Trials of a Seeker - tfanonkink - Ironhide/Will/Ratchet, part 5

[sorciere]

Original request is here: http://community.livejournal.com/tfanonkink/491.html?thread=792299#t792299 – Seeker!Will, car fetish, Seeker libido, more humour and plot than smut, and my general fail at writing anything above PG-13.

Title as suggested by requester: Trials of a Seeker
Rating: R
Pairing: Eventual Ironhide/Will/Ratchet, as things are looking now.
Summary: Will gets turned into a Seeker. Things go downhill from there.

 

Being a medic and having access to the internet had left Ratchet with a passable knowledge of human religions. He was never the most religious of mechs but he had seen countless patients pass through his hands and the majority had been quite a lot more religious than Ratchet himself had been. Humans, he had found, were no different, and while most things regarding them were handled by the human medics on base, there had been occasions where Ratchet had stepped in. His size had been a problem at times but that minor issue had been outweighed by whatever other issues had brought the human to him in the first place. Sam, for one, had admitted the second time he showed up for medical attention that he had already spent enough time in the human infirmary, and the fourth time that after what he went through at the hands of the small Decepticon doctor, Ratchet's far larger build was a comfort. Mikaela, for another, simply seemed fascinated with watching him at work, even when her injuries were the ones he was working on.

Ratchet had his Cybertronian patients and his regular human ones as well and so he had eventually spent a little spare time researching what he was actually dealing with beyond the mere physical aspect in an attempt to understand their small, fragile allies better... and against all logic, it was a fragment of a passage in one of those religious records that now whispered through this processors and made him stare at his tools with dim optics without truly seeing them as he waited for the human bond-mate of William Lennox to appear.

Physician, that voice quietly taunted in a voice that sounded uncomfortably like Starscream's distinct vocaliser, heal thyself.

It had been easy to forget, so long ago. Civil unrest had turned into open war, he had been newly-promoted Chief Medical Officer for a hospital that had little to no experience with all-out wartime emergencies, and by the time they had been forced into an effective, experienced medical unit, he had already begun to adapt again. He had earned a reputation for being short-tempered, for having an aim with a wrench that could drop a mech with painful accuracy if they made too much of a pest of themselves, and that had stayed with him even as the effects of Seeker-adapted programming faded and his temper cooled, even if it never vanished completely. The programming that allowed him to adapt was the same that ensured that it would happen without demanding overly much of his attention – he was aware of it if he really focused on it but for the most part it simply happened and wasn't much different from simply choosing to behave in a different way than he used to.

He had never minded. Most medics carried the programming because it made them that much better at their duty and for the most part, it meant only minor changes to their personality. It didn't rewrite who they were but simply allowed specific aspects of their personalities to strengthen as was needed – Seeker-influenced programming born from the unusual amount of time Ratchet had spent with them had been in the more extreme end of things, but hadn't shown something that hadn't already been there; temper, dominant mannerisms, and ego included. Once he had left them, that set of changes had eventually gone dormant but with the Autobots being as varied of a group as they were and it being a wartime hospital, no proper new set had emerged to take its place and so it had remained – dormant and all but forgotten but still very much capable of being triggered again with the right influence... such as, for instance, a newly-onlined Seeker that ran on little more than basic programming and understood only the most straight-forward of instructions.

If their human-turned-Seeker truly had a list of issues to bring up with Primus, Ratchet was quickly finding entries of his own to add to that. That adaptable programming was not particular about what it did. It did not pick and choose what it felt was needed. Programming came as a packaged deal, with some sections of programming feeding on themselves and other lines and sections to create something new entirely and to pick out only certain parts to mirror was likely to do more harm than good in the long run. It wasn't as strong as what it based itself on, would never even approach it, but it was still there, for better or for worse, and what had made sense for a Seeker-trained medic in a pre-War world wasn't always welcome in an Autobot CMO, wartime or not.

Seeker temper, for one. Seeker-ego. A Seeker's strong view of kin, their drive to claim someone strong and competent and dangerous for mate or interface partner...

... And the painful, unwanted, treacherous bit of programming that reminded him that Starscream as Air Commander had rule of all who were of Seeker-kin and Seeker-programming, and that included the ground-pounders that had lived with them, whatever their build or function or faction.

Hatchet, that voice mocked again, low and compelling and nauseating. Flightless, Seeker-trained, half-kin traitor. An Autobot medic with the bedside manners of a Decepticon. What right do you have to keep a Seeker from its proper place? Too weak and cowardly to be kin and too addicted to let go? Medic, fix yourself.

It wasn't Starscream, of course, was nothing more than his own nagging programming letting its disgust be known, and he forced it aside and strengthened the shields that kept the bond between himself and their recharging Seeker contained. And maybe that was why he had been so distracted that he didn't notice the human appear in the door, small alerts in his processors easily drowned out by far heavier programming that demanded his attention, and it wasn't until she knocked hard on the door frame and the sound of approaching footsteps followed without waiting for a response that he realised he was no longer alone in the room.

The footsteps stopped and blue optics returned to their normal intensity as they focused on her, and it also wasn't until then that he realised how little he had actually been in contact with her, even before their Seeker-related situation had begun. Unlike Mikaela, she wasn't part of NEST and her only connection to them was through the husband who had fought at their side since before that alliance had ever even been made official. She was passably familiar with Ironhide and less so with the rest of them, and only now, watching the small human female, did Ratchet realise how little he truly knew about her and how much of a task he had ahead of him with her Seeker-husband so determined to keep her.

Human watched medic watched human and finally she broke the silence, arms wrapped around herself in what Ratchet recognised as a gesture of uncertainty in her kind. "Where is Will?"

"In recharge," Ratchet responded, still watching the small human. She was alone, her sparkling presumably in recharge as well or in the care of someone trusted, but while what he knew of human body language showed uncertainty, there had been no hesitation in her footsteps and the knocks on the door had been strong and firm. Uncertain, perhaps, but not weak. Never weak, if a Seeker had chosen her for a mate.

She nodded slightly in acknowledgement and presumably to let him know she understood what he was talking about, Cybertronian-influenced terms or not. "Bumblebee said you wanted to see me."

Not quite a question, not giving any indication of whether or not she had any idea of why she had been summoned – even if Ratchet strongly suspected she knew it was about more than a mere medical check-up, judging from her mannerisms – and he wondered fleetingly just how much she had learned from her husband. It could have been written off as nothing but uneasiness about the whole situation, uncertainty about how to handle it all and still being unsettled by the presence of alien beings, but he couldn't shake the suspicion that there was more. He had summoned her, not the other way around, and now she was waiting for him to make that first move rather than give up any advantage she might have. She was used to keeping secrets, he realised. Too used to it, perhaps, if she was unwilling to trust even them... or used enough to the workings of the military that she wasn't going to believe they had William's best interests at heart until she had seen proof herself, allies or not.

Suddenly curious as to just how much of a match for her husband she was, he held down his hand in a silent offer to lift her up and she hesitated for a second before she accepted – not out of fear but of simple caution, if her expression was anything to go by, and he put her gently on the Cybertronian-sized table as he responded to her not-quite-question.

"You felt it when Will scanned for you. I simply wish to make sure no harm came to you from it. His Seeker half can be a bit too enthusiastic at times and doesn't always remember that humans are a fragile species when compared to us."

"Like the Twins?" Calm, neutral – mild, even – and she continued before he had the chance to respond to that one, changing the subject with an ease that he was certain came from practice. "I didn't feel much when Will scanned for me. Until Bumblebee asked me if I'd felt anything, I thought it was my mind playing tricks on me. He didn't mean anything bad with it, I could feel that much when I think about it, he just couldn't sense me and was worried about where I was at. Nothing happened. I feel just the same as I did before."

She was different from Mikaela or Sam or the NEST personnel that Ratchet came into contact with – be it by current circumstances or simply a matter of a very different kind of personality, and personally he suspected it to be a combination of both – and he adjusted his own approach accordingly, sensing her out as much as he knew she did to him in turn.

"He meant no harm," Ratchet agreed, "but he is still unfamiliar with his abilities and by all rights, he should not have been able to do what he did. Bumblebee can pinpoint his charges' location but they carry an implant to enable that in the first place."

Sarah Lennox stayed silent at that – Mikaela, Ratchet couldn't help but note, would have asked a dozen questions already – and the medic waited for another second for a possible response before he held up a scanner. "With your permission?"

The human nodded – not suspicious enough to ask for further details about what, exactly, he would be doing, and that was a beginning, at least – and he let the scanner run through its battery of tests aimed at humans. It was significantly slower than it would have been to simply hook up to another mech's diagnostics systems but still fast to a human, and she blinked in surprise when the small instrument emitted a soft sound and Ratchet lowered it again to look at the results.

Glyphs scrolled by and a whole range of perfectly average readings was all he had to show for his efforts long moments later. Normal readings. Utterly normal, at that – not even what they had learned to consider a normal baseline reading for the NEST personnel stationed on base with them – and Ratchet wasn't sure if he should have been surprised. After how strongly the Seeker had felt about claiming her... there was the feeling that there should have been something there. Something to set her apart and mark her as something more than a plain, normal female specimen of the human species.

He turned his attention to the human again, not willing to draw any final conclusions just yet. "Have you had any physical symptoms? Headaches, nausea, a higher than normal core temperature?" No to the third one, the scanner had already told him as much, but that was only a here-and-now result and it had been...

... not that long at all since the Seeker's scan of her. He was being ridiculous, Ratchet realised, and he knew it, too, and did what he could to suppress a sigh aimed at himself as the human female shook her head.

"No. There was nothing out of the ordinary in those results, was there?"

And if he had listened to the words alone, it could have been taken as concern or an honest question but the voice more than suggested that she knew the answer already and wasn't in the least surprised by it.

"Nothing that I could find," Ratchet allowed and drew the first genuine response from his human patient as she snorted softly.

"'That you could find'," she repeated. "He's my husband, Ratchet. I know you think he's something big and dangerous and unstable, and maybe he is, but he's still my husband and you weren't there to see it when you people finally let me talk to him without a security detail to watch his every move. He was terrified of hurting me."

Her hands dropped and she took a step closer and if she had been Cybertronian, Ratchet knew her optics would have been glowing bright in anger. Human eyes weren't capable of the same but her expression and voice carried over her anger just fine as it was, though.

"So maybe he has wings," she continued, hard and biting and unrelenting. "So maybe he looks like the jet-things you spend so much time trying to shoot out of the sky. If you people are so highly evolved and we're so primitive, then why are you the ones judging him on how he looks? He has blue eyes and that stupid insignia you all wear. Isn't that good enough? Why's Bobby the one who looked like Christmas had arrived early when you finally decided to let Will be around humans again? Why's their team the ones that can't wait to see what he can do with that stupid test flight dummy you have Mikaela working on? I don't care what he looks like, Ratchet. He's still my husband and the father of my child and I'll fight for him if I have to."

And judging by the Seeker's strong response to her, that feeling was mutual, but Ratchet wasn't about to offer any encouragements of that sort at the moment, and if had been Ironhide reacting so strongly, he would have believed it to be a result of his bond with the Seeker. Sarah Lennox was human, though, which made her response entirely her own and Ratchet wasn't sure if that was any comfort. Explaining Seeker-behaviour to people unfamiliar with them had proven enough of a pain as it was. Explaining it to someone who was already well past angry and fast moving on to furious...

"Judgement based on appearances has very little to do with it," Ratchet said, processors already fast at work to find a way to explain it without making the situation any worse. "He is a Seeker. Whatever else he has been – and might indeed still be – he is a Seeker, with Seeker programming and Seeker behaviour and Cybertronians know this. He is possessive, temperamental, and irrational and nothing he or anyone else can do will change that. At best, he can keep it at a reasonable level. Our core programming is what we are, Sarah Lennox, and in the end, there is nothing we can do to change it. It will always be who we are at our core, however much we might fight it. Yes, part of him is still your husband but the rest of him is very much not."

Silence. The human female watched him with narrowed eyes and clearly considered just how much of his explanation she was willing to accept or even believe, and then she crossed her arms in a classic gesture of defiance that Ratchet was very well acquainted with after continued exposure to the younger of their human allies.

"Then I'll just get to know him again, now won't I?" It wasn't a question, either, and she continued before Ratchet could get any sort of word in. "For all of the few times you've let me seen him, I've never felt anything but safe with him, which is more than I can say about some of the rest of you. You have the Twins running around out there, acting like a pair of six-year-olds brought up by rabid wolverines. What do you think would happen if they hit a human on accident when they were fighting each other? What do you think would happen if that-that two-wheeled, bladed menace forgot to pay attention to where he was going? The only difference between Will and them is that he looks like a Decepticon and you're all so used to the rest of the walking disaster zones here on base that you don't even notice them anymore. I would trust him with Annabelle, programming be damned, and that's all that matters to me."

"Impressive as it sounds," Ratchet responded in a firm, quiet voice, "he is still a Seeker and your species has no experience with the breed. You have no knowledge of what they are. I commend you for your loyalty, Sarah Lennox, but you are making promises based on insufficient knowledge."

She watched him for a moment and clearly considered his words, much to Ratchet's silent relief, and then cold reason seemed to win out over raw anger as she narrowed her eyes slightly but kept her voice even.

"Then tell me what I'm dealing with. Bobby knows about as much as I do, Sam knows even less, Ironhide won't tell me anything without your permission, and Seeker or not, that man is my husband, and I can't learn a damn thing about him if you're not talking and he's terrified of hurting me."

There was the brief thought of being gentle with her but it was gone again from Ratchet's processors almost as soon as it had appeared. He could see what the Seeker saw in her. She was loyal, she was dedicated, and she was willing to go far to protect and keep the people she considered kin. A true Seeker without that human part in it would never have made a claim on her, being organic and all, but from that Seeker-human perspective, Ratchet could see what they saw that made them so fiercely determined to keep her.

