A/N: Rereading this, it's still got some rough patches. After spending an absurd amount of time getting this teeny, tiny little chapter to cooperate at all, I think I'll call it good enough *cough*
There was no time to react, no time for anything but brace himself for an impact that never came. Whatever Will had expected – death, blinding pain, instant insanity – it didn't come. Instead he felt himself falling hard and fast into something heavy and suffocating and with the one, overriding demand of yield.
Bonding with Ironhide and Ratchet had been give-and-take, as close to equals as they could be with neither Will nor the Seeker having anything in the way of experience. Spark-merging with Ironhide had been terrifying and overwhelming and perfect in a way that made his spark sing and even more than the bonds, that had been a connection of equals and continued to be a give-or-take thing, because there was no such thing as offering only part of who you were when you offered someone your soul.
There was no such thing with Starscream. It was a mockery of a bond, used for control and dominance rather than actual bonding, and every instinct in Will's body responded to that feeling of wrongness that penetrated their mind. There was an infinitely small connection under Will's control that bound Starscream to him, little more than a whisper of something as subroutines somewhere in the back of his mind worked desperately to fill out the many, many holes in their knowledge with some of Starscream's experience, however unlikely they were to survive for long enough to use it, but most of the bond was in Starscream's hands and he abused it ruthlessly.
Maybe it was an Air Commander thing, maybe it was a Starscream thing – Will didn't know but almost had to assume the latter – but whatever it was, it was painfully effective as the fragger seemed to know exactly what he was doing as he sank his claws into Will's memories. Something he had tried before, undoubtedly – it felt too much like competence bred from experience and something in Will's mind shuddered at the thought.
Wrong. This was all wrong.
And then that thought was gone again as Starscream struck and it felt like every sensor in his head flared brightly in pain as mental crawls raked through his memories with no thought of care or finesse. Starscream's forced connection was nowhere as deep as the spark-merge with Ironhide but it was more than enough to get the job done. Brute force made up for the rest as Starscream crushed the last, weak remaining defences and went through the memories behind them with impossible speed.
Images became organised chaos around them, thoughts and memories and things Will had never known he even remembered – sharing with Ironhide had been daunting enough; what Starscream was doing had his human part demanding they damn well put up a fight whether it made a difference or not but something stopped him before the thought had ever even solidified into words. Sure, reason told him that fighting wouldn't make a bit of difference other than get them killed in the process and that Starscream would get what he wanted one way or another, but he had never listened to reason much. The half-formed thought of using the chance to attack from the inside and do whatever damage he could through their bond remained just that – a half-formed thought held back by something stronger than Will's own stubbornness.
Starscream clearly felt that - satisfaction was the sole emotion across their bond for a long, painful second - and then the memories picked up speed and there was little Will could do to keep even his thoughts coherent anymore. It was too much, too fast, too disorganised, and if they got out of this alive he was going to go into recharge and not wake up again until the Pit-spawned hangover they were bound to end up with was well and truly gone.
Will had heard of seeing your life flash before your eyes but this was just ridiculous.
Then Starscream's attention was completely on those memories and Will felt the bond settle in his spark in a way that felt vaguely nauseating as he got at least a small bit of control back. Every Seeker instinct told him that this was the Air Commander and that it wasn't just right but an honour to have Starscream's attention given to him like that. His human part would have had some choice words to say about that but the same unwanted something in his mind reined him in again.
If it hadn't been for the fact that his Seeker-part felt as unsettled about it all as Will did, he would have expected that pain-in-the-aft coding it came with had been behind it. As it was, though, Will was getting that sinking feeling again that something was very, very wrong.
He should be angry or panicking – he should be feeling something other than mostly-numbness, with Starscream rummaging around in his very soul and about to stumble across some highly incriminating memories at any moment and with a missile through their spark being the most merciful result of what Will could imagine Starscream might settle for.
It might have been something of Starscream's doing but somehow he doubted it. Everything Starscream had done had been uncomfortable at best. The thing in his mind that kept his aggression reined in was... different, numbness more than anything and every bit as unwelcome as their fragger of an Air Commander.
He felt it the moment Starscream reached the first of the memories that mattered.
Their mental world froze with Starscream's second of shock. One, two seconds to consider what he had seen and for the memories to register, seconds more for shock to fade enough for anger to take over, and then a maelstrom descended on Will's mind and lit up their world with bright, blinding pain. Memories went past with impossible speed, too fast for Will or the terrified youngling in his mind to keep up with, but Starscream knew now, knew what he wanted and the pace picked up, dizzying and downright painful. Whatever protection being a Seeker had offered him, it was clearly not going to matter anymore.
Glimpses of Ironhide, Sarah, Ratchet – lingering on the medic, on long explanations that only made the fury grow brighter; memories of bonding and spark-merging and claiming a fleshling for a mate, and even if Will had planned it all for the sole purpose of pissing Starscream off, he couldn't have done a better job.
If there was anything rational left in Starscream's mind at all, Will didn't notice it... and neither, obviously, did Starscream.
Fleshling. A worthless fleshling!
Ironhide had sent pain through their bond once – not for long, nothing strong, but enough to prove that it was possible. That had only been intended to get his attention, never to cause any sort of damage.
Starscream had no such desires.
Something constricted around his spark and sent a flare of panic through every responsive system he had left. Heavy pressure and too little room to contain it and constricting further with every flare of it that Will felt; blind panic as their spark drew desperately on energy-reserves to fight back - and then, blessedly, he could breathe again and he was only vaguely aware of the rasping of his vents as his systems demanded every bit of cooling air they could offer.
