The corridors of the Elite Guard ship were deserted and silent as the increasingly worried couple rushed through them. They listened for their sparkling's telltale wailing but could not hear it.
"What if they hurt her?" Spaceflower asked.
"I don't know. Let's just hope they didn't."
"They…they wouldn't hurt an innocent little sparkling…would they?" she continued, as Starscream started running. "Aren't they supposed to protect life?"
"Supposedly…Not that I'm saying they could ever be trusted."
"Or…or what if they branded her with the Autobot symbol and they're going to take her away from us?" Spaceflower sounded close to tears now. "I can't let them do that! She's our little sparkling! I wouldn't get to raise her and watch her grow up into the wonderful Decepticon she could have been."
The truth was, Sweetie wasn't branded with anything yet. Megatron wasn't going to do it until she was old enough to walk, talk, fight and take the Decepticon Oath. Branding was, essentially, an elaborate ceremony that involved everyone watching as you recited the Decepticon Oath, endured being branded with the Decepticon symbol (inflicting great pain for a few megacycles), and demonstrated every special skill you had. Some thought of it even as a ceremony to show that you were no longer a sparkling.
Starscream halted and turned to face Spaceflower, who looked broken. "My love, you can't always worry that the worst thing is going to happen. We just have to keep going. She's got to be around here somewhere. And besides, Autobots aren't branded like Decepticons are. They're actually just stickers."
"You're right," Spaceflower said quietly, then, to Starscream's surprise, she grabbed his claw and started flying down the corridor—flying, of course, was much faster than walking or running. Starscream wrested out of her grasp and turned on the rocket boosters on his feet, following after her.
They looked in every room they saw, searching for their sparkling. Usually they never liked hearing her screaming, but now that high-pitched, sound barrier-breaking screech was all they wanted to hear.
And finally, flying down the corridors, they heard not her scream but her laugh, coming from a room with an open doorway a few doors down. They landed on the ground and, as quietly as they could, looked into the room.
"Whose sparkling is this?" Ultra Magnus was asking, as he held Sweetie in his arms.
"We don't know," Bumblebee replied. "We found her on our doorstep one day and decided to adopt her as our own. She's really great to have around the base."
Optimus nodded. "We didn't want to take her away from her real parents, but she was so alone and helpless. Someone had to take care of her."
"Why was that Decepticon femme holding her then?" Ultra Magnus continued.
"She and Starscream were trying to capture her," Ratchet replied. "They wanted to make her into a Decepticon. We sure are glad you showed up when you did."
Starscream and Spaceflower looked at each other in shock. Was this all part of some elaborate scheme to get Sweetie off the ship safely?
"We can take her," Ultra Magnus was saying. "She can stay with us until we find her real parents."
"Don't take her!" Bulkhead cried, reaching for the sparkling.
"I know you've come to think of her as your own," Ultra Magnus replied, "but it's better this way. You know, you could be breaking her real parents' sparks."
Irony, Starscream thought.
Ultra Magnus walked over to a box sitting by the ship's window and pulled out a miniature Autobot sticker. He stuck it on Sweetie's chestplate and then sat down with her again.
"What do you call her?" he asked.
"We call her Sweetie," Optimus replied, looking upset. "That's her real name. It was in the basket with her. You know, when we found her all abandoned."
"Well, then she can keep her old name, for now," Ultra Magnus replied, pensively. "When she goes to Autobot School, they will most likely give her a new name."
Starscream realized Spaceflower was clinging tightly to him, her face turned away from the horrible scene of their sparkling being taken away and turned into an Autobot.
"I'll never get to hold her again," she whispered, barely able to say the words. "We'll never even see her again."
Starscream rubbed Spaceflower's back and stared into the room with hurt and anger. These Autobots couldn't be trusted.
I can't let them take Sweetie, Starscream was thinking. I would never forgive myself.
"I'll take her to Jazz now and let him fix up a makeshift nursery near the control room," Ultra Magnus said, standing up. "Don't worry. Sweetie is in good servos."
Optimus stood up to run after him, but Ratchet morosely pushed him back down.
"There's nothing we can do now," he said.
Starscream pulled Spaceflower away from the doorway and growled, "Let me in there. I'll get her back. And I'll show the Elite Guard a broken spark!"
"It won't help," Spaceflower told him sadly. "An attack will only make them want to keep her more."
"Well, we've got to do something!" Starscream yelled.
