Disclaimer: Transformers © Hasbro
Warnings: AU, past OC death, mentions of propaganda on both sides
Notes: Damn it all, I meant for "Untitled" to be just a one-shot. But I was convinced to continue it by several comments and the breeding of two bunnies together... or was it three. Grah!

The Decepticons were treading lightly, none of them wishing to become the focus of their leader's current fit of rage.

The last battle had seemed to be going so well; the Autobots had been slow to arrive, leaving plenty of time to gather a significant amount of energon for later purification. Megatron had been pleased with the spoils, seeing fit to (for once) ignore Starscream's whining complaints... which, actually, seemed to be part of an ongoing game between the leader and his elite seeker trine. Even after the Autobots arrived, there was little reason to think that everything would quickly go to the pit.

Unfortunately, it had, and it was that annoying inventor's fault.

Now, the Decepticons currently on base were making every effort to avoid setting off Megatron's rage. Only a very select few knew why, exactly, the news that the air commander and his trine were missing in the aftermath of the explosion that had nearly wiped out the plant they'd raided was troubling their leader so.

And of that select few, Soundwave knew that only the Unmaker himself could match the rage Megatron would surely unleash upon the Autobots if the trine had been destroyed.

oOoOoOo

The discovery had been astonishing, and more than a little troubling.

When the nullifier that Wheeljack had built exploded during the battle, the elite seeker trine had wound up caught in the blast range. None of the Autobots were surprised to find that the Decepticons left them behind – they had looked deactivated even to Ratchet's trained optic at first – but it seemed wrong to do likewise if there was a chance of saving their lives (and possibly extracting some intel in the process).

The damage was hefty to all three, most of their framework twisted and melted beyond repair and their systems were fighting hard to stay online. Ratchet had made sure that all the seekers were in stasis lock before beginning to attempt any repairs. Thundercracker had taken more of the blast than his trine mates, rupturing his spark chamber, and the CMO had intended to make at least minor repairs to it before placing him into a CR chamber for a while.

Instead, he found that the seemingly-adult seeker possessed the spark of a half-grown youngling.

A quick check on the other two seekers revealed two more youngling sparks, slightly younger than Thundercracker's and – to the shock of the officers he informed of the discovery – indicated that the air commander and his second wing were twins. Not only that, but all three younglings were showing significant strain to their energy fields; even if they had not suffered damage in the explosion, chances were good that they only would have survived another three to five solar cycles before their sparks would have gone out several megacycles too soon.

As a medic, Ratchet could not, would not, stand by and just let it happen.

Thankfully, Optimus Prime was just as unwilling to allow three younglings to simply fade away. Hence why the trine was currently resting in separate CR chambers as the scientists worked at constructing three seeker-modified youngling protoforms.

What no one seemed to yet notice, however, was how indifferent Prowl seemed to be about the whole issue. Or how his two framekin slipped quietly from the Ark in spite of having no current assignment.

oOoOoOo

"The situation is growing worse, Lord Megatron."

The Decepticon leader frowned darkly, fixing burning crimson optics on the spy standing before him. "How much worse could things possibly get?" he asked, certain that he wouldn't like the answer.

His assessment proved correct. "The Autobots have started yet another campaign," the mech stated, wings twitching slightly in the manner that he had long ago come to recognize as a sign of frustration. "This time, they're targeting the seeker sky-born. They still don't recognize flightless as seekers, which is both a benefit and a curse."

Megatron gave a brief nod. "Beneficial in that suspicion won't befall yourself or your trine, yet it puts the young ones at risk."

A faint trill sounded behind him, and the spy turned to see that the twins had slipped into the room at some point during the debriefing. Skywarp looked angry while Starscream seemed more troubled than anything else. His own youngling, Thundercracker, stood off to one side keeping a protective eye on his friends.

"It's never going to end, is it?" the younger of the twins asked, leaning against his brother and relaxing only a fraction as Skywarp wrapped an arm possessively around him.

"It will end, Starscream," Megatron replied, optics darkening with anger at the Autobots for causing his creations even a moment of torment.

"After they wipe us all off the face of the planet, maybe!" Skywarp snapped, his turbines rumbling in repressed anger that wasn't soothed even by his brother's soft crooning. "We can't even defend ourselves, and they would see us deactivated! We're not even sixty vorns yet, genitor."

Megatron growled softly and inclined his head; recognizing the summons for what it was the twins darted across the room and clung to their creator, wings humming with nervous tension. "We will find some way to keep you both safe," he murmured, running his hands over their wings in a soothing manner. He met his spy's optics and watched as he gave a brief nod.

oOoOoOo

He hated coming out of stasis lock. Every time, his sensors took forever to come fully online and it served only to make him nervous while he waited impatiently. As he tended to do when in this in-between state, Skywarp automatically located the bond he shared with his twin to ascertain Starscream's current status.

=not right not right something's not right=

The nervous babble was disturbing; even as sparklings his brother was talkative, but only rambled on when his emotional state was overwhelmed by the information he was gathering. Diving in instinctively, the older twin wrapped his presence around the younger and broadcast calm to him. When Starscream's babbling ceased, he gave the younger a mental nudge.

=What's wrong, Astrum?= he crooned soothingly, using the old nickname for his brother.

=Something's not right, Caelum,= Starscream responded, also lapsing into the nicknames they had used when they were much younger. =My sensor readings make no sense. Everything comes back as brand new and... and my frame doesn't feel right to me.=

Skywarp paused at that and reached out to check his own sensors as they came fully online. He was getting odd readings as well: nothing indicated damage or the strain that he'd grown accustomed to, and Starscream's statement of his frame feeling off was echoed by his own instincts. Giving his twin a mental nuzzle, the older twin onlined his optics and glanced around cautiously.