Will was surprised they were still alive to do that at all. Judging by Starscream's fury, so was he. The fragger had stopped short of killing them and Will got the very clear impression that it hadn't been supposed to happen like that, that whatever had happened had been against Starscream's best efforts-
- And a moment later it clicked as the maelstrom around them continued and his Seeker-part's knowledge merged with his own to offer fragments of memories that he had done his best to deny.
Can't hurt a bondmate, can't kill a bondmate, and until they raised a weapon against Starscream and proved that their choice of faction had been purely theirs, their Air Commander would consider them just a misguided youngling and that crime had never been punished by offlining by any Seeker. Not even Starscream.
Programming ensured that nothing short of the threat of death of someone they considered theirs would let Will go after Starscream with intent to kill. Starscream had just learned the same lesson about his reluctant new bondmate. It didn't matter what they were, then - human or Seeker, the programming didn't care; all that seemed to matter was the bond, the spark, and the body and programming that marked his build as a Seeker and that-
… that, Will could work with.
He offered a toothy, mental smirk in return and that was all the warning Starscream got before Will struck back with the only thing he could - the newly created bond that still sat uneasily in his spark where his proper mates should have been.
Can't kill a bonded unless it's a life-and-death situation, can't kill a spark-merged mate at all, and going by that logic... the stronger the bond, the stronger the compulsion to keep them safe. Will was already stuck with those instincts as it was. It would only be fair to level the field a little and make Starscream deal with the same headache, too.
His Seeker-part agreed with surprising fierceness - maybe because it was its Air Commander, maybe out of protective urges, maybe because it craved a little bit of payback just as much as Will did right then - but it agreed and added its own vicious force behind the attack. Will had only vaguely been able to feel Ironhide's pre-existing bond with Ratchet when they had spark-merged, hadn't been able to feel Ratchet's other bonds at all when he had bonded with him - it could have been a conscious decision or because he had been too out of it to really notice or because it was something he hadn't been supposed to feel at all but right now, Will wasn't about to let minor things like that get in their way.
Starscream already knew about his bonds so there would be nothing to lose by revealing them. If Will could force through enough of that same programmed inability to harm a mate or a bonded to affect Starscream, it would be worth it, too. Any kind of hesitation could be enough time to get a target-lock or get the hell out of the way. Anything past that would just be an added bonus as far as Will was concerned.
Starscream's defences were up in a moment but Will didn't care. It occurred to him that they shouldn't be able to do this, didn't have the skills or the strength or much of anything else to back them, but sheer stubbornness pushed that thought aside. Somewhere in the back of his mind he was aware that the numbness was fading fast – programming, Primus' games, whatever it had been – and he used that to his full advantage now.
Will ignored the last, feeble bits of common sense that reminded him of how deeply it would bond them to Starscream and then forced the memories through their bond - bright and fierce enough to make their spark flare and send a surge of sheer pleasure through their systems.
Ironhide; ancient, brutal, loyal – everything a mate should be, everything they could ever want in a comrade-in-arms and bonded. Someone to have their back in battle and stand by their side when the enemy struck, someone who would take on an army alone if that was what it took to keep what was theirs safe, someone who understood them enough to agree to the promise that Will had made him give and someone strong enough to keep it, if it ever came to that.
Memories of Ratchet followed closely after, small bits of coding following along to force their way through Starscream's defences – nothing Will knew the first thing about and nothing he cared about either at the moment, lost in the presence of the medic instead; solid, skilled, and relentless, with an echo of Seeker mannerism that sang to the Seeker parts of Will's mind and physical enough that his human side agreed as well – someone who knew what they were dealing with, knew what they needed, and who would be there through every step of it that he could while he tried to teach their Seeker-human their way of life.
He felt Starscream lash back, blinding pain tearing at his mind but it was lost in a haze of blind determination. They were too far gone to stop, too far to care in the least what Starscream threw at them, and if they lived through it at all, he knew they would regret it later but right now it didn't matter in the least.
Memories of Sarah burned through the haze in his mind, small and fragile and impossibly strong, and this was what a Seeker's mate should be. The spark was right, even if she was human, the determination and willingness to do whatever it took to keep family and kin and mates safe – come back alive, the memories whispered and he knew without shadow of doubt that whatever he chose, whatever he became, whatever oaths he might break in the process – as long as he came back alive to her she wouldn't care. Loyalties were fleeting. Mate and kin were what mattered.
And then, as sudden as it had begun, Starscream's presence vanished back into the outside world and forced Will's with it. It was vicious, painful, and mercifully quick and then the world was sand again, kneeling in a desert dune and unaware that he had moved at all, and every part of his mind was still trying to regain some sort of balance from the new, unwanted bond.
Brutal fingers gripped at his throat, tightened-
- And stopped.
Will could feel the tremors in Starscream's hand as he fought to finish the motion and end their lives, the compulsive twitches as he almost succeeded only to fail at the last possible second – if it had been anyone else, any other situation Will would have laughed but even he had some measure of self-preservation and knew that maybe, just maybe provoking the unstable Air Commander might not be the brightest idea.
For once he chose to listen... until the moment Starscream snarled in disgust and aimed his Gatling gun straight at their spark, pure murder in his optics as he watched them.
"What did you do to me, fleshling!" he demanded.
And William Lennox, safe in the knowledge that whatever had decided to fuck up his life had found a brand new playmate to join him, did the only reasonable thing he could.
He laughed.