XV - The Human Factor II

"Oh, what now?" Knock Out drawled as we walked through the portal.

"The twins were gone for an hour, AN HOUR," Ratchet snarled, "and he comes back in this state!"

"Twins?" I frowned.

"How are your optics, Sev?" Bulkhead quipped, "You two are each other's spitting image, 'cept for your wings, of course."

"Red energon," Starscream muttered feverishly between strangled giggles from between Optimus and Ratchet, "it has to be."

I almost took Bulkhead's quip as an insult right then.

"What?" The medic asked, obviously only half-listening. He was more focused on the other Seeker's condition than his fevered rambling.

I set the medical kit down on a table, "How else were we supposed to get the humans back?"

"Wait, what are you talking about?" Arcee asked, sounding well past the point of being simply confused.

"You lost me," Smokescreen said from next to Bulkhead, looking a bit disturbed.

The green mech smacked him amiably, "Now you're stealing my lines!"

"Oliver and Will weren't on a field trip, were they?" The femme accused, beginning to connect the dots.

"Of course not!" Starscream's good leg buckled and his faceplates went ashen. Optimus helped him to over to the med berth while Ratchet darted off, preparing an IV. "MECH took them as h-h-hostages–" he coughed up more energon and fell into a sick bout of laughter, "hostages, they-they were caught, can you believe that? Good thing we-we got them back, right? I mean–"

"Save your strength and shut up!" I snapped anxiously. He didn't seem to have heard me. Everyone looked to me expectantly, save for my double. He shuttered his optics, and laid down on the med berth. Ratchet plugged the IV line into his elbow joint, causing him to wince a little. The medic leaned to one side and grabbed a rag off of a table, then wiped Starscream's faceplates with it.

"MECH took Will and Oliver hostage?" Arcee asked. "I don't believe it for a second."

"Hey, who're those two?" Smokescreen interrupted, apparently sick of being ignored.

"Humans," I glanced at him, "they're my indentured servants in a manner of speaking."

The femme rolled her optics. My wings fluttered, "Arcee, believe it. MECH had them crammed in a tiny cell along with Oliver's younger sister and their mother. Starscream and I went to rescue them… he took some of the red energon while I borrowed the Apex Armor."

Optimus' optics widened a fraction. "And you did not think to tell us?"

"They're fine," I replied defensively, "but I'm afraid I cannot say the same for MECH. Their base was unfortunately reduced to tinder amid all the fuss." I sneered.

"Silas blew it up…" A coughing fit abruptly wracked Starscream's weakened frame, electricity flickering through it. He opened his optics again once it had passed, a small rivulet of energon trickling out of his mouth. He wiped at it, then stared dumbly at his unsteady servo stained with blue and fell into a fit of hysterical laughter, servos shaking uncontrollably.

Bumblebee started slightly, his helm whipping over to look at the ailing Seeker. [What's so funny?]

"Nothing," I snapped shakily.

Knock Out came over to Starscream's side, "I know it'll be nearly impossible for you, but try to be quiet," the red mech encouraged with sad optics.

"Starscream, if you die," I growled, "I'm going to personally terminate you."

My double snickered, "That isn't–"

"I shall find a way, trust me."

"You're telling me," Ratchet began angrily, ignoring my previous comment and glaring at the console's screens, "that he," he pointed a finger at the jet behind him, "used some of the red energon!"

"Yes," I quailed beneath his glare.

"Do you have any notion of what that would do to his systems!" He snapped, shouting now. "Speed-enhancing energon would expedite the virus' progress exponentially—more than if he transformed! And now you're going to say he did that too, aren't you!"

I whimpered, taking a step back, "Actually–"

The white medic threw his servos up in the air, "By the Allspark, one would think you wanted him dead! I can't even count the number of ways it could be affecting him now… energon degeneration, short circuits, internal–"

"Hey!" Starscream snapped.

"It was his idea!" I protested.

"Starscream, Seven, I am afraid that I have to confine you to the base." Optimus said somberly. "It is for your own safety."

Seething, I turned on the Prime. "And what would have happened to the humans, pray tell? Once Silas knew we weren't going to make an entrance, he would have disposed of them! I'm so sick of your slagging pontificating! So what if we didn't make the right choice; it was the only one we had! If we had just sat back on our afts and twiddled our thumbs, they could be dead!"

[Seven!] Bumblebee exclaimed in shock. Everyone else looked equally taken aback.

