Whoops, I totally forgot about this being on FFN. Well, um, enjoy this mass update as I add all of the chapters at once.
This takes place during the end of the last chapter, in which we answer why Ramjet was noticeably absent earlier on.
(And more liberties are taken with Cybertronian physiology & technical capabilities, this time for plot purposes.)
"Can my humble self offer you assistance in preening after our glorious flight, my esteemed brother?" Sunstorm called out to Ramjet with a wave, quickening his pace to catch up to where his brother was making a b-line to their room after returning from a morning flight. They had recently learned about preening from their creator, and Sunstorm greatly enjoyed it. He loved being helpful to his family (and actually having his wings free of gunk was pretty great, too), and he had helped everyone - including Starscream - except for his favorite brother!
Ramjet halted in his speed walking and turned around to face Sunstorm, his wings flicking ever so slightly downwards and he replied, "Yes, of course, always." He then scowled in annoyance, but the orange Seeker got the feeling he wasn't annoyed at him.
"Oh," he replied carefully, lowering his arm slowly. He had not expected such a strong reaction. "Alright." He observed his brother thoughtfully and frowned at his tense frame and how his wings seemed to lack the perk they should have had. (Ramjet's mouth may always lie, but his body language could tell the truth. Funnily, he wasn't actually very good at hiding that.) "Are you okay, dear brother?"
"Everything's fine!" snapped the other, before storming off in a direction that did not lead to their room.
Sunstorm resisted following him, taking the time to mull over the interaction instead. The answer his dishonest brother had given worried him. It was evasive, for Ramjet. 'Everything' being fine was an absolute, so it would always be false. So was he personally not actually fine or just not wanting to answer? It amounted to the same thing, the same way anyone else saying they were fine would, but it was troubling. Sunstorm would be proud of his brother's increased skill with language if it didn't mean something was possibly wrong. Not to mention Ramjet simply vanishing after landing from a flight. Just like with Starscream, the days of evasion had gotten to the point of worrying Sunstorm. He thought about it as he sought out one of his other siblings instead.
Later, he asked around if anyone else had ever preened the dishonest jet's wings - or had even gotten near them. They all said no. Even their creator had never gotten near the white clone's wings. Sunstorm's worry increased.
That evening they were both in their room, winding down for the day before recharge. Ramjet was seated at their one rickety table that served as a desk, playing around with some colorful human puzzle he had found during their days on the Earth streets, and Sunstorm was - at least nominally - reading a book (not a book on a datapad, but an actual human style physical book. It was a perfectly good book that someone had thrown out - even large enough that he could hold it somewhat comfortably! Humans were such delightfully strange creatures.) But his optics didn't stay on the page for long before his gaze worriedly fell onto his brother's back. Something was wrong, he could just feel it. His stare intensified, abandoning the pretense of looking at the book as he looked over his brother's wings carefully. His own flicked briefly in intrigue when he realized he noticed something he hadn't before. Was it just him, or was one of Ramjet's wings just ever so slightly crooked? He usually held his wings a bit lower than everyone else's, so Sunstorm hadn't thought about it before. He tilted his head, as if that would somehow give him more perspective.
"What's with the staring?" his black and white brother asked suddenly, turning around in his seat so now Sunstorm was staring very intensely at his face. He reset his optics then looked at his brother more normally.
"Amazingly done with the question," he complimented at an aside with a smile, "Neither true nor untrue, you are getting very skilled at speaking, dear brother."
Ramjet grinned proudly, wings rising slightly at the compliment, which reminded Sunstorm of his concerns. "Though it may be above my place, for you certainly have a better grasp on your own affairs than my lowly, uninvolved self, I am worried about you, my wonderful Ramjet."
The other Seeker's smile fell, and he growled wordlessly, two things that couldn't be misinterpreted.
Barrelling onwards, his concerns all but confirmed, Sunstorm probed, his wings and shoulders perked with his hands clasped hopefully, and a veneer of cheer hardly covering his concern, "Is everything alright with your exquisite wings?"
"Drop it," commanded Ramjet bitingly, and Sunstorm's posture deflated. This time the complimenting clone didn't feel so inclined to praise his brother's continued mastery of truthful language.
