demothi

 

Optimus waved his hand about in the dust filled air, trying, futilely to clear the air around him. Even after two whole orbital rotations fine dust continued to float aimlessly in the air, a fine powder that not even gravity could bring down, that was how complete the raid on this city had been. Just looking over the rubble left the recently appointed Prime with an angry burn in his spark. He couldn’t believe that the council had razed the whole thing, over his report that they thought their might be those here that felt more to the Decepticon cause. He had planned to show up in the city and talk to the people, get a feel for them, and let them know that they weren’t as ignored as Megatron claimed. He could no longer do that, in fact the few he had come across that were still online were beyond repair and had begged him mercy, which he had granted, each life laying heavily on his spark.

 

He was just about to turn back towards the encampment he and his men had made at the edge of the city shortly after the attack had finished when he heard the last sound he expected in the rubble of this city; the faint clicking and chirping of at least one, possibly more sparklings. His first instinct was to run to the sound, scoop up what ever sparkling he found and carry them away from the ruinous city, but he stopped himself before he had taken more then a step. He would need to go slow, find out how many sparklings there were and what state everything was in, he also didn’t want to scare off the little ones in the case that they really were alone and without any kind of aid.

 

Slowly he made his way toward the sound, being as quiet as possible for a mech his size. His steps brought him to what had once been the door into a house, both the door and the walls over his own height being utterly demolished. He looked inside and felt all of his intakes stall even as his spark lurched up in his chassis; there inside what had been a family room, were three tiny sparklings, all three flyers, moving about in the room. 

 

The largest, with a predominantly blue coloring, was searching methodically around the energon storage case, probably trying to find food. The smallest, a tri-colored color scheme marking his body, was sifting through the debris, pulling out wires and other odds and ends, making a neat pile of them. The final one, middling in size between the other two, violet and black in colors, was ruthlessly pulling the stuffing from an already ripped cushion, perhaps working on some kind of bedding for the three of them. There were frequent clicks, chirps and whirrs passed between the two larger sparklings, while the littlest occasionally added his own comments in that language that every sparkling knew and understood, but every mech, once their vocalizer and processor were mature enough, completely forgot how to understand.

 

The three where monstrously small, frighteningly so. Still so small that the could climb into and hide in the empty spaces in an adults hard armor plating, an old protective system that would allow them to keep safe no matter what so long as they were with an adult that meant them no harm. None of them seemed old enough to be at the age where their primary defense was speed, nearly unmatchable by any grown mech, which would come when they were a bit larger, too big to hide away and too small to be confined so much by gravity the way adults are. All Optimus could think of was how little they were and how few chances they had of even growing to their next stage at this point. 

 

A tentative step forward proved to be one to many to keep his presence unnoticed, his pede knocking into a small stack of stones that then clattered to the ground. It took no more then a few moments for both larger sparklings to come to their tiny companion and stand guard in front of him. The largest holding himself in front of the other two, wings and arms thrown, legs spread to the width of his shoulders and solidly placed, as if by spreading himself out he could hide both the others completely. The black and violet one was behind him, crouched down and viciously sharp claws that were a last defense for such sparklings unsheathed, clearly ready to attack on a moments notice. The littlest had fallen at the warning sound and now had curled up in place, his tiny faceplate pressed to the dirt and soot of the floor.

 

Seeing their instant reactions made Optimus’ spark ache, not wanting to see such little, innocent lives already wrapped in fear and suspicion. Slowly he sat down, hoping to become less formidable in size by doing so. The two defenders relaxed minutely, the blue sparkling’s arms and wings coming down from their tight position a little. The other’s eyes lost some of their sharp readiness and the arch in his back dissipated, making him look far more curious peeking out behind the other, then angry.

 

“Are you hungry?” Optimus asked, keeping his voice soft and low, not wanting to cause even more distress for the sparklings. The only response he received was the soft clicking and chirping of the two larger sparklings between themselves. Slowly, with very deliberate movements Optimus reached into his subspace and pulled out the smallest cube of energon he found there for them to see. This gained a bit more of a reaction, both older ones now focusing more on the cube then the mech holding it, and even the littlest, who had been peaking out from his curled position squeaked in surprise and some longing.