The Prime sighed, "No, you are right. I believe that trying to protect the two of you has begun to cloud my judgement enough that you are unwilling to approach me. This incident was avoidable, and if you had informed me of the humans' peril, it very well might not have happened."

"But it did, and here we are." I crossed my arms matter-of-factly.

"Now what?" Arcee interjected, "With MECH's base destroyed, it's game over, right? We won."

Starscream stared at the ceiling morosely—looking a tad more coherent—as if having just realized something, "No, we lost. The cure is gone." He shivered. It suddenly seemed like all the air had been sucked out of the room. "Now he's just going to let me offline–" the Seeker coughed sharply, expelling more energon from his mouth. I took an instinctive step back. "I am of no further use to him or MECH, now that their base is destroyed, and all their equipment with it. So he can g-go further his own sick private agendas…" he shut his optics tight, his chest plate rising and falling in an increasingly rapid rhythm. His intakes came in tight, feverish pants. Ratchet went over to him immediately, wiping the energon off his chin sloppily with a rag.

The base's comm link suddenly pinged. Ratchet tossed the cloth aside onto a table as he walked over to the console to answer it, pressing a button. "Yes, Jack?"

The human's voice answered from the other end, sounding eager. "Hey Ratch, can you bridge us over? We've got something that Scream will like."

"Oh?"

"It's a surprise," Miko's voice piped up, sounding a bit more distant.

Grumbling, the medic opened a bridge. Starscream watched curiously through slitted optics, still looking weary, but far more here. It was understandable. The five humans entered our base in a flash of light, carrying what appeared to be a large, fraying piece of fabric between them.

"Did we get the measurements right?" Raf asked nervously, looking at the others, "I hope it's big enough…"

"It will be," Oliver assured him.

"Uh, what exactly is it?" I asked, cocking my helm.

"A patchwork quilt!" Will exclaimed theatrically as they unfurled it. Aside from a few spots, its stitching looked pretty professional and a multitude of thick, warm-looking blankets and furs made it up. Three blocky, hand-stitched words dominated its center: GET WELL SOON. Starscream dialed up his optics' brightness and watched in curious excitement.

"How many animals did you have to slaughter to make that?" Bulkhead chuckled.

"It's faux fur," Jack clarified. "At least, some is. There's also cotton, flannel, polyester, and other stuff too. We just were thrifting after school and found a bunch of old blankets…" he trailed off. They didn't look anything like "old blankets," the majority were far too nice. But I wasn't going to object.

They held it up for Ratchet and the medic took the quilt from them and draped it over Starscream, muttering something about breaking fevers.

"Thank you," Starscream croaked, optics glittering with gratitude.

"Get well soon," Raf murmured. The human needn't have worried about its size; it covered my double completely up to his neck cables and spilled over the sides of the berth. He shuttered his optics and sighed contentedly.

On an impulse, I picked the humans up and deposited them beside Starscream on the edge of his berth. Miko didn't think twice, she clambered up his side, digging her feet into the thick folds of the quilt. The girl hugged the quilting above his chest plate tightly.

"We're all gonna miss you," she said quietly. Oliver and Will both held the jet's black servo, dwarfed beside it. Raf watched Jack pat one of his missiles, which may not have been the smartest move.

"You all are so dramatic," Starscream groaned behind a smile/

"Hey, wanna hear about what Jack did last week?" Miko grinned with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Jack took a step backwards, "Miko… don't…"

"He asked Sierra out!" the girl blurted, grinning.

Starscream raised an eyebrow and tilted his helm to better look at the boy. "Oh? You aren't jealous, are you?"

Miko gave the boy a look. "Ew."

"Thanks," Jack said dryly.

Raf chuckled, "Yeah, he did."

The other Seeker cast Jack an expectant look. "And?"

The boy shrugged, trying to look nonchalant as he crossed his arms, but did so the wrong way and fumbled with them for a second, face reddening. "She… said yes."

"Just remember, Jack, I'm your partner, not your wingman." Arcee pointed out with a smirk, crossing her arms.

He raised his hands, "I know, I know. But one drive can't hurt, can it?"

"Maybe, but don't push it."

The human silently pumped a fist, getting scattered chuckles.

"Hey Scream, you ever go out with someone?" Miko asked. "That is, if you can have romance-y stuff." she hid a giggle.

"Can I elect to not answer that?" Starscream asked, giving me an exasperated look.

