orn=one month

Cycle =12 hours

Solar cycle=one day

Stellar cycle= one year

Vorn=83 years

Decivorn= 8.3 years

Dear Damian,

Almost two orns have passed since I was set adrift in this sea of fabricated reality. There's so much here that makes me question what we were told, both by the company and as children, watching our parents slave over this thing. I want you to get me out and I want to go home. I miss you. I miss the way the sun catches on the glass of the city. I miss the view from my office. I miss my fish. I miss the way my neighbors cat forgot which apartment was his and I would find cat hair on my bed. I miss humans and their smiles and how easy it is to lie and believe a lie. I think you would have liked Megatron. He loves me though it's hard to see sometimes. He's always busy, being a Lord and a politician and a single parent now. Sire didn't, or couldn't stay. But this is just a game, right? It all feels so real. I'm starting to wonder, isn't it?

Love, your sister,

Brianne

Two orns had passed since she Megatron brought back from the hospital wrapped in mesh. Two orns of getting use to the place in Tarn and then getting use to her actual 'home'; Kaon. So far her experience in the game was lonely. Other than the servants that ghosted around, the only mechs she'd been introduced to in any official capacity was an old war frame named Cyclonus that was the head of Dani's guard and the mech who she was sure was her sire.

Dani sat at the holo dest, wading through some of the never ending paperwork when the servant announced the guest.

When the Vosian delegation presented themselves, the representative arrived in a hush of colorful mesh draped over plates, his trine at each wing and three smaller, younger mechs she knew were her brothers following behind. "Presenting to Lord High Protector Megatron, seeker of Vos, Lieutenant Starscream and his trine," Wasn't he suppose to be-?

"I see you've redecorated," the smooth voice of the attractive seeker captured her attention. Red chassis and black face, pale painted wings arched proudly. The feeling in her codes, the way her spark lurched against it's casing for one that had help create it. He looked like her in general shape, wings, claws, joints. Slender and build for speed.

"It was time for a change of scenery, Lieutenant." Dani didn't seem all that worried when the seeker advanced, claws trailing over the edge of the desk as he took everything in with red optics. She squirmed, drawing attention to herself and flared her winglets at the intruder.

"My, my, what a spark you have. I had to dig deep this time to find out what was going on. Imagine my surprise when I find out you're keeping secrets from me. A spare sparkling mine in every way," he laughed and leaned forward to get a better look, stopping only when dani growled. "What, I can't even pet my own sparkling?"

"She's not."

"What?" The servo reaching to pet her shook. "What do you mean she's not mine, Megatron? Of course she's mine." He frowned and looked at her closer, matching features to his line. "She-"

"Looks like any seeker. I took many lovers after we separated. It's not as though the fidelity contract applied with you carrying and I knew the Winglord would disapprove of any further contact between us. We got lucky those few times we met in secret but we couldn't- Starscream I-"

Indignant, Starscream straightened and folded his arms across his flight canopy.

"So who? Prove it! Give me a name then, if she's not mine. Megatron," Starscream flattened his wings and looked up at Dani with wide optics. "Tell me what's- she's mine! There's no way you would dare!"

"I would dare! Who cares who carried her, it could have been a pleasure bot for all I care! She's mine in every way that matters and telling you that I DARED would change nothing!"

"A pleasure bot! Who all have you been seeing?"

"That's really none of you business now is it?" Megatron snarled, optics narrowing down at the seeker.

"You can't even pick another carrier right, can you, you fool! Look at her! She's-"

"Perfectly healthy! She just small for her age. I'm sure there are seekers that were the same size!"

"She not just small, she premature. I found her medical files Megatron!"

"Then you'll know that she passed the expected time frame for her spark to burn out." Ok, that was a new one.

Starcream's trine doubled as babysitters, the biggest purple and black seeker herding the three young mechs over to the side out of the direct path of the fight she could tell was brewing. The light blue one lingered, watching her in her dani's grip, probably wondering if he needed to rescue her before the two got any louder.

