Chapter 22

One Journey's End is Always Another's Beginning

Thundercracker sat back in the rec room, for once he was comfortable about the chatter around him. It took his processor off of other-things. He watched the bots around him, and couldn't help but shake his head. Their society was so different than the Decepticon's. Everyone knew about the affairs that went on, certainly, but they kept them behind closed doors. He had seen enough to know they were equally promiscuous. Living in the officers' wing had certainly given him that insight. Not two nights ago he has observed the medic and the red front-liner leaving Prime's quarters. He knew the medic was bonded to the inventor, but who was Thundercracker to begrudge Prime some downtime. Aside from that, he couldn't see Wheeljack being the possessive type.

He watched the red front-liner talking up Blue, and he couldn't help but frown. Blue was clearly flustered, it was apparent by the look on his faceplates. Sideswipe was very Decepticon in his berthing habits, that much was apparent to Thundercracker. He reminded the seeker of Starscream. Flitting from lover to lover, never settling on one for very long before moving on to the next. At least that was how it had been before he had met Megatron. Thundercracker stopped that thought tree as quickly as it had popped up. That was not where he wanted to go, not at all.

The yellow front-liner, on the other hand was clearly more than passing angry. He hid it well, but not well enough. Thundercracker finally got up, taking a seat across from the yellow mech. "He acts so much like Scree, flitting from lover to lover, it used to drive me crazy too. Flirting with everyone, facing with everyone. It drove me crazy, but I never told him because I thought it might upset him. I was afraid it would get between us, that he'd push me away, and I don't know...hate me eventually for meddling. I never told him, and now I can't."

"What is your point?" Sunstreaker said, his tone belligerent.

"I think you know what my point is, Sunstreaker." Thundercracker shrugged, "You know. I always hated it when Star or Warp flirted with other mechs. Seeker libidos may be the thing of legends, but it always made me feel like I wasn't enough. Maybe I wasn't. It's hard to tell. I told myself it was okay though. Even if they gave themselves to someone else bodily I would always have their sparks, they would always come back to me. That was the case for a very long time, then Star fell head-over-thrusters-pardon the phrase-and starry-optic'd over this Kaonite pit fighter. So I told myself I just wanted him to be happy. I would give him anything, even Megatron, if that made him happy. I never said how I felt. And now Star is gone. Warp is gone. I can't even imagine how different things would have been had I been able to tell them. Had I-I don't know-been braver, maybe they would still be at my side."

Sunstreaker pulled a face. "Not the same thing, Thundercracker, not at all."

"Mmmm...Maybe not. Maybe you are right. At least Star and Warp knew I loved them, and I knew they loved me back. If something happens will he even know you wanted him?"

"I..." Sunstreaker blinked at him for several moment. "I should probably talk to him."

"You probably should." Thundercracker agreed. "Just one more thing-" He gave Sunstreaker a brittle smile, "You break his spark and I will put you in a world of hurt. I very much doubt Prowl and Jazz will try to stop me. They might even help, actually I know they will."

Sunstreaker blinked, "I-right. I will keep that in mind."

Thundercracker watched him, and he didn't move. "Sunstreaker! Are you going to go over there? Or am I going to have to lock the two of you in a storage closet. I guarantee I'm not above doing so. Just be a big bot and tell him." The seeker said, looking exasperated. He didn't know how he could be any more blunt.

"What if he doesn't like me. What it-"

Thundercracker nearly facepalmed. "I'm going to pretend you didn't just say that."

"I'm going to pretend I didn't say that either," Sunstreaker looking flustered for once in his life as he moved across the room the talk to Bluestreak.

"I can't believe the Con is still running around base. He should have been thrown in the brig, better yet, they should have let me shoot him when we found him." Cliffjumper said as he sat down in the rec room. He looked disgruntled and his voice rose as he spoke, carrying across the rec room to Bluestreaks ears.

Bluestreak, for all that he was high-strung, was normally a peaceful bot. Normally. In this case he saw red and was stomping across the rec room before Sunstreak could say two words to him. "How dare you make threats to a carrier like that, you should be strung up. What is wrong with you? Do you think it's fine to shoot up an unarmed mech, because that isn't a very autobot thing to do. It sounds a lot like a Con thing to do. Shoot up a carrier, what is wrong with you? Maybe you just don't like sparklings? Is that is? Well if you touch my little brother, or Thunder I will mash your faceplates into the ground." He said, getting into the other bots face.

Cliffjumper glared back, "I didn't know you were a Con-lover. Guess it's a family thi-"

"What did you call me you stupid little minibot-" Blue lunged at the smaller bot, but was pulled away by Sunstreaker, who wrapped his arms around Blue, unmindful of his paint job for once.

"He's not worth it, baby." He said into Blue's audial, and pulled him away. He glared at Cliffjumper over Bluestreak's helm. "I hear you say that again, CJ and you will be scrapping yourself off the pavement. I promise you."

The minibot glared back, but knew better than to run his mouth at Sunstreaker, "Whatever, glitch," he finally grumbled and turned back to his energon, pointedly ignoring the pair.

Thundercracker woke to pain flaring through his chest, Jazz and Prowl came online a moment later as it shot through the bond. Prowl was already comm'ing Ratchet to meet them in the infirmary by the time they got Thundercracker up and walking that way.

"Calm down." Jazz murmured, sending thoughts of calm and peace through the bond. "We will get there before he fully detaches."

Thundercracker could only nod, he had not thought it would hurt this much, or at all really when the spark detached from his own. "Why the frack would anyone willingly do this?" He finally ground out. Pain seared through his chest making his knee-struts wobble and threaten to give out altogether.

