I kinda can't believe this has gotten any attention at all- I've gotten three reviews so far, and I'm so grateful for all three of them. It's so cool to see people who think my writing is so good and who are genuinely interested in where my story is going- so, for any of you that see this- thank you so much for your support!! It made me really happy :)

Now, on to the story.

Since Mirage had taken over as the "owner of the Solar Flare", she and Starscream had formed a sort of mutual respect. This essentially meant that while they weren't close, they would try to be civil for Seismic's sake. To say that this excited Seismic was an exaggeration; the young femme was ecstatic, and she wouldn't hesitate to mention it whenever she saw either one of them. Starscream always shook his helm, faceplates flushed in embarrassment, while Mirage looked on with amusement.

Business was booming even more than before, what with Starscream not technically being the owner anymore. Bots who were interested in becoming new residents were now meeting Mirage rather than him before being given their quarters, and because he spent all hours of the day outside of the Solar Flare, he was no longer making bots uncomfortable with his very presence. Overall, life was good.

Starscream vented from atop the Solar Flare. He supposed he shouldn't complain; business was going well for the femmes, and Seismic had an older femme example in her life. That's not to say that Starscream wasn't happy with his makeshift family, or that he wasn't feeling better in general; he was, but underneath his joy was a faint sense of loneliness and unsatisfaction. Even he wasn't entirely sure what caused it; he'd spoken to Seismic about it on multiple occasions, only to be met with sympathy and more of her absurd theory about him needing to bring more bots into his family. The Seeker vented again, staring off into space.

He blinked. Then, to make sure he wasn't seeing things, he blinked again. Sure enough, he saw something low in the atmosphere that was burning through the air at a very high velocity. Whatever object was burning itself a path was hurtling in their general direction at increasing speeds. It's movement was inconsistent, uncontrolled, almost as if-

"A crash-landing." Starscream breathed. "Oh, Primus-"

Everyone within a ten mile radius felt the impact the ship made with the ground. Starscream himself was thrown to his aft, and the Solar Flare beneath him shifted with an agonizing groan; he could hear the panicked cries of the bots inside, terrified the ship would topple.

"Stay calm!" Starscream exclaimed, activating his COMM and connecting it to the PA system. "This is Starscream speaking; there is no need to panic. I repeat, there is no need to panic. This vessel is perfectly safe; that shake was a crash landing nearby."

Even more cries of panic erupted through the ship, and Starscream vented. He felt a ping as Mirage spoke exasperatedly into his COMM, "You're scrap at calming bots down. Let me handle this." He could almost feel her glare as she hung up.

He must've stared at the smoking wreckage for several minutes before Seismic burst through the hatch in the floor/roof, startling the Seeker. "Where's the ship?"

Starscream pointed wordlessly to the crashed ship in the near distance. Seismic's jaw dropped. "We have to help! Somebody's probably trapped in there!"

"My sentiments exactly." Starscream grunted as he transformed in spot, staying still as Seismic climbed on top of him. He jetted off at a slow enough speed that the femme was able to stand up without the danger of falling off. The pair hovered next to the wreckage and Seismic jumped off; Starscream transformed next to her.

"Hello?" Seismic called. "Is anyone there?"

There was no reply.

Starscream vented. Somewhat reformed or not, he wasn't keen on having to search through wreckage, even to save a bot's life. He turned to Seismic for her decision, only to be elbowed urgently; he glanced in the direction she was looking and his optics widened.

A mech pulled himself from the exit of wreckage, wincing with every movement as he stood up, gait ragged and clumsy. He lifted his helm to look at them for a moment, exposing brilliant blue optics, then dropped it again. He shuddered a gasping vent and collapsed to his knees, shaking, helm in servos.

Seismic sprinted to the mech, Starscream in tow; she then knelt down next to him and Starscream stood awkwardly. "Are you okay?"

The mech (Starscream now realized he was enormous, with tires on the sides of his legs and wings folded along his chassis, as well as a bold crimson, black, and silver combination) lifted his helm, and Seismic let out a sad breath; coolant was streaming from his optics, and Starscream could now tell that he was only a bit older than Seismic, perhaps a little younger than Mirage. The femme in question gently grabbed one of the mech's large servos in her own very small ones.

