Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was not unusual of Rodimus to completely ignore any communication sent his way, with him being especially adept at dodging Mangus's seemingly endless paperwork, but he at least would give some indication that he had seen Drift's request to spar.

Something felt wrong, Ratchet wasn't there at the moment, the crystals throughout his room were not resonating with him, and he felt twitchy in a way he han't been in a very long time. So Drift made his way from his and Ratchet's habsuite to the captains quarters to ensure that nothing was wrong.

'I'm being paranoid, I'm sure nothing is wrong at all,' Drift tried to convince himself as he walked down the corridor of the Lost Light,'but I should lay eyes on Rodi at the very least.'

Just as he stood in front of Rodimus's habsuite doors, Drift hesitated, 'I should probably just go check on Brainstorm and Perceptor, the chances of them working on something incredibly dangerous is high and that could be what is throwing the aura off.' He took a step back from the door and pivoted to turn towards the lab.

*BANG*

That sound didn't come from the lab, it came from the room right behind him.

Drift pivoted again and pounded on the door, "Rodimus! Is everything ok in there?!" No response. "Rodimus please open the door," Silence. "RODIMUS THIS BETTER NOT BE SOME DUMB PRANK!"

Still nothing.

Drift placed his hand on the scanner in hopes Rodimus had forgotten to remove Drift's free access to his quarters, which thankfully, he had.

The door slid open to reveal an absolutely wrecked room, the table was overturned, the walls were on fire, pillows were strewn all over and; wait THE WALLS ARE ON FIRE! Drift quickly leapt into action, spraying flame retardant (he had long since learned being Rodimus's friend required certain precautions) to smother the fire while darting his optics side to side in order to try and see either Rodimus and his attacker.

"Rodimus where are you?" Drift shouted as the walls were now only smoldering and not actively burning. There seemed to be no signs of a shoot out, so the attacker must've either had a blade or was a hand-to-hand combatant. Rodimus could've already been dragged to a second location or even killed, but the noise Drift had heard from outside might've been

*Chirp*

That sounded like a sparkling, but no one on board brought a sparkling with them or would've been able to fully carry

*Chirrrrrp*

Drift cautiously looked towards the source of the noise, it sounded like it was right behind the couch, so he slowly grabbed the edge of it and peered over.
Yep that was a sparkling reaching up at him

*chirp chirp chirp!*

Its little grabby hands motioned for Drift to pick the thing up, but Drift couldn't move a digit. It looked like Rodimus, 'how did this..why did this...what happened' Drift couldn't move an only think in a loop, his processor nearly shorting out over trying to comprehend how his friend had become so small.
'I must be hallucinating, I need to call Ratchet'

-----------

"WHAT DO YOU MEAN RODIMUS IS A SPARKLING!"

Chapter Text

Ratchet liked his medbay to be run with precision and accuracy, he knew when he got in his “Medic Mode” that he could be unpleasant to be around, but honestly he didn't care as long as the job was done at the end of the cycle.

This was not shaping up to be done by the end of the cycle.

His Conjunx, who could usually spend hours still in a meditative trance, fidgeted restlessly with a sparkling that was fast asleep in his lap, a sparkling that was supposedly Rodimus.

Ratchet couldn't help but sigh at the absurdity of this situation, but he really should’ve expected something like this by now knowing the unpredictable nature of being the CMO on the Lost Light. At this point it could be assumed the multiverse just couldn't leave him undisturbed for more than a few solar cycles.

“So,” Ratchet began “you heard a noise from Rodimus’s room, broke in, put out a fire, and then discovered the sparkling.”

“Then I commed you,” Drift responded with a forced calm Ratchet knew came from his fear regarding the...situation with the apparently now child co-captain.

“And you're sure that this is in fact our Rodimus and not some sort of multiversal shenanigans that somehow swapped our Rodimus with a baby one.”

“Of course I’m sure! His aura is the exact same!”

“Wouldn't it be the same since it would still be a version of Rodimus?”

“...No?”

“Was that a question or a declaration?”

“Don't sound like Magnus sweetspark”

“Don't distract me from the question dear.” and with that Ratchet knew he had won the debate at least for the moment, but a medical exam would certainly help clarify what exactly they were dealing with.

