Nighthawk woke up to the sounds of the birds, her optics trying to focus on her surroundings. She sat up and watched the warship she had been forced to live on after her Stinger died fly off and leave her in the woods. She hugged her slightly round belly, hearing Newt's shrill cry. Newt had taken her place as Deathstrike's slave. She had been left on her own.
She buried her face in her servos and ignored the nudges of hungry sparklings. She just wanted to lay down in the leaves and remain that way as long as possible. She breathed in the scent of the leaves and was about to close her optics when she heard an aggitated voice that could only belong to her former second-in-command.
Starscream.
"You fools! Pick the Energon up and carry it like you mean it!"
She walked to the source, hearing drones huff and hiss under the weight of a large amount of Energon, larger than Nighthawk had seen in a long time. Her tank rumbled irritabely and the sparklings nudged harder. She stepped into the clearing, hoping her belly was not yet obvious. Some drones dropped their load and stared at her for a long moment and for a minute, Nighthawk thought she looked glorious. Then she looked down at her whipped and beaten body and she came to the realization that they were surprised she was even alive.
Starscream walked to her, his optics wary. "What do you want?"
"I wish to speak with your master, underling."
He growled at her. "Why do you want to speak to him?"
"I'm going to join your miserable faction, of course. This is better than nothing. I'd join the Autobots, but they're too soft. You are as good as its going to get. Now comm your master and tell him you have a new recruit or I'll do it for you."
The Seeker hissed and stomped off, but he commed Megatron. The warlord did not take long to arrive and Nighthawk saw that he did not change much in her absense. She forced herself not to run into his arms and confess everything.
"What is your name, femme?" He sounded rougher than Nighthawk realized, but she could not believe that her running off could destroy a mech, especially if that mech was Megatron.
"Call me Silence," she said, and she bowed her helm. "I wish to join your faction."
"Once you are cleared by Knockout and you are healthy, you may stay. I will not allow you to stay if you are sick or infected. We cannot spare medical supplies for a femme that is of no use to us."
She nodded and was led onto the Nemesis. She was left alone to sit in the MedBay while she waited for Knockout, her oldest friend. When the shiny red medic saw her, his optics widened and he ran in.
"What are you doing here? I thought you were going to live in the forest and have a decent life. Why have you returned?"
"I ran into a little difficulty," she whispered and she touched her belly. "Long story short, I pulled a Nighthawk...again."
"You got pregnant from a mech outside the faction!?"
Nighthawk let Knockout check her out and she blinked back tears when he said they were too far along to be removed. They were split-spark twins, strong mechs, and promising fliers. Apparently that was the upside to this, she thought bitterly down at her belly.
"They're truly magnificent," Knockout purred as he held up the scan of her belly. "They are perfect in every way: perfect size, weight... They're not even fighting each other like twins and triplets do."
Nighthawk remembered her last trine of Seekers and she sighed softly. "Yeah..."
Knockout sat beside her and gave her a promising smile. "They'll be fine. Just keep them in your room when they're born or something. Megatron doesn't have to know if you don't want to tell him."
She nodded a bit, touching her belly as she frowned. "They can survive on their own if my body decides to abort them?"
"I wouldn't recommend to return to duties so soon..."
"I was," she lied. "I want to get back as soon as I can."
"I don't recommend it. I will tell Megatron that you are to be in your berth all times if you are awake before me."
Nighthawk nodded and sighed. "Very well," she whispered. "I'll stay in my berth."
She slammed into a wall, growling in pain as she felt her body contract. She threw herself at the wall again and hissed through clenched denta. She laid down and let the Energon trickle out from between her legs and she gave a satisfied shaky exhale. After several minutes of fidgetting and waiting, she did an operation. She had to get the sparklings out. She could not allow the sparklings to live and grow up. She was not going to make the same mistakes as last time.
It was bad enough Nightshade and Starsong were born and allowed to live.