He could try and ease her into understanding, try the gentle explanations as a first attempt, but if she meant what she said, he would do all of them a disfavour if he chose that course of action. She was loyal, she was relentless, and she was strong. If the Seeker intended to claim her, she would have to be. Seekers valued strength above all else, in themselves and their mates, and a human female would be no exception to that. She was strong because she would have to be and to coddle her now would do none of them any good at all.

"He is a Seeker," Ratchet finally said. "As it is, he is about as normal as he will ever be, but there is no guarantee that he will remain like that. Seeker programming might resurface to a stronger degree at a later time. As it is, he thinks himself above mere ground-pounders, he considers himself invincible, he is temperamental and possessive and will take no order that is not reinforced by a threat of violence, implied or otherwise."

It had been as much a test as the beginning of an explanation and Ratchet watched Sarah Lennox's reaction closely as he allowed her to consider those words. The muscles in her shoulders tensed slightly and her hands gripped her arms almost imperceptibly harder but the look she had levelled on him didn't waver. "Ironhide told me that the Seeker sees Annabelle as its...its sparkling."

He recognised the hesitation as the unfamiliarity with a new word that it was and he nodded.

"Its offspring. You carried her but Will contributed to her creation, so to speak. As a result, the Seeker considers Annabelle its sparkling as well. Seekers may be Decepticon by nature but they have very strong programming in regards to sparklings – their own as well as others'. I have no doubt that Will would give his life to keep your offspring safe. Understand that the Seeker would do no less." He paused, then continued in a dry voice. "I believe she will find the concept of 'dating' rather difficult to carry out with something as protective as a Seeker watching over her."

Sarah Lennox's snort at that told quite clearly that it wasn't something she was going to lose the slightest bit of sleep over and the words that followed confirmed that. "And that's bad? I've got enough in Will giving me grey hair. I don't need a teenage daughter dating bad boys to add to that." Her eyes narrowed a bit more and for a moment, Ratchet felt like nothing as much as a particularly displeasing experiment under a microscope. "And you're avoiding the topic. What aren't you telling me?"

Seeker-mate, indeed, and Ratchet's intakes vented softly in an approximation of a human sigh. "It has claimed you for a mate. We assumed you to be their bonded – a strong connection of friendship and kinship, but nothing more – but it... disagreed with that. Will still considers you his wife and I suspect that this is what made the Seeker part decide you were a mate rather than a platonic bonded, but I doubt we will ever know for sure. They have claimed you for a mate, Sarah Lennox, and this is not necessarily a good thing."

"Explain." Short, chipped – so very much like her husband in a bad mood in that moment that it made Ratchet's spark twist painfully, and then he pushed those emotions aside and focused on the conversation.

"You are obviously aware of the... physical issue already. Seekers are possessive. If you kept away from it, with an ocean or a continent between you if at all possible, there would be some hope that it would only infrequently seek you out to ensure that you and your offspring were well. You would be able to have some approximation of a normal life. As a widow at first and later on with a new husband, if that was what you wished, but outside of the rare, occasional visits from Will and the Seeker, you would be able to regain somewhat of a normal life again. If you remain in even moderately close proximity to it, it will uphold its claim on you. Any non-platonic interest anyone may show in you would be punished swiftly by it, be it from a human or a Cybertronian. They are violent and possessive and do not tolerate what they see as inferior beings showing interest in what is theirs."

The human female pursed her lips in clear displeasure but didn't say anything and Ratchet pressed on. "It is unlikely we could make it change its mind about you as its mate and even if we did, there would be the very real risk that it would still take an interest in any future relationships of yours. That is your choice, Sarah Lennox. They are violent and possessive and do not easily relinquish a claim on anything again, mates least of all. Seekers mate for life. If you stay near them – if you accept their claim – you will never be able to have another non-platonic relationship, physical or otherwise, without the very real risk that the Seeker will find out and take appropriate action. The appropriate punishment in their culture of anyone non-Seeker initiating that sort of contact with a claimed mate is offlining. Immediate offlining, if the offending ground-pounder was lucky, which was not always the case. In more human terms, if you ever initiated intimate physical contact with another being again, it would be far more merciful to simply take a gun to them yourself."

"And you think I've been taking men to my bed left and right while Will's been out here fighting at your side?" Low, quiet – deadly quiet – and if Ratchet had still had any doubts left about the Seeker's reasons, that vanished the last of them.

Seeker-mate, he realised, right down to the strength, the temper, the loyalty, and the utter lack of reason they were capable of when something offended them, imagined or otherwise.

And just like that, he knew, the issue was settled. There were still explanations to finish, but there wasn't any doubt left about the outcome. Not anymore.

"No," he responded calmly and resolved to handle that issue before it could go any further. "An impressive jump of logic, granted, but not what I implied. If Will had truly died, you would have grieved but presumably, eventually, have married again. Humans are a social species and he would have wanted you to be happy."

Slightly mollified, some of the tensions in the female's shoulders eased and the anger in her eyes faded marginally. "But he's not dead. I don't care what he is, Ratchet. He's still my husband. Yes, I liked the way he looked as a human but I didn't marry him just because he was attractive. I married him because I loved him enough to accept that he spent months at a time in some hellhole somewhere and that he might die there, too, because that was who he was and I knew that when I said 'I do'. Do you think I would have left him if he came home in a wheelchair? If he'd never be able to walk again? And don't answer that because frankly, I don't want to know."

Silence. It was a lost argument, Ratchet knew, and while he knew that a good part of her anger was due to having to keep those emotions locked up since that fatal battle as well as an almost complete lack of information offered, it didn't make it any easier.

It also didn't change the fact that there were still a few more issues to cover.

"Seekers are not monogamous," he continued. "He will claim mates among the mechs here, however much he might deny you the right to see others."

The anger in her eyes flared again before it was reined back in with visible effort.

"Then we'll deal with that, too. I don't care, Ratchet. I don't care what he looks like, I don't care what his programming is, and I don't care in the slightest what you think. He is my husband and I won't leave him. Learn to live with that because I intend to." One, two steps, and she released her tight grip on herself to gesture at the door. "Now put me down again. Our daughter needs me. It's past her bedtime and Bobby tends to forget that. If you want to insult me some more, we can take round two tomorrow. Floor. Now."

Too stunned to be much aware of what he was doing, Ratchet moved on habit alone as he gently placed the human on the ground again and watched her stalk off... and only then did he realise how perfectly her demands had hit his Seeker-affected bits of programming, however unintended it might have been.

She was small, she was human, she was fragile, she was short-lived, but she cared no less for William Lennox than Ironhide did, in her own, human way. Ironhide had proven his sincerity in the code to his spark-cage that now lay nestled around Ratchet's own spark; one transmission all that would be needed to leave him as vulnerable than any sparkling. She had been willing to swear off any close, physical human contact for the rest of their lifetime if that was what was necessary to keep him.

Ratchet wasn't certain that either of them truly knew what they had offered but then, there was little he could do about that. Time would tell and in the end, whatever the Decepticons had planned might make the point moot regardless. He had done what he could for now. He might possibly take Sarah Lennox up on her offer of a round two later but for now, he was quickly developing a processor ache, and with one last look at the empty doorway, he shook his head and went to close the door for the night.

Recharge beckoned and he wasn't about to fight it.

--------------------
 

Dawn broke one hundred and sixty miles above Diego Garcia the following morning, white and cold and blinding, to burn away the dark of night and send thermometers slowly inching upwards again so many, many miles below on the flat, little island that wouldn't see actual sunlight for a good while yet. If he dropped fast enough, Will knew, he could easily catch up with it – race the sunrise, slide from light and to the shadow of almost-dawn and outrun it all – but it was an idle thought and forgotten a moment later as flawless expanses of alien metal moved in the thin air and made his wings and the glass of his cockpit shine with a cold intensity that stunned him.

He knew the theory, of course. He could access the internet. There was more than he had ever wanted to know about the atmosphere of their little home planet – or any planet, for that matter – but he was a Seeker now and Ratchet had been firm about it. If he was going to be let loose, he had slagging well better know what he was doing, and Will had agreed because there was little else he could do.

It was cold, it was bright, it was hostile, and space above was impossibly dark, and nothing in the massive bundles of data he'd gotten to sort through had prepared him at all for it. It was forty miles further up than he had ever been before and as optics adjusted and engines sang, there was nothing but the sheer joy of it all and the knowledge that this realm was indisputably his.

Satellites and a space station somewhere above him, humanity and ground-pounders left somewhere far below him, and even the thought of Soundwave up there, keeping an optic on him, didn't particularly bother his mood this morning.

The Seeker paused at the thought of that particular 'Con, a flicker of interest at the thought of something as strange as the communications officer, and Will strongly suspected that it was the wings more than anything that caused the interest.

A surge of temptation, the sudden urge to head straight up and find the dark 'Con against the background of space and stars and infinitely small flickers from satellites, challenge the flier-that-wasn't to keep up with a real Seeker without the use of pathetic, worthless Earth-based technology, but it was gone again a moment later as the Seeker was once more distracted by the sky above them.

Their headache, processor-ache, whatever it had been was long gone and all that had been left when they had come out of recharge had been the increasingly familiar instinct to fly. There was the nagging, vague feeling of too much energy slowly building again as well but it was still faint enough not to bother him and he was determined to ignore it for at least a little while – a moment of quiet before he got the joy of sorting that little headache out again. He had ignored the energy build-up, blocked any non-Autobot frequencies to keep Starscream from getting any ideas, and the Seeker hadn't even objected to any of it but just offered a content purr at the freedom of the sky.

It had still been dark when he had come out of recharge, it had stayed dark as they'd refuelled and taken off and it hadn't been until they were well into their steep climb that the sky had turned rapidly from darkness to dawn and then to sudden, blinding sunrise with a speed that had surprised him.

It was cold, it was bright, it was silent, but they weren't alone, not completely. Ratchet was watching, Will knew – the medic had been up by the time they were ready to take off and they had alerted him through their bond so he could keep an eye on things and not tear into them later for being reckless and impulsive. Ratchet was watching, Soundwave was watching, and the Seeker half couldn't resist the temptation and threw them into a sharp roll before it settled back into their usual, steady course again.

Showing off, Will had quickly realised, was a big part of Seeker culture and the Seeker's gleeful roll had reminded him of Ratchet's words now that his brain could focus on something other than stretching his wings again.

Is that what a mating flight is? he asked. Showing off?

He'd gotten more than a few mental images of peacocks waving their tail-feathers around and maybe it wasn't that far from the truth, everything considered. He didn't have feathers, true, but he did have wings and the Seeker did have a border-line unhealthy fascination with proving its superiority in the air.

Pride. Claiming. We show skills so our claim will not be challenged, the Seeker murmured and sure, it didn't have much actual experience to draw on but he got some pretty clear images of what it wanted, anyway. They had shown off a bit before. This wouldn't be that much different, just... a bit closer to ground, maybe. Close enough that the intended mate could actually see it... the intended mate and everyone else, for that matter. Why have to re-stake a claim repeatedly when you could just make sure to do it right the first time around?

Some of it came instinctively, some of it he was still unsure of at best, and he didn't want to think about how lost about the whole thing he would have been without their CMO around to fill in the blanks for him. The Seeker, however much it might be evolving, still had only basic programming to lean on. The rest had to be taught and Ratchet was, apparently, the only non-Decepticon mech around with any clue about what was going on... and even then, he could only explain and describe. He couldn't actually take to the sky and show how it was done, like a Seeker could have.

Then again, he knew what it was supposed to look like, didn't he? He knew enough about the bird-brains that he'd probably seen it at least a few times, what with their tendency to show off at the drop of a hat.

We prove superiority, the Seeker huffed, but for the first time Will got the impression that it was meant in good fun more than anything and not actually intended to be taken seriously. It was another reminder that whatever thing it was that he shared his brain with, it was learning, and learning fast, and a moment later he felt a flicker of smug amusement before they turned sharply in a half-loop and headed back towards the island again before they got too far out.

It felt strangely normal on some level. It probably shouldn't, with such a big change and such a short amount of time to adapt in, but maybe that was the Seeker at play, or programming, and it probably didn't matter that much as it wasn't like Will could do that much about it, anyway.

It felt strangely normal and still strangely not, with the constant presence of the bond with Ratchet in the back of his mind as he got used to it. The bond with Ironhide was there, too, but they were used to that, had made it a part of themselves, and now their focus was on the new bond and the small but distinct differences between it and the one with Ironhide. Both strong, both unrelenting, but the feel was different - cool against hot, and pliant against unyielding, however unbreakable both of them were. The need to claim dominance, to submit, to fight with Ironhide and... something else with Ratchet. If he had been human, maybe he would have used some kind of friendship to describe it but Seekers didn't have a word for that and so he settled for what the Seeker already called him - their kin, their bonded, and what he knew was a likely future mate to join the mech that the Seeker had already claimed.

Mate, the Seeker objected in response to anything but utter certainty of their future claiming of the medic, and when he hesitated, he felt it frown instead. You like. We like. We claim.

Flickers of memories, of the heating fans that had started on accord of Will, of the raw need for the human-like, gentle kind of physical touch that was so unfamiliar to Cybertronians and which only Ratchet had shown him so far, and still Will hesitated.

He was still tempted to argue that their resident terror of a medic was just a friend, Seeker-appropriate term or not, but then, it wasn't even true. Normal friends didn't do the Cybertronian version of the Vulcan mind meld, and normal friends did not ask for interfacing instructions unless they were the type of friends that came with some very intimate benefits. Ironhide was easy to put into a mental box - mate, future interface partner, need and desire and trust and want in the raw kind of way that characterised everything about his Seeker half - but Ratchet wasn't. Ratchet was something different and it was evidence of how much of his brain that had gotten tangled up in Seeker issues that it took him long seconds to recognise it for what it was - a strange kind of half-human, half-Seeker based attraction that drew as much from the human side as from the Seeker one.

