There Will Be Sparklings

Hinjintetsusou: .Hp/Transformers: a scene were decepticons and autobots, for the first time are all together with Harry and his sparklings, and both sides bristling and being overprotective and Harry and his sparklings being a bit bemused and defensive but also assertive (Ch. 26: Savior By Nature, HP&Transformers)

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William Lennox was trying his best to make NEST work. Had been ever since the government turned to the left of "exploit Cube and one frozen Megatron for technology" to right up there with "help good Transformers (ones that don't want to kill us) against bad Transformers (ones that do want to kill us)". It would have gone much smoother if he had help – namely, the kid, Sam Witwicky – the Autobots loved him, and he loved the Autobots so far as Lennox could call it. Sam though, refused outright to have anything to do with "the government conspiracy" – claiming then that he just wanted to go to college, time to grow up and live a life he should have had if none of this had happened.

Thing was, it had happened, and there was no going back. For any of them that now knew – and the rest of the world's population that did not.

So when Sam went overseas, in a exchange program - it wasn't so much NEST asking permission to go overseas it was – haul ass because the Transformers are going to be where Sam is going to be, right now. Government secrecy? What secrecy? They might be called Transformers, but that was for not letting other life-forms see them in plain sight – like any predator or hunter, not for hiding from them as prey.

So Lennox was in London, and so far Sam didn't know – mostly because Optimus Prime was respecting Sam's wish not to get involved. It didn't mean that Sam didn't have Transformers watching and reporting his every move. There was no such thing as the kid having any privacy, however much it looked like he wasn't involved – and for someone who had never been on the NEST base - his life was the life-blood of Autobot gossip.

("Witwicky went out – with who? Oh, that lady-friend he met last Wednesday, guess he really is a ladies-man!")

With whole new levels of disturbing, most of the NEST's human-half got a kick out of it. It wasn't that Sam was a blogger, it was that the Transformers, interfacing with the web – with security cameras, with every bit of modern technology known to man: knew everything – when they cared to show it, and they didn't, save where Sam was concerned – then they bragged like he was one of them. It got Lennox thinking, why? What made Sam significant? The Cube – perhaps – it should have made the Autobots hate him, for it was destroyed by Sam's actions. It remained a mystery, as there was no other human to compare Sam with.

Then, suddenly, there was.

Savior came out of no-where (literally, no where, as in a apparent no man's land of information, there wasn't a whisper of his name outside certain circles – and he wasn't one to call conspiracy when he was involved in a cover-up, but it so was, because there was no other possibility) and the United Kingdom and United Nations had just shrugged and gone with letting a boy who didn't yet know how to shave into the biggest secret this side of the equator (not the Earth/world/planet, because damn-it this was big enough, he wasn't saying this solar system – because he didn't want to know – nor this galaxy because who knew – and he wasn't saying universe because he wasn't going into space, thank you very much).

Savior was just what the Autobots had called him, at first, because Tonks (one of the "Auror"-class agents of SIS: M16 so the paperwork claimed, and Lennox didn't have the clout to get it double-checked with any government – let along doubt and be doubted by his own) had welcomed him into the base with open arms. He'd gotten the story from Epps, the boy 'Harry Potter' was a war-hero – where, when, and why were all unanswered questions.

Tonks had hovered over the boy for weeks, and when she'd gone back to her "Ministry": there had been Black to deal with, who'd walked onto the base with the boy (though Epps claimed he had never set eyes on him that day). He never left that boy alone, certainly not on the rare occasions where he left the Transformer-that-was-a-castle called Hogwarts: not in the bathroom, or while eating any meal in the mess hall, or in his bed – Black had point-blank said it one early morning in the mess while the boy ate: "Can't we go back to bed?" The boy Savior had only shaken his head, an amused smile on his lips while Black folded his arms across his chest and pouted. (Epps had later blanched and told him point blank that if a grown man was sleeping with that under-aged boy, and he found out that Lennox was just letting it happen, it was going to end very badly).

Black wasn't only 'badly behaved', with his intent grey eyes peering at you, it almost felt like he was looking into you, measuring and weighing you and finding you wanting – only the boy he looked at with a measure of fondness. Only that boy he listened to. When he opened his mouth and that uppity oh-so-noble English accent came out, he looked at you like you were scum for daring to interrupt his day, and it was not the military way of yelling and being yelled at, it was quiet and ruthless. Black would kill you, not because you pissed him off, but because you were there and he didn't like you or what you were doing. The only thing stopping him from doing just that was the boy.

