Transformers/Beast Wars 1. Chapter 1

It was a bit of an accident really. It started out great but then it just got confusing. They were all having a blast of a day, no Decepticon activity and it was a weekend!

The three Autobot guardians sighed as the looked down at their once human partners. Their friends had been turned into sparklings. The problem is... Nobody knows how...

Ratchet came up with the theory that the amount of noise from Miko's rock music may have contributed towards this. His theory was that some miniature sound barrier made by the loud rock music collided with the frequency signature from Raf's laptop, causing it to explode and then create a reaction. The reaction being human gets turned into baby robot.

"Ratchet, is there any way to reverse the effects?" Optimus asked as he smiled slightly at the sparklings that gurgled at their guardians.

"Optimus, we do not even know what caused this. I do not know if my theory is even close to being correct and we have no way to confirm it" sighed the old medic although he did have a small smile on his face at the adorable sparklings.

Jack, Miko and Raf were now the equivalent of 2 month old babies. Physically not mentally but the 'Bots didn't know that. Mainly because there was no way to tell what was going on inside a sparklings brain as a cortical psychic patch would be harmful on their young bodies. Also the fact that the once humans just couldn't find a way to tell them. They could understand each other though so that relaxed the. A bit.

"At least their calm now" Arcee said as she looked at the sliver and black mechling sat up in her arms.

"Yeah that was a nightmare" Bulkhead chuckled a bit as he stared down at the black and neon-streaked femmling wiggling around in his arms.

Bumblebee beeped his agreement as he gazed down at the white and orange-streaked mechling cradled in his arms.

Ratchet and Optimus watched their team as they seemed relaxed and happy with the little ones. Although they did chuckle a bit at the comments made about earlier.

**FLASHBACK**

Jack, Miko and Raf were lying on the ground after the explosion that came out of no where. They attempted to lift themselves up but found that they didn't have the strength. They tried calling for help but found that only squeaks, clicks and chirps left their mouths however they could understand each other perfectly. They attempted to stay calm but found themselves crying aloud and couldn't control it.

"WHAT HAPPENED?!" Ratchet exclaimed as he looked down at a black and silver sparkling.

The sparkling looked up at Ratchet and began crying. Jack couldn't stop himself, he was so scared and that loud noise just didn't help!

"Oh shhh sparkling" Ratchet crooned as he picked up the mechling and rocked him "everything is going to be alright"

"Now let's see if we can find the other two" Ratchet sighed. How on Cybertron did this happen?!

Bumblebee picked up the orange and white one which was still crying. The poor scout had no idea what to do so Arcee took the sparkling and began rocking him and murmuring to him.

Optimus found the third which was no different to the other two. This one was a femmling so they all knew that one was Miko. The Prime cradled The little black and pink-streaked femmling in his arms as he softly cooed trying to get her to cease her crying.

Suddenly all the crying stopped and the sparklings looked up at the person holding them in confusion. What the hell was going on?

Miko sat up in Optimus' arms and looked for Jack and Raf. They had done the same and had found her too and then the crying began again. It seemed they couldn't cope with the shock and all they could do was cry.

Optimus, Arcee and Ratchet returned to comforting the sparklings as Bumblebee contacted Bulkhead to return to base.

**END FLASHBACK**

In the end they had found that the silver and black mechling wanted Arcee and the orange and white one wanted Bumblebee. That's how the 'Bots found out which one was which.

Now they had a problem. How were they going to hide this from the children's parents and explain this to Agent Fowler?

For now they would focus on their young- now younger- friends.

"I think we will need to we separate the care of the sparklings between all of us due to our different focuses"

"Ratchet is right. It would not be fair to leave you three to care for the sparklings by yourselves, especially you Bumblebee" Optimus agreed.

"_What's wrong with me?_"

"Nothing is wrong with you Bumblebee, you are just very young" Optimus calmed the young scout.

"_Doesn't mean I won't be able to look after Raf_"

"You can still look after him but the duty will be handed to Ratchet and I for the night"

"Optimus! Night duty?! Sparklings?!" Ratchet protested.

"I am afraid so, old friend. I believe our warriors need their rest"

"Don't you guys need rest too?" Arcee asked.

"Yes, I do" Ratchet bluntly stated.

"Not as much as you three do. Ratchet works from base meaning he will not be engaged in many physical activities"

"And what about you?" Bulkhead couldn't help but question.

"I tend to recharge less than the normal amount of time"

"Well, you guys can't take them every night because if we are gonna be out on missions all the the time then that means a Ratchet is basically their nanny" the two wheeler pointed out.

"I will be taking the sparklings most nights and some days when I am not needed"

"Optimus really, you don't have to" Bulkhead squinted his optics. Was it just him or was Optimus acting weird?

"We will figure this out tomorrow. Right now I believe it is a suitable time to recharge" the Prime took the three sparklings, bid everyone a goodnight and headed towards his quarters.

"Hey guys, so it just me or was Optimus acting just a teeny bit weird back then?" Bulkhead asked the ones that remained as he watched his leader turn the corner.

"Yeah, my first thought was that he wanted to be equal but then he took most of the sparkling duty" Arcee added.

"Maybe he just likes sparklings" BOLD Bumblebee buzzed.

"I believe it has something to do with his past on Cybertron" Ratchet sighed. He obviously knew so,etching the others didn't. After all, the medic is one of the Prime's oldest and most trust worthy friends.

"Which is?" Bulkhead said rather obnoxiously.

"It is not my place to tell" Ratchet continued with his task.

The three Autobot guardians stared at the red and white medic before bidding each other goodnight and leaving the main room for their quarters.


	2. Chapter 2

The three sparklings in Optimus' arms chirped to each other. Optimus smiled down at them thinking they were making noises that a sparkling this young would but in fact they were having a conversation.

"Dude! What happened?!"

"Don't you think we would help the bots find a cure if we knew, Miko?!"

"Guys please don't argue" Raf whimpered to his older friends.

They were about to reply but Optimus seemed to pick up on how Raf's current feelings. The Prime moved one of his arms but kept the other firmly wrapped around the sparklings and stroked the younger sparklings helm. The three hu-... Sparklings decided they had nothing else to say and just kept quiet as the mech currently carrying them headed towards his quarters where he and the sparklings would recharge.

As they reached the door Optimus was about to grab the handle to open the door but halted his actions when he saw the Cybertronian sparkling version of Miko trying to grab the handle herself.

"Miko, what are you trying to do?" The elder cybertronian cooed.

"Yeah, Miko. What are you trying to do?" Raf asked as he and Jack looked at her with puzzled expression.

"When will I ever get to open an alien robot sized door?" Miko grinned.

"Uh you're forgetting something..." Jack rolled his eyes... Optics.

"What?" The femmling asked as she still reached for the door handle.

"You are an alien robot!" Jack squealed at her angrily.

Optimus watched as Jack shouted at Miko in sparkling chirp. If only he could understand what they were saying...

He then watched as Miko stopped reaching and turned to Jack.

"I know that already. That's why I'm having a go at opening the door, genius!" She shouted back.

"Pfft at least I am a genius..."

"And what exactly are you trying to say?" She asked, her optics flashing.

Optimus decided that he would just go ahead and open the door. He stepped inside and shut the door behind him. The poor mech thought he could go sit down. Aha, no.

"You can just be so stupid at times!" Jack snapped.

"That's it!" Miko growled as she pounced on him, "You think you're so damn amazing! News flash, you're not!"

"I don't think I'm amazing, I just think logically!" he shouted as he batted at Miko who was batting back at him.

All of a suddenly the two trouble makers began laughing.

"Why do I find this so funny?!" Jack cried out with tears of laughter as Miko slapped him lazily, losing her focus from laughing.

"Dude, I don't know but it's just too funny!" Miko almost lubricated herself.

Optimus was almost shaken out of his armour when he felt he sparklings begin to wrestle. He thought maybe they were play fighting but when he looked down he saw Miko and Jack head on fighting yet laughing he wore a confused expression. However when he saw Raf whimpering and trying to snuggle into his armour he realised they were scarring the younger sparkling.

"No, sparklings. You don't fight" Optimus scolded gently.

When they paid him no attention he put Raf down on his berth and pulled the naughty sparklings apart. When they realised they were no longer tangled with each other they looked up at the mech who was holding them by their scruff bars, whined and began wriggling.

"That is enough" he told them as he sat down next to where Raf was already falling into recharge.

Both of the sparklings were still laughing and when Optimus saw this he smiled and brought them back together and they began hugging each other to apologise to each other for earlier arguing.

"Dude, I'm sorry but why are we hugging?"

"I don't know I can't think of another way to apologise"

"Hmm" Miko tried to think. It couldn't come up with anything, "JACK MY BRAIN HAS SOMETHING WRONG WITH IT" she began freaking out, she couldn't control herself and neither could Jack apparently.

"OH SCRAP! SAME HERE" Jack screamed.

Optimus sighed when all three sparklings began crying. Jack and Miko seemed stressed about something and when they began shouting and crying they had woken up Raf from his light recharge and he began crying too.

He gathered them all in his arms and began rocking them and murmuring to them as he watched them calm down and slowly became still apart from the odd yawn.

It took at least 20 minutes for him to calm them all down properly.

The Autobot leader lay down on his berth with the three human turned sparklings on his chest and stroked them as all four of them slipped into recharge.

/-\

Everyone knows that night times with sparklings are difficult and it wasn't the greatest thing ever that sparklings can't control when they release their waste.

Optimus woke to the crying of the three sparklings on his chest. He checked the time. 4:30. He began rubbing their backs to try and soothe them into the recharge but they didn't stop crying, he wondered if they might but hungry but then a horrible smell reached him. They needed changing. Dammit.

"Jack, Miko, I feel horrible!" Raf cried.

"We do too!" They both cried.

The children didn't question their mood or reactions to things now as they guessed it was how they had been changed into sparklings.

With an exhausted sigh, Optimus got up from his berth and was about to put them on the floor to change then when he realised he didn't know where Ratchet kept all the stuff he had made for the sparklings after they had found them and discussed the situation.

He opened his comm link to Ratchet.

"Ratchet I'm sorry to disturb you at this time but where are all of the supplies for the sparklings?"

"Oh for the love of- they're in the med bay in a box" Ratchet replied angrily.

"Thank you, Ratchet"

The comm link ended and Optimus went to the med bay to look for those supplies.

With three sulking, uncomfortable sparklings in his arms it was t easy so he put them on the medical berth.

Once he had found the box he pulled out the wipes and three new tanks, he also realised there was a mat so that would help stop the mess from getting everywhere.

Optimus got the three sparklings in position. One on the mat and the other two on the other side of the berth so they didn't try anything that would end up... Messy.

"Dude, I think we're about to get..." Miko gulped.

"Changed" Raf whimpered as Jack coughed.

The two slightly older sparklings felt sorry for Raf as he was the first one getting changed. They knew he would feel better afterwards but it was the whole situation which was uncomfortable. He was about to get changed in front of his two best friends by Optimus...

"Let's get you changed, shall we?" Optimus cooed seeing the sparkling on the mat was close to crying once again.

The Prime started unlatching Raf's plating around his groin and aft and this resulted in Raf wailing loudly.

"Shhh sparkling, it's okay, everything is going to be fine" he crooned.

Miko and Jack tried to look away but found themselves unable to move their heads properly, probably due to the fact that they're young and had no energy to move.

Optimus was now taking out the filled tank from Raf and was wiping his aft and uhh... Equipment...

Raf immediately ceased his crying when that happened. That was wrong! Very wrong! Oh wait, he's a sparkling.

The Autobot leader had just turned to get the new tank for Raf and when he turned back he got sprayed with lubricant.

Raf just lay there, letting it all out and secretly enjoying the fact that he had "gotten even" with Optimus.

Miko and Jack laughed as they watched their younger friend pee on Optimus Prime, oh god it was hilarious watching how he reacted.

Optimus quickly grabbed wipes and blocked the still escaping lubricant and held the wipes there until Raf had finished.

Once he was sure the sparkling had done lubricating, Optimus wiped up the mess on the sparkling and put the new tank in.

'Mission Accomplished' Optimus thought with an internal groan. So this is what it would've been like if... Never mind.

