Darkness and Lightning 10: Shocking News

Wing hovered in a corner of the medbay nearest his mate, arms wrapped around himself, shifting his weight restlessly from pede to pede. His gaze was locked on the black and gray frame of his mate, wings vibrating against his back and Great Sword complaining about it. The dark jet was too overwhelmed with worry to notice.

He and Drift had been sparring when the grounder had unexpectedly collapsed. Wing had not inflicted any damage beyond scratches and scuffs, nothing that would account for Drift's sudden collapse. Wing had stared at his mate for a moment before actually dropping his swords and darting to his mate's side. He'd then picked his mate up and flew him to the medical wing of the Citadel. His swords were most likely where he had left them, on the floor of the arena.

Now he was waiting restlessly for Redline to tell him what was wrong with his lover.

The sudden shocked ripple down Redline's entire frame before he whirled on Wing with a stunned, half horrified expression sent Wing even more on edge as the larger mech stalked to him. "What were you two thinking?" he hissed.

Wing backed up until he hit the wall, staring at the medic in pure confusion. "What are you talking about? What's wrong with Drift?" He flattened himself against the wall, hoping Redline wasn't going to take a swing at him. The dark jet had no room to dodge.

"He's with newspark," Redline hissed. "Two metacycles old. The only reason he lasted this long are all those redundant systems he's got."

Wing gawked at the older mech, jaw dropping. His golden optics were as wide as they could possibly go. "He's carrying?" the dark jet squeaked. This was news to him.

"Yes he's carrying. Congratulations. Your creators are going to deactivate both of them, if not all three of you. What were you thinking, disabling the safeguards I installed in you both?"

"We didn't!" Wing protested. "Considering how many times Drift and myself have gotten slagged by my creators, I am not surprised the damage disabled them. That makes it your fault for not noticing." Golden optics blazed as Wing puffed up, glaring at the medic with enough heat to make Redline take a step back. "And my creators are not going to find out about this. Compute?"

Redline narrowed his optics. "What will you do with it once it separates?"

"We will keep this sparkling, and we will raise it," Wing informed the medic, still glaring up at the larger mech.

Redline cycled his optics several times. "How?" he finally stammered. "How will you keep it a secret that long?"

"However I have to," was the response. "However we have to." He tilted his helm toward his mate.

A deep x-vent escaped Redline and he rubbed his faceplates. "Do you have any idea what you're getting into? What you'll need to keep a sparkling healthy until it's old enough? Or even how you'll make it a citizen?"

"I can find out what we will need from the databases," the dark jet answered, the set of his wings and features determined. "And we will think of something. But we will keep this sparkling."

"All right, all right," Redline sighed deeply. "Let me bring him up to operational levels and then we're going to have a talk in my office."

Wing nodded, his tense posture relaxing. He trailed Redline over to Drift's berth, waiting and watching while Redline worked on his mate. He knew enough medical procedure at this point to pick up that what had caused Drift's collapse was something to do with energon and supplements, since that was all Redline seemed to pumping into him.

"You're going to have to keep Drift away from everyone for the second half. His frame will reconfigure to make room for the protoform to be built," Redline said conversationally as he monitored Drift's levels. "It will be very obvious to anyone with half a processor what's going on, and especially obvious to your creators, as they've been through this a few times."

Wing nodded. "I will keep that firmly in mind." He kept his optics on his mate. "Drift is not the most social of mechs to begin with." The dark jet was making careful note of everything, giving it the highest priority tag in his processor.

"An advantage," Redline acknowledged. "He will need extra energon, and many supplements, either in his energon or in his diet somewhere. Extra recharge. I recommend spark merging and you spiking him often, if you want the sparkling to have any real chance of being a flier. The less of you that Drift takes in while he's carrying, the more the sparkling will take after him."

"As often as he will let me." Wing nodded again. "I'm well-versed in sneaking things past my creators, so the supplements shouldn't be too difficult to stash. As for spark merging... We have a very hard time resisting."

"I have noticed," the medic rolled his optics. "He's likely to be even more volatile than before. Far quicker to take offence and far more likely to kill when threatened, with a lower threshold for what constitutes a threat. You'll find yourself even more prone to violence to protect him, whether he needs it or not."

The dark jet considered that. "Definitely a good reason for him to avoid the others." He flared wings and pinions. "I understand."

"Good," Redline nodded. "I expect you get him here when the sparkling is ready to separate from his systems. It should begin with warnings to his HUD at least six joors ahead of time. I also expect to see him for a checkup at least once a metacycle, if not more often, and no damage. If he gets slagged again, it won't survive and it could take him down with it, depending on the timing."

"I will make sure he understands that if I have to sit on him and repeat it to him several times a night." Wing smiled slightly. "And I'll make sure he comes for his appointments."

