Name: Ceteris Paribus

Rating: NC-17 (G for this chapter)

Pairing: Optimus Prime/Starscream, Inferno/Red Alert

Summary: Set just as the wheels of the Third Cybertronian War begin turning. Optimus Prime has had his title only for a few hundred years, whilst within the opposing party a scientist-turned-Seeker named Starscream is clawing his way up the ranks, next in line for the post of Air Commander of the Royal Decepticon Air Force. However, said jet has a habit of foolhardiness, cowardice, opportunism - and plain getting caught up in all the wrong situations.

Author's Notes: Thanks to Konora for her beta reading 3

--

"I can't understand why they're letting him go!"

Red Alert had been like this for a good half a megacycle now. It wasn't much considering some of the more serious breakdowns the young Security Director had had, and Inferno was well used to dealing with them by now.

"I'm sure Optimus knows best, Red..." Inferno murmured soothingly, knowing full well that there was nothing he could say that would actually calm Red Alert, and it was really only the tone of his voice that could do any good at all.

"He wouldn't listen to me! I told him it was a serious security risk, I told him that that Seeker could have done anything, anything at all! He-he might have hacked our database, he c-could have downloaded any information from that, he's probably set up bombs all over Iacon City...!!"

"Red, you spent nearly all o'your time trackin' him on the security cameras..."

The pair were in their quarters, Inferno reclining on the recharge plate, Red sitting on the edge of it just by Inferno's hip in a state of severe agitation. He turned to give Inferno a deeply serious stare.

"I had to recharge sometime, you know."

Inferno just sighed and reached out to stroke Red Alert's door gently, not pulling back when Red Alert flinched. He knew what Red needed; and sure enough, a few moments later Red Alert was relaxing slightly, leaning a little bit into Inferno's hand.

"I just don't understand why none of them can see," he whimpered piteously, looking to Inferno for for confirmation, which Inferno always gave.

"I know, Red, I know," he murmured, keeping up his stroking. "I'm sure it'll be fine, Red - and if it ain't, Optimus'll take care of it."

Red Alert sniffled quietly, staring at the floor now. Inferno's spark went out to him - he knew that Red couldn't help it, and what's more that the poor youngling really did think that there were explosives planted all around the base, that the Decepticon was about to run off and spill their every secret to Megatron. He took in the miserable, frightened look on Red's face and sighed.

"Aww, Red, c'mere..."

Red Alert looked up just in time to see Inferno sitting up, putting his arms around him and pulling him close against his chest. Red Alert whimpered and pressed his face to Inferno's chest, letting his friend hold him tight and close, and Inferno was so warm... oh, Inferno always helped, he always made things better.

Gradually Red Alert's shaking subsided and he sank into Inferno's arms, low on energy and afraid and needing the comfort, and Inferno smiled and pressed slow kisses to Red's helm.

"Don' worry, Red, it'll be jus' fine."

Red Alert couldn't bring himself to nod, but he buried his face deeper against Inferno's chest and sniffled, and it was good enough.

--

Earlier that cycle Starscream had been released from medical. Ratchet had shut himself up and worked solidly for seven megacycles without so much as pausing, but he had made good on that nine point one per cent chance of survival and eventually unlocked the door to announce wearily that the Seeker was stable and in recharge.

Sure enough, the gruesome condition the Seeker had been in had been completely reversed, and even though his paint wasn't in such great condition the glass in his canopy had been replaced and his wings straightened out, his wounds had been welded over and the energon supply in his systems had been restored. He would live.

Ratchet was uneasy with the idea of others in his medbay with the Decepticon in there, and Optimus Prime had no desire to go in to see him anyway. The Seeker would come out when he was ready, and they would talk then.

When Starscream did awake, he stared up at the ceiling for several seconds, disoriented and knowing that he should be grateful to be alive at all, before speaking without knowing if there was anybody in the room to hear him.

"I want to talk to Optimus Prime."

Ratchet narrowed his optics.

"Don't you talk like that to me, Seeker, or anyone else for that matter."

Starscream didn't respond, glaring up at the ceiling, jaw set and sticking out stubbornly. Ratchet sighed.

"I'll see if Prime's available. Don't move a servo - we can see you on the cameras, Decepticon."

And with that he rose and left, looking for Optimus. With a brief, "the Seeker's asking for you," he led Optimus back to the medbay, and immediately busied himself checking and arranging his tools, not wanting to get involved. Optimus sat down on the side of the examination table, and Starscream sat up to talk this time.

"Optimus Prime. You said you wouldn't keep me prisoner."

He sounded nervous, afraid that Optimus would go back on his promise and keep him captive and grounded.

"That's correct," Optimus affirmed, and Starscream nodded.