Compromise, the Seeker explained with unusual patience as the penny finally dropped. We claim.

'We', Will realised a half-second later. It wasn't just randomly going after someone who happened to be able to kick its aft. It had put actual thought into it and had enough of a functioning sense of... whatever passed for logic with a Seeker that since it got to claim Ironhide, then Will should get to decide on the second mate and had based its suggestion on the only time it had seen Will react to anyone, rather than just be dragged along for the ride.

It could have gone after Optimus Prime but hadn't, because the mech wasn't even on the list of mates that Will would as much as reluctantly consider, and instead it had chosen a weaker potential mate because that was the one that the human side had reacted to and it had gotten enough of a sense of compromise and fear of Ratchet hammered into it that it was willing to go along with that in return.

It liked Ratchet, Will could tell as much – it respected the medic's ability to put it in its place and take control, and the sheer stubbornness it would have taken to survive as a medic for so long in a war as violent and brutal as that – but when it came down to it, its choice would have been Optimus Prime for status and strength and sheer, overwhelming power and it had chosen against it for the sole reason that Will would not have agreed.

Compromise, the Seeker repeated. They are bonded. Bonded are good mates. We claim.

Will was about to argue but the words died before he could even complete them, some objection or another that evaded him before he could grasp it, and it didn't even matter because he also realised with sudden, Seeker-sparked clarity that the argument had already been settled. He had asked for instructions in whatever passed for sex for Cybertronians, he'd followed up on that with a bond he'd suggested and agreed to and completed of his own, free will, and the rest... it was a formality, nothing more. Bonded and a very likely future interface partner...

The conclusion that followed made him groan and however much he suspected he really didn't want to hear the answer, he asked the question, anyway.

Does Ratchet know he's already a mate?

Bemusement followed from the Seeker – Ratchet knew Seeker-programming, Ratchet knew Seeker culture, so of course he would know about this, too – and only the fact that Will was in his alt-mode kept him from facepalming at that.

Right. Claim the medic for a mate without asking and assume he knew what he was getting into by agreeing to the bond, and maybe he did and maybe he didn't and frag it all to the Pit, but life had been so much easier as a human.

Waiting wasn't going to do any of them any good, and the Seeker obviously wasn't about to ask, so Will mentally steeled himself and cautiously poked the bond with Ratchet. Maybe he still had slagtastic control and maybe they would end up with Ironhide being an unwilling audience to the whole thing, but at least they got the added advantage of emotions and not just voice-only as the comm-link offered.

Will?

Something stirred in the back of his mind when Ratchet responded, a nagging drive to claim before someone else was stupid and suicidal enough to try and steal the medic away from his rightful Seeker mate, and Will didn't even try to hide it. There was curiosity from Ratchet, an unspoken question, and Will just pointed a mental finger at the currently offending bit of Seeker programming and let Ratchet work out the rest. He probably knew more about the stuff than Will did, anyway.

I'm sorry, he added with a sigh. I had no idea.

It took less than a second for Ratchet to do the math and Will wasn't sure it if was a good or a bad thing that the first emotion that followed was honest-to-Primus amusement.

Ah. I had forgotten about that part of it. You have nothing to apologise for. I should have warned you about it, I had simply forgotten about that particular part of their programming. They can have a very simplistic world-view at times and your Seeker is younger than most. The amusement faded a bit but still lingered and brushed aside the fear-dread-worry that had accompanied Will's discovery. It had already shown its interest in me. Among Seekers, the step from an attractive bonded you would like to interface with and to mate is very, very small. It could have been a problem if I had had an interface partner your Seeker would not have agreed with but we are all well aware of how attracted it is to Ironhide.

The Seeker offered a feeling of silent agreement – mates who had already bonded among themselves were a far stronger match than mates that had not – and then it settled down again with a pleased impression and wrapped its presence around both of the bonds in an equally silent claim of ownership.

Ratchet undoubtedly felt it but didn't remark on it as he continued.

The main question here is you, Will. We already know that your Seeker would in no way object to claiming another mate. The question that remains is you.

A silent alert let him know that he was getting close to the outer limit he had set for himself and he executed another sharp roll and felt g-forces make the world spin before they settled down again to circle the island far, far below in a lazy corkscrew pattern. He was evading the question, if just a little bit, and he knew it and sighed before he finally continued.

Me, the human, still has a problem seeing mechs as attractive on a physical level past the wicked weapons and the paint-jobs. My brain still thinks I'm human for the most part and that's not even getting into the fact that I still consider myself married and the thought of actual interfacing makes me worry about cheating on Sarah, however much I know that I'll end up trying it sooner or later. That said... he paused and shrugged mentally and hoped the emotion carried across to the medic. It took me a while to figure out but you're a lot more physical than the rest of the 'Bots around. I know you all like to rough-house and all and maybe it's a medic thing, but with you, it feels human. Actual physical contact of the nice kind. Maybe I'm a Seeker now but there's still some human parts left in there and as it turns out, I need those human things just as much as I did before.

And for a mate?

Will paused, wondered for a second how to actually put it, and then decided to settle for plain, normal and straight-forward. We're already bonded and I'd twitch at the thought of interfacing whether we were mates or not. Yeah, I know you can't just break a bond or kick out a mate again if you change your mind but I doubt I will. I trust you, I like you... if you're willing to deal with a pissy-aft, irrational piece of scrap metal, then I'm willing to give it a go. We're mostly there as it is, anyway.

How very romantic, Ratchet drawled silently and let enough emotions through that Will could pick up on the dry, amused sarcasm even if the voice hadn't told him all he needed. We may have to record this as a textbook example of the proper wooing of a bondmate.

I'm an Army grunt, Will snorted. And the first mate the Seeker and I could agree on was Ironhide. All the wooing you need to do there involves a trip to the shooting range and an offer to polish his cannons.

Or him making enough of a pest of himself that I decided to remind him of the natural order of life in the infirmary, Ratchet said dryly. To which his response was to let his cooling fans show me just how much he enjoyed that part of it. You're right. With that for a role model, I suppose it could be a lot worse.

The bond and Will's processors settled into comfortable silence as Ratchet let him consider that, and then he brushed against their connection again with a soundless sigh.

So what am I supposed to do now? Court the both of you? The Seeker doesn't know much more about mating flights than I do, Ratchet. It knows how to show off just fine but that's about it. I know we look like a Seeker and have that basic programming going on but we're still lost when it gets more complicated than 'fly' and 'mine' and 'mate'.

And even that was pushing it sometimes but that was mostly the Seeker getting used to the brave new world around it and Will couldn't blame it. He was lost enough when it came to his new body and the programming that came with it. What the Seeker was dealing with in getting used to an actual, physical world, he couldn't even begin to imagine. All in all, he figured, they were doing a pretty damn spectacular job with what they had to work with.

The offer of instructions stands, Ratchet replied. Extending that offer to include instructions in what I can teach you about Seeker culture and way of life would probably benefit all of us. I can't fly but I can still share what I learned from observing, mating flights and all included. Ideally, you would have a Seeker to teach you but...

But it was war and a ground-bound medic with a bit of experience in Seeker-matters was the best they could do and both Will and Ratchet knew that, too. Even the Seeker part of him didn't argue but settled for silent agreement and let Will convey their decision.

I'll have to learn, to all of the above, but not now. I know I'm mostly a Seeker now, anyway, but I don't want to give it any more of a hold on me right now than I need to. Not with Starscream out there looking to take advantage of it. I need the mating flight because I need to make sure we claim Ironhide right so there isn't going to be any kind of doubt that the 'Cons could exploit but the rest can wait. It'll have to.

Of course, there was also the very real risk that it wasn't going to be an issue after meeting the 'Cons on the account of him most likely being dead but then it wouldn't be a headache, anyway, so it wasn't something he was going to worry much about now. There were plenty of other issues to demand his attention. Ratchet had probably picked up on that, too – Will, despite the best of his efforts, still had more than a few issues with consistently shielding one bond and never mind two of the damn things – but he didn't comment on it and instead just sent an impression of hesitant agreement through the bond.

A very uncharacteristic hesitation at that but it made sense with the words that followed, careful and measured as he clearly kept a close eye or ear or spark or whatever on Will's reaction.

I wouldn't normally suggest it but Ironhide needs lessons almost as much as you do and the fact remains that he is not a stranger in my berth. If you are willing to go along with it without retreating to let your Seeker part take over, there may be a way to handle most of those problems, courtships included.

Images followed – of Ratchet's murmured instructions across their bond as they defied every law of gravity and physics, of the surge of Ironhide's emotions and attraction, of strength and trust and loyalty as his mind was his and the Seeker's and Ratchet's and Ironhide's and he wasn't even sure who was who and where and why anymore – and he shuddered in response and wasn't sure if it was in need or disgust or something else entirely.

Sure, why not? Let's just add a threesome to the list and have fun explaining that one to Sarah. That's just slagging peachy.

I sincerely doubt it would result in interfacing, Ratchet replied in a dry voice. And if it did, I could shield my side of the bond long before it became relevant. As for your human mate, she wasn't too pleased with the implication that she might be better served keeping an ocean between herself and you. You would be surprised at how... tenacious she can be.

As a matter of fact, no, I wouldn't. I married her, Will pointed out. I know the 'Iron Will' nickname that made the rounds before all of this but you gave it to the wrong Lennox. A pause, wondering about the words, then- Not pleased, huh?

Not in the slightest and saw fit to take it out on me. I explained the issue with multiple mates; she was quite vocal about you still being her husband, not caring in the slightest about said mates, and finding a way to make it work regardless.

Will nodded and couldn't quite keep the warmth and adoration at the thought of her from leaking through the bond. I'll talk with her.

Talk with her, make sure she understood the situation and knew what she was getting into, and selfishly hope that she would stick to not caring at all and that they could somehow still make it work, Annabelle and Sarah and everything, despite of the very real risks he would face whenever Megatron made his move.

Ratchet, bless his spark, said nothing about that, and finally Will nodded again, a bit of the uncertainty in his mind fading at that reassurance.

So, hypothetically... if you had to show us how to do this whole mating flight thing...

Hypothetically? Ratchet sounded amused. Hypothetically, I would tell you to keep your shields down around both of your bonds and then I would remind you that you would easily be able to time your descent so you would catch the sunrise when it reaches Diego Garcia, and that there is not a cloud in sight to ruin the view. Hypothetically.

Hypothetically.

Will watched the Seeker, the Seeker watched Will, and then the world twisted as they sent their alt-mode into a wing-straining turn and one hundred and sixty miles turned to one fifty nine, fifty eight, fifty seven as engines roared a furious challenge and they went straight down-

- And across their bond, he heard Ratchet honest-to-Primus laugh.

------------------------------

This time, Ironhide was out of recharge when free-fall struck and this time he got the clear impression that there was absolutely nothing accidental about it, either. He was about to snap back and tell Lennox to get a slagging grip on the bond but something made him pause. Something was different, something deliberate and challenging and smug and he made his way outside just in time to see a silver arrow shoot straight down, see the dawn catch up with it and silver turn the molten gold of sunrise, and then the jet broke off at the last possible second.

The world was noise, the roar of engines and wind and raw fury, and then their Seeker was off again in a dizzying display of death-defying stunts to send Ironhide's bond and processors reeling and it wasn't until he reached out for something to steady himself and felt Ratchet grip his arm that he realised he wasn't alone. Oh, there were people around him, mech and human, because fragging everyone had stopped to stare at the display, but he felt Ratchet through their bond as well and there was an understanding whispering across it that told him beyond any doubt that Ratchet actually knew.

Up, up, cut the engines, feel the world slow and stop and turn as gravity took over and he fell backwards into thin air even as he stayed on his feet and his processors were spinning and he was torn between the desire to shoot the slagger out of the sky and the warring emotions that were half his, half Will's, and something else that he hadn't even noticed before-

- And Ratchet's fingers dug into plating with a strength the medic rarely showed and forced Ironhide's attention back on solid ground.

"Focus." The voice was low, urgent, unyielding, and enough to snap Ironhide's mind back into something that approached coherency again as the medic continued. "I know that ground-pounder programming can't let you appreciate it as it was supposed to be but try to focus, Ironhide. He is doing this for you. Focus, keep your feet on the ground, and learn to appreciate it. If you intend to remain a proper mate to him, you will have to learn to handle this sort of thing."

One second, then two, and Ironhide forced himself to ignore the sound of powerful jet engines and the surges from their bond, and finally he felt his processors clear again to a point where he could actually focus.

The emotions from the bond were still there and it took him until then to realise that it wasn't just the human-turned-Seeker being a pest through a bond, either, but that their medic was in on it, too, and it wasn't strictly feelings of support flowing through their connection. Old enough to shield a bond, his slagging aft.

"What the frag is that pest doing?" His voice came out more unsteady than he had hoped and Ratchet clearly noticed, too, because the pain in the exhaust pipe of a medic had the audacity to smirk at that as he let go of Ironhide's arm and the world spun around him again.

"For someone who claims to like Seekers, I'm surprised you have never witnessed a mating flight before. Granted, he is a bit new to it all and doesn't have the finesse that Starscream or his trine used to possess but even then, it should be blatantly obvious... even to a front-liner."