"Hey, if I could-"

"Not now Skywarp!" "What!?"

They both turned on him and she had to give it to him, he had balls of steel for not making himself scarce,

"Can I hold her while you two talk?"

"No!" She found herself tucked against the plating on dani's side where she could cling to the smaller plates easier. Latching on, she almost fell again when Starscream flew into another rant, ending somewhere along the lines of,

"-can't even trust my wing mate with MY daughter can you?"

"Not when he fragging teleports, Starscream. I wasn't born yesterday!"

"I know, you're ancient! And what are you afraid of? Skywarp kidnapping the little brat for me?! And you didn't deny it that time!" Starscream pointed an accusing finger at Megatron.

"Starrr-" Skywarp saw the train wreck this was about to turn into.

"She's not yours she's mine! And watch what you call her you-" dani made a lunge forward, barely restraining himself, shaking servos now free to possibly strangle the sire she had just met. Instead of backing down like he should have, the seeker bowed up to his tallest height, wings fanned out behind him. Thundercracker ushered her brothers out the door at that point, plating slicked against their protoform making them look smaller, younger than she had first thought. They only came up to Starscream's hips and whatever the two had going on, it seemed recent. If they were closer to her age than she thought- Megatron snarled again and Skywarp lunged between the two, Cyclonus and Strika coming in from the hall where they had been trying to give the illusion of privacy to the happy couple.

"Fine then!" he got even closer, poking Megatron in the chest with a single clawed digit. "You fragged around, did you? You went to some pleasure bot when I was RIGHT HERE! I'VE ALWAYS BEEN HERE! And you go and frag some random bot that couldn't even do what you wanted right when OUR younglings are right there! The younglings I gave you!" More poking, wings high and vibrating with rage, Skywarp wrapped his servos around his upper arm, holding him back. "I moved all of Cybertron so we had permission to mate! I begged and pleaded and was humiliated by my own family so that I could be a condition of that treaty! Night after night the only thing I PRAYED for was to give you a trine and a heir. I would have given you one more if you had just fragging- fragging," vents heaving, his optics started to well with tears, pressing a flat hand to Dani's chest. She couldn't tell what Dani was feeling, his spark was closed off and he had gone still. "I've been here, waiting for you to pull your head out of your aft, and you just- I wouldn't steal that- that- THAT MALFUNCTION FROM YOU IF SHE WAS THE LAST SPARKLING ON ALL OF CYBERTRON!"

Cyclonus lunged between the two, trying to press Megatron back and get him to let go of the seeker at the same time Skywarp and then Thundercracker bodily lifted their trine mate out of the way of the snarling code controlled Warlord. Someone hit her in the rush and her squeal only added to the panic, Strika joining the fray to try to jerk Megatron back by his sensor plates. It worked in that he stopped trying to maul Starscream, it didn't work in the sense that, protector and carrier protocols activated, Strika was the next target.

She fell, claws slipping with all the movement, the field of everyone in the room smothering her all at once. Megatron twisted an caught her, flaring out all his plating to get the others away.

"Get out! Every body out!" he tried to get her to calm down, soothing her with rubs and purrs as she started to click sparkling-speech, "Easy, easy, stay with me little one. Little star, hush," Pulling her close to his spark, trying to stabilize hers with his. "Get out." Starscream seemed frozen, she could see him watching her, flinching at each spark pulse fading.

"I could-"

"You've done enough!" There was Cyclonus, wedging himself between the two, shoving Starscream aside to make room for the medic who was always on standby. Well now she knew why, at least.

"Lord Megatron, Thundercracker of Vos is here to speak to you." The servant bowed out but Cyclonus, standing at attention at Megatron's shoulder, stayed.

"Thundercracker, here to finish what your leader started?" he gestured up to scratch running down the side of his faceplates, denta bared in a snarl.

"Ah, no my lord," the seeker cringed, optics on the tile. "I-" he kneeled, "I came to beg forgiveness on behalf of my trine leader."

"On his behalf? He didn't feel like coming himself?"

