The Warlord's Sparkling

Chapter| 3

Three hours of nonstop chirping and whining had made Megatron just want to crush the stupid sparkling with his bare hands, but yet again he found himself unable to harm it solely because it was of Decepticon origin. Had it been an Autobot, he would've swiftly destroyed it without a second thought. He still didn't quite understand why he felt that way and it frustrated him. A sparkling couldn't possibly be making him soft, it just couldn't be! He refused to believe that!

And on top of that, the Autobots still hadn't shown up on his radar. Earlier, Soundwave had picked up their last signal. Where were they now?

All of this pent up frustration and anger was beginning to give the silver warlord a bad headache, which only added to the miserable situation. At least the sparkling had finally quieted down...

Wait.

Megatron glanced down at the sparkling when he realized how quiet it had gotten over the past minute or so. He raised an optic ridge, noticing that it had just worn itself out and fallen asleep against his chassis. In the very back of his mind, he had a tiny thought that it seemed a little... cute. Once he detected it, however, he quickly shook it off and growled softly, scolding himself for even thinking such a thing. What was he thinking?

"At least the little brat is quiet now...." He murmured under his breath, careful not to wake up the seekerling. A soft sigh escaped him as he lumbered over to the window to watch the stars as the ship slowly drifted along through space.

———

As soon as he received the transmission from Soundwave that the Autobots had been spotted, Megatron immediately ordered their ship to be fired upon with full-force. He watched with glee as the ship that had outsmarted him for so long went up in flames and began plummeting towards a strange planet. There was no need to waste more energon on powering the Nemesis's weaponry, so he called off the attack and simply sat back, allowing fate to take the wheel for a moment. The Autobots were going to crash on that planet and, if there were any survivors, he would get to have the pleasure of hunting them down. His plan was working out brilliantly!

Except for one setback... The sparkling.

Megatron had nearly forgotten about the little brat again in the excitement and now he was forced to make a choice. He could leave the sparkling with one of his Decepticons while he searched for any remaining Autobots, or he could entrust Starscream with the task of leading a squad of Vehicons to vanquish the remaining Autobots. Neither sounded like valid options and bringing the sparkling with him was definitely off the table. Now he wished he had never found the little scrap on Cybertron in the first place.

"My liege, the troops are awaiting your command." Starscream piped up, interrupting his thoughts and drawing his attention. The seeker flinched when he shot him a murderous glare, his wings slowly lowering against his back. "W-What are you going to do with the seekerling?"

Megatron growled softly, blood-red optics flicking down to gaze at the tiny seekerling resting in the crook of his arm. It was teething on its own hand while looking up at him with wide, curious optics. He scowled and glanced back up at his SIC.

"Since I cannot entrust you with the duty of terminating the Autobots alone, I shall be going with you and a squad of Vehicons. Before we depart, bring the sparkling to Knockout so it will be under 24/7 surveillance. Understood?" He huffed in slight annoyance, lumbering over to the seeker and placing the sparkling in his arms.

Starscream looked rather offended at first, but he swallowed his pride and forced a nod as he took the seekerling into his arms. It chirped loudly once it left the safety of Megatron's embrace and held its arms out towards the warlord in a pleading fashion.

::No, you cannot go back to him. It's not safe:: Starscream chirped back to the sparkling in seeker chant, a language with which seekers could communicate with each other without others knowing what they were saying.

That seemed to calm the sparkling for the moment once it identified Starscream as a fellow seeker and not a threat. "Yes, my liege. I shall bring it to Knockout immediately so that we can leave." He replied, turning to leave the room.

"Starscream."

Starscream paused, hesitantly glancing over his shoulder. "Yes?"

Megatron furrowed his optic ridges, a slight expression of interest appearing on his face before it disappeared. "What did you say to it?" He asked, genuinely wanting to know since he had never heard Starscream make such sounds before.

A small smirk overtook Starscream's features and he shrugged. "You wouldn't know. You're not a seeker." And with that, he turned on his heel and swiftly headed for the door.

Megatron growled in annoyance, but decided to leave it be. He could learn how to communicate with the sparkling in his own way. There was no way he was going to let Starscream be the only one who could communicate and therefore control the sparkling. It was his sparkling, and his sparkling alone.