Ratchet sighed again at the sight of his conjux once again fidgeting and full of nervous energy, if he could sense auras he knew that Drift’s would be rancid “Just pass him over here, I’ll run a scan to see if I can find any inconsistencies between the Co-Captain and the bitty in front of us.”

Drift gratefully and gracefully passed the still sleeping sparkling towards Ratchet, and while it stirred slightly, it thankfully remained oblivious towards the world around it.

The full frame scan ran in near silence, the faint hum of the machine was seemingly the perfect sound for Drift to meditate to, leaving Ratchet alone with his own thoughts.

‘What if this is Rodimus?’
‘What is this isn’t Rodimus?’
‘How could I fix this?’
‘What if I can't fix this?’
'Drift would be devastated’

As if sensing his name Drift cracked open his optics and placed a servo on Ratchet's shoulder,

“Your aura is troubled, but I don't need to ask why, just remember that I love you. You can fix this if it is something you need to fix.”

Ratchet leaned into the servo and exhaled a sigh of relief, his other half always knew how to support him when he needed it.

*SQUEEEEEEEEE*

Oh Primus the beast has awoken, at least the scan was almost done WAIT NO ITS ON FIRE!!!!

Alarms began to flash wildly throughout the medbay (as a fire in an area with a multitude of flammable chemicals and potentially immobile patients was a major concern) and Drift quickly rose to douse the flames as he had done not too long ago.

“I got it! I got it!” Drift tried to assure, as only a small spurt managed to exit the nozzle, “Huh, guess I used all of it earlier.”

Ratchet was already plotting on how best to throw a wrench at his idiot's head as soon as the immediate problem was over when Velocity raced into the room, extinguisher in servo and proceeded to bring the fire to nothing but a smolder.

Velocity tilted her helm condescendingly in the couple's direction “How in Solus's name did you manage to start a fire by doing a simple scan?” she teased, “Unless you two were bumped into into to it while-”

*bwap*

Velocity turned around towards the ruins of the scanner and Ratchet braced his audio receptors for what he knew was about to happen.

“WHY IS RODIMUS A SPARKLING!!!” she shrieked.

Drift’s flinch at the noise proved that he hadn't had the same foresight Ratchet had.

Ratchet let out his third disappointed sigh of the past Joor. This was going to be a long cycle.

Chapter Text

Covered in foam, Rodimus was obviously not happy. His little grimace, angry eyes, and a stream of upset noises paired with his negative EM field would have been mildly threatening if he had been full size, but Velocity could help but find them adorable in his current state.

“So we have no idea how this happened,” She said while carefully approaching the tiny co-captain.

“None,” Drift confirmed while following closely behind her.

The two gracefully surrounded the burnt scanner, poised to apprehend the child should he make a break off the edge of the table he sat on. Velocity heard a snicker from Ratchet who was just sitting in the corner, couldn't he help with this instead of laughing from the side?

‘Focus Lotty, keep your boss from throwing himself off a table’ she thought as she watched Rodimus’s optics glance around and lock in on the grumpy medic in the corner and stick his glossa out at him with a disgruntled

*bleh*

Velocity barely kept it together, then she looked up at Drift and realized that he wasn't. A servo covering his intake and entire frame shaking with the force of his laughter. Perks of conjunxing the mech she supposed.

Ratchet didn't seem to be pleased both Rodimus’s behavior and his partner's reaction to said behavior.

“Don't encourage him,” Ratchet snapped, combined with a sharp glare at said partner.

“When have I ever done that?” Drift replied with a muffled voice due to the servo still covering the lower half of his helm, optics full of mirth.

When she turned back to the task of wrangling the sparkling, all she saw was a pile of foam and the parts of the machine. Oh no.

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

Ultra Magnus was prepared for a great many things. He had every Cybertronian code of conduct and ethics memorized, every peace treaty with every alien race that has forged one with Cybertron, and was ready to leap into combat at a moment's notice should his allies require him to. But that happened much less these days, and he greatly appreciated it. He also appreciated forming deeper bonds between himself and those he was now considering friends.