"It's your fu–actually, this is quite entertaining. Indulge us," I said, catching myself. Sharing his memories proved hilarious in this circumstance.

He pulled the quilt over his faceplates, his voice muffled, "I said no. It was humiliating."

"Dude! Now you have to tell us!" Miko exclaimed, leaning on his chest plate as she pulled the blanket back.

My double pulled the quilt down past his chin, frowning at the girl on his chest plate. "All I shall say is that yes, Cybertronians can develop "feelings" for each other–" he shuddered, bringing on a few barks of laughter, "and for me, that was a long time ago."

"You're not that old, are you?" Will said, raising an eyebrow.

"By Cybertronian standards, no," he agreed, "but war tends to get in the way of those th-things." He coughed wetly and wiped at his mouth plates sloppily, "May we please converse about anything else?" He grimaced and coughed again, trying to pull on the blanket more.

"Nuh-uh!" Miko exclaimed, jerking it back with enough force that it slipped out of my double's talons and she fell onto her rear with an "Oomph!"

"Jack, Miko, Oliver, Seven? I have something to say to all of you."

"We're all still here," I assured him.

"I can hear you," Miko agreed, kneeling on his chest plate.

"Same." said Jack.

"Ditto," Oliver added, touching his servo.

"I've been thinking," my double began slowly as if measuring out each word, "and I apologize, that–" he coughed, "that you met my demons the day you boarded Megatron's warship. Seven especially." He met my optics, and genuine remorse glittered up at me in identical red orbs. "It was selfish, cowardly of me to send children—anyone, really, in place of myself."

"Hey, we all signed up for it. Besides, it was Oliver's idea in the first place." Miko said, sweeping some of her pink hair out of her eyes.

"That's what she said," Oliver jerked a thumb at the girl.

She elbowed him. "Dude! Not the time!"

"Miko's right," Jack agreed, hiding a smirk. "That was a while ago, and I think we'd all agree that if you're going to apologize to anyone, it's Seven."

I took a deep intake, seeing that everyone was watching me. "I… I would rather forget that it happened than forgive you. You threatened to terminate me, after all, saying I had 'lost my use' to you. Slag, Megatron nearly did it for you."

His optics widened in fear.

"But I can't hate you," I continued, taking a seat beside him on his berth on top of the soft, thick quilt. "not like this."

Starscream stared up at me in surprise, and one could have heard a pin drop.

"All of you, leave Starscream to rest. Besides, your parents will want you home soon, will they not?" Ratchet said in a businesslike tone, shattering the silence. "I won't have you hassling my patient."

Starscream shivered, causing Miko to lose her balance as she was getting back up and fall onto her hands and knees. "Yes, doctor, you don't want them stealing your job, do you?"

Ratchet smirked and winked at us. "Shh, you aren't thinking straight with that fever."

I think Starscream laughed the hardest of us all. But our euphoria evaporated as it soon turned to wheezing as he fought for air. We got the humans off him, Miko, Raf, and Will had wet-looking eyes: we all saw plain as day how Starscream's mouth plates had become stained with energon.

"Scream…" Smokescreen trailed off, not knowing what to say. The Seeker gave him a sideways look behind a large yawn.

I stared down at my double, wanting to tell him everything would be okay, laugh in the face of it all, that sort of thing. But the last thing I wanted to do was lie to him when he was like this. "Who knows? Maybe… maybe death will hate you more than life does and send you back."

Starscream let out a strained laugh and gave me a strange look. "Maybe. But Ratchet is right for the moment, I would like to rest…" his optics dimmed as he spoke, "just–" he was cut off by a large yawn, "try to pipe down, you all are so loud… 'cept Soundwave isn't… vow of silence–" he yawned again, optics dimming until their crimson color was barely noticeable, "such a cop-out… " and just like that, he was out.

Bulkhead smashed a fist into the wall, causing some of us to jump. "So what if MECH's cure is gone? We're gonna find a way!"

"And if you don't…?" I trailed off, meeting Ratchet's optics.

The medic averted his gaze, "We… have made progress."

Knock Out eyed Starscream and I, listening in to the conversation, "But at this stage… there isn't much more we can do." I stood and straightened the quilt over the other Seeker, who relaxed against the berth in his recharge.

[So you're saying he's going to die?]

Ratchet shuttered his optics, still looking down. "Yes, Bumblebee, I am. It is only a matter of time."