He placed the sparkling with his friends and then the Prime began wiping the mess off himself and the objects around him that got caught in the cross fire.

Jack was next and he was pretty much the same as Raf but this time Optimus was prepared.

However, Miko was very different for obvious reasons. She didn't want to be wiped _THERE_ by Optimus Prime or by anyone but herself!

She had kicked and screamed at the Prime until she had fallen asleep on the mat. Optimus decided he may as well get this done and sped through it with Miko hoping she wouldn't wake up.

With all three sparklings fresh and changed, Optimus turned and headed back to his quarters with three sleeping sparklings in his arms.

Optimus could only wonder about how different things would've been if it wasn't for that one shot.


	3. Chapter 3

Optimus was woken yet again by the high pitched crying of a sparkling. For a second he almost panicked when he realised that this sparkling could wake the others but when he noticed that Miko was sprawled across his face plates and Jack was hugging his neck he calmed seeing that they were conked out. As those two were still asleep it meant that it was Raf that was crying.

Carefully, the Prime pulled Miko off of his face and Jack off of his neck and placed them next to him on the berth. He then picked Raf off of his chest and cradled him comfortably in his arms as he stood up and began to stroll up and down the room. He rocked Raf, he hummed to him and began bouncing him a little bit but non of his efforts were working as he noticed Raf only seemed to wriggle around even more and cry louder.

Optimus decided that in order to keep the other two sparklings asleep he would have to take Raf on a walk around the base. He opened the door with a still crying and whimpering Raf held in his strong arms.

"What is the matter, Rafael?" Optimus asked tiredly as he stroked the sparkling.

Raf's crying was now reduced to small whimpers and hiccups as he began babbling and chirping at the Prime. Optimus could only stare at him as he had absolutely no idea what the sparkling was trying to say to him.

"I'm hungry!" Raf was now becoming annoyed as he realised that Optimus couldn't understand a word he was saying. He would have to show him instead...

Optimus looked slightly dazed when Raf began reaching for the ground and attempted to jump out of his arms numerous times.

"What is it you would like?" He almost groaned.

Raf continued trying to climb out of Optimus' arms with his newfound energy and eventually Optimus got the hint that he wanted to be put onto the ground.

The young sparkling chirped with joy as he stood up... And then fell back down onto his little aft. He immediately began reaching for Optimus to help keep him steady.

Optimus was on his knees holding the tiny sparkling's hand as he was led towards the main room and towards the sparkling supplies. Optimus had to admit, it was insanely cute how Raf had wanted to try and walk here by himself even if it meant that he was scuffling around on his knees. Raf let go of Optimus' finger that he had been holding onto and held onto the crate as he pointed at the little sparkling bottles.

"I see..." Optimus finally understood and was slightly confused that Raf had taken him back here without batting an optic. Were the children still in there or had Raf just retained his abnormal intelligence?

The tiny sparkling was once again picked up by Optimus as he began to make up the sparkling formula for Raf. Once he was done he pressed the nub of the bottle to Raf's mouth and was relieved when the sparkling wasted no time and latched on, beginning to suckle.

Raf's hands came up to grip the bottle but one of his hands ended up grabbing onto Optimus' hand as if it was a comforting feature.

The red and blue mech shifted Raf so he was cradled to his chest in a more comfortable way and allowed a small smile to show on his lips as he felt a light pattering of feet against his chest.

The small smile grew when he saw that Raf's suckling was slowing down rapidly and his optics were drooping. He carefully pulled the bottle from his mouth, grabbed a rag, positioned the sparkling so he held him against his shoulder and then began to lightly pat his back to help the sparkling rid of any unwanted fluids. Surely enough the sparkling coughed up a little bit of waste fluids and Optimus caught it in the rag. Once he had disposed of the rag he looked back at Raf who had fallen asleep against his shoulder.

Optimus looked over at the sparkling supplies and then back at Raf.

"There's never a problem with checking" he told himself and lifted the sparkling to his face to check if he could smell any waste. If there was another tank to change he'd rather do it when the sparkling was asleep rather than kicking and screaming at him.

Optimus realised that no waste now definitely meant waste later. He sigh and once again cradled Rad in his arms and turned in the direction of his quarters.

/-\

Optimus returned to his quarters ready to go back to recharge but when he opened the door he did not expect what consumed his sight.

Miko and Jack were wide awake with a pot of 'Shiny Parts' grease. Somehow their little hands had managed to get the pot open and they had smeared the grease everywhere. Over themselves, over the berth and had even thought that it was a fine thing to eat.

Optimus mentally kicked himself for leaving the sparklings alone. Alone when they were able to reach something as messy as grease.

The Prime thought that after he had dealt with Raf then he could have gone back to recharge. But now he had two grease covered sparklings, a berth coated in grease and nowhere to put the sleeping sparkling he held. Scrap.

Optimus was just about to start thinking of ways to get his berth clean when he saw Miko shovelling some of the grease into her mouth.

"No, Miko. That is not for eating, it will make you sick" he tried his best to grab Miko with his only free arm but the sparkling scuttled away cheekily.

Optimus almost growled but he didn't want to scare the sparklings so he kept it back. He looked up and saw his desk, he walked over to it and put Raf down on it with a blanket over him. As soon as he'd done that he turned around slowly to look at the sparklings who had froze in their actions as if they knew what was coming.

Optimus quickly walked over to them before they could begin crawling away and picked the both up in his arms and kept a good grip as they wiggled around. They began squeaking and chirping at him... Then he heard a sniffle... Uh oh.

He had just gotten Raf to sleep... Ah scrap. Frag it, he'll face the old medic.

::Ratchet, again I am sorry to awaken you but I need you to look after Rafael for the rest of the recharge cycle::

::Ugh... Just bring him here::

::Thank you, old friend::

Optimus looked at the two grease covered sparklings he held and decided that there would be no harm in putting them back on the berth. Optimus then picked up Raf and quickly made his way to Ratchet's room. He knocked on the door and was greeted by a tired looking Ratchet.

"I will be asking questions later" the medic panned before taking the sparkling and shutting the door in the Prime's face.

With that, Optimus practically sprinted back to his quarters to see that the sparklings were rolling around in the grease and giggling.

"Alright you two, bath time" Optimus almost moaned tiredly as he scooped Jack and Miko up before they could crawl away.

Optimus walked through a door in his quarters that led to a private bathroom. He started running water into the bath as he made sure it was the right temperature and that it wasn't too deep.

Once that was complete he placed both the sparklings in and began to gently scrub the grease off of their plating. The nice movements from Optimus was making both the sparklings feel tired as they felt insanely relaxed and soon enough Optimus was holding them up in the bath tub as he washed them. He sighed with relief at how easily they had gone into recharge and continued washing them.

After their bath he wrapped them both in towels to dry them off and then placed them on his desk as he started on cleaning his berth. His berth was only going to be able to be cleaned a certain amount by hand. Optimus knew well that he'd have to leave the rest to react with a solution which would take a few Earth hours.

The solution was put onto the berth and Optimus realised he now had nowhere to sleep... Actually...

/-\

A few hours later, Optimus was recharging in the Medbay on the medberth with the slumbering forms of the sparkling version of Jack and Miko.

All were content and were getting the recharge they surely needed after a tiring night.


	4. Chapter 4

Oh my gosh, guys I am so super duper sorry about the long wait! Blame the education system for the wait! Here is a nice long chapter for you all to hopefully enjoy. For those of you asking about _Deceptus_, that is still being sorted out but I have the latest chapter for it all nice and bundled up so keep an eye out for it. _Turning the Tables_ is also being sorted out, I am just having a difficult time deciding where I should take the story, but no worries, new chapters shall be released soon! ;)

Anyway, enjoy!

Optimus's face scrunched up slightly as the feeling of two little hands lightly tapping his face plates reached him. He opened his optics slightly to the point it was unnoticeable and saw Miko staring at him with her beautiful, bright golden optics. He smiled slightly when the tiny sparkling began babbling wordlessly and continued to pat his face.

Footsteps were soon heard along with the yawning of another sparkling and the sound of suckling from another.

"No, little one, leave Optimus to recharge" Ratchet cooed as he placed Raf and Jack, who had woken up earlier, onto a place on the counter that he had deemed safe.

Miko whined as she was pulled off of Optimus' chest. She was quite gutted, she had wanted him to rub her back. It was feeling rather strange. However, now that Miko had been taken from his arms Optimus could see no reason why he couldn't have another minute of recharge...

Ratchet now had all three sparkling's suckling on their bottles of warm energon as he changed them quickly and managed to hush them as they cried. He really was talented, he would have to teach Optimus a few things. One thing that seemed to bother Ratchet was how Miko had constantly been rubbing her back against the surface and trying her hardest to scratch it when she could, he had ended up scratching her back for her to calm her down.

Once finished with scratching, feeding and changing, Ratchet had taken the three little sparklings into the main area where Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee would keep an eye on them. The three bots were currently watching the sparklings as they wriggled around in their play pen that Ratchet had quickly put together so that they were able to place the sparklings somewhere safe. They had yet to put any toys in as they didn't have any in storage and Ratchet was preoccupied and couldn't make some. However the play pen was filled with soft blankets and cushions that the sparklings had decided were quite nice to hide in.

"Okay guys what are we gonna do?" Arcee cooed as she picked up Jack and cradled him against her chest.

"Uh... That's a good question, what do we do? Bee...?"

/Hey, just because I'm the youngest doesn't mean that I know all the sparkling stuff!/

"I suppose we could play lobbing?"

"Bulkhead are you out of your fragging mind?! It could kill them!" Arcee snapped.

"Yeah... Uh, I dunno what we could do but we need to think of something now or Miko is gonna slice her back open" Bulkhead said as he picked up the femling.

Even after Bulkhead had picked her up she merely whined at him and began trying to scrape her back against his armour. The three seemed to notice Miko's distress as she had been going at her back all morning.

"Ratchet?" Bulkhead called as he walked in the direction of the medbay.

"What?" Ratchet sighed as he turned from a device he had been tweaking.

"Miko won't stop clawing at her back. I've tried to distract her with toys, games, the TV..." He listed, "But she won't stop messing with her back. She's gonna end up slicing it open if she carries on the way she is"

"Yes I noticed this morning that her back is irritating her. Give her here"

Miko wriggled as she was passed from one mech to another, her back was starting to feel really sensitive. She whined and pushed at Ratchet's chest, she wanted to be placed back on the floor and she wanted it now.

"Why don't you go and help with Raf and Jack. I'll take care of Miko from here"

Bulkhead looked unsure before he decided that no harm would come to Miko when she was in Ratchet's care. He nodded and went back out into the main room.

"Let's find out what's wrong with you, little one" Ratchet cooed as he stopped the sparkling from continuing to push and kick at his chest. Miko then found herself restrained by the medic and began squealing and burbling loudly and angrily.

The medic turned his head when he heard Optimus rising from the berth and stretching.

"Have a nice recharge?" Ratchet smirked knowingly. He'd seen the state of Optimus' room when he had gone to get the other sparklings, only to find that the room was empty. He'd found it slightly funny when he saw Jack and Miko flopped over his face and chest as he snored away on the med-berth.

"I'll admit I've had better" Optimus said as he finished stretching his strong arms, "What seems to be the problem with Miko?" He asked as he noticed the wiggling sparkling in the medic's arms.

"I'm not exactly sure why, but she won't stop scratching and rubbing at her back. She's going to hurt herself if she carries on, Bulkhead and the others have already tried distracting her but it hasn't worked. She needs a very strong distraction after I've given her some antihistamine additives and a sedative" he said as he tried to quieten Miko.

Optimus raised an optic ridge at Miko's strange behaviour, "Do you want me to take her while you prepare her medicine?"

Without hesitating, Ratchet placed Miko into Optimus' arms. The feel of her back pressing against the Prime's arms seemed to trigger something and she began crying loudly and squirming even more. She began kicking and pushing at Optimus' chest. Optimus tried to calm her but she only continued to wiggle. Soon she had big, fat tears pouring down her face and Optimus wore a confused expression on his face.

"Just rub her back for her, Optimus. It's obvious how uncomfortable her back is for her" Ratchet sighed.

