Chapter 124
-0-Med Bay
"What is going on, Ratchet?" Prime asked as he glanced at everyone in the room.
Ratchet glanced at them then replied. "Sunstreaker is sparked."
It was stone cold quiet a moment, then Sunstreaker got up, looking at Ratchet with an unreadable expression. "You need to check again."
Ratchet looked at him a moment then gently pushed Sunstreaker back down onto the berth.
Prowl glancing at Bluestreak and Sideswipe moved to stand between them and Sunstreaker. They had expressions of extreme shock on their face.
Prime glancing back at them then moved to stand beside Prowl.
Jazz stood rooted to the spot in his shock and surprise.
Ratchet plugged into Sunstreaker and went through the tests once more but the data declared the same outcome. He pulled the plug, then looked closely at Sunstreaker. "You didn't come in like they did. I waited for you but I didn't go find you. I figured you were an adult and I treated you like one. Now, Sunstreaker, are you going to continue to be one or are the mechs here, the muscle that I asked to come necessary?"
Sunstreaker looked at him, then the others who were as silent and still as statues.
Bluestreak shaking off the initial shock stepped forward halting when Prowl gripped his arm. "Sunny? Can you say something?" he asked anxiously.
Sunstreaker stared at them, then Ratchet. "How can I be sparked when they've taken measures?" he asked, his voice tense and edgy.
"The measures protect them. They don't protect you, Sunstreaker. If you'd done the same thing it would have. But you're unprotected and there was no way to prevent this. No one is to blame for this but you," Ratchet said firmly. "But I wouldn't use a word like that for this. I want to know what you feel about this and I know Bluestreak and Sideswipe do, too. Are you going to man up or not?"
Sunstreaker looked at him sharply as anger formed on his face.
Ironhide stepped closer his servos balling into fists as his menace grew.
Ratchet put his servo on Ironhide's chassis halting him.
"Sunstreaker?"
For a moment he didn't move or speak as a rash of emotions formed on his features, then fled. He stood like a statue, his fists curling and uncurling as he considered his predicament. A storm was fighting through his processor as he absorbed the body blow of Ratchet's announcement. The agonized expressions and emotions of his trine mates washed through him as well. He looked at them, at Prime and Prowl, at Ironhide and Ratchet. Then he looked into the office at the sleeping sparkling on the desk inside. Turning toward it, he walked inside to look down staring at Orion who lay recharging.
Ironhide moving to stand closer was halted by Ratchet's grip on his arm. He looked at Ratchet, then slipped loose to walk inside to stand beside Sunstreaker. "Sunstreaker?" he said softly.
Sunny looked at him with rage, disbelief and embarrassment crossing his face. "Ironhide."
"Sunny, I'm your proxy genitor and I'll do everything under the sun to help you but if you try to take this out on anyone else because you were too big a dumb aft to do what you and the others agreed to, I will kick your aft from here to Cybertron and back."
Sunstreaker looked at him with anger, then it faded to be replaced by anxiety and disbelief. He looked down at the sparkling, staring at it with an unreadable expression. "I don't know if I can do this. I'm a warrior. I'm a front liner. A sparkling? How the frag can I do something so awful and strange?"
Ironhide looked at him. "You look at that little sparkling there, Sunstreaker. Look at him closely. Look at him and listen to me carefully."
Sunstreaker looked at Ironhide, then down at the sparkling who was moving his arm in his sleep, moving his balled up fist to his mouth to suck on it.
"That little thing is my world. Ratchet and my infant. What Ratchet did, what he went through to give me a son is the bravest thing I've ever seen someone do for another. You say that you're a front-liner? So am I. You and me, we've seen everything that a battlefield can give us and we enjoy it. Maybe too much. Maybe it's true that we don't fear anything or so we say.
"But I do. I found out I really do fear something. I was too afraid to do this and I told Ratchet so. I couldn't do it because I was scared. Ratchet did it. He gave me a son and he did the thing I couldn't. I, Ironhide, a bad ass's bad ass, a chaos bringer, a front-liner, the most feared Autobot in the whole fraggin' army. I couldn't do what Ratchet did for me.
"You call this awful? It's a fraggin' miracle. It's a slaggin act of mercy for all of us, from a few to the many. We aren't going to end because Ratchet could do this. We'll continue because of you, Gear Shift and all the others who will follow Ratchet. You act like this is a terrible thing when it's a terrible mercy from Primus himself. It's the greatest service we can do for our people, this thing, right now. My son, our son is going to make sure we don't all at some point disappear forever. Your sparkling can, too.
"You don't have to like this. It's a shock. We know and we're with you on it. You know we will be. Just know it's the bravest thing any of us can do now. The ones who can do it, they're the most courageous among us. As much as I can do, as much as I fear very little, I was too afraid to do this."