What he was not prepared for was a comm from Ratchet that he could barely comprehend. It made no sense that the mech he had come to trust over a multiversal journey would inexplicably become sparkling.

When he arrived in the medbay, Magnus immediately knew where to go, simply by following the yelling coming from Ratchet’s wing of the room.

“HOW DID HE SLIP AWAY FROM US?” ah that was Drift.

“I DON’T KNOW, YOU FRAGGERS LOOKED AWAY TO FLIRT WITH EACH OTHER AND THEN HE JUST VANISHED,” Velocity was here too he supposed, it was nice to get all the establishing details for the incident report before it was time to file it. The more that was there, the quicker he could move on to the next item to be filed away.

Swiftly turning the corner, Magnus saw a concerning scene before him. Drift and Velocity arguing, the remnants of fire extinguisher foam, and a full frame scanner in burned pieces. Upon his entrance to the room, Drift and Velocity ceased their argument and whipped around to stare in shock at the room's third occupant.

“You called Magnus?” Velocity asked with a curious tone.

“Well while you two were talking I saw that,” Ratchet said with a point towards the vent in the room. Which was somehow wide open and a trail of foam lead up and into it.

“Ah,” Drift said in understanding “That's why you called Magnus.”

Magnus couldn't help but become more confused by each new detail added

“I must admit I am still confused as to the nature of this incident, and must-”

“Here's the deal, we'll fill out your reports, and you go find the sparkling in the vents,” Ratchet said as if it was the most normal thing that could possibly be said.

“Ratchet, how is he going to get in the vents, maybe Rewind or one of the other minis but not,” Velocity made a wide gesture in his direction “that.”

Ultra Magnus lumbered over towards the vent, now realizing exactly why Ratchet called him,

“If this all turns out to be an elaborate set up-”

The couple both laughed.

“...is this a set up?”

“No, I guess great minds think alike though, considering how we both thought the same before seeing Rodimus in front of us, just find him quickly? I don't trust the stability of this ship's vent.”

Ratchet’s statement made sense, however much he may not have wanted to spend a cycle hunting around the interior of the ship. He reluctantly exited his Magnus Armor and Minimus Ambus entered the vents with hopes of a quick search and rescue of one of his captains.

While taking his first steps into the vent, the tiny mech thought to himself

‘Has the other captain been informed of this?’

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

The other captain had not, in fact, been informed of his other captain’s predicament.

Megatron lay in his berth in deep recharge, entirely oblivious to the situation that was currently sprialing outside of his quarters. He heard a small commotion earlier, but had quickly brushed it off. It was likely just Rodimus being collected for a shift of paperwork that he was desperately trying to avoid.

He knew he was drifting into and out of recharge, his past sins and losses, though lifetimes away, were impossible to avoid when his subconscious was allowed to run free while he lay in his berth.

He knew this was the case, especially when he felt a small warmth crawl on top of his legs, make its way to right on top of his spark, and curl into a ball.

Like Ravage used to do.

Ravage was dead.

So many were dead.

But for a moment, Megatron could pretend.

Could pretend that one of his closest friends was still beside him.

Like he hadn't left them all behind to save himself.

Like he hadn't let Soundwave down.

Left him a cassette short.

Megatron brought his arms to cradle the weight on his chest, and he swore he felt it purr happily.

He would need to talk to Rung when he woke up.

Chapter Text

Minimus hated the vents.

They were cramped even for him, unfathomably cold, and dusty beyond anything that would meet any sort of regulation. He should really consider adding dusting the vents to the tier one chore cycle. Maybe Brainstorm could develop a shrink ray, if he hasn't already.

The only consolation was that the escapee had left a trail of the foam that Minimus assumed he had been sprayed with considering he saw the same foam on the burned machine.

‘I suppose a sparkling would have far less control over flame wielding abilities than an older bot, but then again, control has never been Rodimus’s specialty’ Minimus thought with just a twinge of concern.

Hopefully it would all be over soon, and Rodimus would be found and returned to normal in no time.

Just after concluding that train of thought he thankfully reached the end of the trail of foam which was...smoldering?

It appeared as though in a frustrated fit about not being able to remove the vent cover from the inside, that Rodimus had simply decided to burn it away making the surrounding portions of the vents,

The vent Minimus was crawling through collapsed beneath him.

unstable.