"What's wrong?" She asked gently, with the voice of a soothing mother. The mech sniffed, then his frame shook as he let out another sob. Starscream sat down awkwardly next to the pair, and the mech seemed to take notice of the Seeker. He wiped his optics of coolant and spoke for the first time.

"This is- was- the Chosen Path." The mech began in a voice- somewhere between tenor and baritone- that rang with the youth of someone who'd never truly experienced the tragedies of war. Starscream assumed that was precisely the case and estimated that the mech had been birthed sometime around the time they'd-

Starscream shook his helm out, spark aching in familiar grief, but this wasn't the time for that. He forcefully turned his thoughts towards the young mech in front of him, just as said mech took a long, painful intake.

"My carrier- my mother- she birthed me on that ship. That's the only place I've ever really known, outside of fuel stations. I lived there for my whole life. And now, it's gone." The mech choked on another sob and tried to swallow it; he didn't succeed. "She's gone."

"I'm so sorry," Seismic whispered sadly, her other servo massaging comforting circles into his back; Starscream knew from experience that her massages were quite soothing. "What was her name?"

"Ember." The mech swallowed. "Her name was Ember."

"I bet you miss her," Seismic empathized, letting her sadness for the young mech seep into her voice. Starscream's own deeply-buried empathy was making itself known; frankly, Starscream was not enjoying how much he related to this mech. "It sounds like you loved her a lot."

"I did." The mech laughed a short, broken laugh. "I do. I love her so fragging much." He lowered his helm. "And now she's-" He shuddered an exhale and relaxed slightly into Seismic's skilled digits.

"My condolences." Starscream cleared his throat after he spoke his first words to the mech. Seismic sent him a small smile.

The mech sniffled. "Thank you." He began to stand up, his large pedes making audible thuds as he settled into his position. He held out a servo to help Seismic stand up, and she gave him a kind smile. Starscream followed suit and was immediately unsettled by how much the younger mech towered over him; he was easily several heads taller than him, and his shoulders, twice as broad.

"Primus, he's enormous." Starscream muttered under his breath.

The other mech heard and shrugged with a small, apologetic smile that gave the Seeker deja vu. "Mother always told me my sire was a big mech. I never really believed her until I grew up."

Starscream hid his snort with a cough. "A 'big mech' indeed."

If Starscream only came up to this mech's chestplates, Seismic only reached his waist. She stared up at him as if expecting some comment on her height and optic color, but he only stared down at her with grateful blue optics and a slight grin on his faceplates. Seismic held up her tiny servo to shake his larger one. "I'm Seismic."

The mech shook her servo, sadness temporarily replaced with a youthful grin. "I'm Orion."

Starscream's optics bulged out and he nearly choked on an intake. As Orion's attentive gaze turned to him, he cycled his intakes as fast as he could to hide his reaction. "Starscream."

He expected some sort of backlash, even a little bit, because even bots outside of the war had heard of the notorious deeds of Commander Starscream. What he got was a joyous grin, one that shook him to the core with strange familiarity, although he was sure he'd never seen it before. "It's great to meet you, Seismic and Starscream."

Orion took a large intake and smiled softly (Starscream was going to lose his processor if he couldn't figure out where he'd seen that grin before). "You're the first two Cybertronians I've met outside of Mother." His grin faded, his faceplates darkening with a new realization. "I don't have a home anymore."

He looked shyly down at Starscream and Seismic, an odd sight from such a large mech. "Do you happen to know of a place where I could stay?"

Seismic and Starscream exchanged glances. Then, with twin smirks, they said, "We know a place."

This was a royal pain at first to write, at least up until the point where the ship actually crashed. Then I think everything flew by pretty well. Orion is my favorite character in this story outside of Starscream himself and maybe one or two other characters I haven't introduced yet. This story just gets more and more complicated as it goes, and there are quite a few stories to tell. Expect this fic to be very long, for reasons I can't explain yet. I hope you all like Orion and his introduction; like I said, he's one of my favorite characters in this fic. I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter!

Don't forget to vote, comment, and follow! I'd love to hear your (hopefully positive) thoughts!

SalixEnder03