In the whole of the cybertronian race one thing was agreed upon.

Seekers were crazy.

Not flyers in general, just Seekers.

Seekers were a separate species of flyers all together. Built for the military they rule the skies in combat, faster, more agile and built for speed made them superior then most other flyers in battle. In any war against the cybertronian race, there were always seekers in the front lines with the ground bots ready to defend the lives of their planet. Planets and other species hesitated to attack the robotic planet when each cybertronian was built in some way for war, Cybertron was their planet and they would protect this at all costs.

In times of peace though the use for seekers slowed, as they were only built for war they had known nothing else. In an attempt to keep the seeker species from disappearing till a time of need they were all incorporated with different series of protocols, they were then assigned the task of become the protector of the young and of the sparked bots. As stellar cycles passed this unique code developed and was passed onto every seeker ever sparked or built, it became a program that was only found in seekers, in every seeker and no seeker could go against it.

This code stated that all sparklings and younglings were to be protected. Their every need would be apparent to the seeker who would full fill them, their lives and the lives of the sparked bot would become first priority, nothing else mattered. The bot who is sparked must be protected from harm so that the sparkling would be born healthy and well, the sparked bot would have his or her every needs attended to for the sake of the sparkling and the priority was to keep the new spark alive. This code became active and will over ride any other only in the presence of a sparkling, youngling or sparked bot.

The Decepticon leader Megatron knowing the potential of the seekers in battle and of this code took advantage. Slaughtering all the sparklings and femmes without the majority of the seekers knowing he blamed it all on the Autobots gaining the loyalty of the flying fighters, only stellar cycles later the truth was known but it was too late to turn back, too many lives have been lost in the war, the only way was to end it and start again. With no sparkling or carrying femme the code became dormant and the protocols for battle became forefront in the minds of all seekers.

Until now…

Optimus sighed for what seemed like the millionth time. Things at the ark have been hectic as ever, fighting bots, human meetings, patrols, battle discussions and pranks seemingly occurring all the time now. Life at the ark has seemed to pick up speed and is changing from the normal days, the main reason? Defecting seekers. It's been nearly six earth months since Starscream and his trine had crash landed in front of the ark requesting asylum, shocked the pit out of the Autobots, Prowl crashed again, but because they were the command flyers and second in command they were taken in. Though there was much suspicion about the seekers, over time there was no choice but to slowly incorporate them into the army.

There was much tension at first, Starscream was the second in command of the enemy army, but over times bonds were forged over small things and they became part of the army. They were still looked upon in suspicion but it was not enough to stop them from continuing on with their roles. Starscream had become a scientist again and was training the other ground bots to fight flyers better, Thundercracker the oldest and level headed of the trine had adopted to teach the Autobot flyers better maneuvers and calm down the dinobots when needed and Skywarp had become a part of Jazz's team with his teleporting abilities making him a sneaky spy and information gatherer.

Optimus stared at the data pads again before signing his name with a flourish that he did not feel. Looking into space Optimus was surprised when he felt something brush against his spark, stopping to feel his chest he concentrated on the feeling.

Concern/comfort/confusion.

Smiling at the feeling he sent out his own at the spark that was not his.

Happiness/love/comfort.

Suspicion/love/relief.

Another thing that had happened on the ark that no one had seen coming was Optimus Prime himself getting bonded. After Stellar cycles of mourning the death of Elita One Optimus had moved on and had found someone else he loved, which caused most meches to crash and go up in arms about was who he had chosen. The one and only tri colored former second in command of the Decepticon army seeker, Starscream. Surprise was an understatement when the ark and even the seeker realized that the leader was courting the former Decepticon. Though it was hard to keep the ark residence from complaining they eventually accepted that Optimus was in love with Starscream and that nothing they could do would make him stop, also a sad and depressed Prime was not a great leader.

Surprisingly that was not the hard part of bonding with Starscream, no, the hard part was getting pass his two trine, Thundercracker and Skywarp. When the two trine mates noticed that Optimus was looking at Starscream more than usual they became overbearingly possessive and protective of their leader, taking all of Starscream's attention, time and making it so the Prime would only have limited contacts with the seeker. Another shock to the ark was when Optimus finally questioned the two trine mates about their actions to get a response that actually sent him into stasis, Thundercracker and Skywarp were Starscream's creators. The two blue and black seekers were not what everyone thought, brothers or even cousins of Starscream, but in fact were the ones that brought him into life.