 

Careful not to frighten the sparklings Optimus set the cube down as far in front of him as he could reach once he had opened it. He then pulled back and waited to see what would happen, even taking the effort to scoot back further, as if to prove that he wasn’t going to try to snatch them up the moment they came to the food. Once he as backed away the violet and black sparkling rushed for the cube, heedless of his blue companions squeaks and clicks of worry. Once at the energon he dipped one still clawed servo into the liquid, as lifting something nearly half his height and bigger around then the three sparklings together would be more than a feat of strength. He sniffed curiously as the liquid now coating his servo before tasting the very edge of one finger and happily finding it to be exactly what he thought it would promptly stuffed as much of the servo in his mouth as he could fit, sucking enthusiastically to consume the substance.

 

The blue sparkling watched his dark companion with clear worry written on his little face, but he seemed to relax a little again when the other was happily sucking on his servo before scooping some of the energon up to his mouth. The dark sparkling ate happily for a while before his nervous companions came to join him, moving slowly and keeping a keen optic on Optimus. Once they were to the cube the dark one moved aside to let the others eat, helping the littlest to eat when he needed it.

 

Optimus took this time to study each of them a little more. The blue sparkling, which he was by now certain was the eldest of the three had dark green optics that worked well with his coloration, at least as far as the mech could tell through the dust and dirt clinging to him. He was well proportioned, looking like he would be a rather large, most likely strong, adult when he came to that age. The black and violet sparkling had violet optics to match the rest of his color scheme and was more thin then the other but not so thin that he looked to be a speed only flyer. Optimus was unsure if it was simply the dark one’s seeming immaturity or if he really was that much younger then the blue one. The littlest was most clearly the youngest of the three, shy and quiet, slowly exploring everything and allowing the others to lead and help him.  He had striking gold optics that, while not combating with his coloration, didn’t seem to add anything to it either.

 

While studying the smallest sparkling Optimus hadn’t realize the dark one had wandered away from the other two, in fact he only noticed it once a tiny, sticky hand touched his ankle joint. Looking down he saw the small form working to climb up onto his leg. Not wanting to chase away the tiny explorer the mech kept quiet and allowed the sparkling to work on the climbing on his own. It was just has his little friend made it securely onto his leg that his blue companion noticed where he was and started up a fuss of squeaks, chirps and squeals, letting all of them know his upset at the situation. The sparkling on Optimus’ leg, now making he way up to the knee, chattered back, sounding irritated at the scolding he had just received. 

 

The blue sparkling huffed in annoyance and gave one last clicking statement before turning back to the littlest, as if giving up any responsibility for what could happen to the adventurous one. Optimus, on the other servo, let the youngling explore him as he pleased, watching him poke about at his knee joint then move further up onto his thigh. Though the sparkling was quite small enough, compared to the already large mech, that he could stay there without any effort he seemed bound and determined to test the extent of that safety.

 

He edged constantly closer to the far curve of the surface until suddenly, with a squeak, the inevitable happened and he slipped off. Battle won abilities and having seen the way things where headed were what had Optimus prepared to quickly reach out to catch the falling sparkling. Only he didn’t catch anything, instead there was a happy giggle from the sparkling who was suddenly back on the large mech’s thigh instead of the ground where he logically should have ended up.

 

“Didn’t you just slip?” He asked, giving the sparkling a curious look. The little one’s response was only to giggle more and clap. Optimus was just about to move his hand back to the ground when the sparkling suddenly launched itself from his thigh, the action making him jump, until he realized that once again he hadn’t caught the sparkling. Once more he was giggling from his perch on the top of his thigh. “Teleportation?” Optimus asked, his voice crackling slightly in his shock, but he recovered quickly and reached out to brush a finger down the sparkling’s helm. “You are a very talented little one, aren’t you?”

