Work Text:
As he had expected, nobody seemed to be in the room when he entered. Seemed being the keyword; the big mech knew very well that the room occupied.
Skyfire knew where to look anyway. The fact that the surveillance camera was focused on a particular corner just confirmed his guesses. He walked as silently as possible to the berth set in a corner of the room and gripping the edge, he dropped to his knees and peered under.
The object of his query was here.
Curled up under the berth, holding a doll made of old rags that truly needed to be cleaned close to his still frame, a little seekerling was recharging peacefully. A wool cover offered by Carly some time before was tangled around the sparkling’s legs. Skyfire felt like smiling.
The gentle gift was rather inefficient in keeping the seekerling warm, but it had become some kind of toy and a familiar, comforting object for the little one. It was a cute sight.
Skyfire didn’t know for sure, but despite his precautions, he had had to make a sound, for suddenly, the seekerling awoke.
Red optics snapped open with a start and a rather frightened chirp escaped the little one’s lips components. Little limbs moved quickly and erratically, and the little body pushed itself farther away from the edge of the berth.
Skyfire tried to sound amiable. “Hello, Starscream,” he said softly.
For all answer, the red and white seekerling pushed himself further against the wall, his doll pressed tightly against his small chassis. His optics were still full of tiredness and he was shivering slightly. Skyfire frowned and activated his scanner. The shaking wasn’t normal. However, the scan picked nothing suspicious. Nothing seemed to be wrong with the sparkling; his intakes were working properly, his core heat was in the norm,…
His stress level seemed to be very high. Oh. Of course. Starscream was afraid; he didn’t know who or what had woke him up from his nap and what this person wanted with him. Seekerlings only tended to be trustful toward elder Seekers if they weren’t in the company of their creators.
Plastering a big smile on his face, Skyfire slowly laid down on the floor, his face turned toward Starscream. The seekerling looked at him warily, one optic peering from behind his ragdoll.
“I’m not here to hurt you!” he said as gently and reassuringly as he could. “I’m Skyfire; do you recognize me? I was the one who took you to see the medic the first time. You remember me, right?” he asked hopefully.
Starscream nodded once, showing that yes, he recognized the big mech. Skyfire continued to smile, but it was a bit forced. He would have preferred a true answer. Of course, he also knew that Starscream never spoke to anyone…
Well, at least, his stress level had decreased. It was a small victory.
“Won’t you come out to greet me properly? I won’t bite, you know that, right?” he asked playfully. Starscream seemed to ponder the question for a klik before shaking his head. No, he wouldn’t come out. Skyfire had to hide his disappointment.
And here he had hoped that his old lab partner returned to infancy would be easily convinced…
How strange it was to see his once upon a time friend and fellow scientist turned warrior, the once great Air Commander of the whole Decepticons Forces, second to the Slag Maker, to be reduced to this little, quiet being. A shy, quiet little thing that kept hiding under the berth in the small room provided for him in the Ark since his ‘capture’ some time ago.
Well, room… it contained a recharge berth for only furniture, the door was always locked from the outside and couldn’t be opened from the inside, at least three cameras were permanently watching over Starscream’s littlest gestures, and – almost – nobody came down here to check on the sparkling or entertain him. There were no toys, no music, nothing and no one to entertain the little one.
It was no acceptable room; it was a prison cell, Skyfire thought grimly. One without energy bars, because that would have been too dangerous for a sparkling, but a prison cell nonetheless.
One would have thought that things could have gone smoother between the sparkling Starscream and most of the Autobots once they realized that for all intents and purposes, they had truly a free from memories, innocent Starscream on their arms.
However, could Skyfire really fault them for their caution or their (ill-placed in his opinion) feelings of loathing toward the little seeker? He had heard the tales of Starscream’s crimes, and seen what his former friend could do…
But that was no excuse to badly treat this lonely sparkling.
