The Warlord's Sparkling

Chapter| 2

The Nemesis was not far from the Autobots' last signal. It had only taken an hour to even get to this point thanks to the powerful engines the ship possessed. Now, Megatron only had to watch and wait.

However, he forgot something.

A soft chirp got his attention and he glanced down, frowning slightly at the tiny seekerling that was cradled up against his chassis. He had completely forgotten about the little one, too wrapped up in his hunger for revenge. The seekerling chirped again and held up its grabby hands as if it was trying to reach his face. He merely growled and looked elsewhere.

The seekerling had other ideas, though. It continued to chirp in all kinds of pitches, trying to get the warlord's attention. Megatron wasn't aware of how seekers communicated through chirps, so he had no idea what the seekerling wanted. And so, after finally losing his patience, he reluctantly called his SIC up to the observation deck to deal with the problem.

Said seeker arrived in a timely fashion, bowing curtly before standing upright before him. "You called, my liege?" He asked, wings perked up proudly on his back.

A low growl of annoyance rumbled within the tyrant's massive chassis as he revealed the seekerling. "This little... abomination won't cease its whining. Tell me what it wants so I can make it stop."

Starscream was frozen in place for a moment, optics widening in utter shock. "A s-seekerling?!" He sputtered, stepping closer to take a look. "Where did you find it?"

"That is none of your concern! Just tell me how to shut it up!" Megatron spat at the seeker, baring his denta. However, in his rage he managed to scare the little seekerling and it started to cry. He hissed in frustration and shoved it into Starscream's arms.

"Well now you've done it!" Starscream muttered, gently holding the seekerling in his arms and fawning over it like a mother would to her own sparkling. He stroked its little wings, shushing it softly so it would stop crying. "You can't be rough with seekerlings. They are quite fragile and scare easily. Also, they are fairly needy when it comes to caring for them. Was it chirping at you?"

Megatron scoffed and crossed his arms across his chassis, pretending not to care. He wasn't one to care for sparklings, he was a warlord! "Yes. The blasted little thing wouldn't stop." He grumbled, watching with slight interest now as the seekerling calmed down. He never knew Starscream could be so gentle. "How did you know what to do?" He demanded, glaring at the seeker.

Starscream rolled his optics, continuing to stroke the seekerling's wings. "Seekers are caretakers by nature, it's in our programming. We're not all heartless, you know." He muttered bitterly. "It was chirping at you because it wanted attention. You have to give seekerlings lots of attention to help with their development."

"If you know so much, then why don't you just take care of it?"

Starscream was appalled. While he would probably enjoy taking care of one of his own, he also wanted to jab back at Megatron for all the things he'd done. It would be quite entertaining to watch the warlord try to care for the little scrap, though he would make sure that it was healthy. He didn't want to see it die.

"Because you found it, my liege. It's probably attached to you now. Besides, you could protect it better than me." He said, handing the seekerling back to Megatron with a smug smile.

Megatron went to snap back, but was distracted by the seekerling being placed back in his arms. He scowled, trying to ignore the way it cuddled up against his warm chassis. Starscream had a point. The wretched seeker could never protect something so small and fragile. "Fine. But you will help me when I require it, understood?"

Starscream chuckled and nodded, fluttering his wings. "Of course, my liege. Anything to assure the survival of one of my kind."

"Keep talking like that and there will be one less of your kind when I'm finished." Megatron seethed through clenched denta, glaring daggers at the seeker.

Starscream swallowed hard and nodded vigorously. "R-Right, my apologies. I'll go now." With that, he slunk out of the room.