Sunstorm was at a crossroads. He could continue to push, or do as his surprisingly honest this time around brother was suggesting and leave it alone. Not that there was really much of a choice. Pushing so much at once never went anywhere. They were all far too stubborn. (The trick instead, he was learning, was to push a little bit at a time.) Persisting with it right now would probably just escalate into a fight, and Sunstorm hated fighting. He didn't want to do anything against any of his family, especially when he was trying to help. Ex-venting a sigh, he did in fact drop it, and turned back to pretending to read his book.
Sunstorm never properly fell into recharge, kept online with his worries and concerns, so he was fully aware when distressed sounds started coming from Ramjet's berth beneath his. Leaning his head down off the side of his berth, he looked down worriedly at where his brother was tossing and turning, muttering incomprehensibly, clearly having a bad memory flux. With no hesitation, the orange jet jumped off onto the floor, sitting down beside his distressed brother. "Ramjet, everything is ok. Everything is fine," he soothed. His hand moved to one of his brother's wings to stroke it, a gesture of comfort rarely shared among their family, but always having a calming effect.
That was enough to shake Ramjet out of his troubled recharge, but not in the way Sunstorm had hoped. "NO!" the white jet shrieked, coming online and batting the intended comforting hand away. "I don't want-" the rest of the sentence was cut off with a breathless sob. Sunstorm withdrew his hand and stared at his brother, baffled as for the first time Ramjet's words and opinions actually aligned. On the end of his berth, Ramjet drew his legs up to his cockpit, trembling slightly as he slowly fought his way out of the troubling memories. Sunstorm stayed where he was, though he slowly placed his hand on his brother's foot in a new gesture of comfort. This touch wasn't rejected like the first so the orange Seeker kept his hand where it was. "Ramjet, my beloved brother, are you alright?"
This time, the other clone just shook his head, finally giving in and giving an honest answer. Sunstorm was well prepared to inquire further, but was paused when he received a vid message over comms from Ramjet. He looked at his brother puzzedly.
"It's not a memory file," said the lying jet hesitantly, "And it's definitely not the memory file that's been bothering me."
"Ah," replied the orange clone understandingly. He played the file.
Sunstorm - that is, Ramjet in the memory - was restrained, staring down at his chassis over thick strands of metal that pinned down his torso as well as the rest of him. His head was slightly raised at an incline, and his wings stuck awkwardly out to the sides over the edge of the table.(Sunstorm winced at how uncomfortable the position looked.) He looked frantically around the room he was in. The walls were lined with tools of unknown make and purpose, and there was a shelf just in his range of sight that appeared to be covered in parts, but he couldn't tell any more specifics from his vantage point. A mech loomed into view, an imposing green and black with a striking hook hand.
"Oh, Lockdown," realized Sunstorm with a forced grin, "What a terrifically terrifying mech. He was so excellent at his ruthless profession."
"It's been a long time since I had Seekers in my possession," commented Lockdown almost nonchalantly. He came closer to where Ramjet was held down, looking down at the clone appraisingly. He held up his hook hand, continuing, "I've always wanted to have some wings in my collection. Thought I finally lost my chance when I traded the other one."
He prodded in the joint of the wing with the tip of his hook, before also dragging it along the line of the flap with the sound of squealing metal, as though exploring how the limb worked.
Sunstorm flinched. The file didn't include sensory data like pain, only video and audio, but he could imagine how it would feel. His own wings dipped down protectively against his frame sympathetically.
"I'm sure they would look wonderful on you," spat out Ramjet in a saccharine false sincerity.
"That's cute," the bounty hunter smirked, giving the hook one more threatening twist before removing it and circling around the table to the other side of Ramjet's head. "Sentinel Prime wants you all as undamaged as possible. Autobot ethics," he scoffed, "But, well, a lot of things can happen out there on the streets to a Decepticon on their own," he observed his non-hooked hand, "If you were missing a few parts, well, who would be the wiser?"
"Yes! Of course!" Ramjet answered in panicked response, "You can have them!"
"Well," replied Lockdown with a cruel bemused smirk, "I've never had anyone offer me their parts before. When I'm finished with you, maybe I'll have to put in a good word with Sentinel for ya."
He turned the helpless jet onto his side, the restraints somehow not getting any looser as he did. Ramjet was facing a wall, so he could not see what was happening, but could hear as a menacing grinding whirr filled the room. The menacing noise picked up in pitch as it met the metal of his wing, and shrieking soon joined the other sounds.