 

Having watched everything from a distance, evaluating the interactions, the two remaining sparklings inched their way closer. A flurry of welcoming chirps and clicks came from the sparkling on his thigh and the other two came to the same ankle that the first had come up by. With help the little tri-colored one made his way up to Optimus’ knee joint, the blue one working along side him. At the joint the blue one moved on to start scolding his black companion, most likely about approaching the mech on his own. This left the littlest on his own on the lower portion of Optimus’ leg, making little soft sounds of distress, unable to make it across the joint alone. 

 

Those sounds pulled at Optimus’ spark and before he could rethink it he had reached out and cupped his servo behind the sparkling, either so that he could be guided across or picked up entirely. His actions make the little one stop, a surprised and almost fearful chirp leaving the tiny sparkling, gold optics wide as he stared up at the mech. Realizing that he had moved too fast Optimus was unsure for a moment what to do next, if he pulled back it could signal to the sparklings that he didn’t want contact, but he also didn’t want to push them further then they wanted to go.

 

His discomfort was banished by whirrs and clicks of encouragement coming from both the other sparklings, who had stopped what ever argument had been going on between them. A moment passed where in Optimus had to remind himself to relax and stay calm or else he was bound to translate any unsettled feelings to the sparklings that he was hoping where finally willing to trust him. Finally the little one pressed back into his servo, sitting neatly on the little ledge formed by his pinky finger, and waited for the next thing to happen. Optimus nearly breathed out a happy sigh at the trust he was being shown by the little sparkling. 

 

Slowly he tipped his servo back so that the sparkling ended up reclined and he slowly lifted the little life up, bringing him up so that they could both see each other better. Once they were close the little flyer began squirming, and for a moment Optimus was worried that he was suddenly scared again, but instead he reached out, as if trying to touch the large mech’s face. Realizing this he brought the sparkling closer, letting it tap curiously at his battle mask, which he only now realized he had not removed but left in pace so as not to scare the sparkling that was so close. Suddenly he received a tiny hug, arms hugging tightly to the mask before new squirming started and he let the sparking direct him to where he wanted next. 

 

This turned out to be his shoulder which the sparkling indicated with little taps of his pedes and happy chirps. Once there he slipped easily from Optimus’ hand and began moving about there, the large mech’s attention being diverted to the two remaining sparklings down below at the sudden chirps and squeaks demanding attention of their own. He reached back down, holding out his servo for which ever decided they wanted in first, and despite the dark one’s ability to teleport, which he didn’t use, the blue sparkling made it there first. The teleported was about to shove the blue one out of the way, and most likely right off Optimus’ leg, but with his other servo Optimus tapped him, gently but enough to be noticed. “No pushing.” He said, his voice calm but stern and letting the sparkling know that he truly meant it.

 

The blue sparkling chittered something at his companion, voice soft and soothing, like he was explaining something, before finally settling in and squeaking as if to say he was ready. Optimus gave a chuckle at that but complied all the same, bringing the sparkling up, he too, like the littlest one, wanted to inspect the battle mask though he simply patted at it before nodding. Next he squeaked and reached for where Optimus could feel the little one on his shoulders so he brought him there to let him roam as well. The last one didn’t care so much about inspecting the mask, instead he nuzzled against it, as if it were no different from a regular face before giving a couple soft chirps that sounded a bit tired, indicating the other two sparklings as well. 

 

Once the little teleported was on his shoulder Optimus just closed his eyes to give them some time to explore as they wished. After a few moments he realized they were no longer moving around. Curious he looked to where he could feel the slight difference their weight made and found all three curled up and in recharge by his shoulder joint, well hidden from the outside by the high edges of his armor.  With a smile for the image Optimus slowly got to his feet, deciding that he could neither stay out here nor leave the sparklings here any longer and so headed back to camp.

 

~

 

As he neared the camp Optimus sent out the specialized ping to let the parameter guards know that he was coming back and he received their confirmation pings as he passed each guard. He made it into the encampment with no incident and was glad to see that it was quiet, which was rather rare around the camp. The first mech he saw as he made his way through camp was Jazz, his intelligence and communications officer and the sharp mech gave him a suspicious look. 

