First, I'm sorry it took so long. Exams are piling up on me, and inspiration just refused to come. I don't promise quick updates for a while. And thank you for all the support I get for this story, reviews, favs and follows! They mean a lot to me! :)

Please, review!

VI.

"You haven't been rechargin'." Rumble spoke up. They were calming down a bit now that Starscream and Megatron stopped arguing and the former retreated back to the computers. The purple cassette rested his head on his twin's chest, listening to the hum and feeling the pulsations of his spark. The coolant had long dried from Frenzy's face, and now he was frowning a little.

"What?" he asked back.

"You're tired, I can feel it. So... you not rechargin'?"

Frenzy shrugged, "I was upset when Soundwave told us about you. I felt ya, but... I didn't think it would be... this bad."

Rumble stayed quiet for a while, "Yeah... I'm rusting. They had to take parts outta me. Soundwave was closing the bond from me... that means he's afraid."

Frenzy unconsciously tightened his embrace on his brother, "Yes, he is, but... he's also tired. He has to keep the Base in order an' he worries about ya. He just... doesn't want you to feel all this."

"And... the others?"

"They will come, too." Frenzy replied, "Beaky and 'Saw are out scouting, Ravage is helping with the energon. The Coneheads brought a big load. I was on comm. duty, but Soundwave said I could come down a little."

Rumble nodded and let his head fall back to Frenzy's chest. He felt slightly better and the pain had been dulled thanks to the nanites, but he was still overheating and he could hardly move his rusting arm. The cassette had just noticed how numb it felt and he looked down at his hand, frowning in confusion when he tried to lift it–

...and his optics widened at what he saw. "F-Frenzy..."

Frenzy turned down as well and picked up his twin's hand. The digits were all grey up to their base and they felt especially cold when Frenzy touched them. Recognition hit them at the same time, they both had seen it several times on the battlefield; it was the result of the decay of circuits and energon lines.

Dead metal.

"Starscream!" Hook's voice rang through the bay. Everybody looked towards the glass where four familiar figures stood. Starscream smiled a little in victory when he saw them and walked up to them. Soundwave had led the Insecticons to the repair bay when they arrived and now gestured to Frenzy to come out. Both mini-cons looked at him with pleading optics and Frenzy raised up Rumble's hand for him to see. Soundwave did not move for a moment, then comm.-ed Frenzy, telling - or rather, commanding - him this time to leave the bay and he already went in to get a coverall and mask. Frenzy knew better than to argue and reluctantly let go of his twin to give his place to their creator; Soundwave would not have wanted to scare them, but Frenzy thought he was just as scared, too.

Scared and helpless.

"Soundwave!" Megatron's voice halted the tape decker midway to his cassette, "You obeyed Starscream's order and called these three here without... first discussing it with me?!"

Soundwave turned fully to the Gunformer before he answered, "My apologies, Lord Megatron, but you have not opposed to the idea. I am certain Starscream has a logical explanation. He is working on curing the infection and as such, we must assist him to the best of our abilities."

Starscream looked at him with surprise, but nodded to him in thanks when their optics met. It seemed Soundwave was an ally - his worry and dedication to his creation made him try everything to help.

"Soundwave told us about this Cosmic Rust on the way here, here." Shrapnel crossed his arms across his chest and took a step forward. His optics roamed over Starscream's form, especially his leg and wing, then his gaze stopped on Astrotrain. "We were hoping for a logical explanation, too, too."

Starscream looked back at Soundwave, the third-in-command was already by Rumble's side and examining his arm. The Seeker took a deep vent and limped up to the glass, followed closely by Hook and Shockwave, he leant to the glass to relieve some of the weight from his leg.

"Soundwave then must have told you that it is an organic infection. Our systems have never met anything like this before, but yours... have." Bombshell's optics shone up a little, as if he already knew where the Seeker was going with this. Starscream continued, "Your body must have adapted to this environment in more than just your alternate mode. Your systems came in contact with organic microbes and your nanites must have been modified, too, to fight them off."

There was silence for a while and Starscream watched the three Insecticons intensely. They looked at each other as they all came to understand what the Seeker was requesting from them. After a while, Kickback shrugged and Shrapnel turned to Bombshell. For a moment, it seemed they were communicating without words before Bombshell turned back to Starscream and took a step forward.

"So, you want us as nanite donors." he stated.

"Yes." Starscream nodded, "We'd just draw a few doses. Nothing else."

"Starscream, tell me if I'm not correct," Bombshell crossed his arm, "but from what Soundwave explained, this is not like terrestrial microbes. Even our nanites may be useless against something like this. What makes you think they would cure you?"