Everyone looked to Starscream. The quilt was doing the trick, he wasn't shivering anymore, but still was uncomfortably hot to the touch. His optics were still closed and he wasn't moving, wrapped in the comforting folds of recharge. The telltale rise and fall of the quilt over his chest plate was sign enough that he wasn't finished yet.

Optimus stood a bit straighter, drawing our attention away from the sick bot. "Autobots, return the humans to their homes, then go recharge. We shall speak more of this in the morning."

No one argued, despite the fact that several of us likely wouldn't find any recharge tonight. I sincerely doubted that I would. But while everyone dispersed, save for the medics, I snuck down a corridor to where our Iacon relics were kept, muttering to myself. "Let's see… Spark Extractor, no… phase shifter, that's a nice one… Apex Armor, my personal favorite… red energon, oh, not again… energon harvester, not a bad choice if I do say so myself…" I stopped in front of another window, frozen in place. Behind the door was a stasis pod, Airachnid frozen inside of it in mid-scream, staring sightlessly at me, illuminated by a red glow from beneath her pedes. I frowned at her, it was so eerie with the femme locked in mid-scream, illuminated by red light. Her purple compound optics seemed to follow my movements. "I was wondering where they put that wretch…" I shivered, moving on, "I should swipe some of the humans' bug spray. Ah, here we are." I stopped in front of one of the closed doors towards the middle of the hallway, peering in through the frosted glass window. "The shrink ray, and the sliver of Megatron's metal to ensure its activation." The humans had duct-taped the sliver to the ray to ensure it stayed operational. And though I didn't care for their methods in the slightest, it worked.

And they were the reason I was even in here after all.

I held it so that the tip was facing me, and pressed the button, activating it. We also learned that it had a dial to adjust size in Cybertronian glyphs, hiding beneath a panel. I flipped it open and cranked it down to about six or so feet, then fired. A swirling beam of red energy hit me square in my chest plate and I staggered, underestimating the force of the impact. The ray fell out of my grasp as the world began to spin so fast that it became a grey blur around me. The perpetual anxiety that had woke me up in the morning and had left me exhausted at the end of each day spiked. I was on-edge every waking moment, waiting for a fateful comm from Ratchet confirming Starscream's demise.

I staggered back up to my pedes, fluttering my wings. "Primus, that is slagging awful…" I groaned, rubbing my helm with the palm of my servo. My optics fell back onto the ray beside me; I'd be able to pick it up for certain, but it was so large that I wouldn't be able to hold it for long. The ceiling soared high above me. Without a further thought, I pulled the ground bridge remote out of my thigh plating and activated it.

"Here we go…"

Someone rapped at the door, bringing our conversation to a screeching halt.

"Not it," Will said. He and my mom looked to me.

I sighed, "I'll get it." I rose up off the sofa, tossing the wadded up blanket I was using as a pillow aside. I smirked at the sound of a muffled thump as it collided with Will's head.

My mom yawned, "Careful, sweetie."

Why do you have to call me that in front of Will? I waved at her, not looking back as I walked down the hall and unlocked the front door. Hopefully it isn't another psycho coming to kidnap us again. "Hello?"

"May I come in?" Seven asked, his wings fluttering in the cool breeze, standing a couple inches taller than me. I gawked at him and stepped out of the way of the door as it swung inward.

Standing inside Oliver's house, I felt completely out of place. And it wasn't only the fact that I was about as tall as the humans. The worst part was the fact that I wasn't even sure of why I was here, only that I knew I needed to get out of the base. Desperately. So I just stood in the center of the room, for once not wanting to be the center of attention as the three humans stared at me in stunned silence.

I flitted my wings, adopting a piqued tone, "What lengths does one have to go to to get a shred of hospitality on this planet?"

Oliver's mother scowled at herself, "Where are my manners?! Would you like anything? Coffee, water?"

I gave her a look. "And perhaps a side of rust?" She wrung her hands, not knowing how to respond.

"Don't sweat it," her son placated, "he's just pushing buttons."

Melody suddenly skipped down the staircase, waving at me. "Hi, Seven! You're shorter!"

"You noticed," I rolled my optics.

"Was it another accident with the shrink ray?" Oliver smirked.

"Accident? Hardly!" I snapped, affronted.

"Why're you here?" Melody asked, poking my side. I shooed her away, brushing myself off.

"How is Screamer?" Oliver asked tentatively.

