moved first, going up to Jack's side while his optics for the moment stayed off his stomach. Arcee and Bumblebee walked over to the console. If Knock Out was to be believed, his assertion that Shockwave documented all his experiments would let them know what he had done. Even with that tidbit, no one thought it was a good idea to let him see Jack-ever.

"I think I found something." Bumblebee said quietly. Arcee looked over the documents in the file, and the yellow mech clicked on one-

-immediately revealing itself to be a video document in the worst way possible.

"AAAHHHH!" Arcee jerked back, screams ringing out from the file. "Stop! Please stop! Let me go, let me go, please!" Begging dissolved into incoherent sobbing, and the femme stared at the screen, dread filling her spark as she realized what she was looking at.

The camera was pointed straight ahead, just enough distance to show that two thighs were held apart by stirrups, a large form kneeling between them and…and a thick ribbed object filled with a silvery substance was being pumped into an opening between the legs.

Arcee knew the voice though, and she slammed her fist down on the close button, letting the video and its awful recording zip away. She whirled around and glared at Predaking, who had a pained expression on his face as he stared at the blank screen. "You didn't mention this."

Predaking glared back at her, his lip curling. "I mentioned he carried unwillingly, the only one of you who needed to know the truth was your medic." His scowled at her. "You nor Bumblebee were supposed to come here."

"Predaking," Bumblebee called, his voice faint and his expression shaken, "why…what…"

The Predacon vented deeply. "I take it that none of you are aware of the…differences between our races?" The yellow mech shook his helm. "That was Jack's valve, I closed his legs after I disposed of Shockwave, and that object was the spike." He frowned. "In my research, I found that you modern bots don't have those, so I suspect that for the purpose of this project that…Shockwave created one."

Arcee clenched her fists, gritting her denta as she couldn't get the sounds of Jack's screams out of her head. Even in her faintest hope that Jack had been alive, this had not even crossed her mind. Guilt gnawed at her. If we told Knock Out that we thought Shockwave had Jack, instead of lying to him, would we have been able to find him before this happened?

It was not a question she could bring herself to answer-they had failed him enough already.

"Predaking," Ratchet called, and the mech in question glanced at him, with the medic gesturing to the faint scrapes along the stomach, "are these…" he seemed reluctant to continue, "emerging scars?"

The Predacon vented again, and nodded. The medic's expression closed off. "From a double birth, as far as I can gather." Arcee jerked up at that, with Bumblebee flinching. This was the second time? "Shockwave told me that the sparklings were placed into hyper evolution chambers, after they emerged."

Arcee felt a different sort of dread creeping into her spark. The concern, the way they looked at Jack, the fact there were only two of them… "Darksteel and Skylynx, they're not clones, are they?"

Predaking stared at her, but then he slowly shook his head.

Arcee felt her spark tighten, vents working overtime as harsh breaths came out. She needed to get out, she needed to get out here now.

The femme stormed out of the room. She couldn't let Jack wake up and think even for a moment that her anger was directed at him.

Arcee's reaction was understandable, so Predaking didn't think less of her when she left. Only that Jack be taken out of stasis when she came back-if she must be here at all. Bumblebee looked deeply unsettled, and he couldn't even look at the computer screen.

It was Ratchet's attitude which Predaking took notice of though. He prodded around Jack's frame gently, but with a heavier guilt to his movements than either Arcee or Bumblebee had.

"Have you found any issues?" he asked, and the medic only glanced at him.

"Other than the regulated energon that's being pumped into him, and the healing scars-no, but," Ratchet's optics glanced down to Jack's pelvis, "I fear I do not have enough knowledge to exam his…valve."

"From what I saw when I came in, it did not look damaged," Predaking grimaced, "but I would not know much either."

The medic frowned, and with a glance at Bumblebee who was busy leaning against a wall, he lowered his voice. "To be honest, when I heard your explanation-I thought you were lying and had done this to him instead."

Predaking snapped his head in Ratchet's direction, offence written clear on his face. "You-!"

"Not now I don't!" Ratchet snapped. Bumblebee stirred, but otherwise didn't seem to be paying attention. "When Jack and I were in the same cell, he relayed to me that you only wanted him as his mate, that you're change of spark was because you just wanted to frag him." his optics lowered. "I never thought that Shockwave would be so…depraved to hurt Jack like this." His vents cycled heavily. "If I had even an inkling, I would have fought harder-I-" he stopped himself, his jaw clenching.

Predaking frowned, but forced himself to say the words which physically pained him to admit, "We all failed. Jack needs you to be in the present, and not to dwell on the past."