Starscream sighed. He knew it would not be easy persuading the Insecticons to help, but his patience was dwindling away quickly especially after their argument Megatron, "Even if they can't cure us, they'd stop the disease or at least halt it until I can come up with something."

"What if our nanites are not even compatible with your systems?"

The Seeker threw up his hands, "We are not that different! You are still Cybertronian. We... have to give it a try!"

"Please, enlighten me, Starscream," he heard Megatron speak up behind him, his tone dripping with sarcasm, and everyone turned to him, "which of us do you... plan to use as a guinea-pig?"

Starscream frowned at the human term, again wondering just how his leader knew of such things, but answered him anyway, "I think we should give the first dose to Astrotrain." he said and looked at the triple-changer, "His condition is severe, he needs it the most."

Astrotrain returned the look through dim, dazed optics. He had not spoken nor moved an inch since Starscream left his berth and the Seeker had to repress a wince at just how bad he looked. All over his frame, there were reddish-brown, darkening or whitish spots and lines, big and small, and even though Astrotrain was lying on his back, Starscream could imagine how his wound must have looked like, especially after seeing Megatron's. However, there was something else that drew the former scientist's attention to the triple-changer's waist, a glimpse of light blue just under him...

"Starscream," Megatron's raspy voice caused him to halt in his steps, "did I not make... myself clear? It is not your... authority to decide-"

"Primus, Astrotrain!" Starscream exclaimed when he realized what it was underneath Astrotrain; a small puddle of energon, just where his wound was. Hook and Scrapper hurried over to the berth and pushed him out of the way, they lifted Astrotrain gently and rolled him to his side to see the wound. The mech did not protest nor helped in the slightest, his legs seemed like they were made of rubber, and Hook had a wild guess why - the hole on his side seemed to have grown as the microbes decomposed the metal around it, and the rust spread all over his lower back. It looked horrible on the outside, and judging from the oily energon that leaked from the wound, it must have been just as bad inside.

"Astrotrain," Scrapper gasped, "why haven't you called us?"

"I... w-why?" the triple-changer whispered, "I can't even feel-... what happened?"

Hook and Scrapper looked at each other. It was all over him, it was impossible for Astrotrain not to feel any kind of pain in his wound. Only if-

"By the AllSpark," Hook's optics widened, "his backstrut!"

"Is this even possible?!" Starscream asked, terrified. He knew the microbes had a high stress-tolerance, but he thought the reason they did not attack the processor and spark was because of the extreme electrical currents in those regions, and they wouldn't be able to get to the backstrut because of this either. Maybe they didn't; maybe the acid they produced seeped into the neural circuitry and destroyed it. Either way, one thing seemed to be sure, a grim reality slowly settling in - Astrotrain, one of their strongest mechs, had become disabled and useless.

Starscream recieved no answer as Scavenger rushed to them with a stretcher and the three Constructicons hauled the triple-changer onto it to wheel him away. Hook gave him a sedative before they were gone to prevent Astrotrain from going into a full-blown panic attack, but Starscream saw a glint of coolant in his optics before the doors closed.

"Well?" Starscream turned slowly back to their leader, breaking the silence, "Astrotrain is crippled now. He won't be able to walk anymore, or how do you plan to get a new backstrut for him?! Not even your precious Shockwave could get one from Cybertron!"

"I used to be a neurosurgeon back on Cybertron." Bombshell spoke up for the first time, "I may be able to reconnect the neural lines... though the rust needs to be dealt with first."

"You haven't practiced in seven million stellar cycles, cycles." Shrapnel stepped forward and put a hand on his friend's shoulder.

"I acted as your medic all this time since we're on this planet." Bombshell turned back to him. Everyone inside the repair bay listened to them with expectant, hopeful optics, no one spoke a word until they decided, and it was Kickback who said it out loud with finality in his tone.

"They can have my nanites. No harm done."

Bombshell turned back to Shrapnel, locking gazes with him and put his hand on the beetle's, again as if they were talking through a bond of some sort, and finally Shrapnel took a deep breath, "You know, know." his vocoder echoed softly and he stepped back as Bombshell looked at Starscream again.

"Alright, you'll get our nanites, and I get to go in and practice my medical skills. That's all I ask."

Starscream let the air out he had been holding in and nodded. Relief washed over him for the first time that day, "You know where the repair storage is. You'll find all the equipment you need there."

