Here we go!
Similar warnings apply to this chapter as they did the last! But just to be safe. TW: Graphic description of injury.
This chapter is a bit intense! But I promise it gets a bit lighter as we go!
The world was spinning. Danny groaned, his eyes flickering open to look up at the blue sky above him. He winced back as he blinked rapidly at the blinding midday sun. Danny was sprawled across a fallen tree that had been knocked over in the crash.
Right, the crash! Starscream! He sat up with a jolt, fast enough to make him almost pass out from pain. He grabbed his head and then rapidly glanced at the area around him. Danny and Starscream were lying in a crater filled with fallen trees and debris, which had a long trail from where they had skidded through the forest, taking half of it with them. At least the shield Danny put up took the brunt of the damage.
Starscream was about ten feet away from him, half-buried in dirt and shattered trees, his frame mangled and leaking energon, too much energon.
"Starscream!" Danny scrambled to his feet, not having the energy to try and fly, and ran towards the seeker, tripping twice before righting himself. He made it to the Con's shoulder, putting his hand on the plating as he started frantically looking over all his injuries, heart dropping at the sight of all the spilled energon.
This was bad—so very bad. "Starscream, come on, stay with me! Wake up!" he frantically called out. He shoved at the seeker's shoulder, trying to make sure he was awake. He needed to be awake.
Starscream's optics flickered weakly, a pained groan escaping him as his systems struggled to keep functioning. Starscream tried to focus his optics on Danny but failed, helm crashing back down with a thud. Danny bit his lip hard enough that he could taste blood. He needed to get Starscream medical attention NOW.
The wing joint was luckily being pressed into the ground, which was temporarily stopping the flow of energon. Danny spotted the dismembered limb not too far from them outside the crater. Luckily, it looked like it was still in one piece. Maybe he could reattach it… somehow. But that was a later problem.
Right now, it seemed the most pressing injury on Starscream was his knee joint. Danny could work with that. He's done plenty of joint repairs. He's helped repair Starscream's knee many times due to other injuries. He could do this.
Danny ran down alongside the length of Starscream's body, hand never leaving the plating until he reached the joint. The knee was crushed with the weight of Megatron's pede as he used it as leverage to rip off his wing. Looking closer, Danny was suddenly not sure he could salvage it… He had never seen a joint crushed this bad… Maybe Knockout could?
But Knockout wasn't here. Danny could deal with getting Starscream the ability to walk again later; right now, he needed to stop the flow of energon to keep Starscream online long enough to make it to that point. No good having a leg to walk on if you aren't alive to use it.
Danny leaned over the joint, trying to figure out which of the energon lines were leaking the most. Which ones would he need to seal off first? Danny grabbed onto the thin plate of armour, which would have almost resembled a human kneecap if it hadn't been so mangled. That needed to go.
Danny grabbed it and pulled hard. He felt Starscream stir with pain, but there was not much more of a reaction. The knee guard came off easily with how messed up it was, and Danny dropped it on the ground next to him with a dull thud in the dirt. Now, he had more room to work.
Danny tried to squeeze as much ecto energy into his fingers as he could. He needed to seal those lines. All this, everything: protecting Starscream, fighting Megatron, using the shield. Though normally, he would be okay doing all those things. But right now, it felt like something was draining him, eating him alive. Right now, he was surprised he had any energy left. But he needed to use it. He needed to use what he could. He needed to help Starscream.
Ecto energy surged through his fingers and onto the torn energon lines. He was able to use his powers like a welder, cauterizing and sealing the lines shut with a flickering green glow that reflected off of Starscream's plating.
Danny had done this before. He had seen Knockout do this before. So why was he panicking so much? Why was his heart racing to the point where he felt like he might pass out? All he could hear was the pumping of his heart in his ears. He needed to calm down. He needed to do this. He needed to help Starscream.
Who knows when Megatron would gather his bearings enough to come down here and try and finish what he started? Danny didn't have the energy to even use his intangibility again, much less fly Starscream away from here.
Danny needed to focus on something else. Someone else. Danny took a deep breath, holding another line in his grip. He strained his ears, listening, and then he caught it. Starscream's spark pulse. It's weak, but it's there. Danny knew Starscream was alive as long as that was pulsing. Danny nodded to himself, grabbing another line.
Bah-dum. Bah-dum.
Danny grabbed another line, sealing it before gripping another and another.
Bah-dum. Bah-dum.
The sizzle of the energon cauterizing filled the air, but even as Danny worked, more energon oozed from other injuries, seeping into the dirt beneath him, the ground absorbing it greedily.
Bah-dum. Bah-dum.
Energon was coating Danny's hands.
Ba–ah, bu…dum….
Dum…
B..ah – ah
His spark was stuttering.
He wasn't working fast enough.
Starsream's field was flickering. "No, no, no… stay with me, Starscream, stay with me," Danny whispered, his voice strained. Danny shoved himself away from the knee and ran up towards Starscream's spark. The knee was as good as it was going to get. Danny needed to find out why Starscream's spark was stalling.
He made it to the Con's arm and frantically scrambled up onto his chest plate. Starscream showed no reaction to the human climbing on him. Not even a twitch. This was so, so bad.
Maybe the fall had crushed some of his internal systems. He may be losing energon internally instead. Losing energon that was supposed to be feeding into his spark. Keeping him alive.
"I need you to open your spark chamber," Danny said, desperately hoping the Con would respond, twitch, DO ANYTHING. " Starscream !" He yelled. Starscream never let anyone near his spark. The closest thing had been tossing Danny into his subspace a time or two. But his spark chamber was still closed off. He wouldn't even let Knockout, the Decepticon's chief medic, anywhere near it. He was very defensive over it.