He reached down to pick up his Orion, then cradled him in the crook of his arm. "I will never live long enough to thank Ratchet for this. Orion is the greatest treasure in my life besides him, the greatest thing that ever happened to me and I will never be able to make it up to Ratchet that I couldn't be the one to do this for him, too."
They stood together side by side, each of them silent as Sunstreaker looked at the sparkling. Outside in the Med Bay the others waited. Sunny relaxed a moment then looked at Ironhide. "I hate this, Ironhide. I hate it."
Ironhide nodded. "At some point you'll wonder why you waited as long as you did. We'll all help you."
He looked at Ironhide then out at the others outside of the room. He walked to Ratchet's chair and sat heavily.
Ironhide backed out of the office with his son as Bluestreak and Sideswipe swept inside sitting and kneeling around Sunstreaker. He leaned his elbows on his knees resting his helm in his servos, shaking his helm slowly with dismay as they both comforted and consoled him.
Ironhide backed out to stand with the others as they watched, unwilling to be relieved as yet.
Prowl looked at Ratchet. "What do we do, Ratchet?"
"Get ready to be grandparents, I guess," Ratchet said as he took Orion from Ironhide.
Prowl blinked with surprise and realization, then looked at Prime who was staring back at him with an equally shocked expression.
Then Prime grinned. "You finally get your sparkling," he said quietly.
Prowl ALMOST grinned back.
-0-A few minutes later
They walked out together, a silent Sunstreaker and a tearful Bluestreak.
Sideswipe reeling with surprise turned to the others. "I ..."
"Go and be with your family, Sideswipe," Ratchet said. "I'll let you know what the schedule will be for Sunstreaker."
Sideswipe nodded, pausing in confusion a moment before rolling out the door. It closed as the others looked at each other as the shock wore off a little.
"This will effect his status as a front-liner for a while," Prowl said as anxiety suffused him. "He can't be in danger."
"He can for a while. The first few orns are the worst and the last three decaorns. Right now he's about seven orns into this," Ratchet said grinning as Prowl reached for and took Orion.
The little mech looked at Prowl, smiling at his red chevron as he reached for it to fail as usual. Prowl held him, patting him almost absently as he considered the problems ahead.
Prime watching with a grin looked at Ratchet. "What do you think? Do we have a problem?"
"I don't know. There's programming that kicks in for carriers that makes it incredibly difficult to be anything but happy and protective. I guess because he took it with more grace than we thought he would its running."
"Can you tune it up?" Prowl asked as he swayed gently. He held Orion who was patting his chassis with his little servo. "I don't want any more chaos for any of them than we have to suffer."
Ratchet smiled. "The longer he goes the more it will initialize."
Prowl nodded, then looked at Orion with a smile gracing his face. He glanced at Prime. "We're going to have a sparkling."
Prime chuckled, then shook his head. "Sunstreaker is going to have a sparkling." He glanced at Ratchet. "I just got a cold chill hearing him say that."
"You don't want your own sparkling, Prime?" Ratchet asked jokingly. "I figured you'd be up for it leading us down the primrose path to glory and all."
Prime grinned, then shrugged.
Prowl looking at him with a smirk chuckled. "Panty waist."
They accessed the appropriate language files, then chuckled.
Prowl regarded Prime with a piercing optic. "I've never had a sparkling to worry about until you."
Prime laughed out loud. "You have four mechs, however."
"That's true." Prowl turned to Ratchet. He looked at him for a moment, then down at Orion in his arms. "I'm going to be coming around one of these days, Ratchet to talk to you about carrying."
Prime glanced at Prowl getting a pointed look in return. "Not right away. The youngling's infant will do for now. But I want one of my own eventually. Don't you, Optimus?" he asked. His wistful earnestness was painful to see.
"Whatever you say, Prowl," he said to general laughter.
-0-Nearby
They sat in the quarters, two on the berth and one pacing. They felt his turmoil and sent him all the love and appreciation they could manage. He felt it and it kept him from ripping his own throat structures out with his bare servos. He paused his pacing, then turned to face them with a critical gaze. "Why didn't you say anything? How could you not say you did this?"
"Sunny, we did. Don't you remember?" Bluestreak said. "I told you. Sideswipe told you."
Sideswipe nodded, shrugging helplessly as he stared at the two of them. "You laughed. Remember? You told me you would do it later."
Sunstreaker accessed the files and they were right. But it didn't matter. He was furious and embarrassed to the bottom of his peds. He, Sunstreaker, killer and all around yellow metal menace was fraggin' sparked. He looked at them. "Who's the sparker? You, Bluestreak? Or you, Sideswipe?"
They sat back in surprise, looking at each other with gathering anxiety.
Sideswipe stared at him with a deepening frown. "I didn't … I didn't directly 'face you, Sunny."
Bluestreak frowned as they both looked at him at the same time.
"What?" Sunstreaker asked with dread.