Bombshell gave a nod and all three of them left, Starscream trusted Bombshell to know what to do to get the nanites from his teammates. The Seeker leant against the wall and inhaled deeply. He wasn't a fool, he knew even the Insecticons' nanites would probably not be able to kill off the microbes, but he hoped they would at least gain some time with them - time was something they didn't have and couldn't waste right now. With how quickly it defeated their systems, how thoroughly it spread all over them, even the replacements Shockwave had brought from Cybertron wouldn't help much.

They were stronger than he expected. They had crippled Astrotrain, the triple-changer might never be able to stand up again - they were clogging Megatron's vents so much that he was almost literally choking as he coughed up parts of his filters and could hardly get air into his systems. They made Rumble unable to process energon properly and reduced him into the state of a helpless sparkling in mere joors. A shiver ran down Starscream's frame, but he straightened up. He would win, despite all this. He had to.

The air commander turned slowly back to Megatron, aware that Shockwave was still standing behind him like a haunting ghost, aware of the sound of Rumble's softly hitching intakes, but he locked his gaze onto the Gunformer and walked up to him, supporting himself on his berth to be able to say it into his face.

"Now... that's why I have to be in control." the Seeker whispered, "I already have results concerning the microbes' physiology and as such, I'm closer to the solution. I have got us modified nanite donors that could help us slow down the disease and a real medic to treat us. And what could you get? A physicist whom we have no use whatsoever in healing us."

He could see that Megatron's optics were shining brighter and brighter as rage flared up in him, the leader of the Decepticons narrowed his lips into a thin line to keep himself from shouting at his second. His vents exhaled sharply, almost sending him into another coughing fit, but Megatron managed to compose himself and glared back at Starscream, "Bombshell himself stated... that he needed practicing... not the best choice... of a medic then."

Starscream snorted, "Well... he did work miracles on that ninja bitch of yours, didn't he?"

Megatron bared his dentas at the statement and his hand finally shot up to grab the Seeker's neck or just to punch him on the face, but his movements were weakened and slowed from the lack of air in his overheating systems and Starscream managed to catch his hand before it could have collided with his head. Megatron grunted, but Starscream didn't let go of it and instead raised it up to his eyes with a frown.

"Starscream!" Shockwave exclaimed from behind him and grabbed onto his shoulder, "Stop this fight. Release Lord Megatron!"

However, Starscream's hold on Megatron's hand had softened already, and all three immediately saw why; the Gunformer had spots of rust on his arm and the nasty tear on his shoulder on that side looked worse than before - and his whole hand was a sickly light grey and his smallest digit seemed to be hanging on it only by a thread. The moment Starscream touched it, the digit remained in his hand and everyone gasped at what they were seeing.

Starscream took a shaky breath before he turned around to Shockwave, leaving Megatron starring at his hand with a horrified expression, "Yes, Shockwave... you could lend a hand to our dearest lord... literally. Because it seems he's already falling apart."

With that, he limped away to the back of the repair bay with Megatron's digit and Shockwave hurried over to his leader, holding his shaking frame as Megatron's features twitched in both fury and terror. All the while, on the other side of the bay, Rumble's optics widened as he looked down onto his own greying hand, his body began trembling wildly as well, and there was nothing Soundwave could do anymore to stop it.

It was early in the evening when his trine came back.

Starscream worked feverishly all day, barely stopping to take a little rest and energon. Shockwave was indeed a fast learner, but Starscream only allowed him to watch as he applied chemicals to the cultures and prepared media to grow more, making gene sequencing with each to measure the mutation and scroll down on the list that did not work in eliminating them - and Shockwave frequently left him to tend to Megatron, especially after the latter started purging, too, and coughing up rusted bits of his frame along with processed energon.

Starscream sighed. As he predicted, the Insecticons' nanites did help a little, they gave a dose to Astrotrain after the three Constructicons took him back to his berth, and after a joor without his systems giving any negative reactions, the others recieved them, too. Their temperatures did not seem as high as before and they weren't worsening so rapidly for the rest of the day. Bombshell seemed to be quite capable, too - and quite fascinated with the whole situation, so when Starscream's trine arrived and Hook announced that they were closing down for the night, the Seeker walked up to the Insecticon before he left.

"It's not really about curing us, is it?" the Seeker asked with what could be called an amused smile, "Just the thrill of getting back to gory mysteries. That's why you agreed to help."

"What does it matter to you, Starscream?" Bombshell asked, turning back one last time before he left the bay, "In your position, you'd be wise to accept help when it is offered."

"No hurt feelings. I wanted to thank you for helping out. It's already more than I expected."