----------

Coming out of recharge was always a slow process.

Unless a sudden loud noise occurred.

Megatron had gotten very good at quickly moving after hearing a loud noise when in his berth. Starscream’s many attempts to end his existence over the vorns necessitated his own swift response.

Throwing his optics open Megatron sat up scanned the room as fast as he could, there was a massive hole in the vents why would there be a hole that size?

*BEEP-BWAP WAAAAOUUU*

That’s a sparkling, sitting there, right there on the ground in front of him, and it looks like Rodimus? And now it's making a racket while holding its arms up as if asking to be held. Ah, this must've been the weight on his chest, good to know he hadn't been hallucinating.

Well, hallucinating something physically interactable, appointments with Rung still happen every deca-cycle.

*boop?*

Right the sparkling that may or may not be his co-captain. Stranger things have happened on this vessel. What was strange was the EM pulse of fear and shame that accompanied the last noise. Though Megatron may have poked at Rodimus's sense of self in the past, he had never received such a visceral response before.

He slowly knelt to wrap his servos around the tiny mech and raised him so the two could now see optic to optic.

The sparkling lit up as soon as Megatron had begun to hold him and let his excitement and relief show with a long train of cheerful beeps and whistles while pulsing nothing but joy through his field and wrapping his own tiny servos around Megatron’s.

Primus, he was even smaller than Rewind.

Why had he come and found his way to this room, surely he would've seeked out his usual friends in his likely disoriented state?

And why after finding him did he just want to be held?

Before his processor could continue down that route, Megatron heard a grumble to his right, a grumble he placed almost instantly.

“Minimus?”

“...give me just a kilk” the even more recognizable voice replied gruffly as Megatron watched green digits find purchase on the desk and slowly bring the mech into a standing position.

“I have questions” Megatron stated as he continued to hold the ball of energy in his servos, and moved it in the direction of Minimus to make his question obvious.

“I wish I had answers Megs, but all I know is that he was in the medbay, likely brought there by Drift, and then staged a great escape by setting a scanner on fire and making a dash to the vents. However the trail of foam left behind greatly aided in the search for him.” Minimus efficiently explained.

“And he burned a hole in the vents to get to me?”

“It appears so, though my rough entrance likely didn't help their look.”

“So we have no idea how Rodimus became, like this?”

“None, though Drift was on his way to see the scientists of the ship to see if they had any ideas or explanations.”

“This is likely Brainstorm’s fault isn't it?”

“If you wanted to inform Skids about this situation you would likely make good shanix with that guess.”

Megatron let out a small snort.

“I wasn't aware you knew of the betting pools.” Megatron teased while Rodimus seemed to read the energy in the room and began to short vents that made some of the most adorable laughter Megatron had ever heard.

With the captain being so little, he would need to be taken care of for the foreseeable future. Megatron never saw the appeal in little ones, but he wouldn't just leave Rodimus behind. The reaction he had had from being ignored earlier had nothing to do with this.

Nothing at all.

“I can take him back to medbay to finish Ratchet’s scans if you wish to get answers with Drift,” Minimus offered while holding out his servos to accept the sparkling.

“He is still half your size, it will be faster for me to take him,” Not because he didn't want to put Rodimus down and then hear disappointed noises and feel that upsetting EM field.

When Megatron began his walk to the medbay, the tiny captain began climbing out of his servos and made his way to his shoulder. With a little boost up, Rodimus had successfully managed to sit behind his left headlight and wrap himself around that while continuing to chirp happily directly into his audio receptors.

Megatron usually preferred the quiet, but he couldn’t find it in him to be mad about the current lack of it.

----------

“So!” Drift called out as he strided into the laboratory, “for no reason in particular, have either of you been experimenting with, I don't know, random subject here, de-aging?”

The two mechs he addressed quickly pulled apart from each other accompanied by the sound of a faceplate sliding into place.

“Ah, uh I don't think so?” Perceptor responded while attempting to adjust his monocle.

“Not me! Just been reviewing Rodimus's internal coding for the past few days, the matrix does so much wacky stuff to a mech and I want to see if I can replicate it!” Brainstorm cheerfully explained.