"Good," Redline seemed to relax a bit. "Other than his lifestyle, he's actually reasonably well suited to carry. His spark is extremely strong and stable and his systems are very well built and maintained, even before I got my hands on him."

Wing purred softly. "Drift is strong. And the medic from the other dimension did very good work on him."

"That he did," Redline murmured. "He should be coming around now."

Wing took a step closer, concentrating on his mate now that he knew Redline wasn't going to swat him. Dark fingers ran lightly over Drift's cheek. ~Wakey wakey, lover of mine.~

~What hit me?~ Drift allowed himself to boot naturally. If Wing was calm, whatever danger was past.

~Energy drain, I think...~ Wing debated for a moment. Did he want to shock his mate? He got so few opportunities. But then, Drift generally didn't take surprises all that well. ~You're going to have to consume more energon from now on. And add extra supplements to your diet.~

There was a momentary pause as Drift shifted to a fast boot. ~Why?~ He asked, decidedly suspicious, though he didn't know about what.

~Because I don't want to lose you or the sparkling you're carrying,~ Wing replied, twining his fingers with his mate's. Drift's reaction to that promised to be interesting, to say the least.

There was a long moment as Drift processed the words, and the bond went dark again.

"You glitch!" Redline snarled and whacked Wing on the back of the helm. "You told him, didn't you?"

Wing yelped, ducking away from the swat. "I can't hide anything from him!" He rubbed the back of his helm, glaring at Redline. "He'd have it out of me one way or another." Wary now, Wing hovered just out of reach.

"Now we have to wait for him to boot again," the medic growled. "You. Come." He demanded and twisted on one heel to stalk toward his supply room.

The dark jet slinked after the medic, glowering at Redline's back as the two walked into the supply room. Wing remained out of reach, not wanting to get smacked again. He watched as Redline snagged a box from a shelf in the back and held them out to Wing.

"The supplements he'll need for the next metacycle," he said coolly. "I'll give you the next batch when he comes in for his checkup."

Wing accepted the box, tucking it into his subspace and murmuring his thanks. It would save him a lot of trouble and no small expense in all likelihood.

"If this hits the fan, I will deny knowing or helping," Redline warned him. "Until then, I will do what I can for that sparkling."

The dark jet looked at him for a moment, then nodded. "Understandable. And thank you."

There was a lingering pause as Redline regarded the relative youth before he softened. "If you have questions, come to me. A sparkling is going to be an even greater challenge than becoming a Knight."

Wing relaxed. "You'll probably be seeing a lot of us, then. I'm aware of the challenge; I have seen other sparklings being raised. But it would be worth it."

Another nod, then a pause. "If this goes poorly, I will miss you both," he muttered before stalking out of the supply room and back to Drift's berth.

"We're not that easy to get rid of," Wing cracked with an internal shudder, not wanting to think about the possibilities of what might happen if they got caught. He followed Redline back out into the main bay, reaching out to take Drift's hand again. It didn't take his mate long to rouse again, this time the fast boot happened right off the bat.

Deep red optics lit and sought out Redline.

"Yes, he told you the truth," the medic said evenly, giving no hint of what he thought about it. "Are you steady enough to walk?"

Drift nodded mutely, his side of the bond with Wing swirling with emotions, not one of them positive and most flowing into dread of one form or another.

"Then I'll let you talk this over in my office for some privacy," he motioned them to the door.

Wing gripped his mate's hand, leaning against the black and gray mech's shoulder. He was pushing reassurance through the bond as he led Drift over to the medic's office. Drift remained silent as the door closed behind them. Only after it locked did the tremor Wing could feel make its way to expression.

"We're screwed."

The dark jet pressed himself against Drift. "Not if we don't get caught." One dark hand rubbed Drift's chestplate, over his spark.

Deep red optics met golden. "We couldn't keep the bond a secret, how will we manage this?"

Determination echoed through the bond. "We'll manage. We won't repeat the mistakes that got us caught before."

Drift's forehelm came to rest against Wing's, the trembling just as pronounced as before. Memory snippets, half-thoughts and fears swirled together. What Drift had seen happen to sparklings and younglings, things that horrified even Wing into realizing that as violent as his life was, the cruelty he knew was nothing compared to what was out there.

Dark wings and pinions flared out. Wing had never seen, or even heard anything that horrific before. That didn't happen in New Crystal City, and he told his mate as much.

Eventually Drift managed to nod, their forehelms still together. He pressed tightly against his mate as new fears flickered up. The simple fact that those horrific memories were Drift's only knowledge of sparklings. He'd never been one. He'd never seen one that wasn't about to die.

Wing countered with images of sparklings playing around the feet of their creators, chasing the occasional bug that made its way down from the surface. Sparklings growing up, becoming craftsmechs in the city and Knights in the Citadel. The dark jet pressed against his mate, chirring softly.