Optimus nodded and brought the squirming and crying Miko up to his shoulder and laid her against it. She ceased her crying and struggling when she felt a massive hand begin to lightly massage her back. She laid her head against his shoulder and began to almost purr.

Ratchet nodded to Optimus as he finished fixing up the medicine and sedative he was going to inject into Miko. Optimus continued to stroke Miko's back to keep her calm as Ratchet approached.

"Hold her still, Optimus" Ratchet said quietly so he didn't upset the femling.

The medic wiped an anaesthetic against the back of Miko's neck before pressing the needle into her and injecting the antihistamine. That would hopefully stop her from scratching her back for a while. Miko whined as he began pulling the needle out and the medic knew he would have to be quick with the next injection otherwise the sparkling would begin to move too much. Optimus watched as Ratchet pressed the next needle into another place on Miko's neck and then as he administered the sedative before pulling it out.

Only a few seconds later, Miko's optics began to droop and Optimus shifted her so she was cradled close to his spark. Although she was rapidly falling asleep, Miko seemed intent on still putting up a fight and batted at Optimus' hand that had reached out to stroke her little helm. However the assault on his hand didn't last long as she ended up slowly pulling his hand towards her and began to nibble on his fingers as she fell into recharge. Optimus smiled, he really didn't mind that his hand would be covered in sparkling slobber.

"What do you want me to do with her?" He asked his medic.

"Whatever you want as long as she is recharging" Ratchet replied.

"I think I'll keep her with me for now then"

With that, Optimus began to walk out of the med-bay and into the main room. Ratchet smiled. Optimus really would've made a great father.

/-\

Bulkhead turned to see Optimus emerge from the med-bay with Miko recharging in his arms.

"Optimus, is she okay?"

"She's fine, Bulkhead. Ratchet has administered a sedative, nothing to worry about" He said as he took his position at a computer and began typing with one hand whilst Miko was bundled in the other.

Bulkhead wore a confused look as he processed Optimus' actions.

"Uh, don't you want me to take her while you work?"

"No, I'm fine holding her." Optimus replied not looking away from his work.

Bulkhead squinted as he took note of his leader's strange behaviour. However he knew that Optimus wouldn't hand Miko over and decided it would be best not to argue. The large, green mech shook his head and walked back over to where Arcee and Bumblebee were trying to find a way to keep the two mechlings entertained.

"Hey guys, I have an idea" Bulkhead stated with a smile on his face.

"Go on" Arcee said as her and Bumblebee looked at him with slightly hopeful optics.

"Hide and seek?"

Arcee and Bumblebee looked at each other before turning back to Bulkhead and nodding in agreement.

"Okay who's counting?" Bumblebee warbled.

"I think Arcee should, she's too good at hiding"

"Scared of losing, Bulk?" She smirked.

"Now, now, Arcee. It's a game for the sparklings" Bulkhead teased.

"Says the mech that's scared of losing" Arcee retorted playfully.

"Uh fine I'll count" the large mech gave in.

"No it's fine. I wanna see how quickly Jack and I can find you"

"That's no fun for Jack. He can come with me" Bulkhead reached for the largest sparkling.

"You sure?" The femme asked as she handed her charge over to her friend.

"Yeah it'll be fine" he shook it off.

"Okay are we starting now?" Bumblebee asked as he and Raf practically vibrated with excitement.

"1...2...3...4..."

Bumblebee and Bulkhead took off in search of places to hide.

The scout didn't look far and decided that he and Raf could hide behind Optimus, under the computer. Arcee wouldn't look in such an absurd place.

He lightly tapped Optimus on the shoulder, making sure to be very quiet.

Optimus turned with Miko still sleeping in his left arm, "What is it B-"

Bumblebee shook his head rapidly and made a "sh" sound with his finger to where his mouth should be.

Optimus looked confused until his scout pointed to Arcee where she was on the other side of the main room. He could just make out her counting out loud.

Optimus smiled when he understood what his soldiers were doing and allowed Bumblebee carry on whatever he had planned. His optics widened when the young scout dived between his legs and signalled for him to act normal from where he was underneath the terminal. Optimus nodded and continued with what he was doing, acting as if the strange act he had just witnessed had never happened. The Prime honestly found it hilarious and was happy that his troops would go to such lengths to keep the tiny sparklings entertained. He wished he could join in but he was a Prime, he had to keep his emotions and actions in check.

Meanwhile Bulkhead had ran to one of the base's many storage rooms where he hid himself and Jack behind piles upon piles of spare parts.

They had been hiding for about ten minutes when Bulkhead put Jack down on the floor so he could go and peek out of the door to check for any sign of Arcee. He scoured the corridor he was hidden in and screamed when he turned and saw Arcee dangling from the ceiling in front of him with a smirk on her face.

"Nice scream, Bulk" she laughed and looked around the wrecker's arms for any sign of Jack, "Where's Jack?" she asked.

"Oh he's right back here" he said as he led her back to where he had placed the little blue eyed mech.

"I don't see him" she said.

"Oh scrap" Bulkhead moaned as he realised he'd just lost one of the sparklings.

"WHAT DID YOU DO, BULKHEAD?!" Arcee shouted as she searched for the sparkling she practically classed as her own for now. She was starting to panic, who knew what sort of trouble Jack could get himself into as an innocent young being.

/-\

"WHAT DID YOU DO, BULKHEAD?!"

Optimus and Bumblebee looked in the direction of where Arcee's shout had originated from.

"Uh oh" Bumblebee whirred as he realise what had happened and crawled out from his hiding place with Raf still in his arms.

"Indeed, Bumblebee" Optimus said sullenly and looked down when Miko began to stretch and move in his arms. He feared that Arcee's shout might have woken her up until she cuddled closer to his chest and continued recharging. He shifted her slightly so it would be easier to hold her comfortably.

He then began walking with his scout towards the area where they heard Arcee and Bullhead and was shocked to see both bots practically ripping the storage room apart.

"Is something wrong ?" Optimus asked.

"Bulkhead lost Jack" Arcee answered angrily without looking up as she continued to look for her charge around the storage room.

"Arcee, I'm sorry I didn't realise he would crawl off" Bulkhead apologised.

"Just help me look for him"

"Autobots, split up and look for Jack. It would be logical to accept that Jack is no longer in the storage room" Optimus ordered.

Bulkhead, Bumblebee, Arcee and Optimus all set off in different directions in search of Jack.

They had searched the base high and low. Hours and hours were spent looking for the missing mechling and even Ratchet had joined in. Miko was still in deep recharge in Optimus' arms and Raf had fallen asleep against Bumblebee's shoulder.

Eventually, the only rooms that hadn't been thoroughly searched were their own personal quarters. Each bot entered their quarters and began searching until Optimus commed everyone to stay completely quiet.

The Prime could hear the sound of what sounded like tiny nibbling coming from underneath his berth.

He gently placed Miko on his now clean berth and got on his hands and knees to look under his berth. He lowered his head and let out a slightly annoyed sigh when he found Jack eating more of the grease that he and Miko had gotten a hold of the previous night.

He reached under and pulled the naughty little mechling out. The sparkling still held onto the pot of grease and squeaked at an unimpressed Optimus. The red and blue mech took the pot out of the sparkling's hands before picking up Miko again and walking out of his room with both sparklings.

/I have found Jack/ Optimus commed the other bots.

Within a matter of seconds, the other four Autobots and Raf had emerged from their quarters and looked relieved to see a sheepish looking Jack in one of Optimus' arms.

Arcee scowled at Jack and went over to take him out of Optimus' arms. The Prime willingly passed him over to the furious looking femme.

"Jack, you are in so much trouble. You knew perfectly well what you were doing" she scolded.

"I think it would be suitable to punish him to teach him that he is not allowed to run off like that" Ratchet proposed.

"He's only a young sparkling, Ratchet" Bumblebee buzzed.

"But he knew what his intentions were" Arcee told the scout.

"I would have to agree with Arcee and Ratchet. Jack's intentions were clear and could've been a danger to himself, it is wise that he be punished. However, I believe it is up to Arcee to decide if he is punished or not" Optimus spoke.

Arcee nodded and began walking towards the main room whilst the others followed. When she got there, she sat on their equivalent of a sofa and placed Jack onto her lap. She was going to punish him alright...

Bulkhead and Bumblebee went back to playing with Raf while Ratchet went back to the med-bay with Optimus so they could check up on Miko.

/-\

"Okay, Optimus. Gently lay her down, it would be best if she remained in recharge"

The matrix-holder did as told and moved her from where she was snuggled against his chest and onto a big, soft blanket that had been placed on the med-berth for her.

"Do you have any idea why her back has been irritating her?"

"I have a few suspicions but I think they are highly unlikely. At the moment I believe she might have some form of rust that is causing her to scratch her back that desperately"

"What are your other suspicions? I believe it would be best not to rule out any possibilities" Optimus inquired.

"I agree. One is that she might have harmed herself with the grease that she ate last night. She could have had some sort of allergic reaction to it."

Optimus frowned at that, he could only blame himself for that incident.

"And the others?"

"Well, I only have one other which is that I'm led to believe she is-"

The sound of a sparkling screeching stopped Ratchet in his words and instantly made both bots look in the direction. Before they could move to go and see which sparkling was crying and what the reason behind it was, Miko began to whine and started waking up.

"Optimus, try and get her back to sleep! I won't be able to give her another sedative today as it will be too much for her!" Ratchet warned desperately.

The Prime instantly picked up the squirming femling and began to rock her but it didn't seem to work. He began to bounce her slightly and that seemed to work... However not for long as the sparkling screeched again.

This one really woke Miko up and she instantly began crying. Optimus sighed and tried to comfort the young sparkling and his efforts failed miserably.

Ratchet sighed and reached for one of many bottles that had already been prepared for the sparklings and handed it to Optimus.

Optimus guided the tip of the bottle towards Miko's mouth but she turned her head and continued crying.

Another screech sounded and Ratchet and Optimus finally went out to see what was happening in the main room.

It was Jack, who was being punished by being left in the play pen while Arcee, Bumblebee and Bulkhead doted over Raf.

"Jack, stop that screeching!" Ratchet snarled.

The sparkling stared up at Ratchet defiantly and began screeching even louder. Ratchet found an easy solution and stuffed a soother into Jack's mouth. He kept it in with his pinky finger whilst Jack tried to spit it out. He was building up quite a little temper tantrum and Ratchet was fairly annoyed since he had woken up Miko in the process. Soon Jack began to feel soothed by the object and his optics began to droop and a few minutes later he was leaning over Ratchet's hand fast asleep.

"Arcee why don't you take him back to your quarters? Miko is awake now and she might wake him up if he stays in here" Ratchet advised.

"I think that's the best idea" she replied as she stood up from where she was sat and picked up Jack from out of the play pen. She walked off to her room with the sleeping mechling in her arms leaving behind Bumblebee, Bulkhead, Raf, Ratchet and Optimus who now had an armful of excited Miko.

"Carry on" Ratchet said to the other before motioning for Optimus to join him in the med-bay again.

"You were saying, old friend?" Optimus asked as he tried to get Miko to latch onto the bottle. This time she did and began to happily suckle.

"Ah yes, my other suspicion was that she could possibly be a seekerling. Seekerlings aren't born with their wings, they begin to grow when they reach about 3 vorns old and Miko seems to be at that age."

"You're sure of this?" Optimus was now very interested, if Miko was a seekerling it would change many things.

"No, unfortunately, I'm not. It does seem likely as seekerlings do tend to scratch at their backs as their wings come through. It's almost like when sparklings teethe apart from the seekerling is younger and it's their back."

"At least we have some reasons that might be behind Miko's back. It will certainly be interesting if she is a seekerling."

"It will be hard, Optimus. Seekerlings differ in various ways to normal sparklings."

"I acknowledge that and would be ready to eagerly accept that" came the positive reply. Ratchet sighed as he watched Optimus shift Miko in his arms as she had unlatched from the bottle. Optimus now had her against her shoulder and patted her back until she burped. He then brought her back down to his chest where she wriggled and crawled around in his arms.

"Even if you do accept that it would be different to a normal sparkling, you would not be able to teach Miko how to fly. The only seekers that we would be able to contact are Decepticons and we don't want them anywhere near these sparklings. Miko will be flightless and seekers need to fly. They're not like other fliers, seekers are created to feed off the energy in the air, she would be depressed" Ratchet sighed.

