Chapter 100
-0-Med Bay
"Don't move."
Ratchet stood beside the berth where Starscream lay. He had just replaced his helm plates and the plugs and wires were retracted and gone. The Seeker was swimming toward sentience once more, a slow reboot of his systems beginning. Ratchet turned to Springer who he'd called when Starscream began to reboot on his own. "Get his trine. Quickly."
Springer nodded moving quickly to the barracks that was their new home.
Ratchet holding Starscream down with a servo placed against his chest considered his options. He could have intercepted the reboot and disallowed it. It could have had dire consequences for future reboots or even have caused more loss of data. Or he could allow it to see what happened. He had done all he could do and now it was show time.
Ironhide came through the door and walked to the berth to move Ratchet aside. He placed his own big servo on the Seeker holding him in place more firmly. "He's coming around?"
"He's trying," Ratchet said moving back to watch his progress with an anxious expression.
Behind them footsteps were heard, then Skywarp and Thundercracker walked in followed by Springer who moved to one side to watch the group with a professional optic.
The Seekers came forward pausing behind the two as they looked at Starscream with fear on their faces.
Ratchet gripped Thundercracker's arm. "He's going to come out of this one of two ways. He'll either remember the last thing that happened to him or he won't remember much. It could be that it'll take time and de-fragging to make sense of the mess in his head. Or it might not. I'd tell you better things if I knew them, Thundercracker. I wish I could."
Thundercracker nodded glancing at Ratchet with a wretched expression.
Skywarp walked closer, his optics never leaving Starscream. "Can we hold him down?" he asked quietly.
Ratchet looked at him then nodded, glancing at Ironhide who was watching them both closely.
Skywarp stepped up to take Ironhide's place as Thundercracker moved to the head of the berth taking Starscream's helm in his servos.
Starscream struggling toward sentience didn't know they were there. He didn't hear or feel them. He flew through the darkness in his processor struggling to make his way upward where he instinctively knew that light and freedom lay.
-0-Autobot HQ, Earth
Prowl got the message that Starscream was coming around so he pinged Prime who was in a meeting at the N.E.S.T. HQ. He pinged back receipt and continued the meeting including the three that followed. By the time he reached Ops Center, the picture on Starscream would be more complete.
-0-Nast Home, Houston, Texas
Lydia Nast, thirty-eight, blonde slim, and socially connected paced the living room of their 26 room mansion in the tony Riverbend area. She'd sent the children to school and was waiting for her husband to call her. She was used to him being gone and out of contact for periods of time. That was the business he was in. But this felt off. This felt wrong. Turning with decision, she walked to the phone and called the office to get his private secretary. "Jeannie, have you heard from Bill?"
"Just the e-mail he sends when he's out of contact," she replied. "It all seems in order."
"What about Tom?" she asked.
"He's also sending the proper response e-mails, Lydia. Nothing is out of order."
She thought a moment, then made up her mind. This felt wrong and she would pursue it. "Get me Cole," she said.
"Please hold," Jeannie said as she re-routed the phone to the office of Cole Steward, COO of Intel-Martin and the next in line to step in if things went south.
To Jeannie Nast, things had just gone south.
-0-Med Bay
Starscream on lined his optics and stared at the ceiling, or at least the area above himself without blinking. Light overwhelmed him so he shuttered his optics for a moment allowing them to dial down to the proper reception. Opening them again, he saw color, blue and white and purple and black connected to two shapes looming over him closely.
He struggled upward but fell back weakly. He stared around as his vocal processor struggled to online. His mind was slow, his processes sluggish and he felt fear settling into his circuits, the sparkling electrical charge of panic suffusing him. Then a voice whispered to him, another joining and the sound of it, the softness of it soothed him. He relaxed, straining to look at the shapes which were slowly firming up, becoming mechs.
"He's confused," Skywarp said anxiously. "I don't know that he knows who we are."
"Give him a few," Ratchet said moving forward as he transformed his digits into diagnostic tools. He gently shouldered Skywarp aside and began to put softly spoken requests forward for Starscream to respond to and answer. The Seeker struggled, meeting some and not others before Ratchet stepped back, thinking hard as he glanced at the screens above which were showing the reboot and all the damage Starscream still had.
"Well?" Skywarp asked with fear and exasperation in his tone.
Ratchet glanced at him. "There's a lot of blank spots in the readouts. Some of his systems are not coming online. The diagnostic tells me that his internal repair systems are working on them and as long as they are, he has a chance to reclaim them. They'll stop when its clear that nothing can be done but for now they're still working. As for his mental capacity, I'd have to test it. For now, we just have to see what presents."
"Can we take him with us?" Thundercracker asked. "He might do well in our company."
"It depends on how this reboot finishes," Ratchet said. "I'll release him to you with caveats if he appears to be able to have basic functions and his energy and functionality are level."