Will and the Seeker – either or both and Ironhide didn't know and couldn't care the least bit less about it at that point in time – pulled hard on the bond again in a way that the weapon specialist wasn't even sure was actually possible, and it took every bit of self-control and stubbornness he had to keep from being swept away in it all. Energon pumping through lines and systems at a frantic pace, cooling fan fighting desperately to keep overworked systems from overheating as well, and even standing still on the ground, Ironhide felt the effects of the mad acrobatics on his own body, something raw and fierce and dangerous and as likely to croon at his touch as it was to tear him apart, and-

- down, down, and his eyes brightened in a flare of blue as he got the full force of his flying mate's exhilaration in between a roll that almost let them sweep against the waves of the lagoon and the fuel-churning climb that followed-

- and if he ended up purging those fuel tanks, someone was getting their afts kicked from now and well into the Primus-fragged matrix, Pit-spawned mate or not.

Ratchet, in one of his usual stunning displays of sadism, just laughed at him and it wasn't until then that Ironhide realised he had spoken it out loud, or over their bond, or maybe Ratchet was just a slag-aft mindreader like the worthless 'Con that was still in orbit, and frag it all to the Pit but he was too old for that sort of thing.

"You should have thought of that before you decided to pursue a Seeker," Ratchet pointed out with deceptive mildness and a mercilessness that would have made Megatron downright proud.

"Seeker-programming, my aft," Ironhide snorted. "The only reason you're still online is because the Pit's afraid you're going to take over."

Mechs are from Primus, medics are from the Pit? Will suggested over their bond, and the smug feeling from Ratchet told Ironhide beyond any doubt that they were both intended to hear that.

And Seekers are spawn of the Unmaker, Ironhide growled right back. I'll have your fragging aft for this, Lennox.

It clearly wasn't a threat that was worth much without a target-locked pair of cannons to back him up because the human-turned-Seeker just laughed and then the ground dropped away under Ironhide's feet again and he gripped Ratchet's arm hard enough to leave finger-shaped dents in the process.

You'd have to catch me first, old-timer, and you creak so much we'd hear you coming from a mile away. A half-purr, half-smirk carried over through the bond and Will continued before Ironhide had the chance to interrupt. You should ask Ratchet to take a look at that for you. I hear he's good with his fingers and a bit of lubricant.

One endless second of pure shock, then-

Lennox!

He got the responding laughter in stereo, from Seeker and medic both, and then the ground levelled out as the jet roared by overhead, glowing gold as the early morning sunlight caught on wings and tail fins and the already gold-tinted glass of the canopy.

Ratchet obviously picked up on it, too, as Ironhide discovered a moment later when the medic took a step closer and lowered his voice to a darker, silkier murmur that brought entirely too many memories back.

"Attractive, is he not? There is something about having a Seeker fly for you that defies any attempt to capture it in words. It's different for a ground-pounder, of course, since we can't appreciate the flight-skills involved in the same way as another Seeker could but still, the connection remains."

"You're out of your fragging mind," Ironhide said hoarsely. "Both of you. A suicidal pile of scrap metal and a medic that got his processors scrambled so much, he'd make Sideswipe look sane. Normal mechs don't enjoy being dropped in free-fall."

"Then you should learn to ground yourself and appreciate it for what it is," Ratchet murmured right back and he fragging well knew the effect that voice had on Ironhide as entirely too graphic memories wandered to the forefront of his processors and the responding smirk over their bond told him that the medic had noticed, too. "He is a Seeker, Ironhide. He is displaying his skills and suitability as a mate in order to woo you."

"I thought he'd already claimed me for a mate."

"There are different levels of 'mate', and you have yet to interface," Ratchet pointed out in that same low voice. "This is the proper way to woo a mate. Traditions are important to Seekers and you can't deny that William clearly enjoys this, too."

Ironhide snorted at that. True, he couldn't deny it because the bond left absolutely no doubt that the human and the Seeker were in it together, but that didn't mean a thing in that particular case. "That's not saying much. He wasn't even sane as a human, Ratchet. If his assault on Blackout wasn't a hint, you should take a look at the NEST mission reports. He's got more lives than Starscream."

The ground lurched below his feet again but less violently than before and this time he could keep himself from getting pulled along for the flight. He could still feel it but the dominant feeling was solid ground and the knowledge that he was watching and feeling the Seeker at work and not up there in the air himself. Talking had been the right kind of distraction and the flicker of smugness from Ratchet told him the other knew it, too.

Pit-spawned pest of a medic, he grumbled, mostly as a matter of principle.

Imbecilic front-liner, said medic offered right back – mostly on principle, too – and the smugness faded again as he continued. He will need those lives, Ironhide. Those lives and whatever luck he can possibly claim for this.

There wasn't much Ironhide could say to that so instead he focused completely on the jet again and felt the strange kind of stereo impressions again as he watched their Seeker throw itself into air acrobatics that defied every law of physics and felt the accompanying emotions through their bond without any kind of delay.

It was an attractive display, he couldn't deny that. Impossible to drag his optics away from, if he had to be completely honest with himself, and that was proven when he heard heavy footsteps behind him and reluctantly turned his head to realise that Optimus Prime was standing next to them and that not a single one of his sensors had alerted him.

Spawn of the fragging Unmaker, every single one of the flying pests, and their Prime's patient and very clear amusement didn't help on it, either.

"I would ask in whose honour the mating flight is but I suppose it's fairly obvious, everything considered."

A snort from Ratchet, half heard and half felt, and it was a new and very unnerving feeling to have his attention torn between so many places and not be able to do a thing about it. "Will's first flight and Ironhide's first experience with it. I'd forgotten how few of the higher processor functions remain after the Seeker's influence makes itself known."

And Ironhide would have objected to that but considering that thirty-plus feet of Optimus Prime had been able to sneak up on him, it would have been somewhat of a pointless objection.

"Ground-bound mechs never possessed the programming to see those flights the way they were intended to," their Prime said quietly. "Mating flights were meant for Seekers. It is little wonder that those bound by gravity find themselves swept up in the... emotions of it all."

Another snort from Ratchet at that. "I think 'lunacy' is the term you're looking for. I know Seeker programming, Prime, and there is nothing rational left in their pretty little heads once they start on a flight like this. The only things that matter are their mate and the sky."

"And yet you let him." There was no hint of accusation in their Prime's voice but it was still a statement that demanded an explanation for their current situation and Ironhide couldn't argue with that nagging need to know in the least.

The sound barrier broke somewhere above them as Will headed straight up again and long moments passed before the medic broke the silence that followed.

"It has to be done properly, Optimus," Ratchet said quietly. "He is a Seeker. This is how it has to be."

"It will bind him to our faction," their Prime commented just as quietly. "Is he aware of that?"

Ratchet glared at him in return. "Would I have let him if he wasn't? He is my patient, Optimus. That is all you should ever need to know to answer that question."

A small, regal nod was offered in silent apology at that. "I had no doubts, old friend. Nonetheless, I had to ask."

Something flowed through the bond with the medic before it was abruptly cut off again – understanding-weariness-regret – but Ironhide didn't need that to see the way Ratchet ran a hand across his face place for what it was. He had been about to go off in one of his famous fits of temper and had been stopped by reason late enough that getting it all back under control wasn't as easy as it sounded.

"Programming. I am aware. I keep forgetting how much of it is actually there. Thank you for reminding me. To answer your question, then yes. Lennox is quite aware of what he is doing. It's harder to see due to their inexperience but the human influence does show in their flight. Less than I might have liked, perhaps, but his control was surrendered willingly."

Ironhide had the very distinct and very annoying feeling of missing half the conversation, and he forced a little more of his attention away from the Seeker. A brief scan around him revealed that the humans that had stopped to watch were out of hearing range – even if their Seeker hadn't done a painfully thorough job of keeping up a near-deafening engine-roar around them almost constantly – and Ironhide's optics narrowed at the two mechs nearby.

"Did both of you scramble your processors or is it just the standard reaction to long-term Seeker-exposure?"

There was a long, shocked pause and then the clear feeling of laugher over the bond and even aeons of practice couldn't keep the slight amusement from showing in Ratchet's features. "I suppose it would explain Megatron."

Ironhide snorted and turned his full attention back to Will as the sound of jet engines approached again. Now that he was mostly able to tell his own reality from the one superimposed on it by the Seeker through their bond, he could appreciate a bit more what he saw. He had seen Seekers in combat before but that had been just that - combat and on the enemy side. There hadn't exactly been time to do anything but focus on hitting the fraggers and the few times when watching had been an option, it had still been combat and obviously a long way from what the pests were capable of when they really wanted to show off. Being in friendly territory didn't hurt, either.

Another surge of vertigo as the alien jet broke off in a wing-straining turn less than a second before he would have ploughed into the ground, and then a surge of raw lust and desire to claim that was no less intense than the near-crash had been. No less intense and even more capable of affecting him as he felt Energon flow faster and his own systems heat up in response, and he couldn't quite shield the accompanying rush of memories of his hands gripping those wings and a deadly claw hooked around a main Energon line.

If he's trying to test my patience... Ironhide sent darkly and felt more than saw Ratchet's answering smirk.

Of course he is. He's a Seeker. Ironhide's confusion - and no small amount of dawning annoyance - must have shown clearly because Ratchet focused on the jet again and continued out loud. "Mating flights serve a dual purpose. It displays their abilities in the air and thus their suitability as a mate and protector of the future family, but it also displays the abilities they may pass on to their offspring. Not all Seekers are born equal. Most of them could have trained relentlessly for their entire existence and never approached Starscream's level of skills. The programming, personalities, and abilities of the mated pair has quite a lot of influence on the gifts their sparklings will be be created with. While mechs relied on the Allspark for creation and a suitable diversity in skills, Seekers relied on themselves."

"Like the method of reproduction used by humans of this world," Optimus summarised.

"To a degree," Ratchet agreed. "They do have some control of which traits carry over. Not perfect, of course, or we would have been overrun by Starscreams by now, but some. Like... genetically modified organic creatures, to a degree. I doubt anyone but the Seekers themselves know how much control they have or if it varies from Seeker to Seeker. I certainly never found out."

"And if one mated with a ground-bound mech?"

Ratchet was silent. "No Seeker would choose to create a non-Seeker body for the sparkling they carry. The sparkling would need Seeker programming and Seeker instincts. By far the most of that sparkling's programming would come from the Seeker part of the union with only minor parts carrying over from the non-Seeker creator." He gave Ironhide a pointed look and got a huff in return before he continued. "It might result in an unusually trigger-happy Seeker or one that was more heavily armoured than the average of the breed. Some degree of speed and agility might be sacrificed in that case for something close to a ground-bound mech's class of armour in a concession to the non-Seeker mate."

The mental image of a miniature Seeker with his own style of cannons appeared in Ironhide's processors and it was every bit as bizarre as he would have imagined. The bird-brains might have issues but Ironhide was willing to admit that maybe a perfectly balanced mix of Seeker and ground-bound mech wasn't the best idea around.

Twin feelings of amusement through his bonds told him that both medic and Seeker had picked up on those images, too, and he pointedly turned his attention back to the air display and ignored their medic.

Ratchet just made an amused sound.

"Further proof that both human and Seeker are in control, Optimus. No true Seeker would have tolerated that level of distraction from its audience, and much less its mates and the one it has honoured with a flight like that. The only talking we should be doing should be praise of him."

"A valid point," their Prime agreed dryly. "They do have somewhat of an ego."

More words followed but they faded from Ironhide's attention as the full force of the Seeker's interest was turned on him. Not quite Cybertronian like Ratchet was, not quite human like the bond had felt when Lennox had held complete control but something that was a mix of everything, Cybertronian and human and something else that Ironhide assumed was that Seeker-influence rearing its ugly head.

It's not that bad, Will disagreed with a flare of amusement and underscored it with a dizzying roll above their heads. We've sort of learned to get along and compromise.

So you're the one hitting on me now? Ironhide asked dryly.

A smirk was the only response he got. A smirk, followed by vivid images of control and dominance and five tons of deadly Seeker pinning him to the ground to have their way with him, demanded submission and glyphs carved into armour as marks of passion and pleasure and possession, and an all-consuming wave of lust-

- and as sudden as it had begun, it stopped again, cut off abruptly as their Seeker turned in mid-air to do some sort of twisted almost-somersault, transformed and landed to the sound of crushed tarmac and a tremor of the ground that was felt by everyone in the immediate area.

Blue optics burned brightly in heat and arousal and something else-

- and then Will smirked and turned his attention to Ratchet with nothing more than a smug feeling before the shielding of their bond fell heavily into place.

And the medic was in on it, too, Ironhide realised a moment later, because the Primus-damned Pit-spawn was slagging well smirking.

"Now that you have stretched your wings for the morning, do you think you can focus enough not to pulverise the training dummy I had Jolt and Mikaela make for you?" Ratchet asked with the sort of mildness that was never good news, and Ironhide could see as Will's posture changed and relaxed and he gave off the closest thing to 'utterly harmless' that any Seeker was capable of.

"I should be," he agreed with the same sort of uncharacteristic, deceptive mildness, and Ironhide simply stared as the pieces fell into place. "I think I worked off the worst of my energy. We should get going, though, I don't want to keep my team waiting. Besides, I promised Sarah she could be there, too, and Sam talked 'Bee into letting him tag along."

Ratchet nodded, all professional pride and courtesy, and Ironhide could have sworn he heard something like choked laughter from their Prime at that but the medic spoke again before Ironhide had time to say anything. "I agree. You have made good progress and being around other humans for the day will be good for you."

"I had a good instructor," Will said with all the modesty that was so very unnatural for a Seeker. "After you, sir?"

Before Ironhide had the chance to take as much as a step towards them, both Seeker and medic had transformed and left in a small cloud of dust that Ironhide was sure was very deliberate and for a moment he simply stared and wondered if he should take up pursuit or simply shoot the fraggers... and then he felt Will's shields lower again and got the clear impression that the slagger was smirking.

I will have your aft for this, Lennox, Ironhide promised with a soundless growl and heard Will laugh in return.

You already promised that once. You should make good on that or I'll think you're getting impotent. Old age catching up with you, 'Hide?