It would be nice having a little seekerling around the base but it would come with a cost that would harm said seekerling.

"Well, we don't know for sure if Miko is or not so don't start worrying just yet, old friend" Optimus said calmly as he now struggled to keep a good hold of the slippery sparkling he held in his arms.

"We can check" Ratchet offered as he watched Miko reach up to Optimus' face with a big smile.

Optimus lifted her up so she was in his face, her body smaller than his faceplates, and nuzzled her tiny stomach making her giggle before hugging him.

Ratchet smiled, maybe a sparkling... Or three... Was just what Optimus needed to feel happier throughout the war.

"Then I suppose we should check" Optimus said as he gently pulled Miko away from his face and rested her against his shoulder where she began squirming.

"And I think pretty soon, it looks like she wants to go off and play" Ratchet chuckled as the sparkling kept on trying to climb over Optimus' shoulder.

"Miko" Optimus called gently and she instantly turned her head to look at him, "10 more minutes and then you can play" he smiled knowing that she didn't understand although she squeaked at him.

Optimus put her down on the med-berth as Ratchet grabbed an x-ray tool and held it to her back to snap a few pictures.

/-\

Raf had fallen asleep and when he woke up he was in the main room alone. None of the bots seemed to be around, he couldn't hear them and double checked to see if he could hear them. He could make out some sounds from the medbay but that was just Ratchet dealing with Miko.

Raf decided he would have to entertain himself, he was getting quite restless and blamed it on the fact he'd been turned into a young sparkling. He looked around the large room for something to do. His optics instantly landed on a device that Ratchet had been constructing earlier. It did look rather interesting.

Before even thinking about moving, the youngest sparkling glanced around for any sign of the bots. He decided that it was safe to move and began his trek to the device that Ratchet had left on the side. Raf crawled and crawled until he felt his wiring heat up. He stopped to intake some air to cool his young overworked systems. It sure was hard being a sparkling.

It was when he looked ahead that Raf realised he had a massive problem in the way. He had been placed in the play pen and had these massive gates towering over him. How would he get to that device now?

Raf sat with a screwed up, puzzled face as he studied the gate in front of him. It was very difficult, he felt like his brain had turned to complete mush since he'd been turned into a sparkling. The little sparkling decided to sit down as he thought, this might take a while.

Finally Raf felt a light bulb ping on and he glanced back at the cushions in the play pen. He could use the massive cushions to batter down the gate and then get free!

With a happy chirp he began to crawl back to the cushions and managed to pick one up. He carried it on his back skilfully and didn't let it fall. By the time he got back to the gate he was buzzing with excitement about escaping the sparkling jail. He let the cushion drop from his back and got himself into a more advantageous position. He picked up the cushion and whacked it against the gate as hard as he could.

Raf's excitement came to an abrupt halt when the gate didn't even tremble at his efforts. He whacked the gate again, only to get the same outcome. Maybe he needed to use more force. So he whacked the cushion harder against the gate. He continued throwing, smacking and whacking until he heard a ripping sound. He tilted his head in curiosity and gave the cushion an almighty pound against the gate which made another ripping noise.

He did it again and out flew millions of feathers. The feathers that had once been in the cushion were now flying around in the play pen and the main room. Raf giggled and decided he liked this and kept on battering the feathers all over the place. Soon there were feathers everywhere and the tiny sparkling felt ever so proud of himself.

Once the cushion he had been using ran out, he quickly went to get another and began to force the feathers out of it.

Raf was happily rolling around in the feathers when he heard something.

::Raf! What are you doing?!:: Bumblebee exclaimed with wide eyes.

Raf stopped what he was doing and sat on his little aft as he looked up at his guardian. The way Bumblebee looked at him practically screamed how much trouble he was in.

Ratchet and Optimus came out with a squealing Miko.

"Okay what happened now?" Ratchet growled. He was becoming impatient with all these distractions. Then again, these were sparklings...

Ratchet didn't need any form of answer as he stared at what was in front of him. Optimus seemed to see through Ratchet's calm demeanour.

"Old friend, why don't you take Miko and continue with the x-ray. I'll handle this situation" he said gently as he passed Miko into the medic's waiting arms.

The medic nodded and turned back to the medbay. Once the medic was gone, Optimus activated his vocaliser.

"Bumblebee, I demand an explanation" he said sternly.

::Hey it wasn't me! It was Raf! Why would I do that?:: Bumblebee answered angrily.

"And where were you when Raf did this?" the Prime raised an optic ridge.

::I was in my room-::

"You mean to say you weren't keeping an optic on Raf?" Optimus felt anger rising in his spark but didn't show it.

Bumblebee didn't answer. He just looked down at his pedes.

"Without any supervision Raf could have seriously injured himself."

::I know and I'm sorry, Optimus::

"I'm afraid I'm going to have to hand over Raf's guardianship to Ratchet. Bumblebee, you are too young to be looking after a sparkling." Optimus said gently.

::I can look after Raf! I'm not too young I'm almost an adult!:: Bumblebee was getting angry.

"That you may be, but you are currently still a youngling" Optimus informed him sternly.

::If I'm a youngling then why am I classed as a soldier?:: he buzzed in retaliation before he transformed and allowed his engines to roar angrily and propel him out of the base.

"Bumblebee!" Optimus called with a clear frown on his face.

A squeak made him look down at the culprit of the mess.

"Raf, I'm afraid Ratchet will now decide what to do with you" he sighed as he picked up the smallest sparkling and brought him into the medbay.

"All sorted?" Ratchet asked when he saw Optimus enter with a crying Raf in his arms.

"Unfortunately not. I'm going to need you to take over guardianship of Raf. Bumblebee has proved he cannot look after a sparkling"

"I warned you about this, Optimus" Ratchet said in an "I told you so" tone.

"Are you willing to be Raf's guardian?"

"Yes yes yes, I don't see why not" he sighed.

Optimus nodded and placed Raf onto the berth next to Miko. Ratchet was still holding on tightly to Miko as he scanned her and found himself gripping her even tighter to stop her from wriggling away when Raf came into her vision.

"Miko, stop it. I'll be finished soon" Ratchet murmured.

Miko only squealed in reply and kept on trying to get to Raf.

"Okay, finished" Ratchet told her with a relieved sigh as he let her go.

Both medic and Prime watched as Miko crawled over to Raf and hugged him sweetly. Raf's tears that had been dropping down his face had been wiped away by the innocent version of Miko.

"I'll never admit it to her when she is changed back, but Miko really does have one beautiful soul stored inside her" Ratchet smiled as he watched the femling calm her younger friend.

"That she does, old friend" Optimus allowed a small smile to show in his face. But it disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. One blink and you would've missed it.

"What do the x-rays show?" Optimus inquired as he turned to look at the pictures that had been uploaded to the screen in front of them. "Are those...?"

"Wing nubs?" Ratchet smiled. "Indeed they are"

"How long until Miko's back is no longer irritating her?"

"If say a few more weeks and then they'll start to come through. For now though, I can put some of this gel on her. It will numb the irritation for a few hours, it just needs to keep being administered"

Ratchet reached out and carefully grabbed a hold of Miko. He laid her face down on the berth and began to stroke some of the gel onto her back. She squealed at the strange feeling but began cooing softly when she realised how nice it felt. However, soon enough her mini massage was finished and she found herself placed into the same strong, red arms she had been held by all day. She stared up at Optimus and squeaked at him.

Not knowing what she wanted, Optimus thanked Ratchet and walked out of the medbay. When Miko saw the mess that was on the floor she began pushing at Optimus' chest, showing that she wanted to be put down.

She really wanted to play in the feathers that had been scattered into mountainous piles everywhere. Optimus sensed this and with a smile and shake of his head knew that this wouldn't harm the sparkling. The mess needed to be cleaned up anyway, Miko could play in it while Optimus shuffled it into a storage unit.

/-\

Before long, it was night time again. It was strange how quickly the day had gone just looking after the sparklings.

Bumblebee had returned to base hours ago. He had taken his energon to his room and hadn't left. Bulkhead and Arcee looked on in wonder, Optimus looked unimpressed and Ratchet smirked knowing this would happen.

After the team had finished their energon and the sparklings had finished their energon, they all went back to their rooms to get some recharge. Arcee had Jack, Ratchet had Raf and and Optimus had Miko. It was strange, Bulkhead thought, Optimus seemed intent on keeping Miko in his arms 24/7.

Honestly Optimus didn't feel at all at ease. He would've preferred to have all 3 sparklings with him. But after last night he supposed that one couldn't be so bad. Optimus was on his side, Miko curled into his abdomen fast asleep. He stroked the sparkling's back where her wing nubs would start to come through soon. He allowed himself to slip into recharge a few hours later, completely oblivious that the sparkling beside him had just woken up.


	5. Chapter 5

The little sparkling version of Miko giggled quietly when she saw that the Prime was recharging. She crawled out of his arms and watched him for a minute to make sure he wouldn't wake up from her sudden movements. When Optimus continued recharging, she smiled cheekily and went to the edge of the berth.

Of course, a berth that belonged to Optimus was bound to be quite large. To Miko's sparkling optics it was a massive drop, but knowing her she jumped anyway not caring if she hurt herself. She landed with a thud and thankfully in a position that braced her little body and therefore preventing any damage. She let out a victorious giggle and gazed back up at Optimus before turning her sight to the door of his quarters. She crawled swiftly towards it and the door opened, sensing movement from the inside.

Miko crawled down the corridors looking for hints of where her destination might be. She cursed her young Cybertronian body and its inability to walk or run.

"I don't have forever, its only a matter of time before boss bot realises I'm not tucked up next to him" she babbled to herself as she crawled.

Soon enough she reached the main room of the base and practically felt her soul lurch out of her body when she saw Bumblebee stomping around in anger. She backed away into a corner as she watched him settle down and sit on an energon crate with his head held in his hands. Miko waited for a fews seconds before slowly crawling past him, staying in the shadows of the room. The scout was oblivious to the little sparkling scuttling past him.

Bumblebee was vexed. Optimus couldn't just take Raf off of him like that! He was his rightful guardian, not Ratchet! Its not like Raf got hurt or anything! Bumblebee ventilated angrily. Of course Optimus would use his age against him. The Prime seemed to enjoy using Bumblebee's age to his advantage, but honestly, even if Optimus was just trying to keep him or the others safe, he saw it to be pointless. Despite his age, he was stuck in the middle of war. He lost his creators. He lost his family. What was Optimus doing to him?!

Bumblebee whirred angrily, lifted his head and sighed. Optimus had acted as a father to him, that was why he acted the way he did with the young scout. But it gave him no right to completely dismiss him of his guardianship of Raf! Thinking of that just made him angrier. This is why he had come back to the main room, he knew that if he'd stayed in his room then everyone would have heard his angry statements and he would've landed himself in deeper trouble with Optimus.

The black and yellow bot continued to think as Miko found her destination. Once she was alone at the base with Ratchet at Optimus and to her they were the most boring of the Autobots. Even though Ratchet tried to show her some scientific equations she had still wandered off, finding her exploration of the base more exciting and important than science. Optimus had even attempted to quell he curios nature by calling her back and trying to interest her in Deception intel that they had gathered throughout the war on Cybertron. She had been enthralled and gladly listened to Optimus as he talked about the main Deceptions and the battles that happened. However, he had barely even started on the third 'Con, Soundwave, when Miko had somehow escaped the Prime's invisible hold.

Knowing her curious nature, Ratchet and Optimus counted on her finding something they probably wouldn't have wanted her to find. And it was true. She had found a room that possessed enormous cans of paint that the bots used to occasionally brighten themselves up after battle. There were all sorts of colours but she noticed that the cans were mainly dominated by the colours that the bots possessed. Miko looked very pleased with herself as she rediscovered the paint room. She smiled cheekily as she picked out the lighter, smaller cans of red and white. She found herself climbing the shelves to find more cans that would be easy for her to tug along with her. how she could do that but not walk was a mystery for her. What she didn't realise that she was making a fair amount of noise.

Bumblebee's brows creased and his optics spun slightly as he recognised the sound of clashing of cans. Everyone was in recharge so who could possibly be making all that noise?