"And so we shall," Spaceflower replied, looking determined. "I have an idea."
…
Spaceflower picked up the box full of Autobot insignia stickers and took four out, slapping them on both sides of both of her wings. Starscream did the same thing, wincing as he did it. He had sworn to himself he would never wear an Autobot insignia again…but desperate times call for desperate measures.
Once the Autobot stickers were firmly on, they broke into the room where the Elite Guard kept their cans of spray paint.
"Is this permanent paint?" Starscream asked. "I don't really want a new paint job."
"It's permanent," Spaceflower replied. "But we can steal some spray paint in our real colors too, and change ourselves back once we return to base."
Spaceflower picked up a cherry-red spray can and sprayed the entire top half of Starscream's body with it, and his wings, too. Then she sprayed his bottom half with sky blue, then, to even it out, added a little more blue to the top. Starscream grabbed a light green paint can and sprayed Spaceflower from top to bottom, then sprayed her wings with a very lovely sunshine yellow. (It was kind of fun giving each other new paint jobs, even if they weren't permanent.)
Once the "makeover" was finished, Spaceflower and Starscream looked in the mirror that was leaning against the wall.
"Yuck," Starscream said. "We really do look like a pair of stupid, irresponsible Autobot parents."
"That's exactly what we're going for," Spaceflower replied, smiling. "Now let's go rescue Sweetie."
…
Starscream and Spaceflower ran down the corridors (again) heading for the control room of the Elite Guard ship, where they knew Jazz and Sweetie would undoubtedly be.
They knew they were getting close when they heard her screaming and Jazz, shouting over her, "I fed her and rocked her, but this little femme ain't shutting up!"
"There has to be something we can do!" Ultra Magnus hollered back. "I've never heard a sparkling scream that loud!"
"I think she misses us," Spaceflower whispered.
Starscream nodded. "Let's put this plan into action."
Spaceflower walked up to the door and knocked. When nothing happened (probably because they couldn't hear her knocking), she knocked even harder, with both servos.
Finally, Ultra Magnus opened the door. "Can I help you?"
"I hope so," Spaceflower replied. "You see, we are a young Autobot couple, and we live in a small city on Cybertron, but we were taking a vacation to Earth."
"One day, we were visiting the park and watching some humans play music," Starscream added. "Before we knew it, some horrible organic creature stole the basket that had our sparkling in it, ran off with it, and we haven't seen her since. Her name is Sweetie."
"We wanted to know if you had seen her," Spaceflower explained. "We've been worried sick."
Ultra Magnus and Jazz looked at each other in shock.
"Is…is this your sparkling?" Jazz asked, walking over to them with Sweetie in his arms.
"Sweetie!" Starscream and Spaceflower cried.
Spaceflower snatched Sweetie out of Jazz's arms and hugged her tight. "Oh, Sweetie, I'll never lose you again!"
"Thank you so very much!" Starscream added, shaking Jazz's servo, and Ultra Magnus's too.
Sweetie waved her arms happily and shrieked, "Mommy!"
"Did she just say 'Mommy'?" Starscream asked.
"Her first word!" Spaceflower cried, hugging Sweetie even closer. "I can't believe it!"
"We need to give Sweetie back to her rightful parents," Ultra Magnus said to Jazz. "It's the right thing to do."
"Thank you!" Spaceflower handed Sweetie to Starscream and hugged both Ultra Magnus and Jazz, then grabbed Sweetie back again. "We missed her so much!"
"I imagine you did," Ultra Magnus replied. "Optimus Prime and his crew won't miss her so much when they realize she's with her true family now."
"Who?" Starscream asked, playing innocent.
"They took care of Sweetie when she was missing," Ultra Magnus explained. "Maybe you would like to meet them?"
"Um…no thanks," Spaceflower said. "We just want to get our sparkling back on our ship and back to Cybertron before she gets lost again."
"But tell them she's safe now, and that we're taking her home," Starscream added, as he and Spaceflower backed away.
Jazz waved. "Have an awesome day!"
Starscream, Spaceflower and Sweetie ran away as fast as they could to the spray paint room and stole some cans of paint.
"I'm so glad we won't have to keep this hideous paint jobs," Starscream said, as he picked up some maroon-colored paint.
"If you've got everything, let's hurry back to base." Spaceflower handed a can of black paint and a can of dark pink paint to Starscream and started to leave the paint room. Starscream, now carrying Spaceflower's colors and his own, followed her.