A challenge if he had ever heard one and he felt his systems heat up slightly again at the prospect. It was clearly the human in charge, he could tell that much by now, and if that was how he wanted to play...

Ironhide offered a dark purr in return, let it find its way back through the bond, and he felt the exact moment when the human shuddered slightly and the heat from the bond kicked up a notch.

I always keep my word. Enjoy your playtime, Will. I'll be watching.

And with a final flare of dark, heady pleasure, he brought the shields back into place as abruptly as Lennox had done. Optics burned brighter, a smirk twisting his face plates, and then he turned to their Prime and nodded slightly.

"I'll keep an eye on them. Make sure they don't do anything stupid."

Optimus Prime's nod was all the permission Ironhide needed to transform and take off in the same direction as the Seeker and medic had gone. He had looked amused enough that Ironhide figured he'd probably guessed what was going on, but that thought was gone again a moment later as he turned his attention back to their wayward little human-turned-Cybertronian.

The human was strength and stubbornness and more than worthy of his name, and he would do everything in his power to keep Ironhide on his toes, that much was clear already. The Seeker, on the other hand, would have caved and submitted.

All in all, Ironhide decided, he much preferred the challenge.

------------------
 

Three years of having an alien guardian in the shape of a transforming Camaro had taught Samuel Witwicky quite a few important lessons, not least of which was the power of "Please, 'Bee?" and puppy-dog eyes... and in this case, even that wasn't enough. It had taken until he had pointed out - truthfully - that NEST team Alpha would be there for obvious reasons and never did put their weapons away, that Ironhide would be there because it was his partner and his NEST team, that Ratchet would be there as their medic, that Mikaela and Jolt would be there as said medic's apprentices, that Sideswipe would be there because Jolt would be (and Sam neatly ignored that it was because the 'Vette didn't trust Will in the least and was there solely to watch his partner's back), that Optimus would be there because it was Optimus... and it was around then that Bumblebee had caved with an electronic sound that Sam translated as 'All right, all right' and tried very hard not to do a little victory dance.

'Bee did mean well, after all. Sam could sort of see his logic, especially after the stuff with Sideswipe that even 'Bee's considerable sneak-skills couldn't keep from him, but it was still Will and Sam trusted him, alien robot or not.

And that was how he found himself heading out to one of the disused runways at some time in the morning that was still way too early for him, nestled safely in Bumblebee's hands and trailing along with two medics in training, said yellow and black guardian, a probably-psychotic front-liner with a sword-fetish... and one toy-sized 'Con turned Autobot, because Wheelie still wasn't going anywhere without his Warrior Goddess if he could avoid it, and Sam was pretty sure at least half the reason was because the damn thing knew it would piss off both him and 'Bee.

"So was Jetfire a prototype of a Seeker? Some ancestor or something? Or did Starscream and the others just claim the name? He didn't look much like Screamer or Will do, but that could be because of his alt-mode," Mikaela asked from up ahead, from her place in Jolt's hands and Wheelie in his alt-mode in her lap - and control or not, after seeing what the blue Autobot could do with electricity, Sam was not afraid to admit that his girlfriend had way bigger balls than he did himself. Possibly the perverted little 'Con, too, but that was probably stupidity more than balls.

"The word is different in Cybertronian," Jolt explained and made two Cybertronian sounds Sam didn't recognise. "They are two related words that are translated to the same in English since you don't have anything to properly distinguish them. A 'Seeker' referring to what Jetfire was means to seek by choice. He was given a mission but when he felt it went against his beliefs, he defied that order to seek. A 'Seeker' referring to what Will is means the lack of choice. Core programming, if you want. A Seeker like them will always seek the skies, regardless of who or where they are. To keep them from that would make them unstable at the very least."

"It would make them insane," Sideswipe said darkly. "I've seen Seekers without their wings. Offlining them would have been a mercy."

Sam shuddered slightly at the thought. It brought up more than a few images that he could have lived without but before he could change the topic, Mikaela had turned to look at Sideswipe instead.

"What about..." she trailed off, hesitant. "I mean, it wasn't always 'shoot to kill on sight', right?"

"The Deceptiscum didn't care," Sideswipe snorted. "They locked them up, anyway. If they couldn't be hacked and didn't cave to torture, the cell would get to them."

Jolt gave his partner a look, then frowned and turned his attention to Mikaela again. "We weren't much better, from what I heard. We never tortured and we never hacked, because we're not 'Cons - I mean, I guess some tried, anyway, it was war, but they always got punished - but we had to deal with Seekers in some way if we captured them and I guess someone thought it was nicer to just knock out the flight-craving bit of coding than to let them go nuts, or kill them, since we couldn't just let them go. They didn't remove it, they just... overruled it for a while, but not long enough to do anything permanent to them. I heard some of the medics used to know how to do it. Some of the really smart science mechs could work it out, too, I guess." He looked a bit uncomfortable as he glanced up ahead at the gathered group in the distance. "I don't think we could ever keep the Elite Trine, any of the three, for long and it's-it's probably a good thing. I'm sorry, Sideswipe, you know what I mean, I don't like them, I just... I didn't think about it before but Ratchet would never do it and it's messing with core programming and I know they meant it kind of well but I don't think I could do it, either. Not do it and look him in the optics again even if I could figure out how it was done."

Another snort from Sideswipe at that. "He likes the flying fraggers." There was something in his voice that Sam couldn't identify - not quite annoyance, not quite disapproval, not quite happy with it all - but even if he'd been willing to ask Sideswipe about something like that, the point became moot as they came within hearing range of the gathered group of mechs and humans and Bumblebee put him on the ground again - reluctantly.

Optimus, Ironhide, Ratchet - the Twins were probably around somewhere, too, and Arcee and the others, and for a moment Sam wondered where the hell Will was hiding when he caught a glimpse of F-22 grey behind Ironhide and Ratchet. He had moved exactly four steps before that bit of grey moved and Sam stopped rather abruptly as the Seeker rose from its kneeling position next to Bobby Epps and Sarah Lennox and the grey figure stretched to its full height to loom like a minor thundercloud above all but Optimus and give Sam nasty images of Starscream in his place.

A chirp behind him pulled him back to the present and he nodded and swallowed, a bit wide-eyed. "I'm fine, 'Bee, I just... forgot how huge they are up close." Tall and wide and threatening and ohgod- "I'm so glad he has blue optics."

A long pause and then he forced himself to grin. A bit weak, but still a grin. "I guess there's no more calling them flying Doritos?"

"Lennox would probably find it amusing but the bird-brain would not. I'm not going to save your aft if you try it, anyway," Ironhide's voice rumbled somewhere above him.

Mikaela snorted in a feminine sort of way that always left Sam baffled and then Jolt let her down and she carefully put toy-car Wheelie on the ground and let him transform. One glance at their new Seeker and he was scrambling to hide behind Mikaela's legs – and probably hump her while he was at it, Sam thought darkly.

"I'm a 'Bot! Don't shoot the red-eyed one; protect me, Warrior Goddess!"

Sam had no idea of how a Seeker could actually manage to look baffled in a way that a human could recognise, but Will managed for a moment, anyway, before he shook his head slightly and turned his attention back to whatever he'd been discussing with his human family-of-sorts.

"First time he's been out here?" one of the vaguely familiar-looking NEST guys asked – Graham, the name tag said – and that and the accent was enough to make Sam remember him as one of the survivors of Egypt.

Mikaela patted Wheelie on the head in a way that made both Sam and Bumblebee roll their eyes. "Yeah, we didn't know how that Seeker in Will's head would react to red eyes. It's okay, Wheelie. Will's a good mech, I promise, nothing's going to happen."

"Oh, that's a Seeker, Warrior Goddess," Wheelie said dubiously. "They're not good mechs. They hate the grounders. Jetfire was one of the Old Ones. He was one of the Legendaries. That there's not a good mech."

"You know it's got a human personality in there, though. It's Will, you know him."

Which didn't seem to do much to encourage Wheelie to let go of Mikaela's leg.

"Yeah, Warrior Goddess, and he ain't much saner than that Seeker is."

Sam was pretty sure he heard Graham try to keep back a laugh at that but when he looked at the man again, he was pure NEST professionalism... which wasn't really saying that much, and definitely not when it came to Will Lennox's NEST team.

"Jolt, miss Banes, we've got the test dummies ready," he reported. "Ratchet ran his tests and gave his approval on the spare one you made and we have them all suited up."

Something about the voice told Sam that there was probably more than just suiting up the dolls involved in that 'ready' bit and Jolt apparently agreed because he looked curious at that. "'Ready'?"

Graham thumbed over his shoulder to where two human-shaped things had been dumped on the ground and the group moved closer almost as one as even Bumblebee and Sideswipe's issues with the whole thing got overruled by the nagging sense of a trainwreck in the making that the name-tags on the flight suits proclaimed to be Captain Crash and The Spare.

Sam stared, 'Bee stared, Sideswipe make an unimpressed sound, Jolt stared at Mikaela, and finally the only female of the group decided to ask the question that no one else seemed willing to voice. "God, you're all chickens," she muttered, then took a deep breath. "Is that... a smiley face?"

By then, the rest of Alpha Team had noticed them as well and Captain Crash was propped up between two of the soldiers, flopping arms slung around their shoulders and a firm grip on the open helmet kept the head raised to answer the question.

"Hail, Emperor. Those who are about to die, salute you," Graham said solemnly as one of his team-mates bent the test dummy's arm in some kind of vague salute and then let the arm flop back down before Ratchet stalked over and reclaimed both of the test dummies with an annoyed expression.

Sam had expected some sort of comment from someone about it – Ratchet or Epps or Will or Optimus or someone – and it was only when it didn't show that he started to get the uncomfortably nagging suspicion that the smiley faces on the test dummies probably wasn't even unusual for the NEST team. Oh, sure, you had to be more than a bit off in the head to sign up for something like that voluntarily – and that Sam was still there spoke volumes about his mental health as far as he was concerned, even he would admit to that – and sure, it was a bit of a weird situation they were in, even for NEST, but he got the impression that even then, that sort of thing wasn't exactly that weird.

Wheelie forgotten for the moment, Mikaela was still staring as the group of soldiers followed Ratchet like a particularly rambunctious horde of puppies. "It's a smiley face," she finally said.

"It's a smiley face," Sam agreed. "And they named him Captain Crash." He paused. "So, is there a medical term for 'batshit' or can we just stick with that for now? I'd ask the shrink we've got running around somewhere but he might lock us up with the rest of them and 'Bee probably wouldn't like that."

"Bonkers? Bananas? Few fries short of a Happy Meal? Stark raving mad? I don't know, I think 'batshit' fits them pretty well." She paused. "And 'Bee would so be locked up, too. Sorry, 'Bee."

'Bee's radio chirped cheerfully, and then he held down his hand again to let Sam sit down again. Not that Sam couldn't walk just fine but 'Bee was protective and didn't trust their Seeker and Sam wasn't going to complain and make 'Bee reconsider letting him watch in the first place. Jolt followed suit and picked up Mikaela and Wheelie, and tailed by Sideswipe, they wandered over to Ratchet and the two test dummies he seemed to be running a final few tests on. Names like Captain Crash and The Spare didn't really inspire confidence in Will's ability not to kill a human in the air on accident, and Sam mentally debated for a moment whether to ask or not and then let his first impulse win out.

"If you're so sure he can't keep a test dummy in one piece that you two build a spare one..."

"...Then why do this at all?" Mikaela asked softly. "Because mechs are mechs, on both sides, but the 'Bots are the only ones willing to put up with us squishies. If they can get Will to imprint on the NEST team and see them as kin, then Megatron and Starscream will have that bit less to tempt him with. The first time Megatron starts to rant about pathetic fleshlings, he'll remind Will that we're human and we belong here and that the 'Cons wouldn't let us live. They let him and the team play so he'll get used to having us around. We made a spare because it was nice practice and it'll let them play a little rougher while they get used to it."

Oh.

It did explain 'Bee's twitchiness now that Sam thought about it. Sideswipe and the Twins – and probably Ironhide, too – were all unstable as far as Sam was concerned but 'Bee didn't seem twitchy about them in the same way as he did about Will. If he thought their new Seeker was going to pack up and turn 'Con, though... Sam could understand that. He didn't believe it for a second – the can might be 'Con but the content was all 'Bot – but he did understand.

With those kinds of thoughts nagging on his mind, Sam fell silent as they reached the rest of the group. Optimus Prime was huge, Sam was used to that, but while a Seeker wasn't any taller, it was a whole lot wider. Big and wide and took up a whole damn lot of landscape, especially staring at it from up close – and it was a jet, Sam berated himself, of course it was huge – and even if he was never going to comment on it out loud, he was still amazed that Will's wings didn't catch on anyone or anything when he turned and headed a bit away to transform without accidentally crunching someone.

Three years on and Sam was used to seeing their giant, alien allies transform but however many times he'd been used for target practice by the 'Cons, it was still only the Autobots he was really familiar with. Bumblebee's transformation sequence was something he could describe groggily but accurately if someone dragged him out of bed at four in the morning to ask him – and thank you to whatever sadist of a NEST commander had thought of that one as a nice little memory game, Will or Epps, he wasn't sure and couldn't prove it but he knew it had been their idea – and Optimus' was familiar in a way that NEST-focused mechs like Ironhide or Sideswipe's weren't, but this was the first time he had seen a Seeker transform up close and personal and not have to worry about getting squished as a result.

He was amazed enough that something like Bumblebee could fit into a car shape that was all smooth lines and perfect paintjob, and never mind Optimus, but watching something as-as Decepticon-shaped as a Seeker do it boggled the mind. He wasn't going to tell the man-mech-Seeker that he was 'Decepticon-shaped' to his face but it was what he was - all pointy bits and teeth and claws and assorted other bits that showed up in his nightmares, and if Mikaela had been a mind-reader, Sam was sure she would have made a bad, brain-breaky joke about just what kind of mech-bits to make him scrub his brain with soap but since she wasn't, he would just have to do it himself.