He rose from his position on the crate and activated his weapon system as he began walking in the direction of the sound. As he inched closer to the room that the noise was originating from, he realised it was one of the storage rooms that Ratchet went to to retrieve paint for when he deemed them in need of a new coat.

His optics instantly widened when he was met with the sight of a small sparkling pulling a few red and white paint cans with her as she crawled out. He realised it was Miko and instantly felt at peace knowing that this sort of behaviour wasn't remotely strange. Carefully, he walked over to her and picked her up, cradling her against his chest being gentle with her tiny wing nubs.

'What are you doing out here?' he questioned in beeps and buzzes.

She replied in a string of sparkling words that he could never hope to understand. However, going by the smirk on her little face meant that she was up to something naughty. He looked over at the paint cans and noticed that they were specific colours. Once again, his optics widened but out of realisation rather than shock. If he was guessing right, she was going to mix those paints together. Red and white made pink…

Bumblebee giggled evilly. The little sparkling had given him to cruelest idea. Without wasting anytime he picked up all of the cans that Miko had retrieved and walked quickly and silently in the direction of the personal quarters corridor. Miko smiled happily up at the scout, silently thanking him for his help. She had clearly grasped onto what she intended to do.

However, she realised Bumblebee hadn't quite fully understood when she was placed into a room along with all the paint cans. She didn't intend to paint this person but with the scout egging her on she couldn't help but flash him a massive smile and continue. Honestly, she could understand why he wanted her to paint this bot instead of Ratchet.

Ratchet would've been fun to paint but this certain mech would be just as fun. She giggled and got to work while Bumblebee slipped back into his own quarters, giggling madly.

/-\

The next morning, Optimus woke up of his own accord. No crying. That was nice, having a peaceful night-

Optimus shot up and searched for Miko on his berth but found no trace of her. Knowing the rest of the team would be awake, he commed them with a slightly annoyed sigh.

/Good morning, Autobots. Unfortunately, I cannot find Miko. I would appreciate if you would help./

He heard them all groan in response. It seemed they needed to keep a tighter leash on their rambunctious, trouble-making sparkling. It seemed to be quite a feat of theirs to just disappear at the most annoying times.

Optimus slapped a hand over his face and groaned as he pulled himself off of his berth. He decided that before leaving he may as well search the rest of his room for the little one. After thoroughly searching every part of his room he deemed it logical that she must of escaped during the night. He exited his quarters after gathering the Prime within him to come out and take over his current mood.

He slowly walked down the corridors, keeping an optic out just in case he caught a glimpse of a certain little devil. Optimus was approaching the main room when he resumed looking straight ahead instead of around him. He walked into the main room and saw that things were peaceful. They would've remained that way too if Miko hadn't scampered off. Bumblebee was sat on a crate reading a data pad and consuming his daily ration of energon, Arcee was sat on the floor with a happy looking sparkling in front of her, Ratchet was holding Raf to his chest, feeding him whilst looking over the monitors for any sign or Deception movement, and Bulkhead was out on the morning patrol.

"Good morning." he announced himself.

His Autobots turned around to address him but all stopped and looked at him wide optics and open mouths that looked like their jaws were about to drop off their hinges. Optimus didn't like it.

"Is something wrong?" he inquired.

Bumblebee, Arcee and the two little mechlings started laughing whilst Ratchet struggled not to.

"Optimus… Have you perhaps wondered why Miko might have run off in the night?" Ratchet asked with a massive grin.

Optimus cocked his head to one side.

"Yeah, it seems like she realised that you might not be happy with her little project!" Race wiped away the tears forming in her optics from laughing hard.

"…Project?" Optimus was confused.

"Look in the monitor, Optimus" Ratchet chuckled as he switched his monitor scree onto a video feed that had Optimus filling it.

"Optimus' remains stoic as ever before cocking an eyebrow up, forming his unimpressed look.

He was pink.

Bright pink.

Miko had painted him pink during his recharge!

"Okay, Optimus, go get cleaned up and we'll go look for Miko" Arcee giggled as she stood up with Jack in her arms.

The Prime nodded and turned in the direction of the wash racks. He wasn't necessarily angry that the sparkling had painted him but it annoyed him that the sparkling had somehow managed to outsmart him. How had he not found any clue of the paint she had used? He shook his head in disbelief and continued on.

/-\

Miko was found asleep in the vents, smothered in the pink paint herself, way after Optimus had scrubbed all of the pink paint off of himself. In fact, it had taken the team so long to locate he that they became worried. Once they had a hold of her, she was instantly handed to Optimus who gave her a stern look. She giggled, already knowing what the Prime had looked like in a coat of pink paint. She was slightly disappointed that he'd washed it off though.

"Miko. I'm not happy with you or your actions." he said to her.

She looked up at him with the most innocent look she could muster.

"By the looks of it she needs a bath." Bumblebee commented with an amused speck in his optics.

"Not before she eats and gets a change." Ratchet insisted and passed Optimus a bottle of warm low grade energon.

Both mechs gave thankful sighs when Miko didn't struggle and immediately latched onto the bottle and began suckle. It wasn't long before she was sucking in air and Optimus pulled the bottle from her mouth, ignoring her annoyed squeak. He lifted her to his shoulder and began to pat her back, being careful not to pat too hard so he didn't hurt her little wing nubs. Soon enough she burped and then her, from what it seemed, new guardian began walking into the wash racks and preparing a small bath for her. While he waited for the bath to cool off a bit, he began to change the little femme, which as always proved to be a difficult task.

It didn't get any better for the red and blue mech as for some reason, being put in the warm water of the bath seemed to trigger the sensors on her wing nubs and she instantly began whining and struggling.

"Hush, Miko. It is alright" Optimus tried soothing her.

It didn't work, she continued to struggle against his hold on her and the Prime realised it was probably the best thing to wash her as quickly as he could.

Now that he'd finished, he pulled her out of the water and wrapped her in a large, warm towel. Soon enough, Miko was asleep in the strong red arms.

/-\

Ratchet had been in the medbay with Raf sat up on the medical berth. Optimus was in there helping Ratchet and had placed Miko on the berth next to Raf.

Suddenly the sound of coughing and spluttering reached both of their audio receptors. They turned and saw that Raf was pretty much having a coughing fit.

"Rafael?" Ratchet asked concerned as he looked over.

The old medic quickly walked over and picked the little mech up and began patting and rubbing his back. However, that plan backfired as it only caused him to sick up his morning energon. Optimus' optic brows raised in alarm and he went to get a rag for his old friend.

"Ratchet, use this to clean yourself and i'll scan Rafael."

Ratchet nodded as he took to rag from his leader and passed him the now crying sparkling in return. By now, Miko was wide awake and watching with interest as Raf continued to bawl his optics out. She looked on, wondering what was happening to her younger friend.

"Miko," Ratchet called as he finished cleaning himself up, "Would you like to go and play with Bulkhead while Optimus helps me with Rafael?"

She squealed happily in response and Ratchet smiled as he walked out of the medbay. He gently stroked her wing nubs and smiled even more when he felt her press her back into his hand. Although he hadn't been keen on the idea of a seekerling in the bas (for its own health and safety), he was beginning to think that it wouldn't be so difficult. He passed her onto Bulkhead and heard their laughter as he walked back to the medbay. Honestly, Ratchet was happy that Team Prime were enjoying the sparklings.

Rafael's crying got louder as he approached the medbay and when he entered it was almost audio shattering.

"What do his results say?" Ratchet asked Optimus.

"He has cyberflu and there is no detected cause of it" Optimus told him as gently held Raf against his chest while Ratchet began to prepare some medicine for him. The Prime's spark seemed to soothe him and he settled down from crying to just small, shaky sobs.

"It's probably because of his vents. They're younger and much more open to ventilating the wrong things." Ratchet sighed as he finished up with the medicine needle.

He approached the sniffling sparkling that was holding on tightly to Optimus' chest plates. Raf was shaking and the older mechs couldn't tell if it was because he was upset, cold or scared.

"Do I need to hold him in a certain position?" Optimus inquired.

"No, he's not Miko. He won't move as much as her." Ratchet almost snorted.

With that, he pressed the needle into Raf's arm. The mechling squealed in shock and tried to wiggle away but the Prime's grip proved to be too strong. He fell limp when the needle was removed from his arm and felt himself being passed over to Ratchet. The old medic lightly patted his back to keep him calm before bring a bottle up to him. Raf turned his head, not wanting the energy but Ratchet insisted and pressed the bottle nub to Raf's lips.

"Come on, Rafael. You need this if you're going to get better" the medic cooed.

Raf squealed in discomfort and batted at the bottle and Ratchet's hands. It wasn't long before the crying started again and Ratchet was left comforting whilst Optimus couldn't help but look on with bemused optics. Had he looked like this with Miko?

"Optimus!" the Prime looked up at Ratchet, "Pass me that blanket on the side."

Optimus did so and watched as Ratchet wrapped the small sparkling in it. The crying began to stop when this happened and the two older mechs guessed he had just been cold. Now he accepted the bottle and Ratchet let out a sigh of relief.

"Optimus I won't be needing your help until later" the medic said quietly so he didn't disturb the now drowsy sparkling.

Optimus took the hint, nodded to Ratchet and then left the medbay to go and join the others in the front room.

Bulkhead, Arcee, Bumblebee, Jack and Miko had been building a large fort out of the couch and the energy crates. The fort took over the entire main room and the road that led to the exit of the bas, and all of the bots included were laughing and having fun with the sparklings. They were all walking, crawling, running, galloping, climbing and crawling their way through the homemade fort, playing a game of tag.

"C'mon Bumblebee! I thought you were fast!" Bulkhead taunted whilst running alongside Arcee who laughed as she held both sparklings. Jack and Miko were laughing insanely as Arcee ran faster and suddenly turned a corner, leaving Bulkhead running in the original direction.

"HEY!" Bulkhead stopped and complained as he saw them go the other way. He was suddenly rugby tackled by Bumblebee who beeped and whirred in laughter before running off in the same direction as Arcee and the sparklings.

Bulkhead remembered the paths of their fort and went the other way to trap them in a different corner that they would eventually reach. With a small laugh, he ran off but stopped when he heard a crash, a groan of pain and a voice.

"Autobots? What is the meaning of this?" Optimus' voice came from the outside of the fort. He didn't sound impressed either.

Bulkhead's optics widened before he walked back into the depths of their fort and away from Optimus. He decided to comm his friends.

/Arcee, Bumblebee, Optimus is here and he doesn't sound too happy with his discovery of the fort. What do we do?"/

/I say we ignore him and keep playing/ Bumblebee laughed

/Can't help but agree with 'Bee, Bulkhead. I haven't had fun like this since I was a sparkling/ Arcee added.

Bulkhead couldn't help but agree with Arcee. Fun like this was hard to make time for in a war and their only excuse to do things like this was because of the sparklings they were currently looking after. And, Bumblebee never got to do this when he was younger so it was only fair that they pretended not to hear Optimus and continue. Bulkhead smiled before running off after his team mates, looking for them and hoping to tag one.

Optimus had walked into the main room and had been rudely interrupted by a whack to the helm. He clutched his head and groaned before looking at the sight of him. The entire room had been turned upside down to create some form of fort. He cocked an optic brow before hollering.

/-\

"Autobots? What is the meaning of this?"

He heard shuffling and muffled laughter but got no reply.

'Okay, the old fashioned way it is' he thought to himself as he set out to look for his soldiers and the two sparklings they had.

He entered the fort and realised that it wasn't going to be as quick a find as he thought it might be. The pathways that had been made winded around in an almost maze-like fashion. With a slightly annoyed sigh, he began to carefully walk down the paths in hopes of finding all of them.

It felt like he was walking for ages until finally he saw, in the crossway he was approaching, Bumblebee and Arcee, with the sparklings in her arms, laughing as they ran from Bulkhead. His optics widened in realisation at what they were doing before he smirked to himself and began running after them in the same direction.

The Autobots stopped, confused, as they heard a pair of footsteps, they were loud and drawing closer at a fast pace. They all turned and saw their leader running at them with a mischievous, playful grin on his face. They all watched with wide optics as their normally stoic leader was openly inviting them to play a game with him. Bulkhead turned tail and ran past Arcee, Bumblebee and the sparklings. The others looked at him before following suit and began sprinting away from their Prime.