 

“You alright OP? Your carrying your shoulder funny.” He asked stepping out in front of the taller mech, as if by presence alone he could prevent the Prime from continuing forward. 

 

“I’m fine Jazz, come here.” Optimus said in a soft whisper, beckoning the normally jovial mech over and even inviting him to pull himself up so that he could see what was causing his awkward walk. The information expert sucked in an intake and held it there, looking at the three tiny figures before looking back at his leader. Letting himself down the mech asked, with only hand gestures, a few questions, and received his answers in kind. Were there three? Yes, only three. Any adults? Not with them. Were they injured? Not that he had seen. Was he planning on keeping them? And that was where Optimus ran out of answers, because he hadn’t even answered himself that one yet.

 

He kept telling himself he had only brought them back because he couldn’t stand to think of leaving them out in the city alone. If he was honest with himself though… if he was honest he would admit that in the short time he had interacted with them the three sparklings had already worked their way into his spark and he hated the idea of letting them go, even if it was to another who could take care of them. Jazz waved away that last question, realizing that it was not something that Optimus was certain on just yet. Instead the bot headed towards Ratchet’s tent, and gestured with he helm for the other to follow him.

 

As he entered the medic’s tent he heard Ratchet scoff and say in an admonishing voice “Jazz, what did you do now?” which was responded to with a low shush. Next the red and white medic’s attention was on Optimus and he hiked up a brow ridge, not even hiding that he was watching the Prime’s shoulder. “Oh, so it’s you who over did something.” though he spoke in his normal admonishing way he seemed to have taken Jazz’s warning towards quiet to spark.

 

Optimus couldn’t help but smile and sit down on one of the low berths that would allow Ratchet plenty of room to look into his shoulder. “I probably did over do it.” He said, keeping his voice low. “After all, three sparklings is a lot.” The look on Ratchet’s face was worth the self admonishing tone.

 

“Three?” He asked, his voice little more then a gasp before he rushed to a good angle to look in on the scene inside the shoulder joint. He reached out as if to caress them before deciding better and pulling back a little. “Can you wake them for me? I want to give them a good check over.”

 

“I’ll do what I can.” He said, turning to the little forms and was unable to suppress a smile at the sight. “Hey there little ones, time to wake up.” He kept his voice soft, but raised it enough that he figured it would work to wake them up. Adding to his voice he reached over and stroked one finger softly down the little black teleporter who was on the outside of the jumble of sparklings.

 

Slowly those purple optics onlined, blinking and fluttering for a moment before clearing up. He chirped a little at his awakening before turning to see Optimus to which he gave a happy little trill. He then preceded to stretch languidly across the top of both others, not seeming to notice or care that his little servos were now in the blue one’s face. He received a few small irritated clicks for his effort and so redoubled them, squirming all over the other two until clicks and squeals of protest, along with the blue sparkling’s shoving, got him off the other two.

 

“Come along little ones.” Optimus said, hoping they didn’t get into a fight with one another after simply being woken up. He held his servo so that they could all climb on, it was a bit tight with all three but they managed well enough. Once all three were secure on his servo he moved it away from his shoulder but kept it close to himself. He brought them down to his lap, where they all climbed from his servo before looking up at him, he smiled fondly and took a moment to brush a finger down the back of each of their helms.

 

“Their flyers, I thought my optics were messing with me…” Ratchet said, his voice soft and gasping. At the sound of his voice all three sparklings turned towards him, huddling together in a group and shifting closer to Optimus’ servo. Fortunately both Ratchet and Jazz knew better then to be huddled close to the sparklings so they weren’t looming over the little ones which prompted the dark one to pull himself from the huddle first. He took a few brave steps forward that quickly turned into an inching shuffle as he grew closer to the two new adults.