He wanted this sparkling. Wanted to raise it. Love it. Watch it grow and become something.

He felt Drift began to give. The grounder wasn't nearly so sure, but he could deny his mate nothing, not even this.

Wing purred, nuzzling close, flooding the bond with warmth. He wanted to see this sparkling become a Knight. Wanted to see it wielding a Great Sword of its own. Tilting his helm, the dark jet's golden optics met Drift's red.

This would work, he promised silently.

Slowly, Drift nodded. He didn't know what he was getting into, but he'd do it for Wing.

They tensed as the door opened, but relaxed when it was only Redline who walked in and locked the door behind him. The medic sat behind his desk and motioned the young couple to sit across from him. "Do you have questions yet?"

Wing settled into a chair, keeping his fingers twined with his mate's. "I'm sure half a dozen or more will hit me later." He looked at Drift, knowing his mate probably had some questions he'd want to ask. The grounder looked more than a bit lost.

"Never seen a sparkling or carrier live long enough to pay attention," Drift mumbled. "Sparked mech."

Wing tightened his grip on Drift's hand, stroking his thumb over his mate's fingers. "Tell us what to expect, what Drift can expect, while he's carrying. Physical, emotional... Everything."

The medic nodded and databurst them a batch of files to review as they had questions or time.

"You can expect odd cravings for solids. These will be materials that you are not consuming enough of to produce the protoform and are being harvested from your frame. Indulge them. The supplements I gave Wing are the basics. Every protoform is a little different. You can expect mood swings and intensely violent reactions to anything you perceive as a threat, even if it wasn't before.

"Likely the most obvious change will be to your frame. In roughly half a metacycle, assuming I have the new spark's age correct at three, your lower frame should begin to reconfigure to have room to build the protoform. When that happens, anyone who sees you will know you are carrying."

"Which means no one here can see me for ... how long?" Drift asked.

"At least five metacycles, between the carrying stage and recovery stage where your frame reconfigures to its original design," Redline supplied.

"It helps that you're not the most social of mechs," Wing added, leaning against Drift's shoulder. "No one really expects you to socialize, more or less."

"They still see me more days than not," Drift pointed out. "If I can't be seen, I can't be in the Citadel at all. My duties, chores, everything we'll have to trade off or you'll have to do. And you know how much Dai Atlas likes sticking me in the sewers when he forgets I hate heights."

"It will be worth it," Wing insisted. "It will all be worth it."

Uncertainty and confusion flickered across the bond from Drift, but he didn't question the statement.

"You will require more energon, more recharge, and for Primus' sake, don't get into any fights," Redline locked optics with Drift. "If you're damaged, the sparkling is likely to be lost and I may not be able to save you either."

Red optics cycled in surprise before Drift nodded his understanding.

When you receive a warning of separation beginning on your HUD, you will have less than six joors to get here, or to the hospital in the city," Redline said seriously. "While it should progress safely without interference, there is very little in the literature or my experienced about a sparked mech carrying."

"I'll fly him here if necessary," Wing chirped. "Few are faster than I am in the air." Black wings flared. The dark jet radiated determination that he would get Drift there as fast as his turbines could take him if it was necessary. Probably even if it wasn't.

~Six joors, lover,~ Drift chuckled silently. ~That's a long time to make the distance.~

"I'm sure you will," Redline agreed, well experienced with the tenacity of both mechs before him. "Other than greater energon and recharge needs, you should see little change in the next metacycle. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to comm me," he databurst them both a private comm code, one that came with a heavy encryption. It wouldn't keep a determined comm specialist out, but it would be good against most. "I will warn you what I told Wing. If you are caught, I will deny any knowledge."

~Still.~ Wing leaned over to rub his cheek against Drift's. ~I'm allowed to be paranoid.~

The dark jet nodded to Redline, entering the comm frequency into his database. "We will, and we understand."

"Good. Now what should I tell Dai Atlas when he wonders what happened to Drift?" Redline asked.

"Pushing himself too hard and not getting enough fuel," Wing replied promptly. "Running on fumes."

Redline nodded. Drift grunted, annoyed but agreeing by his silence.

"Then scat, and start working out how you're going to survive the next vorn," Redline shooed them.

The dark jet nodded. He tilted his helm at Drift. ~Ready to head back to our quarters?~

~Yes,~ he agreed and stood, still more than a bit numb from the past joor and willing to follow his mate's lead.

Wing pressed his shoulder against his mate's, guiding the other mech back through the corridors to their quarters. As soon as the door closed behind them, he was pressed against Drift's dark frame, soon wrapped in Drift's arms and kissed.

Drift wanted to overload, to forget the news he'd just gotten for a little while.

The dark jet purred, rubbing against him, hands gliding over black and gray armor to find all the really sensitive spots. Slender wings fluttered out for attention. Wing slowly backed toward the berth, tugging Drift after him.