"I can pay you!" Ramjet managed to cry out amidst his wordless shrieks of pain, making something, anything up on the spot, to get him to stop.
The sound slowed, and then stopped, Lockdown suddenly pulling away. Ramjet panted breathlessly as he laid on the table a minute more, staring at his improved vantage of the limbs and weapons that sat around on the shelves, barely suppressing a whining cry.
"Oh, yeah?" asked the bounty hunter, sounding doubtful, but amused.
Ramjet nodded frantically, "Energon, shanix, upgrades. Oh, yes, I have so much of it all that I could gladly give to you if you leave me alone and don't turn me over to Sentinel."
"'Upgrades'?" asked Lockdown with more genuine interest.
"Yes, of course!" the liar continued desperately, "The most amazing upgrades, even better than these old wings."
The bounty hunter paused in consideration, finally saying, "Well, I'd say we have a deal, then." Crouching down beside the Seeker's head, he patted him condescendingly on the cheek, "It's showtime, Seeker."
The memory file ended, and after watching it, Sunstorm was shaking all over. He had been in Lockdown's "care" briefly as well, and had had his weapons taken, but he had no idea that his brother had gone through all that. He gripped the still seated, and only minutely less trembling foot of his brother slightly tighter. "Ramjet," he said, his tone more pleading than the comforting he had intended but it was just too terrible. "Ramjet, I am so sorry, my wonderful, exquisite, resilient brother." He resisted the urge to clench his hand any tighter. He didn't want to dent Ramjet's plating. His brother had been hurt enough.
Ramjet said nothing. Sunstorm hazarded a guess he was thinking about how when it had mattered most, his speech had betrayed him. Unable to say no. And how much worse things could have gone because of it. He pictured briefly what could happen to a mech like his brother if he had gotten trapped in some awful place like an Autobot prison, how his contrary speech could be taken advantage of by those who either did not understand, or did and would use it to their own cruel designs.
With a pained cry, Sunstorm moved and threw his arms around his brother, very careful to keep his hands away from his wings. The white jet made a brief noise of protest, but didn't try to throw him off. Sunstorm looked over his brother's shoulders at his wings, and frowned at the one that had looked crooked. It was only worse now that he knew what had caused it. Ramjet's trembling gradually ceased, and Sunstorm reluctantly let him go.
"Ramjet, has your wing been injured this whole time?" he asked worriedly.
"No," the other clone immediately replied, wincing at the obviousness of the lie.
"I'm afraid I am no medic, lowly, ignorant, mech that I am. But surely our clever, magnanimous creator could fix your wing?" suggested Sunstorm, worrying his hands and looking at his brother hopefully.
"Yes, what a fantastic idea, I completely agree," answered Ramjet frantically, cringing away from his brother and his suggestion, nearly backing into the wall where it met his berth.
Sunstorm frowned, "Our wonderful creator wouldn't hurt you. He would know better than anyone how to help."
Ramjet looked no more convinced.
"Starscream may be impressively loud and passionately opinionated," guessing where at least part of the objection was from. In a softer tone he concluded, "but he knows to be gentle with wings. From his own, significantly worldly experience."
Ramjet still seemed hesitant about the idea, and Sunstorm couldn't say he blamed him. He tried a different tactic instead. "Well what if… you tried to let me touch your wings? I am unfortunately no medic, and I will probably not be of any help, but perhaps it would help remind you that not every touch is trying to hurt."
"There's no way that could work," the other jet finally replied, shifting his posture so his back no longer faced defensively towards the wall. Sunstorm moved to sit behind his brother, and carefully, slowly, brought his hand up to the non-crooked wing, speaking soothingly all the while.
"Everything is fine, illustrious brother. It is only, I, your humble sibling Sunstorm. We're safe in our charming, homely, base, and the only others here are your loving family." Sunstorm kept up the positive prattle as he gently touched at the tip of Ramjet's good wing, figuring that with a familiar voice he would be less likely to picture himself in a less friendly place. It seemed to be working, as Ramjet didn't flinch from his touch, and he shifted to touching the base of his brother's wing instead. "You are being stunningly brave and resilient, brother," he complimented as Ramjet clearly fought off the desire to cringe away. He kept on like that as he settled in to gently preening the wing, his clawed fingers softly picking through the cabling at the base. Sunstorm was fortunately really good at talking. If it wasn't for the fact he always spoke in compliments he might have been known as the chatterbox clone rather than the sycophant clone. He cleaned out the hinge of the wing flap equally gently, remembering with painful clarity how the Lockdown in Ramjet's memory had done something so similar.
