I'm breaking on of my rules of 'consistent chapter lengths' with this slightly shorter than usual chapter, but oh well. I won't keep you here any longer, you wonderful readers you
xx
Optimus detected only one life signal in range when he emerged in the depths of the rocky forest landscape- buried under a recent rockslide. Not a good sign. He managed to shift a few of the granite obstructions before he spied white flailing armour amidst the dirt and dust.
"What took you so long, Bulk? Don't tell me ridin' with Prime have made ya'-" Wheeljack's chuckle halted at the sight of Prime standing over him, glare hard against the silhouette of his armour and the glowing moon set behind him.
"Soft..." The Wrecker was roughly hauled to his peds, spilling off the other rocks piled on top of him, and worked on brushing his armour down rather than making optic contact with Optimus. "Nice of you to make it to the reunion at last."
"I am willing to overlook that remark if you direct me to where Bulkhead is." Wheeljack's optics reflected a foreboding uncertainty to Optimus' question.
"Oh he's near here, sure... uh... just need to dig around a bit..." Blue optics narrowed and squeezed into slits of controlled rage.
"You placed one of my Autobots in danger-"
"With all due respect, sir," Wheeljack cut in while he flexed an aching shoulder joint. "Bulkhead knew the risks. Every Wrecker does." Prime's glare hardened further as Wheeljack turned back to the stones. "Now I'm sure he's just... somewhere in this rubble." Optimus wasn't able to consider the hesitancy of Wheeljack's words before his fears were confirmed by a comm from Ratchet.
"Optimus, Bulkhead's signal has moved from your current position!"
"Where is he now?"
"Still mobile, I won't be able to centre on it until it is-"
"I know where he is," Wheeljack said with a grim tone, making to march forward. "With Dreadwing." Optimus cocked and eyeridge at the mention of the familiar Decepticon, moving to keep up with Wheeljack.
"What part does Dreadwing have in this?"
"I tracked him down here, and he challenged me to a little stand-off. I had Bulkhead tag-along, a good ol' two against one."
"And you know where he is now?"
"I've only followed him from Antares to Rigel and back," Wheeljack replied with a smirk despite the worry for his friend clouding over his faceplate. "I've still got a tracker on him, and with the Jackhammer gettin' over to him'll be sparkling's play."
"Sparklings..." Optimus allowed himself to muse out loud as Wheeljack vaulted over a cliffside, skidding down the stone while he decided to take a more cautious approach in lowering himself down. He'd never given much thought to Scorpia recently- his processor was preoccupied with still recovering from relapse and too coated in blind anger to focus on anything. But if the child truly believed that he was her sire, then he'd need to adjust that.
Whether or not this new bond with the sparkling would be advantageous or at all detrimental to his ultimate goal of keeping mother and daughter safe, Optimus had yet to see. He had seen first-hand the dangers of becoming too attached to something- especially something so fragile- and there was no guarantee that Scorpia would survive whatever Earth's forces or Primus had laid out for her. If the mortality of the previous war was anything to lay a basis on, growing up with the Decepticons forever lingering in the background would be like a survival game against a Sparkeater and a Mini-con. Optimus knew for a fact that there was no logistical chance in the Pit of his spark surviving another bond sever like...
He furiously shook his helm with a hidden scowl, a gesture that Wheeljack luckily did not catch. Primus, how could he be so selfish? Placing his own spark in the reserves while others young and old fought out on the frontlines- even if that spark was encased with the Matrix. And what would the fabled trinket rattling in his chassis tell him to do? What would the Primes of past do, be they as one mind or individual opinions? Would they even approve of his aid to Decepticons, let alone share his empathy? No... even if he could somehow summon again the long-gone consciousnesses of his prececessors he doubted that he'd be satisfied with their advice. He needed to reach his own conclusion- what he knew was right in the core of his spark.
That was a debate for another day though, he told himself as Wheeljack's ship came into view on the horizon. At least he could be sure of one thing; he had a duty now as a father to protect his-their daughter. And he'd fulfil it as a father should. Because in the end Megatron certainly wouldn't.