Bombshell shrugged at that, "I guess I should be thanking, too. It's been a long time since I felt this... thrill. Reminds me why it was good to be a medic. And now, as the doctor, I order you to get to berth. No more work today, you already seem ready to collapse right here."

That much was true, Starscream had to admit as he watched the Insecticon along with Shockwave, Hook and Scavenger leaving. Scrapper stayed with them for the night and Soundwave just got up from Rumble's berth. He had gone away to tend to his duties during the day, but was allowed to come in one last time to see his creation before they had to retreat to their quarters - and as he was about to leave, Starscream walked up to him and grabbed his arm, he pulled the communication officer weakly to his laboratory and shoved two datapads into his hands.

"These are all my findings so far as well as the changes in our conditions." Starscream explained in a hushed tone, "I want you to read all this. I want someone to keep track on everything in case something was lost or if I missed a detail."

Soundwave nodded after a moment of hesitation. It did not take him more than a few minutes to read everything from the heavy datapads and gave them back to Starscream before leaving the repair bay. Starscream vented deeply and took a moment to gather his strenght to walk up to the glass where his two trine mates were waiting for him.

He hated it how the moment they saw him the smile froze from their faces. "Starscream..." Thundercracker whispered, "You... your wing..."

Starscream sighed. He had noticed it earlier and could hardly prevent himself from shouting. His wing, a flyer's greatest pride and most valued appendage, was turning to rust, too. "I know. These microbes work quickly, huh? Too quickly..." Starscream lowered his voice to a whisper, "TC, they mutate so fast, I'm hardly able to catch them! When it seemed a solution worked, they adapted to it. In less than a joor! And guess what? Even water deprivation has nothing on them because they can decompose hydrogen peroxide into water and oxygen. Their metabolism is so quick... they have more enzymes for that..."

He shuddered when he felt his trine mates' fear through their bond and leant his head to the glass. Starscream was exhausted and his whole frame trembled gently from weakness; he needed to ask Scrapper for more painkiller, but he couldn't do anything with the fear.

"Screamer," he looked up when he heard Skywarp whisper his nickname, "Is there nothing... we can do?"

"No, Skywarp. Nothing." Starscream straightened up, "Go, have some recharge. I want to see you in the morning."

It was hard to pull Skywarp away from the glass, but Thundercracker managed somehow, understanding that their trine leader wanted to rest and they couldn't come again until morning. What remained was a lingering pain in Starscream's spark from their worry for him that he had no strenght to push away. It would have been futile to ask them to be strong for him when he himself had come close to giving up numerous times during that day. Sometimes he wondered what kept him going still.

Starscream walked up to his berth and let Scrapper inject him with sedative nanites to dull the pain upon his request. Megatron's ragged intakes filled the bay, he propped himself up against the wall to make it easier to breath and still kept glancing at his grey hand that was now missing a digit. Astrotrain lay unmoving in his berth, tubes now hanging out of him as well and he looked ready to enter recharge, too. Starscream sighed when he heard Rumble's weak cough from the side, and got up to go over to him.

The Cassetticon sat hunched over a bucket, he whimpered softly as processed energon trickled down his chin and closed his optics when he felt the now-familiar presence of the Seeker behind him. Starscream climbed onto his berth, grunting at the pain in his leg and gently pulled Rumble to his lap, mindful of the catheters in his mid-section. It was routine now, and Starscream promised Soundwave he would support his creation as long as he could - that was one thing he did not want to give up on.

"Starscream," Megatron spoke up in the silence when it seemed all was settled down, "next cycle... you will allow Shockwave to... take over from you... Did you understand?"

The air commander frowned and snorted, "Oh, your little pet complained to you, or what?"

"You are weak... if you were responsible-"

"Responsible?! Whose most brilliant idea was to-"

"Shut up!" Astrotrain exclaimed from his berth, it seemed he was using all his strenght to do so, "Both of you! I'm tired of your fights!... Recharge already!"

Starscream turned away, "I wasn't the one who started it." he grumbled, but glanced down when he felt a little hand rest upon his own.

"Starscream... please." he heard Rumble whisper feebly, and the Seeker bit his lower lip.

"I'm sorry." he murmured and pulled the smaller body closer to his. He should really learn to stop himself from entering meaningless arguments with his leader, he just couldn't help it - him and Megatron worked like this, this was in their nature, and no matter how much they annoyed each other, they always went on. And Starscream couldn't help a tiny smile when he thought he would really miss it all...

He took a deep breath when he felt Rumble relax against his frame and let his head rest on the Seeker's cockpit. He knew it would be a hard night, but they were there for each other - and now he knew that this was what kept him going.