This continued for a good while until Bulkhead clumsily tripped over his own pedes and tumbled to the floor. He went sliding into the makeshift wall of the fort and was successful in causing the collapse of everything. Crates went tumbling and rolling as the fort became a complete mess. Optimus felt a shock of worry shoot up his spinal cables when he saw a crate fall and hit Arcee, resulting in her falling to the floor with the two sparklings. They slid out of her arms and were piled on top of each other on the floor. His felt his spark rate increase tremendously when he saw yet another crate threatening to fall and smash into the ground. In the same place as it's desired smashing point, the sparklings.

The Prime thundered towards the human-turned-sparklings and scooped them into his arms just before the crate fell and landed behind him. He helped up the other bots that had been downed in the collapse and guided them out of the mess.

"Autobots, I would deem it wise not to create another adventurous contraption such as this." he said calmly yet sternly.

'I agree' Bumblebee buzzed as he rubbed his bicep cables where a crate had fallen and dented it.

The four Autobots looked at Jack and Miko who were messing around with each other in the strong hold of Optimus.

"Jack, Miko," the Prime called and they looked up at him cutely, "We will not be playing that game again."

Their faces scrunched up as they took in and realised what he had just told them. They looked on the verge of tears as their main guardian had practically just torn away their favourite game. Optimus was about to turn back to the Autobots when he felt two little fists smack down onto his chest plating. He looked back down at the culprit; Miko.

"No!" she shouted at him in a squeaky voice.

All of the elder bots looked at her with shocked looks.

"Her first word!" Bulkhead exclaimed happily.

"Bulkhead, this is Miko. To be honest, it was nice when she couldn't speak at all. And to top it all off, her first word is 'no'." Arcee groaned as did Bumblebee.

"Nonetheless, her first word hasn't been placed in a manor worth praising." Optimus frowned.

Of course it made sense, she was rebelling against him. The cheeky little sparkling had hit him and told him 'no' and that didn't suit well with the Prime. He wasn't their sire but he was set on acting as one to them, therefore manners had to be put in place.

"Miko, you will not hit me or anyone else. Is that understood?" he looked at her with a fatherly stern look.

"No!" she shouted again. Jack seemed to find this hilarious and began laughing at his friend.

"Well at least he's happy." Arcee smiled.

"No!" another squeaky voice shouted. It was Jack this time.

"For Primus' sake, who keeps on shouting?" Ratchet came out of the medbay with a recharging Raf in his arms.

"No!" twin voices echoed.

The medic looked almost dazed as he gazed over the smiling sparklings.

"Oh, for spark's sake…" he grumbled as he headed back in the direction of the medbay. The last thing he needed was the most unruly of the three speaking. Jack didn't really bother him but Miko and her machine gun mouth were a different story.

"Ratchet, how is Rafael?" Optimus called as he let the sparklings climb around in his arms.

Ratchet stopped walking and sighed, turning to face Optimus.

"Not good, Optimus. By the looks of it he's too weak to handle what the virus is doing to his systems…"

'Why whats wrong with him?!" Bumblebee demanded as he quickly walked over to Ratchet and Raf.

"He has cyberflu, and from the looks of it, its slowly killing him."


	6. Chapter 6

_**Suggestions are welcome!**_

Raf coughed and spluttered as his little intakes struggled to clear themselves. He was currently cradled in Ratchet's arms as he was sat on a crate. Said medic was trying to feed the little mech but he just wouldn't take it.

"Come on, Rafael. You need this if you want any chance of getting better," he said softly as he pressed the tip of the bottle to the sparkling's mouth.

Ratchet sighed loudly when Raf turned his head away and cried out weakly. He tried to bat the bottle away but found himself too weak to do so and instead just went limp in the arms around him.

"Ratchet, why don't you let me try then you can get on with your worK?" Bumblebee offered when he saw the older mech's exasperated expression.

"Go ahead, but I'll tell you now; he's not going to take that energon," he sighed as he passed the sparkling and bottle over to the young scout.

"Well, I can still try," Bumblebee buzzed with a light expression as he began to head over to the seating area near the play pen so he could sit down.

"Oh and Bumblebee, don't take him out of this room. I need him close to the medbay."

Bumblebee nodded and sat down, holding the sickly sparkling in his lap. He lightly tickled him and let out a small laugh when Raf giggled and started wiggling. After a few minutes of that, Raf found himself cradled to yellow chest plates and soon the tip of the bottle was pressed to his mouth again. Bumblebee was looking at him hopefully and Raf was getting quite hungry so he opened his mouth and began suckling on the bottle.

Arcee came and sat next to the scout as he fed Raf. In her arms were Miko and Jack, both batting at each other and giggling happily.

"How is he?" she looked at the suckling sparkling.

"Well, he's feeding now and Ratchet said he wouldn't. So I guess thats a good sign, right?" he whirred.

"Seems so. He looks healthier than when Ratchet diagnosed him yesterday as well. Is he sure its cyberflu because if so then he is recovering quite quickly for a sparkling," she pointed out.

"I was wondering that myself but hey, if he is recovering faster then I'm not complaining!" the yellow bot had a warm hopeful look in his optics and Arcee smiled at him.

"Yeah it'll be good when he's back to his normal self again," she paused, "I say normal as if these guys are gonna remain sparklings forever…" she said sadly.

"It is nice having cute little sparklings around the base," he sighed as he looked down at the wide eyed form of Raf as he suckled happily and then to the two sparklings play fighting in his friend's arms.

"Optimus was saying only a few hours ago that Agent Fowler had asked him about the whereabouts of Jack, Miko and Raf. Apparently the police are out looking for them, their parents are worried," she sighed.

"And what did Optimus say?"

"I think he tried to avoid telling Fowler about the fact that they aren't humans right now. Unfortunately Optimus realised he couldn't just lie so I believe he told him exactly what happened to the kids."

"Wait, so… Fowler is probably gonna burst in here and demand to see them?"

Arcee nodded, "Yep. And then he'll probably scream at Optimus, demanding to know how this could have possibly happened," she smiled.

Bumblebee whirred in amusement and looked back down at Raf who was now asleep in his arms. It was such a realistic notion as well. Ha, to be honest he thought Agent Fowler might just blow a fuse and faint like he's done many times before. He turned his attention to one of the passages leading to the deeper parts of the base as he heard heavy yet soft footsteps of their leader.

Optimus smiled slightly at his soldiers with the sparklings. All the big mech could feel right now was pride for his little "family" that he had seemingly stumbled into.

Bumblebee and Arcee smiled at Optimus upon his entry and he nodded to them both in acknowledgment. His previous smile returned to his face as Jack and Miko began wiggling in excitement when they saw him as well, clearly showing their happiness.

Optimus walked over to them and patted each of the sparklings on their little helms. He planned on walking over to a computer terminal to go through reports of the most recent battles and get some extra work done in countless other files. However, he planned on going to check on what Ratchet had to say about Raf's recovery. Before he could even properly turn around to walk in the other direction, he felt two little hands clamp onto his hand and try to stop him from walking away. Optimus turned and looked at the little sparkling holding onto him for dear life from Arcee's arms.

"No!" a squeaky voice shouted.

"Miko, I must go and check on what Ratchet has gathered on Rafael and if he has improved, and then get some work done," he told her softly as he knelt down next to Arcee to look the little sparkling in the optics.

Milo's only response was a coo and she moved her little hands to his face. She pulled his helm closer and nuzzled his face with her own with a cute chirp.

"Cute," Bumblebee buzzed as Arcee smiled with a slight smirk.

"Milo what are you doing?" Jack asked but to the bots it came out as a squeak.

Miko chirped her response at him, "Hey, don't start judging me, Optimus is a lot more lenient than Arcee."

"Ah okay so you're using Optimus to get your way all the time..."

"No it's just more fun when you have less rules!" She beamed.

Optimus looked at his Autobots and tried to pry Miko from his face out of embarrassment from the completely out of character moment.

"Optimus its fine, just take her," Arcee smiled as she held out Miko him.

Miko stuck her glossa out at Jack as he giggled at her, none of the bots seemed to notice this. Jack's face scrunched up and he started whining and reaching towards Miko.

"Miko, I decided I wanna come with!" he whined as Miko giggled at him cheekily as if to say 'I told you so'.

"I suppose she needs her wings to be checked on," Optimus stated as he took the squealing and giggling sparkling. She was clearly happy that she was getting what she wanted. But her face changed as soon as she saw Optimus turn to the medbay..

Arcee held Jack tighter as he kept on wiggling, "Jack, as far as I'm concerned the only thing that needs sorting out with you is your mom's worrying," she sighed.

"Agent Fowler is currently assisting us with the situation and so far it seems he is building a strong argument," Optimus assured Arcee.

Miko sat up as she was cradled against the Prime's red chest as he started walking towards the medbay. Her face scrunched up at this, she didn't want to go in there! She'd been in there quite a lot and it was getting quite boring. And, she realised, she liked Optimus but she really wanted to be with Bulk. It made her wonder why the Prime was being so protective of her and wanting to spend every waking moment with her, he didn't seem to do it with Jack and Raf.

Thinking about all this annoyed her and Optimus noticed her facial expression. The red and blue mech bounced her in his arms a little bit but her expression didn't change one bit. He raised an optic ridge in confusion at this.

"Miko, what is wrong?" he asked.

"No!" she squeaked at him as she pointed to the medbay.

He grasped onto her meaning quickly and smiled slightly.

"Yes, Miko. We have to make sure Rafael is recovering and help Ratchet if he needs anything," Miko softened a bit at this, "And, we have to see if your wings are developing correctly"

Miko's helm titled in confusion when suddenly a lightbulb clicked on over her head. She had completely forgotten that she was a flier!

"Opmus!" she squealed happily as she tried to turn and look at her tiny wing nubs and began stretching her arms over her shoulders to try and touch them.

Optimus' optics widened in delight at her second word, his name. Well, what she could manage to call him anyway. Aside from that, it seemed Miko was a lot more intelligent than she let on.

"Yes, those will be your wings once they have grown, little one," he said with a smile as he gently stroked the nubs.

Miko squealed once again in happiness at the news and pressed her back into Optimus' hand as they entered the medbay.

"Ratchet, how are Rafael's vitals from when you last scanned him?"

The medic turned his attention to Optimus and the happy sparkling rubbing her wing nubs against his giant hands.

"It seems he's getting better much quicker than anticipated. The cyberflu has barely even affected him more than it would have with any other sparkling."

"Is there any reason why?" the Prime inquired.

"I'm suspecting its the fact that they were once humans. As humans they must have gotten illnesses similar to this at some point in their lives. This could mean that their bodies, despite being changed, will already have developed antibodies to know how to quickly deal with the virus."

Optimus nodded as he took in the information. It sounded like a reasonable thesis, however they knew they couldn't be certain unless they had further evidence produced by Jack and Miko. But, Optimus knew that he would try and keep them out of harms way as much as he could, that included trying to stop them from getting ill. He'd allowed it to happen to Raf and he regretted that he hadn't taken into consideration that the sparklings could easily become ill.

"I'm guessing you decided now was a good time to check up on Miko's wing growth?" Ratchet said as he took the sparkling from his arms.

"Indeed, considering she didn't seem to want to let me leave her," he smiled as Miko looked at Ratchet with wide optics.

She was placed down on the berth on her stomach. She whined and began trying to wiggle and crawl away but Ratchet's hand kept her securely pinned to the surface.

"Miko, the more you struggle, the longer this check up will last" he told her smoothly as he felt the area around her wing nubs.

"Why you gotta do it like this?!" She demanded and Ratchet chuckled at her cute squeals before continuing.

It was only when he lightly pinched the wing nubs that she began to wriggle even more which made the medic smile in success.

"Well, their growth is noticeable. Her wing nubs are much bigger than three days ago. I'd say another few days until they fully come through. They also seem to be functioning correctly as they are very sensitive but gaining resistance against casual movements," Ratchet smirked as he let the seekerling sit up and watched as she batted at his hand and hissed at him.

"I can see that they are quite sensitive," Prime let out a small, rare chuckle as he watched the small assault on his old friend's hand.