"To be honest," he held optic contact with Megatron, disapproval in his gaze, "He's inconsolable. He clings to the triplets like we're already in Vos."

"Stand up, Thundercracker. And what do you mean by 'already in Vos'?"

"Starscream sent in a request to cycle out with another diplomat. He can't stay here any longer. Unfortunately once we return to Vos, the younglings will most likely be placed in the palace Crèche by the Winglord and Starscream will start receiving pressure to mate again."

Megatron contemplated the news, "I will send a letter to Winglord, see if I can get them chaperoned visits to Kaon to get them out of Vos and to keep Starscream with them. The Winglord and I have yet to discuss any details concerning their education anyway, so inform Soundwave if they're placed in a crèche. He should know his place regarding my younglings."

"And the femme? Why didn't you tell Star the truth?"

"What truth?" Megatron straightened, pinned to the seat by the knowing glare of the larger seeker.

"She's his, I can see it in every twitch and glance. My brother looked just like that when he was born, just bigger," he added with a wry twist of his lips. They glanced over at the sleeping pallet on the floor in the corner, partially hidden by a wall drapery depicting the collision of Primus and Unicron. The sparkling in question blinked sleepy optics and purred a greeting at being the center of attention so suddenly. She blinked again at the large seeker, reaching to be picked up.

"Honestly? When the triplets reach their majority I'll have partial custody of them with the Winglord because of their war frame build and they will come live in Kaon or attend whatever academy they please at that point. I'm not going to let them be tied down to the Vosian throne when your Winglord has so many other descendants. The femme," Megatron grunted a little as he scooped her off the pallet and ignored Thundercracker's coo at her little squeals and squeaks, "Is most defiantly not a war frame. She's small, a runt definitely due to her premature emergence."

"I saw her medical files too,"

"Then you'll know the Winglord would have her thrown off High Tower. He won't abide by having her in his line, he's still too much of a functionalist to stand it." Thundercracker shifted uncomfortably at the though of what his great grandsire would do to his niece.

"There have been other like her before, surely.."

"And they've all been treated well have they?" Megatron settled her in his lap and leaned forward, "I have a vast number of civilian and war frame seekers in this city right now who can tell me how well my femme will be treated as she is now. Seekers are notorious for loving sparklings but the second one like her turns up they're nothing but hypocrites, eager to get rid of any blight on their line." Thundercracker vented, looking down at his claws, watching the play of artifical light over the shine.

"I will keep it a secret but it's going to come out one day, you know. We're from the line of unbroken rule, past Winglords in our coding as far as our history will take us back," he grimaced, "and you're no blank slate either. Warlord from nothing, the grit of the planet in your lines and the fire of the smelters in your optics. You've fought for everything you've ever had and since she emerged, so has your femme, fought down to every fatal spark pulse. I wouldn't be surprised if her naming is heralded."

"I don't hold much stock in prophecies or Primus, Thundercracker," Megatron relaxed at the other's agreement, but there was still a frown on his face, words echoing in his processor. "I think it's time we're done here, I look forward to further peace with Vos, please give your Grand Sire my regards."

"Of course, my lord, please inform us of the ceremony date, we'll be sure to send… a representative. I hope the Sire is proud, she is a lovely little thing despite-," all affection that the seeker had had for her was hidden behind a grimace when he looked at her, "-the rumors of her Malfunctions." With a parting bow, the large blue seeker turned to leave.

"Another thing, Thundercracker," the seeker stopped.

"Yes, my lord?"

"As far as anybody is concerned, I'm the sire. Understand?"

"I understand."

The door to the study closed and Megatron lifted her up to his face plates, her sitting on the palm of his hand and grasping at his fingers for balance.

"Did you hear that, lovely little one? You'll call me Sire when you learn to talk and you'll never know anything else, We can't have mechs causing trouble, hm?" She did what anybody pretending to be a sparkling would do in that situation, she tried to stick her hand in his mouth.

Thank you everyone who reviewed or favorited! I'm taking suggestions for names of the oc for the next chapter if anybody wants to help me out.