“When did Rodimus let you scan all of his coding?” Perceptor asked with a raised brow.

“Let me? No, no, no, no, I’ve been getting chunks of it while he was recharging!”

Silence filled the room.

“What? Oh wait, that's not something I should've confessed to out loud. I just thought he would be touchy about that subject you know?”

“Have you been doing anything to his code?” Drift tensely asked, approximately five kliks from losing it and desperately trying to find his normal inner peace.

“Oh nothing big, like just last night cycle I was looking at his reformatting code, since that's what upgrades he gets when becoming a Prime, and there was some sort of anomaly asking to run so I let it. I mean, it was probably just something that only Primes had and I didn't want to do anything that would hurt Rodimus since he's my number one supporter of crazy ideas. Anyways, why are you asking about this?”

Drift took a deep inhale.

Chapter Text

When it comes to relationships, trust and communication were some of the most important aspects in ensuring their longevity. Rung had explained this extensively during his and Brainstorm’s couples counseling.

They had needed it after, well, everything.

Supporting each other through hard times and not running away (though time or otherwise) was also a key lesson Perceptor thought was important for his future conjunx to understand.

However, he couldn't find it in him to stand by Brainstorm’s side as Drift lunged with yellow optics and claws aimed at neck cables.

“IN HIS RECHARGE?!!” Drift had fully tackled him to the ground and was now wailing on Brainstorm, his mask cracking beneath the heavy hits. Perceptor knew how much the ex-con prided himself on not losing control of his emotions, how hard he tried to distance himself from who he was during the majority of the war.

Perceptor wasn't even sure what exactly happened, wait.

De-aging.

Rodimus.

Brainstorm let something run through Rodimus's systems that even he didn't understand.

Oh no.

“HAVEN’T WE ALREADY HAD ENOUGH ISSUES WITH CONSENT ON THIS SHIP?!?” Drift shouted while continuing his beat down.

Oh slag he needed to keep his brilliant idiot from offlining.

Perceptor carefully approached the conflict as one would a wild turbofox fight, then shouted in order to be heard loud and clear over the screech of metal on metal,

“Drift if he's dead he can't help fix it!”

The next punch halted half a kilk before impact.

“Fine, but he's going back on probation and will not be allowed access to any technology without supervision.”

Drift slowly stood, the intent to murder no less prevalent in his eyes.

“Yep, yep totally got it now what am I fixing?” his idiotic partner said while struggling to stand on his own.

“Rodimus has become a sparkling.”

“Wait what? Oh! The reformatting code! It must've triggered in reverse? Somehow? When I, uh, took a peek at it? The shouldn’t be possible but, then again most everything I’ve done has been considered ‘imPosSibLe’ or ‘aGaiNsT tHe laWs of nAtuRe.’” Brainstorm rambled while grabbing a spray he had developed to speed up the healing process and applying it directly on his cracked faceplate, and adding finger quotes to the end of his sentence.

Perceptor needed to get Drift and Brainstorm in separate rooms if he did ever want to conjunx someone someday.

“We should go ahead and assess the situation while Brainstorm gathers what he needs, where is Rodimus?”

Drift’s murder face dropped into… embarrassment?

“Uhhhh…”
--------

Megatron had ended up carrying two mechs towards medbay, as Minimus had realized that he didn't want to crawl back through ‘disgusting’ vents to get back to his armor.

Thus, each of his shoulders carried a small weight, one near constantly fidgeting and the other as stiff as an inanimate object.

‘What has my existence become?’ Megatron thought, not for the first time since he had agreed to hurdle through the multiverse indefinitely. Yet he couldn't deny that the life he now lived was a good one.

When he first boarded the Lost Light, he hadn't expected anything like this. He had expected and received hostility, but eventually won over and was won over by mechs he could now consider friends, or more. Namely one of the mechs on his shoulder, the one who still didn’t seem to know that he didn't have to maintain parade rest on his shoulder.

“You can relax.”

Minimus’s entrie frame jumped.

The soft laughter tiny Rodimus made earlier returned, which in turn, softened the features on the green mech.