"You are going to be alright, you are a remarkably strong and powerful Seeker," he reassured as he inevitably changed over to the injured wing. Ramjet did cringe this time as Sunstorm's fingers ghosted over the misshapen cabling, and the orange Seeker quickly withdrew his hand and hovered it uncertainly over the limb. Sudden rage filled him towards Lockdown, the likes of which the complimenting clone couldn't recall ever feeling towards another. "Lockdown is a magnificent bastard," he commented darkly, the use of the human swear feeling so much more fitting.
Ramjet flinched again, though this time out of surprise. That was the first time he had ever heard his complimenting brother curse. He huffed out a short laugh in agreement, then braced himself for the touch to return. This was his brother, he reminded himself, there was no Lockdown, he wasn't on his ship. It was only his brother's gentle clawed fingers, not the cruel and violent chainsaw of the bounty hunter. "You can go ahead and take all night," he snarked, his voice regaining confidence that it had lacked since coming out of recharge.
Sunstorm brightened at that, and returned to carefully preening the damaged wing. The cables were knotted, and had sections that felt misshapen and calloused, and there was far more dirt and debris in this wing than the other. Internally Sunstorm fretted about its poor condition, but he easily kept up his outward smile and spoken reassurances. Finally he was done, and he set his hands in his lap, regarding his brother keenly.
"So. What do you say about seeing our wise creator about repairs?" he suggested again, hoping that now the worst was over of the initial wing touching Ramjet would feel a bit more confident about it.
After a beat of thoughtful silence, the white clone replied, "Nah." Sunstorm's wings perked hopefully. It wasn't the most certain response but it would do!
They found Starscream the next day with his head and upper chassis buried inside the charred and disassembled remains of the main computer, making a valiant attempt at its repair. What they would do with it once it became functional he hadn't said, and it wasn't certain he even could get it working again, but he was nothing if not persistent.
"Oh wise creator!" called out Sunstorm, giving a little half bow as he spotted his maker's legs sticking out of the base of the machine. Ramjet was in tow behind him, stopping beside him a small distance away from the computer.
Starscream startled at the summons, shooting up where he was and hitting his forehead to the underside of the structure with a resounding clang. "Oh, ow," he grumbled, laying back down and prodding at the new scuffmark to his helm, "Awgh, that definitely left a mark."
Extracting himself from the machine, he craned his neck to glare up at his creations, snapping, "What? I'm busy here, in case you couldn't tell."
"Our dear Ramjet's wing is injured," explained the orange jet, lightly grabbing at his brother's arm when he seemed ready to run, "I know you, in all of your mercy, intelligence, and skill could certainly repair it," he gave a broad sweep of his arm as he complimented, as though encompassing all the ways Stascream was helpful.
Starscream wouldn't lie, the abundant praise did a lot to temper his annoyance. If only all of the clones were as easy and pleasant to deal with as Sunstorm. He then reconsidered this position when he remembered how persistently annoying the kinder clone could be,like when he had thought something had been troubling his creator. He had a feeling Sunstorm's determined nosey concern had just been similarly unleashed on Ramjet. On that note, he shifted to gaze at the liar clone thoughtfully instead. He didn't see anything unusual, but he knew better than anyone that it was easier to hide a wing injury than one would think.
Grunting in annoyance at being pulled away from his work, he pulled himself to his feet and made his way to stand next to his clones. "Alright, whatever," he conceded. "Let's see what's wrong with the liar." He led the two into what they had been infrequently using as a sort of medbay. It was poorly stocked even before the base had been ruined, Decepticons being more for "the survival of the fittest" and lacking any sort of medic besides, but it had a few sturdy berths and at least the most basic of diagnostic machines and first aid. The magenta jet shepherded his white copy to sit on the berth, and looked over the wing in question. Looking, but pointedly not touching as he observed the injury. "Hmm," he hummed critically, finding the issue fairly easily, "Looks like self repair fragged this cabling up good."