Thundercracker nodded then looked down to watch as Starscream began to relax and look around. "Starscream, can you understand me?"
The Seeker looked up at Thundercracker hearing his voice and finding in it something familiar and his. "I know you," he said, his familiar raspy voice even more so. "I know you."
"You do," Thundercracker replied sadly. "You'll be all right. We're here and we'll take care of you."
Starscream looked at him and nodded, his optics looking around at all the rest of the unfamiliar mechs surrounding him. At least he had the familiar voice above him. At least he had that much.
-0-Joors later
Starscream sat on the berth, his head hanging as he waited for his equilibrium to settle. It made him nauseated to move at the moment but he was told it would pass. He hoped so. Nausea was awful. He'd come to sentience with a lot of damage but he knew where he was, who he was with and was wary. They were with the Autobots and he didn't know how. But Thundercracker and Skywarp appeared to be relaxed and comfortable so he decided to be the same. When they were away, they would talk. Until then he would do what was asked without comment. Until he knew the lay of the land, he would act like this was fine and okay. Until Skywarp and Thundercracker said otherwise, it would be how he would conduct himself.
"I can release him to you to take care of but it'll be with these monitors," Ratchet said turning to look at Starscream. "Starscream, I'm going to put these medical monitors on you so that if you need attention, if something hurts, bothers or fails we can come to help you. Here," he said handing them to Starscream. "Look them over and tell me if you understand that they're just medical diagnostic tools and nothing more."
Starscream took them looking at them with a critical optic. Thundercracker took them, too, looking at them more for Starscream's benefit than because he felt that there was anything to worry about. Handing them to Ratchet, the medic waited. Starscream nodded and they were attached. One went on his neck plugged into the medical port at the base and one went inside his chassis plugged into an energy node that was critical to the lower half of his body.
"Do you understand what you have to do? Are there questions?" Ratchet asked gently, looking from Starscream to the two other Seekers and back again.
"No," Skywarp said quietly, moving to one side of Starscream.
"I want you to know that if you can't do this then he needs to come back here. If this isn't done right and to the degree it needs to be then he won't recover fully. I hope you understand that not trusting us on this will be costly for him," Ratchet said, his focus on Thundercracker.
"We understand. Thank you, Doctor," Thundercracker said taking one of Starscream's arms.
He stood up swaying for a moment, then with helm held high, Starscream began to walk on his own, his trine mates standing on either side anxiously hovering as he walked to the door. He reached it then paused. Turning around to affix Ratchet with an intense gaze, he nodded slightly then turned back slightly unsteadily to walk out with Springer in tow.
They watched him go as they stood together, their thoughts their own, then Ratchet leaned against the berth. "This is going to be strange."
Ironhide nodded. "You're going back now, right? First Aid can manage this stuff. You can go home and rest, right?"
"I think so," Ratchet said as he began to gather up the instruments he had used, putting them on a tray nearby. "I'll brief him, then he can come to manage the after care. I think it'll be a good thing for him, managing a tough customer on his own."
"You don't need the aggravation," Ironhide said agreeing. "You need to think about the sparkling and not Seekers."
"First Aid can rebuild and repair the other Seekers, too," Ratchet said. "Good experience."
Ironhide nodded then began to help. The two returned Med Bay to its normal condition.
First Aid arriving at Autobot City two joors later was briefed about the Seekers and their condition. It was nearly midnight on Mars when they left, flying on Skydive as some of the Aerialbots returned and some stayed behind. Megatron was out there and without proof of his complete demise, they had to make themselves as invulnerable as they could.
-0-A shuttle, on its way
They knew how to share and make things last. They knew they would make it. The signal of Prime was stronger and constant, a beacon of light in the darkness of their lives. Sparklings slept, younglings played with homemade toys and the adults did the business of making the ship fly. The soldiers did, too. They were exhausted but they were also hopeful. Safety was beckoning them onward and they flew through the night time of space with the expectation of hope.
-0-The Seekers
They sat on the bench and looked at the sky. Starscream sat between them looking upward. They were safe, well treated and felt better than they had in eons. That they achieved this in the bosom of their enemies was not lost on them. They would help Starscream get back on his peds. Then they would ask him to make the oath with the Prime. When he did, when they were clear that they weren't a threat, then perhaps he would let them fly again. Perhaps they'd be able to fly together, soaring in the skies where they truly belonged. Prime would let it, they were sure.
He was the Prime.
He wasn't Megatron.
Starscream leaned on Thundercracker's shoulder, his servo linked with Skywarp. He leaned on them, illness suffusing him but in some ways he felt better than he ever had. All he wanted to know now, all that mattered at the moment was the location of Megatron and when he would step out of the shadows to strike him down once more.