Possibly, Sam was a tiny bit whipped in the girlfriend department, but with the kind of girlfriend he had, he wasn't going to complain.

Starscream could transform in about one second flat, painful experience had taught them that, but Will took his time and ten seconds later – and some really brain-bending slow-motion displays of just how those pointy ends fit together that Sam would have sworn involved magic – and there was an F-22 sitting on the runway looking perfectly, utterly innocent.

Sam was attuned enough to Bumblebee that he felt his guardian's hand tense slightly underneath him and he did the smart thing and decided against pointing out that Will's alt-mode dwarfed all of them, including Optimus. Going by Bumblebee's frown, he already knew and Sam was in absolutely no hurry to get kicked back into the relative safety of indoors.

The canopy opened and Mikaela hesitated for a second before she slid down from Jolt's hand and carefully stepped onto the jet instead and Sam really couldn't blame her. It was like walking around on Optimus' alt-mode or something, or stepping on 'Bee's hood. Mech-form was fine - and with something as perfectly climbable as Bumblebee it would be a crime not to use him for that sometimes - but alt-modes were something different and this was probably the first time anyone had ever stepped on that thing, and it was a Seeker and yes, Mikaela had way bigger balls than Sam could ever hope for. Or possibly a lot less common sense but with the sort of things Sam got himself into, that wasn't a theory he was about to share.

Ratchet put Captain Crash in the cockpit, Mikaela handled the belts and straps and whatever else was in there, and between the two of them, the dummy was in place in a matter of minutes and the medic and his apprentices retreated to join the rest of them a bit away.

"Now we watch things go crunch?" Sam asked and Ratchet gave him a Look.

"Now we go through the tests again to ensure we can actually get reliable readings with the dummy in such close proximity to them. Then, they may take off and while I doubt that 'crunching' will be involved then yes, I do expect to see some damage done to our first test subject there, with lack of oxygen being the main concern." He made a shushing gesture and Sam settled down in Bumblebee's hand again and fell silent.

So T minus something to take-off and the show began and strangely, he started to get a craving for popcorn.

He paused and then groaned inaudibly.

Bonkers. Bananas. Batshit insane. It has to be something in the water.

---

When Will had transformed, Ironhide had picked up his cue as well and held down a hand to Sarah Lennox in a silent offer. His body had been humming with pent-up energy when he had caught up with their medic and Seeker in the first place but it had faded fast at the sight of human company. Autobots would have been one thing. The human femme that might or might not be an actual mate to their Seeker was something else entirely and Ironhide had no desire to make things any worse for her than they already were... and admittedly, nor did he want to deal with an angry Seeker if it took insult to seeing its human possible mate upset. Instead he had regretfully pushed aside the last pleasant burn of energy and held down his hand to the human in a silent offer of a truce and she had accepted it willingly. The palm of his hand did offer a far better vantage point than the ground did until their Seeker took off and now she had accepted the offer again with a small, grateful smile that had gradually turned into a frown by the time the test dummy had been strapped in and Ratchet was handling the final tests.

Her body language held enough echoes of Will's that Ironhide could identify the tension in her body for the anger that it was – not as fiery as what her husband was capable of, Ironhide suspected, but still anger – and the tension he felt in her small frame increased with every joke and comment around them about the odds of survival that the test dummies faced.

It was no particularly tasteless comment that made her snap, merely the sum of it all, and she offered the offending soldier a look of icy disgust before she turned her attention back to Ironhide.

"What an astounding vote of confidence in my husband," she said in a biting voice, too low for any of the other humans to hear, and Ironhide arched one optic ridge slightly in surprise at the unusual venom in her voice.

"Sarah?" First name, she had insisted on that – if he's going to claim both of us, you can at least call me Sarah – and Ironhide respected that.

"I'm tired of hearing them talk like that. Like he's-like there isn't even any human self-control left in him anymore." She paused, took a breath, and Ironhide stayed silent and waited for her to continue. "I know he's a Seeker, I know I don't understand that like your medic wants me to, but I do know Will. Can you trust me in that?" she asked quietly.

Interesting question, that. He trusted her to be her, he trusted her to be willing to fight for her mate and offspring with the same ruthless fury he had seen William capable of, and after a moment of hesitation too short for any human to pick up on, he nodded slightly.

"Then get me over there to him," she said firmly. "If nobody expects him to manage to keep that dummy intact, of course he won't be able to. That Seeker doesn't think like an adult and if everyone expects those two to fail, then why even bother trying?" A pause, watching him as he watched her, and then she sighed softly. "Please?"

It would probably force Ratchet to do his final tests over and earn Ironhide a sound chewing out for that but right now, he figured it was worth it. He trusted her not to do anything stupid or reckless, he trusted her to know his – their – mate, and however much he doubted the Seeker and human duo's ability to actually manage what they were supposed to, he did want to see them succeed. Bearing witness to what a Seeker-flight could potentially do to a human body, even if merely in theory, was not on his list of good entertainment, however morbidly fascinating their organic allies seemed to find it.

He glanced at Ratchet, saw the medic occupied by last-minute adjustments, and he took his chance and headed back over to Will, Sarah in his hand, before anyone could open their mouths to stop him.

A wave of displeasure from Ratchet told him exactly when he had been spotted but he firmly ignored that and focused on the small human in his hand again as she looked back up at him.

"Tell him to open his canopy?"

The Seeker-human obeyed without being told, made Ironhide's optics shutter briefly in surprise, and then Sarah pushed off her shoes and put them in Ironhide's palm before she slipped down from his hand and tested her balance carefully before she stood up on the jet. Ironhide wasn't sure if he would prefer bare feet to the sand and gravel and whatever else could get stuck on the sole of a shoe, but he understood the logic behind and could appreciate the sentiment. He was not a piece of furniture and she was not going to treat him like that, either.

Get your piece-of-scrap aft back here and bring her with you before you contaminate the test results, Ratchet bit out over their bond as his annoyance turned vocal.

Sorry, Ironhide offered in return with a slight bit of genuine apology in the emotion he allowed to accompany it and then he focused on the small femme again as she reached up and took off her necklace.

She kneeled and hesitated but by then Ironhide understood what she was doing and he held out his hand for support to allow her to lie down and wrap the flimsy bit of soft, metallic chain twice around the wrist of the dummy before she closed the infinitely small clasp again and climbed back up proper in his hand.

"There." She reached down and his hand followed to let her brush her fingers lightly against the edge of one wing. "Ratchet tells me there are two personalities in there now," she continued softly. "I would like to get to know both of them. Fly nice."

The canopy closed behind them as they turned and headed back to the rest of the group, Sarah clearly ignoring any looks she got and Ironhide simply not caring. Ratchet's attention was focused on them until Ironhide was right back next to him and then he turned his optics back to a data-pad and started right over with the tests again.

Ironhide sent him his memory of what had just transpired in a small transmission without being told and he didn't miss the way the medic paused for the briefest of moments.

You actually think it'll work? Ironhide asked bemused.

Hesitation over their bond, then- In any other case, I would say no. In this case, however... there is a bit of the human in there still. She might make him think, if nothing else.

Ironhide glance at the Seeker, the femme, the data-pad with the tests, and then back at the medic, still a bit bemused.

And if they can pull it off?

Another long moment of hesitation, enough to make Ironhide wonder if there was something he had missed, and then Ratchet looked at the human femme.

Ask me again if they succeed.

There was definitely something there that their medic was hiding but Ironhide knew him well enough to know when prodding any further was a lost cause. Instead he settled for a small shrug before he let Ratchet return to those final tests and turned to watch their Seeker instead, the human femme still in his hand. She didn't ask to be put down and he made no move to make her. He had always focused most of his attention on William as a brother in arms. He had been aware of the human's mate and offspring, and had met them as well, but he had never considered them much as anything more than a strong part of Will Lennox's determination to survive and see the Decepticons gone from their planet. With her claimed as a mate by the Seeker as well, though... becoming used to one another was probably overdue.

He shifted his hands slightly to allow her to become more comfortable and ignoring the Seeker-related remarks of his organic allies, they settled down in companionable silence to wait.

---

There were a lot of things Will had expected from the flight. He had expected to break the test dummy at least a few times – not on purpose, granted, but because they were a Seeker, this was the sky, and restraint of any kind was something utterly unnatural to any proper Seeker of the breed – and he had expected to get chewed out in return by Ratchet. He had expected to spend just about the entire flight intently focused on the small program that showed him and the monitors on ground what the dummy's sensors went through and what it would translate to in effects on a real human body. He had expected to need to land, use the spare dummy instead, and hear no end of the comments born from destroying the first one because Seeker programming wasn't meant to lower itself to adapt to mere organic life – he hadn't hoped that one would be necessary but had expected it nonetheless – and he had expected to spend the entire flight reining in a temperamental, impatient bird-brain that would much, much rather push Mach three again and see if they could push themselves that little bit further again, medics be damned.

He had not expected to find his entire world narrowed down to twelve point four grams of soft, yellow metal and neither had he expected the Seeker to follow suit. It didn't care in the least about the test dummy because it was nothing more than an overgrown sensor and not sentient in the very least, and even if it had been, Will still somehow doubted the bird-brain would have cared in the slightest. It was small and insignificant, it was not a mate, bonded, or kin, and that made it, at the very best, something to be ignored and pitied and disposed of if it got in the way too much. Its entire world was narrowed down to that small, light necklace and any thoughts of Ratchet and Ironhide and demanding programming and all the other things he had gotten so used to dealing with were little more than an afterthought at best.

He had expected to need to pay attention to that little program to tell him if he had damaged his stand-in for a human pilot but he hadn't so much as glanced at it and even then, he was pretty sure they had still gotten it right. There were a million things to keep track of, a million dangers to painfully remind him of just how fragile the human body was, but it didn't matter.

Fly nice, Sarah had told them, and the small pendant had barely so much as trembled as they had taken off with a kind of caution and gentleness that he doubted even the actual human-built F-22s were capable of. He knew it felt unnatural to the Seeker to do – and in all fairness there was enough of that programming affecting him to agree with that – but even then there hadn't been any kind of fight about it. It was mate, mate had told them to behave and fly nice, mate had offered proof of their claim and possession, and if they could do this right, then they might even be able to take her for a flight as well and show her the world from a Seeker's point of view.

Which, Will had realised with not a small bit of surprise, was pretty damn high on the Seeker's list of things it wanted to do. It had been willing to consider flying around with some of the people Will considered friends but only reluctantly. They were organic, human squishies with no wings and no sense of flight at all and the Seeker was in no way just going to demean itself to consent to carrying around worthless little creatures like that. In those exact words, too, no matter how hard Will had mentally glared at it for that. Sarah being a mate, though, apparently put her in an entirely different category and he got the clear impression that taking her for a flight was above all else another chance to show off, stake its claim, and prove to her just how competent of a mate it was and how very fortunate she was to have been claimed by it.

He supposed it was sort of romantic, in whatever way passed for that sort of thing where Seekers were concerned. He'd given up on trying to talk the thing out of claiming her for a mate, and he was long, long past the time of trying to talk Sarah out of anything once she'd made up her mind, and everything considered... it could have been worse. It would protect her with its life, at least, and he could appreciate that.

Below them, the Indian Ocean passed by them slowly as they circled Diego Garcia in a wide, lazy circle at speeds that didn't even approach half of what they were capable of, although he knew that some of that reserve power that would have gone into pushing them to the unhealthy range of a clear Mach three was now spent on human issues instead. Oxygen, a comfortable temperature, attention spent on making sure he wouldn't forget himself and throw himself into some stupid bit of acrobatics that would have killed a pilot... even the first two issues alone had been more of a surprise than they probably should have been. He looked like an F-22 but no proper Seeker would have given any thought at all to human comfort and his Seeker had been no different in that regard. The cockpit wasn't functional because a Seeker wouldn't have cared in the least and that meant that the first order of the day had been to fix that little oversight, along with any other oopses that had made their way into his scanned design. Like the fact that the whole chair, straps and padding and all, had been nothing but a prop. It was made to look the part, not feel it, and as a result the straps didn't work and the seat itself was about as comfortable as a slab of concrete. It didn't take much to fix it – a new, more detailed scan did the trick – but it did remind him just where the Seeker's priorities lay. It might have been different for someone like Starscream but Will somehow doubted it. Why care about insignificant details like that unless you had to? Why adapt to pitiful organics if you had no intentions of ever letting one near your precious self?

The world passed by below them, the small program that tracked the data from the dummy kept up its own, constant reports, the necklace shifted gently with every minute change of speed and course, and maybe that was why Will for the third time only found himself noticing the small, blinking icon in his processors after several long seconds.

Small, insistent, and very, very familiar in its unprotected and very much not an Autobot frequency way, and for another long few seconds he was tempted not to answer at all. It didn't have to be Starscream, of course, although odds dictated it was. It could be Megatron or whoever else decided to play 'poke the Autobot Seeker' but Starscream was the Air Commander and odds were that the incoming call was from him. He wasn't worried about the 'Con physically showing up – there was nothing on his scans and NEST would have notified him if the flying fragger had been spotted in the area – but they hadn't parted on the best of terms and from what little he knew, Starscream could hold a grudge like nobody's business.

It was probably Starscream, although it didn't have to be, and even if it was, there were other things to take into account. If it was the Air Commander hailing him and he didn't answer, it would just frag off the 'Con all the more and they'd managed that more than enough the last time. Insulting Starscream hadn't been one of his brightest ideas, even if it had put Will himself in a much better mood, and while he wanted nothing else than to have a go at round two, there were other things to keep in mind this time... like the small, small advantage of being sort of kin to the fragger. He didn't like to think about it, didn't want to acknowledge it, but it was still an advantage until the first shot was fired and if nothing else, he might be able to get a little more information out of it. It hadn't worked before but then, that was how it was sometimes and it was worth a try.