Primus, nobody had even thought about getting him some toys so he could play and not just curl himself into a corner, chirping sadly in bother. Or almost nobody anyway; the ragdoll had been given to him by an understanding First Aid, who had wanted to reward him for ‘his good behavior during the exams’. It wasn’t very clean right now, since the baby Seeker tended to let it trail on the floor beside him most of the time, but Starscream had been delighted by this small token.
If such a basic toy could elicit such joy, why didn’t anyone else thought to make more? Really, his fellow Autobots were disappointing him. Was keeping Starscream busy and happy so wrong in their processors? Hopefully, nobody would say anything about the small token the shuttle intended to give his former friend. For Skyfire had come down with a purpose, and he had something else to give to the seekerling…
“Look at what I brought you, Starscream,” he said softly, pulling a handful of colorful blocks out of subspace and putting them on the floor on display. Starscream optics widened slightly and a soft, curious chirp escaped him. Skyfire smiled gently at him. “I made them for you, so you have something to play with. Do you want them?” he asked kindly.
Starscream nodded and finally, after long and excruciating seconds, he started to move and crawl to get out of his hiding place. Skyfire stayed absolutely still on the floor while the baby seeker moved, less he would startle him and have to coerce him into going out again.
It would be bothersome and time consuming, and he hadn’t much time to spare, unfortunately.
Of course, any other ‘bot would have just ditched the ‘nice and sweet’ approach and grabbed the little one out without a second thought. That said, despite being practically mute, anybody having used this method before had quickly discovered that Starscream could still scream his head off when he was too scared, so it certainly wasn’t the best option anyway.
The seekerling hesitated a last time to come out completely from under his ‘safe place’, but finally did it with a familiar look of determination on his face. It really reminded Skyfire of his old friend adult version…
Skyfire watched with a big smile Starscream’s little hand taking carefully one of the colored blocks and approaching it from his face for a closer look, while inspecting it curiously. He was looking so serious that Skyfire had to refrain himself from chuckling. Ah, sparklings…
Starscream did the same thing with all the blocks. After a while, and after a quick glance at the giant mech still lying on the floor, he put down his doll and began to try to assemble some of the cubes into what was possibly a building. Behind him, Skyfire could hear one of the security cameras zooming on the seekerling’s movements, and he grimaced. Red Alert was far too paranoid for his own good, sometimes… What did he expect Starscream to do, anyway? Build a bomb or transmit secret messages with a couple of wood blocks?
A ping on his comm. reminded him his time here was coming to an end and he was needed to patrol. Sighing, he raised himself to his feet, scaring the seekerling in doing so. He had feared it would happen, and he sighed. Starscream had darted under the berth even before Skyfire was totally up, not having forgotten to ‘save’ his doll while doing so.
“I must go, Starscream; I’m on patrol duty, you see, but I promise you I’ll come back very soon with another toy for you. Wouldn’t you like that?” he said gently, catching the tiny red optics that peered at him from under the berth.
There was no answer whatsoever; it was hard to say if Starscream had understood him or not. Ratchet and First Aid and Wheeljack and Perceptor had tested him on motor and language skills more than once, but their results were inconclusive. At the best, they had agreed the seekerling’s age and processor capacity was that of a bright five to ten vorns old, or a rather subdued and slightly retarded fifteen to twenty vorns old.
They also all agreed Starscream was far from being an adult, and his memory banks, checked again and again every orn, showed no progress and no sign he was regaining his adult self memories and persona. There was no guarantee he ever would gain them back, either. Skyfire thought it was a blessing and a curse all in one. Starscream wasn’t a menace, would probably never be one again, but so long there was no proof he wouldn’t change back suddenly, he would be treated horribly for a sparkling.
And he would probably never understand why.
Skyfire gave the room a last glance before leaving, letting his optics drift a bit longer than necessary on the blocks next to the berth. He was almost certain Starscream had taken advantage of the shuttle turning his back to him to take back at least one block in his hiding place.
The thought made him smile.
Despite not knowing exactly just of much Starscream had understood of what he was said or what was happening around him, Skyfire’s spark felt lighter in leaving. At least, he knew the little one had something to occupy himself with, now…