As much as Danny hated doing this, hated doing something that he knew Starscream was so against, he didn't have a choice. He didn't have time. Danny phased his hand through Starscream's chest plate, grabbing at a sensor he knew was there from all of the medical schematics he had been studying about seekers.
He needed to open up his chest forcefully to get to his spark. If there was any damage to the energon lines leading to it, he was done for. The plating came apart in a few short transformations. The sound of crushed metal struggling to move grated on Danny's ears as he winced back.
It opened most of the way before stalling, but it was enough for Danny to fit. He carefully lowered himself into the open hole in Starscream's chest, horrified to find energon spilled on the inside as well. Enough to coat the bottom of the chest cavity almost two inches deep.
Danny knelt down in the substance and started searching for leaks. The energon lines leading to a Cybertronian's spark were way bigger and carried much more energon, so those were the priority.
Danny searched. While some of the lines had damage, nothing should be spilling the sheer amount of energon that Danny was kneeling in right now. Three inches now. Danny could see the spark in Starscream's chest pulse. Some of the pulses would sputter off, and others would be full and strong, but they were getting further and further apart.
Then Danny saw it. One of the lines leading to Starscream's spark wasn't attached. It wasn't attached at ALL. Danny reached for the line — his fingers couldn't even wrap around the whole thing. He lifted it up as a concerning amount of energon was flowing sluggishly from it.
His heart lurched, and he heaved the line up, desperately pulling it back up to where it was torn from, clearly connected to his spark. Around Starscream's spark was a metal sphere designed to keep the Spark crystal safe. Danny just needed to reattach it.
Danny plugged the line back in, but he needed to keep it there. He needed something hotter, more powerful than his powers right now. He reached for his belt. Luckily, he still had his ecto weapons on him, like he always did. He just needed to fine-tune the ecto blaster, and it could become a very decent welder.
It only took a few seconds to calibrate it. Danny raised up the blaster, and the tip of the weapon touched against the spark casing and the line. Danny held his breath. He couldn't mess this up. He pulled the trigger and held it against the seam, steadily melting the two metal components back together again. He almost had to close his eyes from the brightness of it, but he continued with a steady, very hot, consistent blast.
Starscream let out a piercing shriek that divulged into static. The first reaction yet. Danny cursed but continued welding. Starscream would die without this line. Danny re-attached the line, barely. He pulled his hands away.
"It's okay! It's okay, Starscream! That's it! I just needed to re-attach the line! I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to hurt."
Starscream's spark started pulsing slower. Danny's eyes widened. What now?! He re-attached the line! It should be getting better. Danny's breath hitched, his fingers trembling as he tried to focus.
Starscream's vocalizer made a horrible static popping sound before cutting out in a groan of pain, his head rolling to the side as his optics dimmed further. The sound sent a jolt of terror through Danny's core. He started reaching for smaller lines with minimal damage. Maybe if he could seal those—
"Stay with me, Starscream!" Danny yelled, his voice rising in desperation. He tried to go faster but couldn't. "Promise me you'll stay with me… It's all my fault, I can't—"
How could he fix this? HOW?
His mind raced with everything he'd ever seen in the medbay. How to patch energon leaks, how to stabilize failing systems. But nothing was working fast enough. Starscream's frame shuddered, a faint, broken whine escaping him as his optics flickered once more… and then dimmed entirely.
"Shit! No! Starscream, come on!" Danny's voice broke, his hands gripping the Seeker's lines tighter as though he could will him back to consciousness. "Please, don't do this. Don't die. I—"
Danny's throat tightened, the familiar surge of panic rising like a tidal wave. He pressed harder, his powers sparking erratically as he tried to keep Starscream's systems from failing. Every second felt like another step closer to losing him.
"Stay with me... stay with me..." Danny's words were barely a whisper now, ignoring the strain it was putting on his own energy reserves. He couldn't lose him, not like this.
Starscream's limp frame remained unresponsive, and Danny's core pulled harder in his chest, a sickening dread settling over him, his protection obsession working overdrive. He can't let another person he cares about die. He can't. He didn't know how much longer he could keep this up. He could feel the burn in his hands with the constant use of his ghost powers in his human form, but he didn't care. He would keep going, even if it meant—
A sudden hum filled the air.
Danny's panicked breath caught in his throat as he looked up, eyes wide. He froze, hands still glowing, hovering over Starscream's wounds as the unmistakable sound of a groundbridge opening echoed through the forest. A swirling vortex of green energy appeared beside them.
Danny felt a deep dread wash over him as the groundbridge pulsed. He had no idea who—or what—would come through. He reached to his belt and grabbed his ecto blaster. He may not have enough energy to shoot from his hands, but this would have to do. He wasn't about to let anyone hurt Starscream. Never again.
Four mechs emerged from the swirling portal, massive and armed with cannons in place of servos. Danny's eyes narrowed. He didn't recognize them, but it was clear they weren't here for a friendly chat.
Authors notes
Beta read by Arvensia
Y'all, this fic is going to be very plot-heavy! And I am so excited for it! I have also had to extend the number of chapters due to my extending scenes with a lot more dialogue and adding more descriptions. Originally, chapters 1-3 were all in the same chapter, but it came to up to 7-8k words, and I wanted to space it out a bit. So, with the exception of Chapter 1, there will be about 2k-2.5k words per chapter from now on!
Thank you all so much for supporting this. I am so excited that you all care so much. This is honestly one of the biggest projects I have ever done. With the amount of planning and plot that goes into it, I feel like I'm writing a novel. I hope it's not a waste.
Happy New Year! And I hope you all have a great 2025! See you next week!