Prowl chuckled. "It won't last long, and the reward is worth it. just imagine how happy you will be to finally hold him in your arms. Just keep thinking of that, sweetspark. It is all goign to be worth it."

Thundercracker only grunted, not convinced at this point. He glared at Ratchet as they finally reached the medbay.

"Oh, stop giving me that look, last time I checked you don't have death rays in your optics."

Thundercracker huffed, as he laid back on the medical birth, huffed louder when Ratchet hooked in a datapad into the medical port on his arm. He didn't complain when Ratchet finally locked his chestplates open. "I hate you all." He snapped, closing his eyes against the pain as Ratchet peered in at his spark. It was unbearable. Each tread that disengaged felt like a new wound in his spark. The pain radiated from his spark, leaving his whole frame feeling sore.

"I'm sure you do. It's also half-way detached. Shouldn't be long." Ratchet said, turning to gathered up his tools, and retrieved the protoform. He placed the small frame on the berth next to Thundercracker. It looked tiny. Fragile. Wheeljack had done an amazing job on it, which was no surprise to Thundercracker. The mech put his spark into everything he did.

"Not long, what does that even fragging well mean?" Thundercracker snapped as the words sank in, "Are you just-what the frag."

Jazz and Prowl exchanged a look as they watched Ratchet work. They were both split between wanting to comfort Thundercracker and wanting to stay out of Ratchet's way. Neither seemed in a good temper. They shared another look before moving close, but out of the way of the medic. Jazz took Thundercracker's hand, wincing when Thundercracker squeezed it, a bit too hard. He and Prowl exchanged another worried glance. Prowl moved closer, stroking Thundercracker's nearest wing. They both reached out through the bond trying to give what comfort they could.

"Nearly there." Ratchet said, severing the last remaining connections before scooping up the spark in a scoop shaped tool and taking it to the little protoform.

Thundercracker made a little keening noise. "I can't feel him. I can't-" He started to get off the berth, but Prowl pushed him back down.

"Let Ratchet do his job. He knows what he's doing," Prowl said as calmly as he could.

"I can't feel him though! He's gone! He's gone!" Thundercracker said, voice rising.

"Shhhh...the protoform has to calibrate. Calm down." Jazz soothed, watching Ratchet work. "You will be able to feel him again soon. Just let him settle into his plating."

Ratchet came back, and peered at Thundercracker's spark, making a little humming noise before taking the lock off and easing the plates shut. "That wasn't so bad. Was it?"

Thundercracker whimpered. "Still hurts. I want my sparkling. Please."

"It likely will for some time. Your spark needs time to recover. It's still healing from the snapped bonds." Ratchet, pulled out a syringe, and injected it into one of Thundercracker's fuel lines. "That will help ease the pain. You're sparkling will be here after you have rested. He needs to rest himself. He needs to settle into his new frame."

Thundercracker frowned, focusing on the medic until the world became blurry and he drifted off into recharge.

Bluestreak and Sunstreaker headed over to officer's quarters. Thundercracker and the sparklet were finally released from the medbay. Bluestreak had been practically hopping up and down to see him. Prowl came to the doorway, as soon as they commed. He was beaming, and Blue could honestly say he had not seen his carrier that happy in-well he didn't even know when.

"They aren't in recharge are they?" Bluestreak asked fretting. "I don't want to-"

Prowl laughed, leading them to the berthroom. "He'll be glad to see you, I'm sure. he's been bored out of his processor with all of this berthrest. Ratchet has thought it best that he give himself time to rest and recover." As promised the Seeker was on the berth, with a mound of mesh pillows behind him propping him up.

"Hey, Blue, Sunstreaker." Thundercracker smirked, holding the sparkling against his chest as he set on the berth.

"Oh, Primus, he's so tiny. I wasn't expecting him to be so tiny. And he has wings, of course he has wings, but they are so tiny. Can I hold him? I promise I will be careful. What did you name him?" He peered close at the sparkling, "I didn't expect him to be black and white, did you know he would be black and white? I guess that makes sense. Skywarp was mostly black and Starscream had a lot of white. He's got a nice color scheme. Do you think it will change. Maybe he will get some color. Are they normally-"

"Blue," Thundercracker said, looking exasperated. "You may hold Paradox, just hold him close."

Bluestreak took the offered sparkling, holding him as if he thought he might break. For once he was struck mute. He stared down at the little sparkling, enamoured. "He's beautiful," Bluestreak whispered.

Sunstreaker watched, his lips twitching up as he reached out and touched the newspark's head. "I've always wanted one of these."

"A Seeker sparklet? We could probably make that happen but we would probably have to talk to another Seeker into defecting, but with the Decepticons being scattered and we have Thundercracker, and look how well he is doing so may-"

"No. Not a Seeker spark, Blue. Though...I wouldn't mind my future spark having some kind of wings."

Bluestreak blinked at him for a very long moment, truly speechless for the second time that day. "Oh.."

Thundercracker shook his head, as he took the sparkling back. Paradox cooed, his little faceplates curling into a smile. It tugged at Thundercracker's spark, when he looked up and saw Prowl and Jazz watching him with a smile that mirrored his own. They reached across the bond, caressing his spark. Maybe things were going to work out, they may not be perfect, but what life was.

Across the room Sunstreaker and Bluestreak whispered to each other, and the little Praxian shyly slip his hand into the yellow mech's. Perhaps it was as close to perfect as it could get.