Ratchet at that time was yelling at everyone to stop having processor crashes while the only one who was not surprised was the shuttle Skyfire, he knew when he first met the small seeker getting a stern talking to from Skywarp on what would happen to him if any harm came to Starscream, that was scary indeed. When Optimus finally came he was not put off about the new information and doubled his attempt trying to court the young seeker, much to the annoyance of the two creators, much to the disappointment of the ark and much to the amusement of Starscream. After many and many tries, where the ark got over their disappointment and found it funny to see Prime try so hard while two seekers tried to stop him, Starscream finally relented and had a talk to his two creators. With only a few words to his creators both Thundercracker and Skywarp stopped trying to sabotage Optimus and grudgingly watched as their little one was being romanced. They had only allowed and gave permission to the Prime to bond with their creation only when in an act of heroics he nearly off lined himself saving their sparklet from Megatron.

Getting Starscream to bond then was complicated but easier after the earth months of courting him, Starscream still had trust issues, they were bonded on a clear starry night. Looking back Optimus smiled a goofy smile, he wouldn't trade anything in the world for the experience. Everything has been normal and been peaceful lately but he couldn't shake the feeling that had been at the bottom of his spark lately. One night it was a soft pressure, not from Starscream who shrieked it was not his fault, as cycles passed though it got more and more obvious for Optimus to realize it and it worried his mate. Dragging the leader to the medic Ratchet gave no answers as the spark reading abnormalities were too small to really determine what was wrong, putting it off as something that will go away Optimus continued normally with his days, Starscream however kept hovering around the leader for any clue.

But a few cycles ago Optimus one day woke up to find himself lying in the berth alone, waking up and looking for his mate he found his mate in the storage room for scrap metal. Asking his mate what he was doing he only received a confused look from the seeker who looked also confused to why he was there, brushing it off as nothing the seeker continued to hover around the Prime. Though when he was trailing after Optimus the seeker looked a little dazed, was extra protective of Optimus when any bot got near the Prime and was seemingly collecting pieces of scrap metal whenever he came across one without thinking about it. The seekers behavior only got stranger one night when Optimus woke up to find his chest, open revealing his spark, and the seeker leaning in staring at it while chirping strangely.

When he had asked about it he was only told by Ratchet that he was not chirping like a sparkling but was speaking seeklet, a language that only seekers could understand. Confronting his mate however got no answers as the seeker ran by him shouting something about the preparations that needed to be done. For the last few cycles Starscream has been running around the base collecting all scrap metal and useless metal parts for himself, annoyed the slag out of Ratchet who had many arguments with the seeker saying that he also needed the parts, when there was no more he could take around the base he started flying to dumps to collect more. Prowl was furious at the seeker going to human areas but the seeker just jabbered something to Prowl in seekerlet leaving the police bot confused and the seeker time to escape.

Optimus, though he was told many times by Prowl and Redalert, couldn't stop his mate from flying off to get more. Every time he tried Starscream would just place his servos on the Prime's chest and purr, this then lead to passionate and satisfying interfacing which left Optimus waking up alone content and the seeker off flying again for more parts, he tried to resist he honestly tried but the seeker was irresistible. Many times Prowl and Redalert tried to set up traps to stop the seeker but Starscream was not a self proclaimed genius for nothing. Nodding in determination he got up, Optimus had decided to ask Thundercracker and Skywarp what exactly was going on. Luckily for him Skywarp had just come back from a spying mission and Thundercracker had just finished training the flyers.

"Skywarp, Thundercracker. I need to talk to you both about something" Optimus approached the two seekers who were drinking some energon together, "Starscream has been acting strangely of lately and I'm wondering if you had any clue to what was going on"

Thundercracker and Skywarp both looked at Optimus oddly, their optics showed that they know something he doesn't but they still looked unsure of themselves. "…oddly?"

"Yes. Lately he has been more protective of me and has been flying off all the time"

"…Hmm? Oh Starscream does that all the time, needs to stretch his wings and of course he's protective of you, your his bond mate"

Optimus rose an optic of how distracted Skywarp was staring at Optimus like this was the first time they have met, "are you alright Skywarp, you sound…Distracted"

"…Oh? I do? I don't think…Prime have you done something about your look?" smothering a yelp in surprise Optimus stayed frozen as both the seekers grabbed onto his frame was started tracing places with their claws, everyone in the rec room was now watching them. "Some things…different…about you"

"N-N-no I h-haven't done anything" Optimus stood nervously as the seekers servos got closer and closer to his chest.

"Something has to be different…you feel different" said Thundercracker in a trance furrowing his optics trying to figure something out.

"Prime?" Optimus looked at the corner of his optics to see Prowl watching them strangely, so were the other residence.

"I have no idea Prowl" Optimus stood back and waited for the two seekers to be done with their exploration of whatever they were trying to figure out.

After a click of silence both seekers then froze, their optics clicked off then on again rebooting, looking at Optimus with wide optics and in awe they both chirped out something in seekerlet before rushing out of the room like the pit master was after him. When the other bots tried to stop them for an explanation the two seekers shouted something about preparations. Looking at the second in command the Prime couldn't help but shrug helplessly, he may be bonded to a seeker but that does not mean he knew what they thought.