He didn't recognize the ceiling, but the ugly orange colour made it highly likely that his current location was somewhere in the Autobot base (really, why orange? It clashed with everything!); given that he was only lightly restrained and was only now coming online after the explosion, it was almost certain that this was the repair bay. Skywarp turned his head slightly and blinked his optics in surprise before reaching out through the twin bond again.

=Hey, Astrum, I know why your frame feels weird.=

=Why's that, brother mine?=

='Cause apparently the Autoboobs found out about us and stuck you – and probably me and TC as well – into a youngling frame.=

Starscream's optics flared to life and he turned his head to look around. It was odd for Skywarp to see his younger brother back in a smaller frame, having long grown used to the bulkier adult protoforms they'd been wearing for megacycles. From what he could see, his twin's colours had nearly finished filling in and full integration would be complete within the next few breems. Crimson optics turned his way and a faint familiar smirk crossed the younger seeker's lips.

=It is so weird seeing you like that again, Caelum. Thunder's just over on your other side, same situation as us.=

Skywarp turned to look the other direction, noting that his brother's observation was correct and that it looked as if Thundercracker had been patiently waiting for his friends to online; granted, nothing seemed to ever phase the slightly-older seeker, not even when they were sparklings and the twins had innocently asked him how a sky-born could result from a union between two flightless.

"About time you two losers booted up," Thundercracker drawled, ignoring the pouts and glares his trine mates shot his way. "I was getting bored with only the Autobots for company."

"As your complaints for the past three breems have made abundantly clear," the Autobot medic remarked dryly, moving from the table he'd been working at to draw closer to the restrained trine. Behind him, Skywarp could make out the form of the second-in-command standing next to the door with his arms crossed. The seeker's optics locked onto the faint twitches that the mech's doorwings were making, giving a faint nod to the silent order.

"Hey, it could've been Screamer online first," Skywarp chirped, giving a cocky grin and ignoring the glare his twin shot him, although he internally snickered at the amusement flooding through their twin-bond. "He never shuts the frag up when he gets started."

"Go 'face yourself, Warp," Starscream shot back, biting back a grin when his brother responded with a blast of static. His amusement rocketed another few degrees at the disapproving look from the medic and the faint electrical thrum of laughter from the other seekers.

"As nice as it is that you're adapting so quickly," Ratchet interrupted, glowering at the three younglings and giving Prowl a look for good measure (he didn't see any reason for the SIC to be hovering like he was), "I still need to run a few diagnostics before I can release you from the med bay. The strain on your spark energies from being upgraded too early is going to take some time to stabilize."

Starscream snorted. "Well, excuse us so very much, Mister Autobot Medic. Not everyone's creators have the option of shuttling off their creations to a neutral zone as a means of protection." A sly smirk twisted his face plates as he added, "Not that it really did much good in the long run, did it?"

=Ouch, that was harsh, Astrum,= Skywarp snickered over their bond, grinning at the flustered expression on the medic's face. Aloud he added, "What, it was Praxus and then Crystal City back to back, right? With all those neutral zones going down so hard, it only made sense for our creator to opt for early upgrading and hoping for the best."

Ratchet reminded himself that these were younglings raised with Decepticon views to keep from snapping out his reply: "Apparently hoping for the best is akin to cutting your lives short. Upgrading too early at any development stage can cause undo spark trauma and shorten a mech's lifespan. You three would have only gone another few solar cycles if we hadn't downgraded you; if you don't get yourselves shot down, you have a chance to reach adulthood."

"As Autobots, right?" Thundercracker asked, quirking a brow ridge speculatively and shooting a quick look towards the mech still standing by the door. "That's what you've all been thinking since you found out how old we really are, I'll wager." The twins started snickering as the older youngling let an amused grin touch his lips. "You honestly think that after megacycles of being Decepticons, we'll just toe the line and be good little Autobots because you saved our lives? That's just plain gullible."

"Everyone should have the right to make their own decisions," Ratchet said, not entirely convinced that the seekers knew what they were professing. Behind him and completely unnoticed, Prowl turned his head in a brief nod and twitched his doorwings just enough to set up a faint hum; the three younglings gave no physical sign that they had noticed but allowed their systems to match the subsonic white noise.

Starscream gave a soft laugh. "And our choice was to follow our creators' pedefalls," the seeker sneered. "They were Decepticons back before this war began, and our surviving creators are loyal to the cause. Why should we turn our backs on everything they and we stand for?"

"All the seekers are loyal to the cause," Skywarp added with a grin. "To the point where we sacrificed one of our cities to protect our top spies."

"What are you—" Ratchet began, only to cut himself off with a sharp cry as a neural disrupter was pressed to the back of his neck. He dropped to the ground, optics flickering as his systems began to lock down. Before he fell entirely into darkness, he caught the faint outline of Mirage's cloak dropping and Prowl stepping up next to the spy. His audio receptors caught Prowl's words just before the world fell away:

"Praxus was a necessary sacrifice to keep the flightless hidden."

Additional Notes:

Genitor: parent-creator; from the Latin word for "parent"; the female parent-creator would be genetrix. Pronounced "geh-ne-toor."
Astrum: one of three Latin words for "star." Pronounced "ah-struum."
Caelum: Latin for "sky" or "heaven." Pronounced "ky-luum."