Starscream leant in to observe the wing more closely, and Ramjet cringed as the part he had been dreading finally arrived. He did his best not to flinch away as Starscream took the edge of his wing in his hands. But there wasn't a need to worry. Starscream's touch was shockingly light, gentler, even, than Sunstorm's had been, as he shifted the limb to get a better view of the injured joint. Making no comment on Ramjet's reactions, though he certainly had to have noticed them, the magenta Seeker briefly prodded the old wound, his digits retracting nearly as soon as they made contact. His optics narrowed at the calloused cables as he observed in a clinical tone, "This scarring pattern doesn't match any injury I can remember having, and I have quite the database of possible wing injuries. What did you say caused this again?" He turned so his optics met those of the two clones, releasing the patient's wing as he did.
The one on the medberth shifted in his seat as the touch retreated, anxiously recalling the events that had brought him into the makeshift medbay. "I've said it already! And I want to say it again!" protested Ramjet.
"It was the oh-so-talentedly ruthless Lockdown," replied Sunstorm lowly on his brother's behalf, his voice an uncharacteristic near growl, and fists clenched tightly.
"Lockdown," echoed Starscream in a similar tone, scowling in disgust at the mention of the unsavory bounty hunter. "So that lowlife tried to take my clones for his little collection, did he?"he asked the rhetorical question threateningly. Starscream entertained some briefly murderous thoughts, before shaking his head and focusing back to the matter at hand. Arms crossed in an aloof yet professional manner, he offered his diagnosis, "Well, not much to do about it," he pronounced, flicking his hand in a dismissive wave, "It's technically healed, just wasn't set properly so it healed in an aft way." Musing on this, he tapped a couple fingers on his chin and proposed, "I could cut the cabling again and then re-set it so it heals correctly…"
"Yes, just perfect!" yelped Ramjet, pulling away from his creator's hands. Calming down he added, "I wouldn't want to just keep a crooked wing instead."
Starscream hummed thoughtfully at the idea, not caring strongly what his clone did one way or the other. "It doesn't inhibit you from transforming, hurt you, or hinder your flying in either form, does it?" This he did care about. He would never say it was because he cared about any of his clones, but an army that couldn't transform or fly would be fairly useless (or so he told himself).
"Yes, all the time," replied the white clone in relief.
Starscream shrugged, satisfied with the response. "Well, I would say it's fine to just leave it how it is, then. But for Allspark's sake," he scolded, his voice harshening, "Say something if you're injured. What kind of clone army would I be running if you all got yourselves crippled?"
Ramjet looked ready to respond, probably with something sassy, but Starscream quickly cut him off with a disapproving wagging finger, "And no slag about you being a liar and it being pointless you telling anyone anything," he scoffed at the idea, re-crossing his arms, "We all know you well enough, we understand what you mean."
Ramjet let that statement sink in, thinking it over. Yes, his speech still wasn't perfect, and he still said the exact opposite of what he really thought (and he might never be able to speak his true opinion), but that didn't matter with his family. They knew what he meant, even when he didn't want them to. With this thought he glanced over to Sunstorm, and gave a smirking, but genuine smile. "I hate that about all of you, and I don't appreciate it at all," he stated with conviction, and his brother smiled too.
Sunstorm and Ramjet are besties and I love them. Also it's fun taking the clones' "quirks" and then taking them really seriously and grounding them. What if you always said the opposite of what you actually felt? The opposite of what you actually wanted? Does not sound fun. I also just enjoy playing around linguistically with their speech patterns (even though every time Sunstorm opens his mouth I have to go hunt down a thesaurus). Can you spot the loopholes of how Sunstorm was able to curse and Ramjet was able to tell the truth? Hint: It's not from personal development, because I like keeping their gimmicks. ;)
(Also yes I know normally memory files have to be shared over a hardline connection. But the fandom has sexualized that so much I didn't want to do it. And it's really less of a direct memory file and more like an edited version into a movie. A direct memory would include more sensory stuff and inner thoughts and emotions, I would think. I basically HC that Ramjet's been working on "directing" this memory into a video format for a little while, because explaining things with the way he talks would take a while and be a little confusing, but he never felt confident enough to show it to any of his family. Good thing Sunstorm was here. )
And IDK why but I just was so amused by the image of Sunstorm sitting and reading one of those, like, oversized reference books that are like 3 ft tall like we would read a little paperback lol.
Thanks again for reading, see you next chapter!