"It doesn't matter."
"It does," Sideswipe began but Bluestreak cut him off.
"It doesn't matter if you do it directly or indirectly." He halted with a look of embarrassment for a moment. "Remember that time when we got … uh, over energized and we … experimented with all three of us? When I was in the middle and you two were … plugged in?"
They thought a moment, then realization appeared on their faces. "Yeah, I remember," Sunstreaker said with a small amount of dread. "You were drunk and so were we. We decided to try a threesome."
Sideswipe nodded. "I wasn't anywhere near you, Sunny. I was plugged into Blue."
"It doesn't matter. We shared the energy. Even if you don't plug directly into Sunstreaker you shared the energy through me into him."
"I could have SPARKED MY OWN BROTHER?" Sideswipe rose. He stared looked down at Bluestreak in horror.
Sunstreaker glancing at Sideswipe with a mix of loathing and fury looked down at Bluestreak as well. "YOU MEAN THIS IS FRAGGIN' INCEST?"
"No," Bluestreak said as he stood up nervously. "I'm just saying that Ratchet told me that all the energy of a trine goes into making the sparkling. No one in the trine is exempt unless they don't plug in or merge at that moment."
"We … we merged. I merged with you, Bluestreak. Sunny was plugged in when I did. I remember it vaguely." Sideswipe shuttered his optics. "If I merged with you and he got the overload, too, he was sparked? We both sparked him?" He turned to Sunstreaker who was rubbing his helm with his servos. "It wouldn't be incest would it?"
"I don't … Let me ask Ratchet." Bluestreak commed Ratchet. :Bluestreak to Ratchet:
:Ratchet here:
:Ratchet, we think we know when it happened. Um …: He paused with intense embarrassment.
:Bluestreak, I'm your doctor. Spill:
:We were … experimenting: Bluestreak's face formed an expression of intense pain and embarrassment but he continued. :We were all three plugged in 'facing, then Sideswipe merged with me. Does that mean that the sparkling is made from incest? I know that sounds stupid and petty but we're really struggling here, Ratchet, and if you could tell us the truth about this we can figure it out better:
There was a pause, then an amused voice returned. :Bluestreak, relax. The energy was energy. I can check the spark code but the twins' code is identical and it won't have any effect beyond being the platform for half of the sparkling's genetics. It merged with yours and Sunstreaker received it. All three of you will contribute to this sparkling and incest doesn't apply. Being twins prevents it genetically from being incest. They're identical:
Bluestreak wilted with relief. :Thank you, Ratchet:
:You're welcome:
Bluestreak explained to the twins the new intel. They sat down suffused with relief and nervous exhaustion.
It was quiet a while then Sideswipe ventured. "Sunny? Are you going to be okay? Arewegoing to be okay?"
Sunstreaker staring at the floor glanced up a fierce expression on his face. "I don't know. I hate this. I want you to know that. But I like Orion and Silverbow and the others."
"So do we," Bluestreak said gently. He arose to sit beside Sunstreaker. "We love you, Sunny. We'll be with you every step of the way."
"But it'll be me screaming on the berth when it comes," Sunstreaker said. "Me alone."
It was silent a moment. Then Sideswipe resolved. "You didn't do what we asked. You got here by yourself but you don't have to be alone, Sunny. You know how much we love you. We would do anything for you. But this is yourgoof. Don't punish us for it. We just want to take care of you and be a trine."
Sunstreaker looked at his brother, his miserable expression and his dejected figure. Bluestreak was leaning against him with his blue optics shuttered and his figure as dejected as Sideswipe. Then he sighed, feeling strangely relaxed with the idea. A wave of calm suffused him. He considered for a moment the sensations. :Ratchet?:
:Ratchet here:
:I feel calm:
:Programming, Sunstreaker. You'll feel it help you through this. Let it. You'll never feel so good again as long as you live:
:Programming, huh?:
:Yeah:
[Pause]
:Can I talk to you tomorrow?:
:You can talk to me anytime, anywhere, Sunny:
[Pause]
:Thank you, Ratchet. I guess:
:You're welcome. I guess:
He felt Ratchet's chuckle rather than heard it. Looking at his trine mates he sighed. It sucked but he didn't care as much as before. Programming he thought. Fraggin' programming. "Blue? Sides?"
They looked up, hopeful. "What, Sunny" Bluestreak asked.
"I'm stuck."
Sideswipe smiled slightly. "We all are."
Sunstreaker looked at him for a moment. then nodded slightly. "Don't tell anyone. Anyone. Keep it to ourselves or I'll be hard to live with."
Sideswipe smiled as Bluestreak chuckled. "You mean more than you are now?"
Sunstreaker looked at Blue. "Ha-ha," he said, his voice only slightly tinged with bitterness. He stared at the floor. "I hate this."
Sideswipe smiled. "We know."