Disclaimer: Don't own TF: Prime, just a love for big trucks.

Review please? Oh, and from this point on it's basically AU, not going to keep with the Season Three Beast Hunter episodes...little hard to convert if Prime is "off active duty" in my fic versus the show...

Chapter Nine

Roar

xxx

Wheeljack had let Stephanie stay in his quarters with him, currently she was messing with a fish tank, old energon, a piece of metal suspended in the tank and fuel, and a car battery, he had no idea what she was doing.

"Hey...uh...Steph?"

"Hmm?"

"What exactly are you doing?"

"Trying to implicate a prototype of the schematics I've been working on." At this she held up a mini data pad, a tablet computer she'd called it. "Supposed to reanimate dead proto-matter, or at least enable someone to be able to work with it...once cut or shot off...the matter essentially is null and unusable...I'm trying to fix that so at least it can be used in emergencies for a patch when nanites are unavailable."

Wheeljack smirked, watching as she administered an electrical current to the tank, charging the metal with power to sustain life.

"I think you're missin' somethin', electrical fields and fuel isn't all that keeps us going."

"Yeah...I know, but electromagnets aren't easy to come by in the power range I need. And I'm kinda banned from several electronics stores..."

At that the wrecker laughed, standing and digging in a nearby bin, pulling out a handful of diodes attached to a power cell with wires.

"Here."

The teen smiled, hands nearly plunging into the charged tank without any caution before Wheeljack grabbed her. Energon literally ate human skin, burning the muscles underneath, and that wasn't counting the electricity coursing through it, probably strong enough to knock out a bot.

"Slow down there tiger."

She growled but undid the battery, using tongs to place the diodes and adjust the suspended metal before turning the power back on.

In less than a minute the tank was humming, the black crusted proto-matter shedding the outer layer of dead cells and turning a happy gray.

"Sweet! And it didn't blow up!"

Wheeljack laughed, carefully poking the metal in the tank and scanning it, the human had done it...flooded the dead matter with everything it needed, and Primus did the rest.

:Ratchet to Wheeljack.:

Steph looked up at the comm link buzz, the wrecker turning it on for her to hear, he had a tendency to stare at nothing when speaking.

":I'm here, what's up Doc?:"

:I have to operate on Prime within the hour, the bullet wound is growing infected and his systems are rejecting the sparkling. Chase ground bridged back to Maine to get medical grade energon from their ship, once he returns I'm going to need your help.:

Wheeljack sighed, helm ducking as his optics closed, ":Alright, comm me when you need me, I'll bring a containment case.:"

:Thank you. Ratchet out.:

Stephanie gave a weak smile as Wheeljack leaned back from crouching near her, servo rubbing at his scarred face plates.

"We'll show this to Ratchet later, after Optimus is in recovery."

"Makes sense, 's not like he'll be able to focus on much until then, this thing's only a shrunken version of a..."

"Stephanie?"

"...an incubator..."

Her soft words confused the wrecker as she jumped to her feet in surprise, "What?"

"What does a sparkling need to develop?"

"Energon, transfluid, heat, EM field to learn off of, electrical pulses...sensor array to care for it...what does that have to do with anything..."

Stephanie rushed between the mech's pedes, ducking behind a bin and squealing in delight when she found a larger fish tank, this one roughly the size of a full gestation chamber.

"Steph, what are you doing?"

"Help me! Pick this up and set it on your work table, we need to get it decontaminated and then warming up with energon, transfluid is just energon with high levels of certain elements right? Charged with electricity?"

Wheeljack nodded, moving the tank that could easily hold over 900 gallons, Steph was standing in it as he set it down, arms crossing over his chest plates as the human then laid down, curling slightly to fit.

"What are you talking about? What's an incubator?"

"Well, for eggs it's a heated and controlled capsule to hatch out the baby, for a human it's a controlled container for infants to keep them healthy when not developed enough to handle the outside world, mostly for premature births...scientists can't replicate a human womb, nor can we stimulate growth properly outside of that natural environment...blood isn't something that stay animated...but an electrically controlled environment...stimulated-"

"Could potentially manage to allow development...I mean there's likely to be complications, such as lack of a proper bonding with the carrier's EM fields-"

"But that can be simulated and then introduced at emergence..."

"Stephanie, you're a mastermind."

xxx

xx

xxx

Optimus was barely able to meet Wheeljack's gaze when he entered the med bay ten minutes before Ratchet told him to meet there. The medic was fixing up the medical grade energon into IV sets for easy administering, it was likely Prime was going to lose a lot.

Chase was prepping Optimus, cleaning the exposed wounds and setting a remote monitor on both Prime's and the sparkling's spark, if one went out...like the sparkling's prematurely...there would be problems.

Optimus groaned loudly as his frame tensed, a contraction rippling over the taut cables as fluid rushed from Prime's valve.

"Hey Doc? Might want to hurry, the seal's broke."

"It's the starter one, it's too soon for the main one, this early the Sparkling's in a second membrane within the chamber."

Prime blissfully went under with the sedative the medic jabbed into his energon lines, no longer in any pain as Chase and Wheeljack began to remove the armor protecting the gestation chamber.

The black sealed chamber had moved, probably due to the contractions, naturally they were tucked against the spinal strut, protected by parts until the emergence, moving forward so the strong cables that provided support for the armor plating could contract and push the sparkling out.

"Wheeljack-"

"Don't worry doc, containment case is ready, Fowler's already authorized a secure location for burial."

The last part was a total lie, all Fowler knew was Prime was losing the sparkling.