“Apologies, this whole situation has me very out of sorts, there isn't exactly a reliable next step.”

“When has there ever been here?”

“Point taken. Though you have to admit that this is more than unusual, even for us.”

“I’m sure this will all be temporary, we’ve gotten out of worse before haven't we?” Megatron smirked.

“I suppose so,” Minimus conceded while leaning towards Megatron. This action ended with his full weight around Megatron's helm, arm wrapped protectively behind it, and his own helm resting on top. This new position allowed Minimus to fully take in the sight of the sparkling.

“I wonder if he’ll remember this” Minmius wondered aloud while reaching the arm not around Megs helm towards Rodimus, who responded in kind with what were becoming his signature grabby servos and beeps of delight.

Megatron’s spark definitely didn't warm up at hearing this interaction.

The moment was calm and oddly domestic, so of course it couldn't last.

Whirl stumbled down the hall from right in front of them.

“Heyyyy guys, whatsss shaking huh?”

Oh Whirl was heavily intoxicated.

“Whirl you should have your partners take you back to your habsuite, you are clearly in no condition to wander the halls in your current state.” Oh Primus bless him, Minimus was actually trying to get a mech who barely listened on a good day to listen while having just stumbled out of Swerves.

“Current state, shmurent cate. Is that the other captain on your shoulder? I must be worse off then I thought!” Whirl then half crumpled over against the wall exventing at an alarming rate.

‘Slag, forgot about Rodimus, how are we supposed to tell the crew?’ Megatron thought as he attempted to continue on his path to the medbay.

“Wait! I gotta show the guys my hallucination!” Whirl nonsensically stated as he, with speed a mech at his inebriation level should be able to achieve, snatched Rodimus clean off his shoulder and booked it to Swerve’s.

As Megatron’s processor caught up and he proceeded to give chase with Minimus clinging to his helm in desperation, he could help but think,

‘What was the human phrase Rodimus liked using? Ah right, we are so fucked.’

---------

“GUYS CHECK THIS SLAG OUT!! MY HALLUCINATIONS NOW HAVE PHYSICAL FORM!!!”

Every optic swerved (ha) towards the entrance to the bar.

And there stood Whirl, holding a tiny Rodimus?

huh. Was he also gonna have to ban random unexplainable entrances to his bar? No, those happened too often and were his biggest source of entertainment besides watching couples drama unfold in real time in front of him.

His bar would always be open to the chaos of those around him.

“Beloved, please explain what exactly happened in the brief moments you exited our sight?” Cyclonus calmly asked while holding his other partner who was halfway to falling asleep before Whirl’s dramatic entrance.

“Dude ok so, I’m strutting around perfectly fine back to our suite right? Then! I see our co-captain and our TIC’s smaller part and! This little fella!” Whirl ended with a punctuation of his arms upwards, bringing the sparkling sky high.

*beep beep beep!*

Yeah that was definitely a sparkling, full grown mechs don't make those beeps, slag someone needs to make sure that Whirl doesn't drop it and break it's helm open.

But why does it look like Rodimus???

“Awww, gimme!” Tailgate, still half out of it, demanded.

Whirl happily complied. And it didn't seem like the sparkling had any qualms about being passed around.

See he used the word qualms correctly, take that Nautica! He can use advanced vocabulary!

The bar was alive with whispers,

“...how?”

“Is that Rodimus?”

“No it can't..”

“Did anyone see..”

“PLACE YOUR BETS NOW! IS THIS OUR CO- CAPTAIN OR MAYBE IT’S HIS KID? OR WHATEVER YOU WANT TO STAKE YOUR SHANIX ON!!” Oh great Skids was already at it, well more drinks sell when people are trying to convince themselves to buy into his business, so who was he to stop the good mechs of this establishment from going about their business.

Of course this was when the other co-captain strode in with, oh slag Whirl wasn't lying, the little green mech (always forget his designation) that he knew was Ultra Magnus riding on his shoulder.

With swift movements and no comments, tiny Rodi, as Swerve was dubbing him, was grabbed and quickly ushered out of the bar.

The whispers turned to shouting, it was hard for Swerve to pick out any individual comment but the general sentiment was clear,

What the frag is going on?