The icon kept up its insistent, incessant blinking and finally Will caved and opened the line.

"Decepticon Air Commander Starscream to Autobot Seeker Will, negative seven-point-four, seven-two-point-one," Starscream's familiar voice greeted him, and whatever snippy anger Will had expected, it wasn't there. "Are you in need of assistance?"

Whatever he had expected the Air Commander to say, that certainly wasn't it, either, and for a moment neither Seeker nor human could do anything to react but simply stare, unable to come up with any sort of coherent response.

"Decepticon Air Commander, this is Autobot Seeker." He paused, uncertain and torn between the instinctive reaction to tell Starscream to shove it and Seeker programming that told him the 'Con sounded like he genuinely meant it and frag it all, but life had been so much simpler as a human. "Key word, Air Commander, being 'Autobot'."

Implied, 'Why do you care?' and Starscream would be smart enough to pick up on that.

"Key word, Autobot Seeker, being 'Seeker'," Starscream corrected in a voice that was vaguely annoyed, vaguely impatient, but still somehow oddly determined as well, and Will felt a shiver down his spine as programming latched on to every nuance of that voice and brought out the same complex sounds that made it so unpleasant to human ears and so compelling to a Seeker. "I repeat: Decepticon Air Commander Starscream to Autobot Seeker Will, negative seven-point-five, seven-two-point-two. Are you in need of assistance?"

There was a snarky retort at the tip of his non-existent tongue but it died before he could voice it, his own annoyance and disbelief mixed with the confusion and surprise from his Seeker half, and this was Starscream but not the Starscream he remembered from battle; not the cowardly, self-centered flying pest of a Seeker that had been so much of a pain to them all.

Kin, his own Seeker half murmured by way of explanation, a string of images flickering by his processors – Cybertronian and Seeker glyphs, memories of kin and family, Ratchet's explanations and the overwhelming feeling of belonging – and he could have told Starscream to go frag himself, but something stopped him.

Kin, the Seeker had called him and according to Ratchet, that was vaguely what Starscream considered them as well until he was sure they hadn't just been brainwashed or something by the 'Bots, and if that was the case... why throw away a strategic advantage before you had to? The Air Commander had been a pest the last time they had talked but he didn't seem to hold any grudges and... that was then, wasn't it? If Starscream was willing to play nice for the moment and put kinship ahead of faction loyalties, if he was willing to just write it off as a young Seeker being too stupid to know any better, who were they to antagonise him in return when it might mean giving up a potential advantage in the future?

He took a deep, mental breath, pushed aside the biting little remarks that were itching to get out, and forced himself to pay attention to his own Seeker's cues and get it right. The longer they could keep the 'Cons from figuring out what had actually happened, the better. If they never learned at all, then Will would be a happy, happy bird-brain.

"Decepticon Air Commander, this is Autobot Seeker." Another pause, knew damn well that it wouldn't have been how a normal Autobot Seeker would have responded, but he kept the words strategic advantage firmly in mind and if it meant they responded more like a proper Seeker than an Autobot one, they could deal with that, too. "Negative, Air Commander. I am not in need of assistance at this time."

The line was silent at that and he could almost feel Starscream's optics on him. The Seeker part of him cringed like he was five years old and in trouble again and trying his damn best to talk his way out of it, the human waited tensely for whatever would follow next, and between the two of them, they kept their bonds firmly shielded. They didn't need Ironhide's temper and impatience to make it any worse and Ratchet... maybe Ratchet would be able to help, but their control of the bonds was still unsteady and opening one while keeping the other shielded might not hold if the conversation went south.

"Autobot Seeker, you're at below optimal speed and even the fleshlings could outmanoeuvre you with the way you're flying now," Starscream finally said, and the undercurrent of utter disgust worked much better to make his Seeker half cringe again than snide baiting would have done. It was also a clear demand for an explanation for just what he thought he was doing and if he'd had any time to consider it at all, it would have frightened him how easy it was to fall into the role of a real Seeker being chewed out by its commanding officer for some bit of stupidity or another. He would realise it later but as it was, it was probably a good thing there was too much else going on to notice that immediately.

He didn't owe the flying fragger the least bit of an explanation but his Seeker part demanded it, anyway, and neither of them could afford to show weakness. The necklace trembled slightly as his distraction showed in the sudden rush of power to the engines but they had it back under control an instant later and Will released the tension in his frame that he hadn't even been aware of until then.

To admit he was showing restraint for a mate would be weakness, to claim he was doing it voluntarily would be even worse – Seekers had no term for restraint in flight, only the concept of weakness – and to lay all the blame on the feet of their Prime wasn't something he ever wanted to do, especially not when it was undeserved.

He was tempted for a second to ask Ratchet for advice-

-And then the explanation offered itself an instant later, half lie, half truth, and altogether plausible as he offered a silent apology to the medic and drawled his response.

"Decepticon Air Commander, I thought even the 'Cons knew better than to frag off a wartime CMO. There might be organics going faster than me out there but at least I still have my wings."

Whatever he'd expected from that, laughter wasn't it, but there it was, anyway, dark and compelling and enough to send a shiver of pleasure through his body – pride-acceptance-acknowledgement-approval – and he shuddered under the assault of it all. The first talk had been careful reconnaissance from both of them, the second had been mostly insults and innuendos, and this time... this time, the fragger had apparently decided to play friendly and see if that got any kind of progress and somewhere in the back of Will's processors, he could feel it working on his Seeker half.

"Does he still threaten to reformat the unfortunate into undesirable bits of work equipment? The Hatchet should find himself a new threat. That one grows old and ineffective without actions to back it up."

He felt his Seeker half flinch at that and the clear impression of fear-dominance-respect that came with it, and whatever else the medic might be as their future mate, it was pretty clear that the Seeker wasn't about to cross him any time soon. He wondered for a moment just how much the 'Con remembered about Ratchet and how much they had even interacted in the first place, and then the thought was gone again, dismissed before Starscream could get impatient waiting for a response.

"How about you find his private comm-frequency and tell him that to his face?" Will drawled. "I might be a Seeker but I'm not that stupid."

He realised his mistake about a second too late to matter and could almost feel the temperature drop over the comm-line as Starscream's mercurial moods kicked in again.

"Is that what they tell you, Seeker?" he hissed. "That you're worth less than your pathetic, weak, wingless companions? That you're nothing more than a drone, driven by programming and instincts? Or is that what you believe? That any coding they fail to comprehend in their worthless little processors must mean you are somehow a lesser being than them?"

Too late to fix his mistake and frag it all to the Pit, but he had to learn to control himself better. Necklace, test dummy, and small program forgotten, his Seeker part focused completely on Starscream and Will wasn't about to argue.

"I know my programming, Starscream. You can't tell me that something that'll turn me so temperamental that I'm a danger to my surroundings is an advantage. They don't have wings but at least they can control themselves, which is more than I can say about us."

Starscream laughed again, harsh, mocking, and with no humour in it at all.

"Have they taught you to hate yourself, Seeker? I would have expected it from their walking weapons but not from the Prime or the Hatchet. What you call weakness is our survival. Their Allspark is gone, Will. They will fade and offline and there will be no one new brought online to take their place. What you call weakness is life, Seeker. What they think of as cowardice is survival. As they die, we will remain."

The words struck too close to home and if he had been human, he would have felt a knot in his stomach as memories flared up; Sam with the cube, the chaos that was Mission City, and the slow, terrifying realisations that none of them understood until much later.

The Allspark is gone and they'll die because we killed them.

Starscream clearly mistook his silence for something else because he continued in a lower, smoother voice, strong and persuasive and with every bit of his control as Air Commander put into it.

"What hold do they have on you, youngling? Kin? Bonded? Mates? You have known nothing but their view of this. Your loyalty to those that are yours is commendable but misplaced. A true groundling mate to a Seeker would go with them into whatever might come. Seeker bonds are stronger than all other and should not be broken. A proper mate would know this. A proper mate would join you where your last kin remain."

Sarah would follow you.

The thought rose unbidden in his mind and made his Seeker part shift uneasily. Sarah would follow him, Sarah would trust he could protect them, Sarah would trust that he had his reasons, even if she didn't agree. Ratchet wouldn't and Ironhide...

Slag.

He pushed the thoughts aside roughly, felt his engines respond as well, and the shudder that followed passed all the way from his nose and to the tip of his wings.

"I made my choice, Starscream," he bit back. "Mates have nothing to do with it."

And Starscream, frag it all to the Pit, refused to rise to the bait.

"You made your choice, Seeker, and it was clearly under duress. We will see justice done, Will. Let the Prime pay for chaining any kin of mine. Let him learn to fear our kind again."

"And Megatron?" He hadn't wanted to ask but the words were out before he could stop them, a raw, nagging drive to know from his Seeker part, to understand the creature that its Air Commander obeyed, however reluctantly that might be.

"Lord Megatron understands the lure of the skies," Starscream said and echoed words Will remembered from their first go on that topic. "Warn your jailer, Seeker. The time for chains and submission is past."

The connection was dead before Will could respond, left only the half-threat, half-promise of Starscream's voice echoing through his processors, and he had thrown himself into a desperate roll before he realised what he was doing. The pitch of his engines changed in an unnatural, sickening sound as he reined himself back in those few seconds too slow, wings and engines and every joint in his body objecting to the sudden change in speed and direction, and then he was on a steady course again, only a slight tremor revealing that he was anything but perfectly calm.

"Will?" Ratchet, worried and... something else. Displeased or angry and he couldn't bring himself to care and it was all that he could do to keep his voice steady.

"Starscream." He hesitated, unwilling to look at the program to the dummy himself and focused his entire attention on the small, small necklace instead. "The dummy?"

Silence followed for a second. "Your hypothetical passenger is rattled but unharmed," Ratchet finally said. "Congratulations."

And thirty-five miles above sea level, with Starscream's voice still echoing in his mind, Will somehow didn't feel proud in the least.

---

If Ironhide had been stuck with less of a processor-ache, he would have been bemused at just how fast it was possible to forget how annoying certain things could be and just how fast you got used to things being normal again – or as normal as they would ever get with their new Seeker-human around. As it was he settled for what he was sure Epps would have called his own personal little thundercloud trailing him as he tracked down Ratchet by a Cybertronian-sized table, working on one of the test crash dummies with a thoughtful frown.

"Explain," he growled. "Now."

Ratchet looked decidedly unimpressed as he glanced at Ironhide and then down at the dummy, and Ironhide could feel the sarcasm coming before the medic even answered.

"It's a crash test dummy, Ironhide. It's a fake test subject that the humans use when they don't want to hammer one of their own into brick walls at eighty miles an hour. They have a marvellous thing here called the internet, bolt-brain. It might take you a little while but I'm sure a big, strong front-liner like you can figure it out."

Anger flared through his systems but was gone a moment later, and Ironhide made an annoyed sound instead. It wasn't even their own fault and that was probably the worst of it. He knew it and it still didn't help one slagging bit when every bit of his processor and spark was overrun by a lot more emotion than he'd felt since sometime before the War began. "Not that pile of scrap. Will. The winged pest of a fragger out there!"

Ratchet made an identical sound of annoyance and then he finally turned to actually look at Ironhide. "You've already felt his lack of shielding. Let's agree that since I've managed to block my side of it, you'll do the same with yours, and maybe we'll both be able to have something that could pass for coherent thoughts again."

Ratchet's presence lingered on the edge of their own bond to silently remind him how a calm, stable presence should feel – even if it was more than a bit tainted by whatever-the-frag their Seeker was currently going through – and with a mental curse that would have made even some lesser 'Cons pause, Ironhide slugged his way through the heavy mass of emotions until he was painstakingly able to shield it again. Some still seeped through but he could deal with that and at least it gave him some idea of Will's state of mind.

He vented slowly, took his time to let his processors clear, and then he turned his attention back to Ratchet. "What the frag was that? He wasn't even that bad when he first came online."

There was a ghost of amusement in Ratchet's features but it was gone before Ironhide could do more than notice it, even if some of it lingered in his voice. "Looking back, I would say it's about the same. What happened? One young, rattled Seeker courtesy of Starscream. He'll get himself back under control again soon. Until then..." A shrug to convey a silent 'suck it up and cope', and Ironhide sighed.

"'Rattled'," he repeated.

"Rattled," Ratchet confirmed and then sighed as well. "Your heard the recording he brought back. You have ground-bound programming and a War of hatred to view Starscream through and that keeps him from having any kind of effect on you beyond that usual urge of yours to tear out his vocaliser. William carries Seeker programming. They hear Starscream's voice differently than the rest of us do and he is well aware of what buttons to push. You know what Megatron can do. You are old enough to have seen him raise an army on little more than the sound of his voice and words. Granted, he rarely uses those skills anymore but they remain nonetheless. What most non-Seekers fail to consider is that Starscream has much the same effect on his own kind. Will has talked with him before but this is the first time Starscream put that degree of persuasion into his voice."

Rattled. Now that Ironhide's processors could work mostly normal again, he could also push the memory of those emotions enough away to see them for what they were – a chaotic mass of anger, confusion, determination, possessiveness; raw fury and blind panic and the desperate need to fly, and underneath it all a heavy streak of blind fear at everything that happened in the Seeker's body that he didn't understand and never knew how to fight. All in all, Ironhide could find much less kind words than 'rattled' to use but for now, it would have to do.

"You have Seeker programming," he stated as the emotions being pushed aside let other things resurface again. He wasn't sure what kind of reaction he had expected from the comment – and if his processors had been completely clear, he probably wouldn't have made it at all – but Ratchet just snorted in response.