"Is Bumblebee still in the main room with Raf?" he asked his leader as he passed the armful of excited Miko to him.

"Yes and by the looks of it he has gotten him to feed," he began rocking Miko in his arms slightly as she stuck a few of her fingers in her mouth and drooled all over them.

"Bu- How- Wha- Well I never… I was trying to get that little mechling to feed for ages and then suddenly Bumblebee can do it in less that five minutes? Are you sure you think Bumblebee is incapable of looking after Rafael?" Ratchet knew he was pushing Optimus for an answer which he didn't really have to give, but honestly the medic thought that the scout was smart enough to care for a sparkling, he just thought he was a bit young. But hey, he knew that Bumblebee would catch on easy despite his youth.

However Optimus completely ignored his last question. Hmph, he forgot how stubborn that damn mech could be.

"Has Miko had any energon yet?"

"No, I don't believe so," Ratchet went to the storage area and pulled out two bottles, "One is for Jack."

And with that, Ratchet left the medbay with Optimus following closely behind. The medic walked up to a computer terminal and began to try to trace any form of energon signal, be it a mine or a life signal.

Optimus continued walking towards where Bumblebee and Arcee were sat with Jack and Raf and passed Arcee one of the bottles. The Prime and Arcee began to feed the two sparklings who eagerly suckled on the bottles. Raf was now awake and looking slightly woozy but better than he was before. He was sat upright on Bee's lap as the yellow scout allowed him to push one of his race cars around on his abdomen and arms.

Just on time to see the residents of the base in the same room together, Bulkhead zoomed back into the base having finished his patrol shift. He transformed back into his bi-pedal mode and crashed his fists together.

Miko sat up in Optimus' arms excitedly and spat out her energon, getting it over the big mech's arms and servos and reached towards Bulkhead with a big smile.

Bumblebee erupted in laughter, "I think someone's excited," he bleeped.

"Opmus no!" She squealed as she pushed herself away from his chest and continued reaching for Bulkhead.

"Hey Miko, how're you doing?" The wrecker chuckled and smiled as he took her from the Prime's energon covered he received an excited shriek as a reply, "Guess who came back to visit?"

Ratchet looked up, optics wide, "No, don't tell me that- that- rodent is back..."

"Missed you too, Doc!" Wheeljack smiled as he walked in, "Hey Mi- Wait… You called a sparkling after your human friend? Why do you even have a sparkling?"

"Well this is Miko, long story. And over there, that's Jack and Raf" Bulkhead explained.

"You guys certainly find ways of keeping yourselves busy" the race car scoffed entertained.

Optimus subspaced a rag and began to wipe up the spat up energon from his arms. He then passed the unfinished sparkling bottle to Bulkhead so that Miko could continue to feed before walking to a terminal next to Ratchet and staring his work.

"C'mon, Miko. You gotta eat," Bulkhead urged his charge to take her bottle but she was too busy wiggling around in his arms from excitement.

"Awwww but Bulk, I missed you! Optimus has been acting real possessive but you're my one and only partner!" Miko squealed in her sparkling babble as she tried to climb onto his shoulder.

"Miko, if you want your wings to grow then you gotta have your energon." he tried enticing her.

"Wait, now you're telling me that your human partner that is now a sparkling is also a seekerling? Woah, kid's gonna have a story to tell," Wheeljack smiled at Miko as she reached out for him from her guardian's shoulder, "Drink, kid. Or your wings won't exist," he teased her.

Miko's eyes widened with slight fear until her normal mind caught onto a bluff. She laughed at him and took the bottle from Bulkhead and held it herself for a second before throwing it at Wheeljack and hitting him square in the face.

"Ah, Miko…" Bulkhead groaned as he turned to his friend, "Sorry, Jackie…"

Wheeljack chuckled as he rubbed the spot where the sparkling bottle hit him, "Don't sweat in, Bulk. Kid's got fire, I'd say if she stays Cybertronian then she's a future wrecker."

Wheel jack then turned to the other sparklings, now interested in seeing the transformation of the other human children.

"Hey, Bee, why does your one look like its half dead?" Wheeljack joked not realising the severity of what he just said.

Bumblebee let out a string of beeps and warbles of complete anger and worry that Raf actually looked that bad.

"You'll be surprised to know, Wheeljack, that Raf here looks like that because he is ill with cyberflu," ratchet snapped from the computer terminal he was working from.

"Oh, well slag. I'm sorry, Bee, you too Raf."

Wheeljack's attention soon turned to Jack when said sparkling started squealing and reaching out towards him. Arcee smiled and moved Jack from where he was cradled against her chest plates to sitting on her lap as he continued squeaking a speech at the wrecker. Wheeljack just smiled at the little squeaker and walked up to Ratchet and Optimus.

"Optimus would you mind if I take some energon to pump into my ship? Not gonna need much but if I wanna stop it from rusting then it needs at least a cube or two."

"Help yourself, Wheeljack. We recently acquired a significant stockpile," Optimus confirmed as the wrecker nodded in thanks.

"And, Doc. Could I borrow some of your tools?" he said with a grin.

Ratchet snorted and huffed as he waved his hand and muttered something along the lines of "fine, fine".

"Thanks, Doc," Wheeljack smirked and with that he called Bulkhead over to take some tools while he carried some energon cubes.

Soon enough, Bulkhead, Miko, Jack and Wheeljack were inside the crashed form of the Jackhammer. Jack had been allowed to join them after he seemed desperate to join Miko in whatever she was doing. And now, Jack and Miko had been placed in the captain's seat just to keep them interested enough in the ship and to make sure they stayed put whilst the two mechs repaired the ship. However, their interest in the flickering lights in front of them was becoming weaker and weaker as time passed and eventually it got to a point where Miko turned her attention on the control panel in front of them. She reached out and grabbed the control handle and pulled herself up onto her legs.

Jack smacked her leg and squealed in protest, "Miko! Stop! You might press something important!"

"Oh, please. Nothing bad will happen," she scoffed at her friend as she started climbing up the control panel.

Jack craned his neck just in time to see Miko step on the most dangerous looking button she could and he flinched in anticipation of what was to come… but nothing happened.

"See, what'd I tell you," she rolled her eyes at her friend's shaky behaviour.

"Okay, sorry. I know I'm freaking out quite a lot but I feel even more vulnerable than when we were humans. Heck, Miko we can't even feed ourselves and our parents don't even know where we are!"

"I get it, dude. But honestly, just enjoy it while you can; no school, no peer pressure, no financial problems… It's like a vacation!" She smiled at him. Jack gave her a smile of his own, it wasn't really reassuring for him but she knew she was trying.

"Yeah, I guess so…" he looked down as he played with his fingers, "Hey! Where are you going?!" he demanded as he looked up only to see Miko had climbed down from the control panel and was now scaling her way down the captain's seat.

"A little bit of outdoor exploration, inside is boring now," she told him as he followed suit and began climbing down.

"Miko, it could be dangerous!" He shouted at her as he hurried to keep up with his hyperactive friend.

"Well if you think so then you don't have you don't have to follow me. Doiii!" she shouted back.

"I just wanna make sure your safe!" he squealed at her as they passed the two distracted and arguing mechs and began to make their way down the ship's ramp and back onto the sandy desert floor.

"Dude, we've had this conversation before… You. Aren't. Optimus. You're a year older than me and honestly we didn't even know of each other's existence until we met the Autobots," she was beginning to get annoyed.

They continued crawling around the perimeter of the ship and were so caught up arguing that they didn't hear the roar of an engine approaching them.

"This has nothing to do with how long we've know each other, Miko! I care because you're my friend- one of my best friends!"

"Look, Jack," Miko turned to him to continue, "I get it-" she froze.

"What?" Jack stared at her with an optic ridge raised.

"Run!"

"We can't!"

"Well then crawl!" she cried loudly as they began heading towards the back of the ship. Jack took a chance and looked behind him and saw- of all Cybertronians- Knock Out and Breakdown walking up to them with interested smiles on their faces.

Luckily for the two little ones, Bulkhead and Wheeljack heard the sparkling squeals from outside the ship and headed out just to see Knock Out scoop Jack and Miko up into his arms and Breakdown taking the offensive.

"Whats wrong, Bulkhead? Regretting letting them roll around in the dirt?" Breakdown laughed as he charged at the two wreckers. Knock Out took this as a cue to laugh wickedly and transform, locking the sparklings safely inside him with the seatbelts wrapped around them.

The two captured sparklings could see the brawl out of the windows and noticed that they were getting further from it. Knock Out was driving away. They were captured by a Con. Both of them found themselves crying loudly with tears coating their faceplates.

"Lord Megatron, I have interesting news," they could hear the smirk in his voice.

"What is it, Knock Out?" came the rasp of Megatron's voice.

"I have found two sparklings that were in the Autobots' care."

Megatron's laugh sounded, "Excellent work, Knock Out. Return to base immediately."

A ground bridge appeared in front of the cherry red sports car and he was about to drive through it when two large black servos picked up Knock Out's entire form. Jack and Miko, looked through the windscreen to see Optimus as he bent open one of Knock Out's doors. The aston martin screamed in pain as Optimus was about to pull out the two sparklings when a sudden force hit him and made him drop the Decepticon medic's alt form, allowing him to drive through the ground bridge.

Optimus groaned in pain as he turned to see what had hit him and saw Breakdown stood a few meters away from him with a smoking missile canon.

"What's wrong, Prime? Gonna miss your precious sparklings? Because they're sparklings of the Decepticons now!" He laughed as he saw the two ex-wreckers approaching him and decided it was a good time to follow his partner through the bridge.

Bulkhead roared in anger and punched a nearby rock with his wrecking ball fists.

Two out of three of their charges had been taken by the Cons. And one happened to be one that Optimus was indeed very protective of.

Optimus' battle mask slid back and revealed a furious expression. His optics flashed slightly as he swore to himself he would get those sparklings- his sparklings- back, no matter what.

…..

On the Nemesis, Knock Out had been bridged straight to the helm where Megatron, Soundwave and Starscream were waiting. Soundwave and Starscream were not yet aware that the medic and his partner would be returning with sparklings.

Knock Out drove through carefully with Breakdown running through after him. The medic's door was quickly bent back into place by Breakdown before he could transform and when he did so he had s sparkling cradled in each arm, both were in a light recharge. The stress that had been placed on their systems had made them tired and they'd fallen asleep very easily.

Megatron smiled evilly when he laid his optics on the sparklings his medic held whilst Starscream and Soundwave were visibly shocked. Both went to stand right by Megatron's side as Knock Out approached their leader with the sparklings.

"Sparklings? Where did you find sparklings?" Starscream demanded.

"With the Autobots, it looked like they were repairing one of their ships and had lost track of these two," Breakdown answered.

"And honestly, I couldn't bear to see such young plating crawling around in all that dust. Wouldn't want to ruin such fine new plating," he purred as he stroked a digit across their faceplates. That alone was enough to wake them up from their light slumber.

Immediately, both looked at the Cons surrounding them and the room they were in. Both looked slightly confused until everything clicked in and they started to wail and struggle in the medic's arms. All the Decepticons present watched with smirks as the sparklings fought against Knock Out by punching him, but it was only when Miko turned around to face Knock Out to kick and push at his chest, her back facing Megatron, Starscream and Soundwave, that the three aforementioned Cons had their smirks wiped completely off their faces. Megatron's optics widened in shock, Soundwave was visibly taken back and Starscream smiled uncharacteristically as his wings twitched in excitement. Megatron and Soundwave looked at Soundwave before Megatron turned back to Knock Out with a smirk and took Miko into his own arms.

The Decepticon Lord lifted Miko up to his face and was shocked and pleased with her courageousness when she tried to bat at his face. He smiled as he brought her back down the rest against his chest where she continued to struggle the same way she had when Knock Out had been holding her.

"A seekerling," he smirked as Miko continued crying as she gave up on her attack against him, "I take it you would like to be the one caring for this particular sparkling, wouldn't you, Starscream?" Megatron asked with an evil grin as the seekerling now started biting one of his digits.

"Y-yes, Master," his wings quivered as he took the seekerling out of Megatron's hold. He could feel his protocols coming to life as he held her against his chest and began to rub soothing circles on her wing nubs. Miko settled instantly as he began doing this and slumped against him and listened to his surprisingly soothing spark beat.