Ratchet nodded, scanning the chamber briefly to determine the sparkling's exact position.

Chase was monitoring Prime, keeping the IV running and the spark regulator primed just in case; the medic sighed softly before turning on his laser scalpel, making the incision neat and quick.

Wheeljack was ready with a suction tube, servo sweeping over and collecting every last bit of energon and transfluid. Medically he should have disposed of the fluid after the procedure, but Stephanie had helped rig a heat coil in his spare tank; after Cybertron broke out into war, Wheeljack had undergone training as a field medic, a spare tank sat in subspace for collecting spilling energon during a patch job to either use for CNA identification later or as donor "blood" in desperate times. The heat coil kept the fluid at the same temp from Prime's chamber...

"Chase keep that regulator hot, Wheeljack come and get ready to remove the fetus, once I find the umbilical stem-there!"

With a quick pressing of a button, the altered containment case was opened, hot and ready for the sparkling. When Ratchet would cut the stem connecting the sparkling to Prime, he would technically terminate the sparkling...

"Doctor! Optimus Prime is hemoraghing!"

"Fraggit! Wheeljack get that fetus out of him now, the chamber's collapsing."

Wheeljack nodded even though Ratchet didn't see, Prime was waking up out of the sedative, the excess bleeding affecting his spark.

"Chase get suction on that leak, keep the energon out of his spark chamber, Wheeljack!"

"On it!"

The sparkling barely fit in his servo, already rather large, the black and grey protoform was warm and pliable, one wrong move and the sparkling could be permanently crippled. The umbilical stem was still attached to Prime as the injured mech looked up.

"No..."

In an instant things went out of control, Prime tried to instinctively twist away from Ratchet, base coding telling him to protect the sparkling, the rest of him was in pain and nearing system failure.

"Magnus! Ironhide! Get your afts in here! Hold him down!"

The two were in the med bay in seconds, Magnus bracing Optimus' kicking legs while Ironhide nearly slammed all his weight down on Prime's shoulders.

"Wheeljack! Now!"

The knife sliced the stem quick, and the wrecker ducked out of the way to the containment tube as Ratchet moved in to stop the leaks and seal the incision.

"Slag...Magnus I need your authorization-"

Prime roared out, whether in grief or pain, Wheeljack couldn't tell, he was rushing to get the half collapsed umbilical line open again to accept the artificial fuel line.

"Frag, Magnus, yes or no, I need to put Prime in stasis...I can't have him fighting me!"

Magnus set his jaw, a low growl in his chassis as he nodded, Ratchet moved quickly, Prime tried to jerk his helm away but couldn't, his frame went limp in an instant as the stasis set in, a cry dying from his vocal processor.

"There...he'll stay out for several hours, I have to remove the gestation chamber, it's infected and going to poison Prime if not removed."

Ironhide growled, but stepped away as Ratchet moved to continue.

Wheeljack sighed heavily, closing the case as Magnus stepped up to him.

"Wheeljack, dispose of the case, I don't want to see it again."

xxx

Stephanie was waiting, she'd been busy, diodes and electrical pulse emitters were spaced out perfectly within the tank, a mesh and proto-matter sling ready to hold the sparkling, buoyancy was something they couldn't chance.

The tank was hot and ready for energon as Wheeljack set the case down next to the incubator, opening the lid to let Stephanie look and keep an optic on the weakly flailing sparkling. The mech immediately began filling the tank with the heated energon, filtering it for any impurities it may have picked up and flooded the tank with the transfluid.

A quick flick of the power switch turned it all on, the proto-matter on the sling turning healthy gray.

"Wow..."

Steph was hovering over the sparkling, not touching, but admiring.

"You poor baby..."

Wheeljack nodded in agreement, checking the artificial energon pump on the fuel line, "It's now or never..."

Stephanie backed well away as Wheeljack eased his digits under the sparkling, carefully cradling the fragile form and submerging the sparkling in the tank, spraying a gel coating over the surface of the energon to seal the top inch into a stiff gel to protect the sparkling underneath.

"C'mon little one...it's all up to you now..."

The pair waited with bated breath, the sparkling had to lock into the simulated EM field around and within the tank, with it whoever was in charge of the tank could care for the sparkling much like a carrier would.

"This reminds me a bit too much of Shockwave's cloning experiments."

Stephanie snorted, "Cloning for us is genetic manipulation with cattle or sheep...still need a surrogate mother to grow though..."

Wheeljack hummed in response, optics locked on the monitors, looking for a change.

The human notice first, the sparkling had been limp in the sling, and moved suddenly, curling in the tank before stretching and relaxing, seconds later the computer rating the artificial EM field picked up the sparkling's presence, adjusting to read it perfectly.

"We did it..."

"Thank Primus..."

xxx

xx

xxx

Optimus was sitting up and alert when Wheeljack stepped into the medbay, giving Ratchet a nod as the medic left to get some energon and check in with Prowl.

"Prime, I have some news...the sparkling-"

"No."

Wheeljack froze, the words dying in his throat, "Wha-what?"

"I...it doesn't matter...just...don't..."

"But Optimus, you really are going to want to hear-"

"I said No!"

The wrecker sighed but nodded in compliance, leaving as soon as Ratchet had returned, head down as he returned to his quarters.

"How'd it go?"

"Prime won't even let me bring the sparkling up..."

Stephanie sighed, "Give him time, if in a month when the sparkling's protoform will begin to harden and solidify into it's final size before emergence Optimus still won't speak with you...this will be a rather interesting surprise."

"Heh...some surprise..."

Review please!