 

Optimus figured that it could only help if he were to prove that these mech were friends so once the teleporter came to a stop he reached out slowly and took hold of Ratchet’s servo. Slowly he brought it to the sparkling, this seemed to not only encourage the dark one, who promptly grabbed hold of the servo, but also the other two as they moved closer themselves. Ratchet allowed the sparklings to explore his servo, which, being smaller then Optimus’, was more the right size to hold one of the sparklings. After a few moments Ratchet pulled back and let Optimus repeat the process with Jazz’s servo,  he was grateful to see the sparklings become comfortable much faster.

 

“Little ones, these are friends of mine, Jazz,” He pointed to the mech in question. “And this is Ratchet, he is our medic.” He said, pointing to the other. “He is going to make sure you are all healthy, okay?” To Optimus’ amusement the three little sparklings then seemed to hold council with each other, not that it was surprising, sparklings learned to understand adult speech early on, even if their vocalizers were not fully matured to respond in kind. Finally they seemed to come to an agreement and the teleporter stepped forward, presenting himself with a small squeak. It was then that he realized that this particular sparkling was most willing to test the trustworthiness of the adults because if they weren’t trustworthy he could simply teleport to safety. 

 

“He is the most adventurous of the three so far.” He said, deciding not to spoil the sparkling’s system. It would be best for them to learn in their own way that the mechs here were all trustworthy. Ratchet nodded and held his servo out once more for the little one to climb onto, which he did with a few happy clicks.  It was a tighter fit then in Optimus’ servo, but not uncomfortably so for the sparkling, though Ratchet wouldn’t be able to hold all three at once the way Optimus could. Ratchet carried the little one a few steps away to a table, pulling a shallow basin from one of the crates underneath it. 

 

“First, lets get you clean. I can’t see a thing with all that dirt on you!” The medic said, which earned him a series of giggling chirp from the sparkling. He was easily carried along as Ratchet got some soft liquid cleanser into the basin and set it back down on the table. Next the red and white mech lowered his servo until the sparkling could splash his pedes in it, the medic waited patiently for the sparkling to decide it was okay and slip off the servo and into the liquid with a gentle splash. Once there Ratchet went to work with a soft bristled brush, working away what seemed to be layers and layers of dirt and grime from the sparkling. Once the work was done the little sparkling sat well through the whole exam, letting the mech poke at him softly and move his arms, legs and even wings without protest.

 

He was returned with the comment that he was a bit underfed but had no damage and just needed some extra meals and plenty of time to sleep as his systems adjusted back to normal. The blue sparkling was next and he sat through all the same treatment, though he wasn’t as enthusiastic or noisy as his companion. He seemed to affect an air of disinterest as he was examined. He too was returned with the same comments on his food and systems.

 

It turned out to be the littlest that caused the most problems in the medic’s care. The two older sparklings had seemed anxious when their little companion was taken away on his own. He did well with the bathing, even going so far as to arch, rub and purr into the brush and soft buffing cloth that followed, seeming to enjoy the feeling. That all changed the moment Ratchet began the exam portion, and the set of audio piercing squeaks left all three adult mechs cringing. 

 

In a flash the teleporter was at his side, petting his wings and trying to comfort him with soft chirps and coos. He seemed to be doing some good, though that was limited, and looked back at the blue sparkling, who was terribly restless and seemed like he wanted to be over with them. Seeing this Optimus decided that it would be for the best and brought him to join the upset sparkling and the teleporter. It took a few moments but soon they had the little one comforted and settled down. They turned to Ratchet and let him know that the other would stay quiet for his exam, which the medic proceeded to do with as little intrusion as possible.

 

“I can see what caused his outburst.” The medic said, looking at Optimus with an expression that the leader knew meant he didn’t like what he had seen, but he wouldn’t speak it. “I can’t tell how bad it is, if it is at all. It may only be minor and he could grow out of it, but even if it isn’t there is nothing I can do about it until he is bigger.” 