"It's our sparkling now..."
As Optimus contemplated it, a rare proud smile dared to show itself.
xx
It started with a simple thud against his chest. Unusual, but nothing to bring concern to his processor. Then came the ache. And the hisses. And finally the pulses of what he liked to call 'searing agony' spreading themselves all over his frame from his core that led to him stumbling into the med-bay.
"Lord Megatron, I'm deeply sorry, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with-"
"I don't need apology! I need RESULTS!" Megatron bellowed at the flinched figure of his medic, almost gouging his claws into the scanner he held with a shaking vice grip. He'd been holding the damn thing for at least a breem, hovering it over every joint, node, wire and plate on Megatron's body at his fusion cannon's insistence- at least that's what Knockout gleaned from the steady pulse of plasma aimed at his helm. He only dared to let an air intake pass when the purple glow snapped away from him, following the movement of Megatron's servo as he hefted himself off of the examination table.
"I understand your frustration fully, but unsourced spark pains aren't unheard of, my liege," Knockout pressed on, digging through his mental medical archives for any reprievals that would stop Megatron from flexing his claws like that- it was too easy to imagine them scraping into his paint job...
"You expect me to accept that my spark is so weak that it succumbs to SENSORY PHANTASMA!?" Megatron roared as he whirled around again, optics ablaze with seething irritation and glowing a red that rivalled Knockout's own finish. Primus, he didn't know what the metal maniac he called Master wanted from him- what was he supposed to do when he just marched himself into the med-bay (without an appointment, nontheless) with a hand over his spark chamber and another hauling Knockout over? Of course the medic was used to strange demands in the Decepticons and thought nothing of Megatron's immediate demand to have his chamber examinined, but he didn't have the faintest idea of what he wanted him to find in there.
"N-not at all, Lord Megatron- but unless there's a way to physically remove your spark for examination-" He tried to ignore the murderous glare he received at making such a suggestion. "-then I've done all that's possible to try and diagnose what the problem is. Even if there were anything I could see, there could be any number of causes. Chamber stress, compression, Dark Energon use..." Knockout was sure to keep his last suggestion to a mumble that he prayed wouldn't be heard.
"I see.." The medic fought the urge to flinch from Megatron's low growl, and only lowered his defensively raised servos when the flare of the warlord's optics died down somewhat. With another punch to his chest Megatron departed from the med-bay as suddenly as he arrived without a further word to Knockout and only one drill casually crushed in his claws. Well, at least it wasn't serious.
xx
"You, uh... ain't lookin' too good, Prime."
Wheeljack's off-hand comment almost made Optimus helm collide with the Jackhammer's ceiling as it jolted in shock. He hadn't realised his optics had closed over until light suddenly burst painfully into his vision. The blue orbs whirred as they tried to adjust to the visual overload, and took in Wheeljack's infrequent worried glances while he sat at the ship's controls.
"I haven't... been keeping to a good recharge schedule lately," Optimus managed to mumble his explanation with some gathered dignity, rubbing a hand against his faceplate and shaking off the dregs of fatigue leeching onto his systems. That coupled with the inescapable stress that buckled itself to his shoulders did not make for a confident appearance. Even now the only thing keeping him from falling into recharge was the bump of the Jackhammer's flight path through the sky, crossing counties in pursuit of Dreadwing and their lost Autobot. Wheeljack gave a shrug at Optimus' reply, knowing better than to chance another few glances with Prime's optics now functional. Primus, he was another one Optimus would have to worry about... if he was to remain on Earth for any length of time, who's to say he wouldn't see it convenient to scout his surroundings? And if Airachnid was living as close as Jasper's woods to the Autobot base, Wheeljack could easily stumble across them. Optimus didn't want to even consider what a Wrecker's reaction to rogue Decepticons would be, but he knew it wouldn't be pretty. Still, even with doubts of Wheeljack's own moral values circling his mind, Optimus knew that he would have made a valuable addition to the Autobots if he ever made the decision to leave behind his lost roots. Such a thing was unlikely though- who was he to expect any bot to abandon what was perhaps the only tie to Cybertron that they had left? Even with Airachnid's own protests that she had completely defected from the Decepticons, if it wasn't for Megatron Optimus was sure that she would still be on the Nemesis right now. Too many ifs to break past his barrier of lethargy... he needed to distract his mind, to keep himself occupied.