She patched herself up and stared down at the sniffling sparklings. They held each other for warmth, one green and silver, the other purple and grey. Their wings flared out and trembled, perfectly formed unlike Starsong's crippled and broken wings. She laid in her berth and waited for the sparklings' bodies to shut down, but like Knockout had said, they were strong.
And Unicron had a nasty sense of humor.
"Ahh!" Dreadwing bit his own talons, staring up at his mother as she fed Skyquake Energon. The two never faught and never attacked each other, which annoyed Nighthawk more than if they had bitten each other every chance they got.
Skyquake pushed his mother's servo away and Nighthawk went to feed Dreadwing next. The purple Seeker drank less than Skyquake and pushed the bottle over to his brother. Nighthawk growled softly and dropped the bottle between them. They blinked up at her and tipped their helms the same way.
"Huh?" They both gave her a questioning look.
"Will you two just fight?" She pushed away from them and hugged herself. "Nightshade almost killed both her siblings and here you two are fighting to make sure the other gets more!"
The split-spark twins held each other and fell asleep, the bottle not even half-full. She picked up the bottle and stored it, sighing softly.
"You two are impossible," she said, shaking her helm. She watched Megatron's future favorite mechs sleep until she laid beside them and pulled them against her chest, keeping them safe for now.
Dreadwing blinked up at his mother's face and touched her cheek, waking her up. He stared at her, his red optics blinking slowly as her own purple optics studied his face. He moved closer to her and let his helm rest above her spark. His mother sighed and pulled him closer and Dreadwing gathered his brother into his arms. The three stayed that way until his mother got up and bundled them into her blanket to sleep.
He blinked sleepily and buried his face into his brother's neck, falling back to sleep.
Skyquake woke up and began to mewl for his mother, Dreadwing joining in. They sat up, whimpering and crying for food as they held onto each other for comfort, but when the door opened, a tall skinny mech and long skinny talons found them and scooped them up. Skyquake stopped crying, scenting his mother on his armor and he saw her staring at them with sad optics. He held onto Dreadwing and trembled.
"When were you going to tell someone about these?"
"Never," she replied honestly. "They weren't supposed to be alive."
Dreadwing yawned up at the Seeker holding them and he reached for his mother, purring and cooing.
She jerked away.
Nighthawk stared at Megatron as the warlord held the split-spark twin Seekers. "I did not mean to offend you, my lord."
"Because of you, your sons will be seperated. Skyquake will be a sentinel and Dreadwing will be an assassin."
Starscream jumped forward. "You can't seperate split-spark twins!"
"Oh? I'm sure I can."
Nighthawk lowered her helm and accepted Dreadwing, ignoring Skyquake's cries and Dreadwing's sad replies. She laid Dreadwing on her berth and watched the sparkling search for his brother.
"Don't you get it? You're being punished for my mistake. And by the time you two are grown, you'll still be punished. Punished for what I did."
Dreadwing cried up at her and raised his arms to be held. Nighthawk slowly lifted him up and cradled the sobbing sparkling.
"I miss him too..."
Skyquake stared down at the floor, ignoring Megatron completely as the mech tried to feed him. He looked sadly up at him. "Dwead!"
"You cannot see your brother anymore," the mech hissed and pushed the bottle into the sparklings servos. "Now drink."
"No!"
Starscream watched the sparkling and bit his lip. "You shouldn't have seperated them. Now he will never cooperate."
"I just need him to grow up and then he'll be in stasis until I need him."
Skyquake crossed his arms and looked away, already a stubborn sparkling. He hid his face in his arms and growled at Megatron when he got closer. "Dwead!"
"I'll get you to be loyal to me, little sparkling, and when you are, you'll be happier and you won't even know you had a brother."
But Skyquake had Dreadwing memorized.
He was never going to forget.
Dreadwing strained to hear his brother, hugging a pillow that smelled like him. He buried his face in the fabric and conjured up an image of his brother laying beside him as they traced each other's armor seams. They were identical except for their colors. He felt the image slipping away.
But Dreadwing had Skyquake memorized.
He was never going to forget.