"Your crystal talks?" Optimus repeated.

"My carrier." I corrected, "But yes."

"You called you carrier Primus earlier"

It got real quiet for a bit. "Yea..." Primus started, "Disappointed, aren't you?" He asked.

"Oh definitely." Unicron snickered.

"Shut up." I told him.

"You're Primus?" Optimus seemed to be having a seizure.

"The talking crystal, yes." Primus agreed.

"You're only able to hear him because you're a Prime, the others can't." I explained.

"A good one at that." Primus added.

I never knew Optimus could blush, however an alarmed frown took place. "Your Sire-"

I swung out his shard of dark energon, "Has gone off the rails, I know." I interrupted as Unicron gave and uncomfortable squeak. "You can't hear him because you don't have dark energon in you." I explained.

"Your Carrier is Primus..." Optimus repeated.

"Yup." Primus and I said.

"And your Sire is Unicron?"

"Yup."

He stared at the crystals for a while. "What- What kind of relationship do they have?"

"A toxic one." Unicron spat out.

"He says toxic." I pointed at him.

"Neutral." Primus tried.

"Bah!"

"I'd say, passive aggressive." I stated, Optimus seemed to agree before he fell silent again. "Oh and we're linked." I added. "I look through your optics every now and then."

Optimus blinked, "Yes, I feel that. And I-"

"Look through mine sometimes too. And I can do the same with Megatron too."

"Because of the dark energon?"

"Yup." I said and a silence took place. It was awkward. "Well, my back hurts." I started as I started walking away, to the medbay.

Optimus was left standing alone in the hallway, his processor trying to catch up with reality.

"I hate you, I hate you and I hate Optimus." Unicron hissed.

"Optimus isn't that bad." Primus said as I entered the main room.

"Eh." I shrugged.

"What's the bet, he's gonna wake up tomorrow and think it's a dream?" Unicron chuckled.

I swung my legs over the berth and paused, did I really want to lie on my back? I flipped around on my front.

"Maybe, sounds passable." Primus agreed.

"Then you can confuse him all over again." Unicron said.

"Hey, I kind of want to recharge." I told them.

"Okay." Unicron said, "Anyway-"

"Shut up." Primus muttered, "Or at least whisper."

-

-

In the morning.

-

-

I woke up once Ratchet dumped something heavy on the table, Bulkhead woke up alongside me.

"What's that?" I asked, it looked like a bunch of scrap metal.

"Spare metal." Ratchet said, "To patch up your backstruts." He explained.

"Oh."

"And you can start the day by putting all of your dark energon in here." He said and handed me a container.

I heard Unicron snort.

"No."

Ratchet crossed his arms and glared.

"It's not damaging me." I argued and Bulkhead watched, slightly confused.

"Not in the short term perhaps, but in the long term-"

"Long term has passed, I'm fine." I said.

"Perhaps try being polite." Primus suggested.

"Thank you for your concern." I finished Ratchet scoffed and got back to the metal.

"How did you manage to make that sound sarcastic?" Primus asked.

"No idea." I shrugged and watched Ratchet sort and cut some scrap to smaller sizes. Bulkhead sat up with some difficulty and Ratchet raced to push him down again.

"Why aren't they asking you about our identities, I mean, after yesterday." Unicron started.

"He was heavily sedated, they probably think he was making us up." Primus explained.

Ratchet wasted no time warning me as he slapped a plate of metal onto my back and welded it on. "Ow." I mumbled and he dialed down the heat a bit.

"This wouldn't have happened if you had just stayed at base." Ratchet murmured.

"This wouldn't have happened if you had just left me on the plains." I shot back.

"I second that." Unicron agreed, "What's he doing anyway?" He asked.

"Welding my backstruts with metal plates." I explained as ped steps approached.

Ratchet paused in his welding to look up at the approaching mech, "I've made a medical report on that data pad." He nodded off to the table, next to the metal. "You look tired."

Optimus mumbled something and picked up an energon cube.

"What was that?"

"I didn't get much recharge." He explained.

Unicron snorted in amusement.

"I told you to leave that report for Fowler for today." Ratchet fussed as he applied some pressure to the metal.

I let out a squeak of protest.

"I did." Optimus said, "I was just thinking."

"Don't worry, anything for the first time is hard." Ratchet snorted.

"Ha! The relic has some humor after all!" Unicron laughed.

"He's not that old." Primus said and Optimus seemed to be harboring a helmache.

"How old are you?" I asked Ratchet as he slapped on another piece of metal. This seems like a sloppy patch job.

"Old."

"Told you." Unicron bleated smugly.

"I wish I could join the allspark." Primus mumbled in defeat as Optimus left the bots/crystal feeding his helmache.

"What happened to the ground bridge?" Optimus called from the other room.

"Don't admit to anything." Unicron said as Ratchet left to follow.

"Huh?" He asked.

"Why is it steaming?" Optimus asked him.

"I don't know- The youngling." Ratchet finally concluded.

"You have no evidence!" I shouted back.

"You deal with him, I have to fix this." Ratchet demanded and the next thing I know, Optimus is back in the medbay.

"What did you do?" He asked, tiredly.

"Nothing."

"He pulled the lever, twice." Primus said.

"Well, you do great under pressure." I mumbled and looked up at Optimus, "You look like you're going to fall over at any moment." I noted.

"Just don't touch the ground bridge in future." Optimus said and walked off to Ratchet. "I'm going for a drive." He muttered and the sounds of transformation followed.

Then my vision took a stroll over to another bot. Not Megatron this time. I had a clear view of him.

"Is that wise?" Whoever I was looking through asked.

"You question my competence, Starscream?" Megatron turned sharply and glared, it was a scary glare.

"Ah- Of course not Lord Meg-"

At that point I was pulled back by Unicron's chatter. "Ya looking at Meg's private life?" He asked.

"No." I said confused, "It was Starscream." I said and Bulkhead lent a glance in question.

"Starscream?" Primus started, "How?"

"Maybe he has some dark energon now too." Unicron suggested.

"Yea, I think he heard you before." I muttered as Ratchet came back.

"If I find that you have tampered with the ground bridge again-" Ratchet started.

"Shush, I'm talking to someone." I said.

"When?" Unicron asked.

"When he shot you?" Primus asked.

"Yea, he looked a bit confused." I said as Ratchet rolled his optics and got back to work.