Black outright - and frankly - reminded Lennox of the Decepticons. There was no ignoring him, and the boy didn't talk to anyone else human – only the Autobots and Black. He seemed to regard the human-half of NEST as something to be dealt with on a later list of things to-do. It didn't help that he slept in that castle.

So, frankly did the Transformers that had came with the boy (Black had made that clear on the one time questioned with why they didn't leave once the Transformers had arrived safely: "Your thinking is that you could keep any Transformer here who didn't want to be? The boy is why we came, that boy is why we stay put.") Lennox, remembering with a certain shudder, the crossing of an ocean to trail friendly Transformers from one end of the globe to the other, didn't ask again.

Then came the day that Lennox understood why the boy was called Savior by Transformers. He'd never forget it.

"You will take care of him?" Optimus Prime had asked, and Lennox had only nodded, with a glance to the boy and Black, who didn't yet know about NEST finding Barricade in hiding. Optimus Prime wasn't asking for Sam, who was under Bumblebee's care. With Ratchet and Ironhide he had rolled out with NEST's agents.

"Where are they going?" Lennox hadn't known who'd spoken, at first: then he looked and found green eyes peering at him.

"To take care of some Decepticons." His spine had stiffened up as if he'd been punched. Quickly, he looked to Black, and then back.

"Thank you." For the truth? Lennox only shakes his head, confused.

Then Black became a black motorcycle, its engine thundering. It was like a call to arms: the Transformer castle – Hogwarts – it shifted and moved as no solid thing should. It was a train.

"How?" He'd stuttered, but it was a standard question to get out when faced by impossible things. Harry had known all along, is obvious, as he gets onto the transformed Black, he answers.

"Hogwarts is too to have a swift to have a big bi-pedal form, and there is nothing with four legs big enough to match – so the train is the transformed state, the castle is a true shape." Transformers that were buildings, ships, what was next –… a city? (It's when Lennox meets "Autobot City" also known as Metroplex – his reaction is something like a whimper. He'll never look at a city - never mind a castle shaped building - the same way.)

Ford Angelia and Knight Bus had come out of Hogwarts, a distant part of Lennox notices.

They roll away, and Lennox – because he promised – can do nothing else but follow. As he knows where they are going, and they are using whatever scanners they have to find out where (he hadn't told, after all), Lennox gets there first, having in other words a front-row seat to the show.

Enter all four on the scene - Ford Angelia, Knight Bus, Hogwarts, and Black (as a bike) – going into the battle fearlessly: and the battle comes to a halt: Barricade makes a sound like wailing, Lennox later gets it translated as: "Sparklings, you're using our sparklings as shields!"

"Do not dare move." Ironhide's cannons are whirling in Barricade's face. Barricade, of course, wasn't alone – there was Starscream, screeching again, not in anything English: "Get away sparklings, you are in danger here."

Optimus Prime had been standing aside, directing the fight from a statistic location as any good commander would. It wasn't that he would not fight or did not fight: but Ironhide had told Lennox that Optimus Prime was more important to them then as merely a warrior or leader – he'd get in the way with smaller matters – like fights, because there was something in Autobots that wanted to protect him. Lennox hadn't asked what in turn Decepticons might feel toward Optimus Prime. He'd thought it was a easy answer: hatred.

It wasn't nearly so simple or human.

Starscream started running for the four sparklings, and Ratchet growled as he got in the way. Between the two standing giants were Harry and his "sparklings" standing still, unharmed.

"Stand aside." Was the order Ratchet hissed at Starscream – who was shuddering in disgust.

"Humans have twisted you beyond measure – to use sparklings as shields! To expose them to battle – you have lost everything Cybertron born in you!" Ironhide pointed one cannon in the still Barricade's face, and with a sneer twisted features – the other arm reached fruitlessly toward Starscream and Ratchet.

"We did not bring them here – they came freely!" Ratchet protested, but Starscream scoffed.

"Sure." He said, when they all knew he meant liar.