"What exactly is wrong with him?" His mother added, pulling herself up into a sitting position.

I launched right into it, looking to Oliver's mother. "The organization who took you captive, MECH, implanted a virus inside of Starscream's T-Cog. It's the organ which allows us to scan vehicles and transform."

"He lost it?" She asked.

"My point is that he got it back, and MECH hid a virus inside of it months ago." I looked to the pair of boys sadly, "However, Ratchet did make some progress on the antidote, but he will not make it. I've grown to loathe being the bearer of bad news." My voice quavered and my wings dipped.

"I'm sorry," Oliver's mom said quietly. The other humans hung their heads, suddenly rapt in their shoes.

Will suddenly looked at his watch, "I should be going! My folks have probably called the cops…"

"You aren't on the news, so don't bet on it." Oliver bit his lip.

"Sev, do you have the remote?" The other boy asked. I clamped my mouth shut, shaking my helm in a lie.

Without a word, the boy turned and left, shielding his face. Oliver's mother retreated to her room with Melody a handful of minutes after that, but her son remained awake until the early morning. We sometimes met each other's gaze by some unspoken words, but after a while I simply started at the ceiling through bleary optics, wondering again what I had thought to get out of coming here. Or maybe it wasn't why I came here, but why I had left the base.

I woke from recharge, disoriented, blinking furiously against the harsh sunlight streaming onto my faceplates. I sat up and a blanket rolled off me. I was on the human's sofa in their living room, which explained the soft cushioning beneath me. The television was playing quietly across from me, tuned to a news station and the humans were sitting on stools in the kitchen, which was connected to the living room. Oliver was clad in pajamas, sitting with his back to me and spooning something into his mouth. A pang of hunger hit me.

His mother stood on the other side of the counter where Oliver sat at, pouring herself a bowl of something. She glanced up, doing a double take once she registered I was up. "Someone's finally awake," she smiled warmly, "I didn't know you Cybertronians slept–"

"She came down in the middle of the night to check on us." Her son stifled a snicker behind a mouthful of food. "You should've heard her yelp."

"You call it sleep, we call it recharge, same difference." I corrected, joining them at the counter and took a seat on a stool one over from Oliver, holding my chin in my servos.

"What time is it?" He asked.

I checked my internal clock, which read 10:08 a.m. "Time to get a watch." I deadpanned, my thoughts turning to Starscream again. Why did I leave the base?

"Ha, ha. Mom, when does school start?"

She walked away, picking up a calendar and flipped through it. "You've been getting off school a lot lately," she frowned, "it's a late start; you have an hour."

Oliver gasped, "Crap!"

"What?" I asked, on edge. My wings fluttered nervously.

"Today's the day we have our competition!" He exclaimed ruefully. I gave him a blank stare. "You know, remember when Will's talked about his RC car? Our project for STEM class? Huge part of our grade–"

"Shut up. Ah, yes, his nonexistent, would-be-pathetic remote controlled device. What about it?" I asked, feeling all too much that he was wasting my time.

He swirled his spoon around in his bowl, stirring the contents up. "See, we're partnered for this project, we were supposed to make an RC car."

Miffed, I scowled lightly at him, "Why make a ground vehicle when it could have flight instead?"

"Even the teacher can't make a plane, it's too hard. Well, if that's what… you're… saying…" he trailed off, a smile coming over his features.

It was his mother's turn to wonder, "What?"

He gave me a funny look, "Seven, ever wonder what human school is like?"

"Never in my function. Why?" I asked, not bothering to hide the skepticism penetrating my tone.

"Well, you'll get to find out today. You're going to be our jet."

Silas opened his eyes, and Breakdown's chassis around him opened its functional optic while the other glowed with a yellow light. His servo twitched.

"Welcome back, sir. Every system appears operational, but we had to remove a considerable amount of your organic tissue to make a successful connection with the robot chassis." A soldier said, stepping up to him.

Silas held out a servo, examining it in awe, "I'm… one of them… it worked."

"Your brain, fused with the donor's skeletal and nervous systems," the same soldier added.

"The perfect meld of man and machine," MECH's leader smirked, "Exquisite." He tugged out a pair of energon lines from his scarred shoulder plates and several various sensors, now looking to all the soldiers. "Thank you all for your dedication and a lifetime of service," he stepped down, facing them even more now, "but I now seem more suited to seem the exclusive company of titans."