"A gross simplification. My programming adapted to Seeker programming. There is a difference."

He was evading the unspoken question, both of them knew that just fine, and Ironhide nodded.

"It adapted," he agreed with a voice that said he didn't particular care what Ratchet wanted to call it and that he wasn't going to argue, either, but had much bigger issues to poke. "So why don't you tell this plate-head of a front-liner what the difference is, in terms I can understand. You got the same effect going when you hear him, too?"

Silence.

"To a degree," Ratchet finally admitted. "More than I used to before the current... circumstances but less than when I lived among them. I haven't heard much of Starscream since I left but the effect was nowhere as strong as it is now and not all of it can be attributed to Starscream showing an extra effort in his attempts to convince Will." Another pause and an echo of something over their bond that Ironhide recognised as the medic trying to put something into words a normal mech would understand. "The difference between their coding and what I have is the depth and strength of it, you could say. The adaptation in my coding is at surface-level for the most parts. There are minor changes to deeper programming but most of it will never match a Seeker's code. Theirs is far stronger and exists in every part of them, every single line of coding. Mine is... camouflage, I suppose. A way to fit in, adapt, and survive. Yes, I hear the appeal in Starscream's words and yes, my programming very much understands what Will is going through. Strong enough to spark nostalgia for what used to be before the War but never more than that."

Which had probably been intended to sound reassuring, even just a little, but that wasn't the way it settled in Ironhide's mind.

"And Will?" Who was stuck with a newly-onlined Seeker with no common sense or much in the way of loyalty, and they'd all seen just what the two of them were capable of when they got pushed enough... and being a Seeker, it didn't even take that much of a shove for the most part.

"The Seeker would listen," Ratchet said quietly. "It's in its programming. There is no chance it could ignore it. Will would hear it in much the same way he did as a human – in Starscream's grating voice and with all the arrogance and mercurial moods he has learned to expect from him. The Seeker has no choice but to listen to some degree. William can – and will – refuse. That is why, while they are clearly rattled now, they will settle down again soon. Whatever else that Seeker might be, the part of it that is William is still an Autobot."

Which was... good news, Ironhide supposed. Better than before, at least. Of course, that brought up a whole new string of questions but Ratchet didn't sound ready to kick Ironhide out just yet so he shrugged and went for it, before the medic got too much time to think.

"That's the third time Screamer's gone chatty on him. I don't remember any of the fraggers doing the same for the Seekers we used to have. They were 'Bots, too. I didn't like all of them but I knew some of them enough to know that if Screamer had approached them, we would have been told."

"I doubt he did," Ratchet responded in the same, quiet voice. "The Autobot Seekers made their choice and were for the most part obvious about it. They made no secret of their new loyalty or the fact that they had turned their backs on Starscream to give their loyalty to Optimus. To be brutally honest, from a Seeker's point of view the majority of the Autobot Seekers were damaged. They were not proper Seekers. They all had their reasons for refusing the Decepticons and I don't doubt that Starscream knew every last one of those reasons. They made their choice to betray him and he would not have cared to make them reconsider when they were obviously damaged in the first place. Will is... different. Starscream doesn't know him. My guess is that he assumes we found a Seeker youngling or had one in stasis. To the best of his knowledge, Will was never given the choice and he has so far seen no credible reason why Will should choose to remain with us. Had it been in the start of the War, I doubt he would even have cared, much less bothered. Now? There are too few of them left to risk it and he will go a long way to ensure that youngling Seeker ends up on what he perceives to be the proper side in the War."

"And now they're mobilising to lure him out or steal him from right under our noses," Ironhide finished. "It would be easier if he came along voluntarily but if he won't, they'll deal with that, too. Since Will told them to frag off... what've we got? A few days at the most before the 'Cons make their move?"

"Presumably. Seekers were never known for their patience and Starscream is no exception to that." Ratchet fell silent and Ironhide didn't interrupt, familiar enough with the medic to know that the slightly darkened optics meant his friend and occasional berth-mate was far away in his own thoughts and the whisper of emotion he managed to pick up from him under the still-lingering presence of the Seeker confirmed that. "How well do you know his human... mate?"

Good question. Ironhide's optics narrowed slightly as he considered it. He hadn't been around the small family that much but he'd heard his human brother-in-arms talk about her often enough and he'd met her a few times himself as well. She had coped well with the whole 'giant robot' thing, he figured. Better, he supposed, than some of the NEST team had but she had also had a husband to ease her gently into the thought. She didn't trust their small offspring around Ironhide unsupervised but he saw that as common sense more than anything. Human sparklings were small, fragile, and had nothing in the way of survival instincts at all. Keeping an eye on the thing made it a lot less of a tense situation for Ironhide, too.

"Some. I think she trusts me. I've spent most of my time with NEST but I've met her a few times before this. She's coping well."

"She is, I suppose," Ratchet murmured. "I owe you an answer. You asked me something and I told you to ask me again if it became relevant."

It took a moment to figure out what he meant and when he did, Ironhide's optics brightened for a moment in curiosity. "If they managed to pull it off."

"Yes." He glanced towards the exit of the large hangar, where both human and former-human were talking. Not a glance Ironhide could readily identify, even after so long around the medic, and their bond offered no hint at all, either. "I will tell you the same thing I told Optimus when we heard that recording. Find a way to tie her to NEST. Keep her here, get her clearance, get her a home, get their offspring schooling, hire her, relocate her – just keep her here. Alive, safe, unharmed, and firmly on our side."

Ironhide's optics narrowed slightly. "She's already on our side," he said and didn't need to add the unspoken 'And I don't appreciate you insinuating otherwise, to me or anyone else'.

"She's on William's side," Ratchet corrected him, clearly unfazed by the implied threat... not that Ironhide was actually surprised by that. Their medic had always shown an utter lack of respect for anything their weapons could do but hearing his background, it made sense. Ironhide had never been around an injured Seeker much before but if it was anything like their normal behaviour, you either had to be mad or a saint to deal with them... and Ironhide didn't believe Primus intended a wrench to be used quite like that.

"She's on his side. He's on our side. That makes her one of ours." He didn't even try to keep his annoyance out his voice at that and it wasn't a coincidence that he straightened slightly to give his cannons better room in a silent reminder of who he was and what he did. "I don't know where you're going with this, Ratchet, but you better have one Pit of an explanation for it."

And Ratchet, frag it all, didn't so much as pause at that but only gave an unimpressed snort. "Your shield is weakening again."

Frag.

Ironhide sighed and forced the annoyance aside along with a heavy streak of possessive-protective instincts and that still-nagging fear and then he turned his attention back to Ratchet when he felt his own emotions settle again.

"Practice," the medic responded to the unspoken question. "I'm used to them... or used to be, at least. I have experience to draw on. You are still adapting to him. Spend enough time around them and you become used to the level of emotions they show."

Ironhide wasn't particularly convinced that anything short of insanity would be helpful in getting used to living with pests like that but he wasn't going to bring that up now and settled for a small, non-committal nod instead. "You still owe me an explanation"

It was silent for another moment as Ratchet seemed to consider his approach. "William made you promise to take the shot before allowing him to turn Decepticon." He held up his hand before Ironhide could even try to interrupt and continued, still unfazed. "I am aware that William is loyal to our side but we both also know that he would not have asked that of you if he didn't genuinely fear what his Seeker half might do. I'm also aware that they have come far in the time since you made that promise to him but the fact remains that while he has defied Starscream before, he remains a Seeker, with all that it implies."

"So you're... what? Worried he's going to go 'Con on us and she's going to go with him?" Ironhide's optics shuttered in bewilderment. "I know it's not nice to say but she's a human, Ratchet. His mate, sure, but human. She's a non-combatant. She doesn't even know a fraction of the classified stuff he's got in those processors of his. I might get worried if you said the same thing about a NEST team, but..."

"NEST doesn't have him wrapped around their little finger," Ratchet said flatly and glanced at the exit of the hangar again, at the dark, winged shape silhouetted by the light outside. "He transferred the recording of his conversation with Starscream in-flight. His first action on the ground was to seek her out the moment we removed that test dummy and it became clear that I had no medical reason to keep him. Furthermore, that dummy came back practically unharmed and I can guarantee you that no proper Seeker would have done the same and I very much doubt that our lectures on human fragility did a thing to rein him in. Her influence leashed him. Before all of this, you were the one of us she had encountered the most and I doubt even that was more than four or five times. Her only link to us is through him. In a better situation, we would have all three of his claimed mates on our side against the lure of Starscream and his kin on the other and if so, the scales would have tilted in our favour. As it is, we have two claimed mates against Starscream and his kin – and one neutral who will very likely go wherever he settles for, faction insignia be damned. Seekers only reluctantly abandon a mate but in this case his programming would deem him in the right. We are not Seekers. As such, it should be our duty to go with him."

"Megatron wouldn't tolerate a human," Ironhide stated just as flatly. Keep them as a pet, maybe, like the fragger had taunted Sam with – and like they didn't all know the 'Cons could be sick fraggers when the mood got them – but not tolerate one of them for any longer than it took to step on it or charge a cannon.

Ratchet laughed briefly, harshly and with no humour in it and even through their shields, Ironhide felt the flare of emotion that accompanied it.

"Spare two humans and leave their home untouched in return for the only Seeker Optimus has left? He would call them 'pets', allow one of the stupider 'Cons to threaten them, and unleash Will to teach the mech a lesson in return. Prove that 'Bot Seeker isn't worthless, be satisfied he had a good hold on Will, and then sit back and laugh at us. Humans live for a very short time, even outside of combat zones, and I know you know it, too. Put up with two humans for the rest of their natural lifespans in return for the only Seeker Optimus has left? He would do it, Ironhide. With Starscream's advice or without it."

Ironhide was about to object when he stopped himself and the words died before they could ever be fully formed. When Ratchet put it that way... he didn't really know the human femme that well and when it came down to it, he didn't doubt that she would side with her new Seeker husband, even against the rest of them. She'd been willing to argue with Ratchet and challenge him for a round two, at least, and she seemed to trust their new Seeker a whole lot more than anyone else did. If Will felt they'd be safe, there wasn't really anything to stop her from going with him...

Like a proper Seeker mate, his mind bit out. Frag it.

"He's human. Used to be," Ironhide clarified, grasping for straws and well aware of it and not giving a frag for the moment. "They're going to figure it out sooner or later. They're not going to put up with something that used to be..."

Used to be human.

He trailed off before he could finish that thought and sighed before Ratchet could even think to argue. "I know Megatron wants to get his claws on him, so he'd accept it, at least, but the rest of the flying fraggers... he used to be human, Ratchet. If they're that much into how superior they are, they're not going to put up with someone tainting the programming like that."

Ratchet just nodded. "On Cybertron, you would have been right." A shrug. "Now, none of them are stable. They've been reduced to a fraction of what they used to be and it's not natural for any of them. The longer they stay like that, the harder it is on their programming and none of them want to spark in the middle of a war. None of them want their sparkling to be the last Seeker left. It won't matter that Will used to be human, it won't matter who may or may not have sent him back here in a Seeker body – what matters is the fact that he's a Seeker and with the number of times Starscream has contacted him, I would say he has passed whatever tests still remained. He wouldn't claim Will unless he considered him a proper Seeker and that is exactly what he has been trying to do. What happened up there today was the last offer of a peaceful defection. Starscream intends to claim him regardless of what we do and he let Will know that. Since he didn't accept the offer, they will just have to resort to more hands-on methods to get him away from us."

Silence. Ironhide wanted to argue but nothing came up and instead he only turned his head to watch the silhouette of the human and the Seeker outside and considered what he had just been told. He wanted to argue but he knew damn well how worried Will had been about turning 'Con on them and that he wouldn't have been so relieved at Ironhide's promise if he hadn't thought it had been a serious concern. And his human mate...

"That's not a healthy human reaction to what she's gone through, is it?"

"I am not an expert on human psychology," Ratchet responded quietly, "and nothing like this has ever happened before. That said, she lost her human husband and got him back, if in a very different shape. That she was willing to accept him at all like this, much less be so stubborn about it... she was given her mate back, Ironhide. To refuse to follow and refuse to trust him if he chooses to leave would mean to lose him again and she never allowed herself to grieve properly in the first place." He paused and looked like he was rapidly developing a processor-ache. "I have had my clash with her. It will not be the last, either. She... seems to have some degree of positive feelings for you so you may have better luck than I. Talking her out of staying with him would be a lost cause, so give her a reason to stay with us instead. Get to know her. Talk with her. She is going to be a companion mate, after all. Let her get to know you, give her incentive to stay through that, and William and the Seeker will notice, too. For now, I suppose that's the best thing we can do."

Frag.

Ironhide suppressed a sigh and resisted the urge to comment that he wasn't Bumblebee. He got along just fine with the NEST team but civilians were something else entirely. "One of these days, I'm going to have a long discussion with Primus about the way that fragger runs things."

There was a flicker of amusement through their bond at that, almost hidden under the emotions from the Seeker. "Not any time soon, you're not, or I'll haul you back myself." Then, more serious- "We need her, Ironhide. We need every hold we can get on him."

He could have argued that he was a front-liner, that he didn't deal with problems he couldn't fix with the right amount of weapons, that he really wasn't the best person to make friendly with a civilian, and any of a dozen other excuses that flickered through his processors, but in the end he just nodded. It was Will's life on the line, the human femme wasn't bad for her kind, and Ratchet did have a point. If she was going to remain a big part of their new Seeker's life, then Ironhide needed to get to know her beyond the short and still slightly awkward conversations they'd held.

One last look at Ratchet and then he turned and headed out of the hangar again, towards their Seeker and its human mate.

Life, he decided, had been so much easier with Will Lennox as a human.