"You will stop. You will not fire upon one another." Lennox at first didn't know who Harry was talking to, but he realized when five sets of optics landed on the boy – he was talking to all of them – and they knew it. He stepped forward, as if making the force of his words and personality felt.

"What's this, a trick?" Barricade asks, as Ratchet hadn't said he couldn't talk. His red optics smolder and burn – he's hateful, and full of righteous rage.

"Savior." Optimus Prime, the big guy, sounds upset – as if he hadn't wanted him to see this side of them.

"I am half of what you lost on Cybertron." White and blue sparks dance between Harry's fingers, like energy - and if the look of them is anything to go by – what they feel like on highly attuned scanners and sensitive sensors – Lennox can't guess. Something like peace comes to the features of the Autobots – but something like lust comes upon the Decepticons.

"Energon…" Starscream's metallic fingers twitch and quiver, as if he wants to be closer, even by only a claw inch. Ratchet stands steady, in his way and unmovable. It's the only thing that holds the Decepticon away.

"Don't even think about it." He snarls into Strarscream's face.

"Half right, he says –" Harry nods to Optimus Prime who bows his head with guilt or acknowledgement, "that I'm half the Energon Cube, the half that gives life to you – that's how the sparklings are here at all. They are mine." There are engine-like rumbles of agreement, horn-sounds, and the long bellow of steam-like air. Black is standing – human shaped – beside Harry.

"He is ours." Black, a sparkling says – looking boldly up at Starscream.

Starscream, slowly, nods.

"Then it is our place to defend him." Lennox's feelings that Black is a sparkling version of a Decepticon, a baby – seems in agreement with Starscream's reaction. He listens.

"You haven't earned that right." Ratchet states, and again – Starscream bows his head in agreement.

"The war…" Barricade begins red eyes wide and pleading. It is clear to him how helpless he is – how helpless the Decepticons are – with the Mother turned against them, they will be out-cast and not even the Father would protest the loss.

"Ends today: your duty now – and the duty of all Decepticons whom wish to settle upon Earth – is to track down your fellows, Autobots and Decepticons alike - and inform them of that fact. I will see no more death." Harry – Savior – very obviously represents to them, life.

Starscream lowers himself to the ground, to better see the boy. His back is prone to any attack, but Ironhide upon having heard Harry say the war is ended had simply shut off his cannons, he glared – not liking Starscream so close, but made no move to attack. Instead he kept his eye upon the human agents of NEST. Very clearly, the Autobots had put themselves between the Decepticons and their human partners– just as the Decepticons had nearly done, trying to put themselves between both Autobots and their human allies.

"You are the Savior, the Mother of Living Energon. What of your other half? What of our ancient knowledge and the warriors – the survival of the fittest." Starscream keeps his head low, so as to seem respectful. It occurs to Lennox then that the Autobots and the Decepticons are not two different races, but two dominates of the many types and classes of the same kind of beings.

"We're working on it. Savior needed to settle, to nest; he has tasted of war and death, and would not let us aid him in it." Ford Angelia chimes in, like an older sister who's tattling to a grown-up.

Starscream hisses, eyes flicking to the humans scattered among the rubble of the battlefield.

"They dared taint the Savior with blood?" Metallic claws dig into the earth, as if Starscream must keep contract with it or fling himself upon the humans to see their blood in turn soak into the earth.

"Not these. Those like Savior, they are magical, and old – and did not understand us, but helped them grow - now they are Savior's powerful allies." Knight Bus protested, rumbling. He is protective of those allies.

"What of the union – what of the Father?" Starscream glances around, as if he might catch glimpse of the other half personification of the Cube.

"We will meet, in time." It is a time that Harry does not sound like he looks forward to. Starscream nods again – quickly – and stands, with a glance to Barricade, they go. To beings that live millions of years, the time of when is not in question. Only that as it once was, it will be again: all that is whole and in union in their universe will begin to be so again.

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(I mention Metroplex because I believe it's a case where his "normal" shape is a structure – which he makes look like Autobot City or a part of the city – and his transformed state is to look like a giant Autobot: Hogwarts is in a natural shape as a castle-structure, and a transformed one as a train. Hogwarts is still something of a sparkling compared to the super-sized structure Transformers.

And may I say, wow – usually getting three or five lovely reviews, and then suddenly getting almost ten was a nice treat: I love talking/responding too!)