Jack was still crying and had begun squealing and reaching out for Miko, not knowing what Starscream had done to her to make her quieten down that quickly.

"Knock Out, you will take care of the other one," Megatron decide, looking both sparklings over once more before turning back to what he was originally doing with Soundwave.

Starscream looked down at the tiny seekerling against his chest as he heard Breakdown teasing his partner about having to look after the sparkling. Meanwhile, he dismissed himself and returned to his quarters, still massaging the wing nubs carefully. He sat down on his berth carefully with his precious cargo.

"My little seekerling," he whispered as he leaned down to lightly kiss Miko on the head resulting in her whimpering. Starscream was now completely enthralled with her and there was nothing she could do about it.


	7. Chapter 7

Honestly, Miko had no idea how to react when she woke up in Starscream's spindly arms. In fact, she became increasingly worried when she looked up at him and saw that he was awake, his gaze fixed on her and a smile edging onto his scarred faceplates upon seeing her awake. The poor little femme decided that being an emotional wreck would feel quite nice considering the situation she was in.

Miko's optics began to tear up and her little lip plates quivered before she let loose an agonisingly adorable cry of complete dismay. Of course her agitated sparkling cries was not something Starscream wanted to hear from "his" precious young one. He immediately cradled her against him and stood up from his berth, beginning to stroll around his nicely sized personal quarters. Milo's cries were becoming louder though and that made Starscream's already long enough face become even longer with a monumental frown.

"Hush, my little seekerling," he cooed as he began massaging her wings to try and relax her. Unfortunately for him, Miko kept on crying as she thought about the consequences of being with the Decepticons.

Would she ever see Bulk again? Or Optimus? Or Raf, Arcee, Bumblebee and Ratchet? Agent Fowler and Mrs Darby? Her parents and her host parents? Her normal life?

Miko never thought she'd want to see her normal life ever again but here she was, in Starscream's arms as a Cybertronian sparkling. She was beginning to go into deep depressing thoughts but was shaken from them when Starscream began to speak to her.

"Come now," he lifted her up to look at her fully before bringing her back down the rest against his chest, "I'm not going to hurt you, little one. Now, what's your name, my seekerling?"

Miko, still not being capable of proper speech just stared at him with watery optics as he looked down at her.

"Opmus!" She demanded angrily.

"No, my dear spark. You are safer with me rather than those wretched Autobots," he ran a pointed claw down her soft faceplates, "Well, I guess you need a name then, don't you?"

He continued massaging her wing nubs as he thought of a name for her and smiled when he realised her cries had quietened down to sniffles. He sat down at his desk and turned on his computer terminal, he noticed that Miko had placed all of her attention onto it almost instantly making him smile. A thought came to his processor and he typed in a few commands bringing up some old sparkling shows that had been shown on Cybertron. Starscream honestly had no idea why these were on the system but he guessed it was just for historical documentation.

Miko, having never seen anything as strange as Cybertronian sparklings' shows was fully interested in the weird sight in front of her. She didn't know how long she'd been watching the show but by the time Starscream turned it off she had almost completely forgotten that she was on the Decepticon warship in the care of their second in command,.

Whilst she had been watching the show, Starscream had been looking at the colours on her little frame to see what sort of name he could give her. She was black with pink streaks, she was a seeker and she was a femme. Three things to consider. Suddenly an Earth material came to mind and for some reason it really seemed to suit her visual appearance and her personality.

"Hmm, how about Onyx, my little one?"

Miko had forgotten what Starscream was originally doing, so when he said this she tilted her head showing her confusion. Starscream chuckled.

"Yes, I think Onyx is a nice name for you," he stood up from his computer terminal and over to his energon storage compartment to get them both something to eat.

"Yeah its alright," Miko said in sparkling babble causing her new guardian to smile down at her.

"For spark's sake," Starscream activated his comm link, "Knock Out I thought I told you to put some sparkling mix in my quarters!"

—

"Sorry, Starscream. I've been busy looking after the other little monster," Knock Out growled down his comm link, "If you really want some then come and get it."

The medic hung up before he could hear Starscream's shriek of anger at being told to come and do it himself. But Knock Out couldn't give a single frag about anything right now. The sparkling had been awake all night, keeping him from recharging. He looked back at the little mech that was asleep in Breakdown's arms and rolled his optics; finally he didn't have to listen to the child's satanic cries. The little sparkling seemed to be quite a fast crawler as well, which made him kind of proud but that was besides the point, it only led to Knock Out feeling more exhausted.

The energetic mechling had been named Ryker and the thought of the name made the medic's chest push out a little.

Suddenly, there was a loud smash and Knock Out cringed hoping that Ryker would stay in recharge.

"Breakdown, what on Cybertron are you doing?"

"Sorry, Knocks, I wasn't looking where I was-"

A small squeak interrupted the big blue mech. Breakdown chuckled when he heard Knock Out groan in protest as he looked down at the wide opticed sparkling he held. His smiled widened when Ryker started babbling up at him.

"Dude, I'm hungry. Get me something to eat," obviously came out in sparkling talk so the bright blue opticed sparkling looked around until he saw any form of energon and began desperately reaching for it.

Luckily enough for him, while Breakdown had no clue what Ryker was doing, Knock Out smiled and understood straight away. The crimson medic walked over to one of the many storage units in his medbay and pulled out a sparkling bottle that he had already made up. He then walked back to Breakdown and held out the bottle for him to take.

"Knocks, you're gonna have to feed him. Megatron wants me to do something for him," Breakdown passed the mechling to his friend.

"For sparks sake, fine. Go," Knock Out growled as he took the sparkling into his own arms and placed the tip of the bottle near his mouth.

Luckily enough for the medic, sparkling Jack latched on straight away and began to suckle, enjoying the sweet energon that poured into his mouth. Knock Out actually smiled and watched as the sparkling continued to suckle until the bottle was empty. Knock Out took the bottle from his new charge and placed it to the side before lifting the sparkling against his shoulder and patting his back. Ryder let out a little burp and was once again cradled against the sports car's red chest plates.

The doors to the medbay opened and Starscream entered with a wiggling seekerling in his arms. He was trying to keep her still but was learning the hard way that Miko wasn't one to stay still for long periods of time.

"Onyx, calm down, I don't want to end up dropping you," he scolded lightly as he tightened his hold on her tiny frame.

"Ah, Herr Kommandant, here for the sparkling formula I presume?" Knock Out grinned at the trouble Starscream was having with the other sparkling. However, Knock Out's grin was wiped clean off of his face when he felt something warm and wet slip down his chest plates.

The well-groomed medic looked down to see that Ryker had spewed up his energon all over him and was now looking up at him innocently. Starscream released a laugh and even Onyx began to giggle at what her friend had done to the Decepticon medic.

"I guess I'll help myself then, Knock Out. It looks like you're going to have some cleaning up to do," Starscream cackled as he walked towards the same place Knock Out had gotten the sparkling bottle from.

He reached in an took out a fresh bottle, resulting in Miko holding her hands out to it expectantly. Starscream smiled and cradled her so she'd be more comfortable, then he lowered the bottle to her mouth so she could feed.

As Starscream fed Miko, Knock Out placed Jack on one of the medberths so that he could clean himself up.

"This is exactly why I didn't want to look after a sparkling. Ugh, for all I know, Megatron did this to me on purpose," Knock Out growled to himself.

Miko began laughing resulting in her sputtering energon onto the floor, luckily for Starscream. The adult seeker tried to place the tip of the bottle back into her mouth but she turned her head away, indicating that she'd had enough.

"As it seems you are incapable of preparing sparkling energon for their future meals, I may as well begin making some more while I'm here," Starscream sneered at the vain medic. The winged mech put Miko on the same berth as Jack and then walked off expecting Knock Out to keep them in his line of site.

Unfortunately, Starscream hadn't realised that Knock Out had entered a side room in the medbay and vice versa. That left two mischievous little sparklings able to do whatever they wanted. First things first, hug and have a little babble.

"Okay dude, we really need to get out of here and back to the bots," Miko told her friend.

"I agree, although they're being nice to us, I'm not completely comfortable with being cuddled by the cons…"

Miko nodded her head and flicked her wing nubs a little as she looked around the room. They'd already discovered that the both of them were decent climbers but not very fast crawlers. That meant they'd be unable to escape through the door as it would attract attention with the noise and they wouldn't be able to flee from the scene fast enough.

Miko grinned cheekily and her gold optics glowed when she spotted a vent right next to the berth they were on.

"Jack, look! We just need to pull the cover off and then we can climb through!"

"Great thinking, Miko! Come on, it'll take both of us to do it," he began crawling over to the vent with Miko following closely behind him.

They both reached the vent without attracting the attention of either of their guardians. Their little servos pulled and pulled until they heard creaking. Every so often they'd look back to see if Knock Out or Starscream were watching them. Eventually they managed to pull the cover off without creating too much noise. The duo smiled at each other victoriously before scampering off into the vents.

They didn't know where they were heading but they couldn't help but laugh out loud when they heard their guardians calling their "names" back in the medbay. The two sounded like they were mad with worry, probably because Megatron wouldn't be happy with them losing his two future elite warriors.

They continued crawling through the vents until they reached a dark room. It looked like someone's personal quarters but no one was in there so they figured they could hide in there for a while so that they could then progress to a ground bridge station. The two looked at how high up they were and realised they'd probably have to jump if they wanted to get in there.

They braced themselves as they pushed the cover off of this new vent. Their hands linked and they jumped but before they could land something grabbed them out of the air and held them in some sort of thin claws.

It was Lazerbeak, they were in Soundwave's quarters and now they could only guess that the symbiont was taking the two to his master.

"Soundwave means theres a ground bridge nearby though, right?" Miko tried.

Soon Lazerbeak had reached the helm and had dropped the little sparklings onto the surveillance officer's computer terminal. Said mech looked down at them through his visor causing them to whimper in fear. He prepared a couple of voice clip and compiled them together to speak to the little ones in front of him.

"Sparklings… must stay… with… guardians," Soundwave told them.

Miko and Jack looked at him defiantly as if to say "frag off". But their attention was quickly turned towards the door of the helm which opened for Megatron himself. Almost immediately, the Decepticon leader noticed the sparklings with his most trusted mechs and walked over to them.

"Now what are our two new additions doing without their guardians?" he sneered. He should have known Knock Out and Starscream were too incompetent to look after sparklings. Sparklings that couldn't even walk yet.

"No!" Miko squealed at him with an angry pout. She was quite annoyed that of all things, Lazerbeak found them and had taken them to the two big shots of the enemy faction.

"No what, seekerling," Megatron smirked. He seemed to like Miko, her fearlessness and courageousness was not something that was easily stumble across, "I don't think Starscream deserves the fun of getting to look after you, perhaps I'll take over your guardianship myself."

The door to the helm opened again but this time entered Starscream and Knock Out.

"My liege, I'm afraid we lost Onyx!" Starscream flicked his wings nervously.

"And Ryker!" Knock Out added on before looking at Soundwave and face palming.

"No!" Miko shouted and pointed at the two new mechs in the room.

Megatron smirked and picked Miko up and tightened his grip as she struggled against him. "So her name is Onyx, is it? It suits her, Starscream," his faceplates contorted into a growl, "If any of you lose one of these sparklings again, the payment is your empty spark chambers. These two will be trained when they are older to take over the roles that you so pathetically occupy."

Megatron then placed Onyx on the floor and allowed her to crawl away from him. Starscream took this as an opportunity to scoop up his little seekerling into his arms.

"Onyx, you must never run off like that again. Do you understand?"

"No!" she squealed at him causing Megatron to chuckle darkly.

"Leave," Megatron told them all making Knock Out pick up his charge and following Starscream and Onyx out of the room, "Soundwave, I want you to continue finding out how these sparklings came to be on Earth. They don't show any sign of relation to the Autobots."

Soundwave nodded and began typing at his super speed pace while Megatron went through reports.

"Hmph, the Autobots won't know what to expect when they find out about the Decepticons becoming their adoptive creators," Megatron smirked evilly. He knew Starscream would follow the plan but he was unsure of Knock Out. After all, it involved creating permanent spark links...


End file.