"Then I want to leave."

It was a challenge he issued to Optimus, one that hung the air and demanded an answer.

Optimus nodded. "If it's your wish to leave, then... you are free to go."

Prowl was standing outside the open medbay door, a scowl on his face. Behind him was Ironhide - the tactician had borrowed Optimus' bodyguard on the way, hoping that he would back up his case. Prowl's tone was measured as always. "Optimus."

Optimus turned away from Starscream, who frowned, sensing that Prowl was out to confound his plans of escape.

"Prowl, what can I do for you?"

"I'd like to call an impromptu meeting," said the tactician. "Are you engaged?"

"No, no," Optimus replied, getting up with a reassuring glance at Starscream, and following Prowl from the medbay. "That's fine."

--

The three mechs were seated in Optimus Prime's office, Optimus sitting down behind his desk and gesturing to Prowl and Ironhide to take a seat. Prowl sat down graciously, but Ironhide shook his head with a shrug and mumble of "Thanks, Optimus, but I'll stand." Optimus nodded and leaned back, addressing the two of them.

"I presume this is about the Decepticon?"

Prowl took the lead. "Yes, it is. As I suspected, the Seeker wishes to leave Iacon and return to Polyhex. What does surprise me, however, is that you intend to let him - would that be correct?"

Optimus nodded. "I promised him he would not be taken prisoner."

"Be as that may," Prowl said hurriedly, "I'm afraid that it is extremely inadvisable to let him go. It is a distinct disadvantage to return one of the Decepticons' aerial elite to them, given the option of keeping it here."

But he's not just one of the Decepticons' Seekers, Optimus thought to himself. He's an individual, he's a mechanism just like we are. He knew the Seekers had come from Kaon, and he knew that Prowl had been the direct subordinate of Sentinel Prime, and had called the retreat that abandoned Kaon to the Decepticons and... started the war. He sighed. Prowl was a blank slate to an observer. He betrayed nothing.

"I will allow the Seeker to return," Optimus insisted. "This war has done enough damage already - to behave with such a disregard for integrity would make us no better than them."

"This war will do more damage, with all due respect, if we don't fight it."

Prowl privately thought that the best course of action would be to melt the Seeker down for spare parts. He didn't say so. "Optimus Prime, Sir, at least we should be certain that he doesn't have any information of ours to give back to the Decepticons."

Prowl could see the refusal in Optimus' optics before he'd even finished explaining. "I really think it is in our best interests to perform a full memory wipe and return him--"

"No. That is barbaric, Prowl. We are Autobots. We don't employ such methods towards any mechanism, whatever their faction."

"The sooner we get it outta here, the better," Ironhide remarked. "I don' like it bein' around here. Let's just send it packin'."

Optimus sighed. "Prowl. I know how you feel, but... the Seeker will be set free. A promise is a promise, and he's shown no signs of attempting espionage - he's hardly been conscious most of the time."

Prowl's optics dimmed, and he looked down. "Understood, Optimus," he said quietly, disheartened.

Optimus stood, opening the door and holding it for his subordinates. "Prowl," he murmured, as the other one drew even with him. "You're a great tactician. The best I could have. Don't misunderstand me."

Prowl nodded, not smiling - because that would have been superfluous - and not scowling, because he wasn't angry. "Thank you," he remarked instead, merely acknowledging and understanding.

Optimus nodded and made his way back to the medbay.

--

Ratchet had said nothing as Optimus and Ironhide escorted the Seeker - who looked so small in comparison - out of the medbay, to free him from Iacon. The medic only then allowed himself to slump, elbow on the computer console he was working at, cheek in his hand. He sighed. Guilt had been eating him away like a rust from the inside all day, and it was only made worse because he wasn't sure whether he ought to have been guilty or not.

The Seeker was young. He'd been afraid of so many things, of the darkness and the enclosed space of the medbay and even of Ratchet himself; he'd performed the stupidest escape Ratchet had ever seen - Primus, he'd been left to die on the battlefield by his own faction. It made the medic's spark wrench. Such a disregard for young life - for any life - was a blazing shame. He was right, surely, to have reversed that, to have saved his life. It was his job. Life was the only thing he really held dear.

Which was where the problem lay; Ratchet also knew that so long as the Seeker was alive, he would fight the Autobots. In allowing him to live, he might have consigned one of his own friends to death. To a death he couldn't save them from.

The medic's shoulders drooped in despair. The situation was so very morally ambiguous that it hurt him. He didn't know what to do, what he should have done. In saving a life, he condemned others to death. There was no way out.

What was done was done - the Seeker was alive and well, and going home. But he couldn't tell if that was an act of evil on his part, or his good deed; he just couldn't tell.

--