 

His words didn’t give away what ‘it’ was but Optimus had learned to read the mech well in the time they had been working together. ‘It’ was most likely some deep damage, possibly to the protoform beneath the thin, soft armor, and more often then not that kind of thing spoke of abuse; even if the city had recently been attacked anything that would have damage the sparkling to his protoform wouldn’t have left him alive after the attack, the wound was old. Another tell to it all was that the sparkling had panicked before the medic had even come close to the damage, when he was till checking a leg, so either it was hurting him all over which wasn’t likely with the way he acted, or it was old and he knew that it would hurt when it got examined and wanted to push the medic away.

 

“I understand.” Optimus said with a nod, also showing the medic that he did understand the deeper meanings to his words. “I fear I may need to borrow on your medical experience quite a bit, you see I’ve never taken care of sparklings, and I’m not sure how I will know when they need to eat or recharge.”

 

“That part is more simple then you would think.” Ratchet said, rummaging around in one of the crates until he came back with what he wanted, a small basket like object that was completely flat on the bottom but with gently sloping sides. Into it he put a few of the older thermal blankets that were threadbare but soft as well. “They will let you know when they are hungry, and they will find somewhere to recharge when they are tired, it is the times when they aren’t doing either of those that you need to pay attention, they will be curious of everything new and even things they have seen before.” 

 

As he spoke the medic collected up the littlest one, who didn’t seem to have any lasting fear of the medic despite his outburst, and the blue sparkling, one in each servo, and deposited them into the makeshift sparkling crib. He then retrieved the black one only to have the teleporter use his skill to move over to Optimus, giving him a soft little snuggle before teleporting to the other two sparklings. The thermal blankets would make sure they weren’t too warm or too cold, and the warm, comfortable surroundings soon had all three making soft chirping sounds and snuggling down into another little blob of wings, arms and legs, a cooing from the blue one the last sound as they drifted off to sleep.

 

“The camps gonna get a lot more exciting, isn’t OP?” Jazz said, a fond look on his face as he looked down at the sparklings. 

 

“Yes, I think it will, but it will be nice. We could use a taste of what we are fighting to protect.” Optimus said, remembering to how he had been worrying to himself that the mechs in his unit had started to grow hard and cold from the war, maybe these sparklings could bring some warmth back to their warrior sparks.

Oh well, that wasn’t his problem, in fact it made his work that much easier, there was much less of a fight to get them to allow him to properly take care of his duties with them as opposed to more self aware bots like Starscream.

 

“Open up.” It was a simple command but the vehicon did as directed and a connection port on the side of his neck was exposed. Taking a cord from the monitor Knock Out easily pulled the wire in and turned to the screen, back to the vehicon, as he read the read out on the screen. He was a bit curious from the first line, looking back over his shoulder at the con on his medical berth. “Your designation is ‘John’?”

 

“Yes, sir.” was the only answer he received, no explanation as to why this venison had a human name as his designation and Knock Out knew he would have to ask painfully direct questions to get the whole story. He would have done so if he had the time, but as it was his day was going to be busy and he couldn’t take extra time on one random vehicon.

 

He watched the various data on the screen for a few more moments before pressing the save indicator so that the data, along with who it was about, would be stored on his medical hard drive in case it was needed later. He retrieved the cord, unplugging it from the vehicon’s neck and picked up a data pad that populated it’s self with a list unique to this vehicon, just as it should.

 

“Alright John, bring out your gun arm.” He watched as the vehicon followed the order, the change of shape quick and fluid with no binding. “Now back.” Again there were no issues.

 

Knock Out continued like that, for a while listing off the various equipment that the vehicon should have, having him pull it out and return it to idle as he watched and insured that there weren’t any performance issues. The list was plain, and boring, made up of things like chest missile launchers and the like, standard issue stuff. Then Knock Out had him shift into his alternate mode and went through the rundown of his various equipment that he should have accessible in his vehicle mode. Seeing nothing wrong he had John change back into his root mode, typing his medical clearance into the data pad. 

 

“Looks like you are just fine, please let the next one in line know they can come in as you leave.” He said, going back to the monitor to set down his pad and check the length of the line. 

 

“Your next Steve.” He could hear John say as he walked out the door, the line extending around the bend of the corridor outside. He was going to hate maintenance check in day.