A thought suddenly struck him hard enough to have his helm make contact with the ceiling this time.
"Wheeljack, if I may ask-"
"Shoot." He didn't turn his gaze from straight ahead while Optimus held a hand to the dent now baring itself on his head.
"In your travels, did you come across a planet known as Archa Seven?"
Wheeljack let out a small whistle at the name. "Haven't heard the name Archa in a long while.. I remember this one planet called 'Akalo'- I swear, just sayin' that around Ultra Magnus makes 'im cower in the corner. See, there was this massive energy surge down there- natives called it the Divine Light or some'in or other- anyway, it was my last official mission as a Wrecker under Magnus' command, and before we can get to where Akalouthans have their bars, what do you know, the Decepticons are wantin' in on-"
"Wheeljack. Archa Seven?"
"Wha-? Oh, that." Wheeljack cleared his vocaliser and shook his helm to clear it of any remaining nostalgia. "Guessin' it's the seventh planet from the star? Yeah, I got near the system again after I left the Wreckers- Seven had the biggest energon spikes, so I touched down there. Nice place, little bit humid and big-crazy-bug-infested for my likin' though."
"The spiders?" Optimus' optics brightened at the prospect of possibly hearing what creatures Airachnid had spent her life surrounded by. Other than the scholarly curiousity of Orion Pax making its reappearance, he would work on learning anything that would help in her finally opening up to him. A stable trust between the two would be vital in ensuring Scorpia as normal a childhood as she could get in such circumstances.
"If you wanna' call 'em that, sure. Me, I'll just stick with fraggin' big crazy bugs." Wheeljack gave a shudder at the thought of scittering legs and glassy rows of murderous eyes thinking up one hundred different ways to pry his armour off and feed it to their kids. "Barely got outta there with my servos still attached, even then I only got a few old energon boxes for my trouble. Big big ship of the slag crashed down in the middle of the forest- Decepticon from the look of it, but I wasn't too picky."
"What were the spiders like?" Optimus pressed on, gaining another passive shrug from Wheeljack.
"Just like spiders, I guess. Nothin' more to it. Big afts, big legs, big... creepy fangs. Lived in these big hives, eatin' anything that gets in their way; think of a Scraplet, an Insecticon, and nine vorns after a damn drunk night. " He turned his helm back towards Optimus. "What's so important 'bout them anyway?"
"I... came across a reference to them in a data cylinder. I was curious." Wheeljack seemed to find the notion of a bot like a Prime being described as 'curious' amusing from his stifled smirk, but said nothing further to voice doubt. Other than a slight mutter under his breath that widened his smirk into a grin.
"Course, not all of them are bad..."
"What was that?"
"Uh, nothin'! Nothin'..." Wheeljack veered his optics away from Optimus' scowling sound of suspicion.
xx
Okay some quick explanations: Wheeljack's little ending quip is pretty much an inside joke between me and Emmy in which Wheeljack and Air met up at a bar outpost during their own interstellar planet hopping days... e'yup. Also the part with Wheeljack talking about a Wrecker mission to Akalo is taken from an old Transformers multi-verse comic- I wouldn't expect anyone to get the reference but I like tying in as much of present and past canon as I can ;)
Finally, the moment with Megatron experiencing spark pains... well, his spark DOES still have a bond to Scorpia- regardless of whether he knows about it or not. If Scorpia is instead forming a stronger bond with Optimus rather than Megatron, then its bound to hurt to have the pre-existing bond fade away.