Chapter Text
He was a scientist and an engineer, never mind the fact that most of experiments resulted in them blowing up in his face but this, this would be his magnum opus.
He just had to stop the sparkling from grabbing various tools he had already organized in his drawers. The little bot was even smaller than Rumble, waddling around trying to calibrate its gyroscope and control the strength of its little servos. A shard of his own spark gave life to his greatest creation: a clone of himself. He had originally planned on carrying the sparkling to term, but the resources, which they still didn’t really have, was better spent on preventing an accident where he would be put in danger. The battlefield was no place for a carrier.
The sparkling looked up at him with wide optics when he gently took the wrench out of its servos for the 12th time and placed it back into the drawer.
"No little bot, I already told you: you can't touch those."
The sparkling huffed and stamped its pede, its helm fins flashing orange and making grabby hands to be picked up. Wheeljack himself huffed and picked his mini-me up, his hip holding it up while it watched with an insatiable curiosity at the project that Wheeljack attempted to work on with one servo. The scientist/engineer/creator subconsciously bounced the bitlet on his hip as he mumbled to himself, something about changing the polarity on the blaster to make it affect the environment instead of affecting the Autobots that would be using it. Out of his peripheral, he saw a light blue light flash, his sparkling buzzing in the same focused manner as himself with the flickering helm fins and all. His spark spun proudly in his chassis. "What do you think, little bot? See something I missed?" He asked softly, leaning his mini-me closer to the project.
The sparkling squinted its optics, fins still flickering blue before they gradually morphed into that same annoyed orange hue from earlier. It shook its helm, whining and squirming when it couldn't understand what it was really looking at. Making grabby hands to be set down on workbench. "We gotta work on your speech, little one. I'll set ya down, okay?" Once down, it poked at a part of the odd contraption was facing away from where Wheeljack was standing. It buzzed and looked at him. "On the backside?" He turned it around and saw an open port, there was a cable for that port, a cable he swore he had at one point. The sparkling pointed at the port. "I'm missing the cable, little one." It shook its helm and tottered to the edge of the workbench, fully intending to jump down. "Hey hey hey, no no, we don't just jump down without asking!" He grabbed his sparkling mid hop and guided it to the floor, watching as it walked off to a corner he was too large to reach into without having to move large pieces of equipment and upend his workshop. "Little bitty, where'ya goin? Don't touch anything you're not supposed to!" He followed the sparkling until it walked back to him with a dusty cable in its servos, the poor thing was also covered in dust. The cutest cough to expel the dust from its vents nearly made Wheeljack miss the incoming call from Optimus.
"Come in, Wheeljack. This is Optimus Prime."
"This is Wheeljack, Prime." He picked the sparkling up with one servo and set it on the workbench again, watching as it plugged the cable to the port and plugged the other end into another 3.5mm input. It flicked some switches, pressed a couple buttons, and closed the panel that held the cable in place. Its optics glimmered with anticipation waiting for Wheeljack's approval.
"Have you finished the polarizer? We could really use it against the Decepticons right now!"
"Of course, I just finished it now,” He rubbed the top of the sparkling’s helm and shook it slightly as a silent gesture of pride. “I'll bring it over faster than you can say: Reversed hyperbolic atomic polarizer!" He grabbed the device and turned for the door until he heard a confused beep before he heard the sound of his mini-me hitting the ground. "Oh no, hey hey, you're okay, don't cry!" The mild panic in its sire's voice caused it to start crying. It wasn't supposed to jump down without his help! Wheeljack had set the polarizer on the bench and picked up his sparkling and having it sit on the edge of the worktable, checking its pedes and leg struts to make sure it wasn't hurt. "Aw, bitty, you're okay, don't cry!" There was a couple small dents on its knee guards and a larger scuff on its little servos.
The few remaining bots on the Ark heard the commotion in his lab, Ratchet poking his helm in and seeing what the issue was. Upon seeing the crying sparkling, he froze. What in Primus' name was Wheeljack of all bots doing with a sparkling that... kinda looked like him...looked exactly like him... "Wheeljack..." His tone warned. The chaotic engineer missed the tonal cue and pushed past him.
"Perfect! Ratchet, can you watch it for a bit, I gotta deliver this polarizer to Optimus, I'll be back soon!!" He transformed into his alt mode and burned rubber leaving the ark.
The sparkling hiccuped a sob as it made grabby hands for the medic. He needed answers.
He sighed and picked up the sparkling and brought it out to the medislab in a different part of the Ark. The sparkling was still crying, its helm fins a light purple as it tried to catch its breath. He did a once over it and gently pulled the dents out of the knee guards, moving onto its servos that were palms open to lightly buff the scrapes out. "That better?" The sparkling looked up, its cries starting to die down. "Primus, you look just like him." It nodded and looked around the open space of the Ark with watery whines and damp optics. It beeped and buzzed as Ratchet wiped the still wet tears just above its face mask. "Don't suppose Wheeljack gave you a name yet?" It shook its helm. "Yeah, I figured."
"Ratchet? How come you're not with Prime?" A large red bot walked up behind the medic and peered over his shoulder. "Oh. What's...who's... uhh..." Fumbling for the correct question, Ironhide's optics moved between Wheeljack's mini-me and Ratchet. "Why do you have a sparkling?"
"I wish I could tell you, Ironhide. The only thing I can tell you for sure is that this is probably one of Wheeljack's experiments." Ratchet picked up the sparkling again to get a better look at it. It buzzed harmonically as the medic tenderly poked at it and lifted its little servos with his finger. Its helm fins lit up a soft blue, seeming to enjoy being inspected. "He--it doesn't have a name yet."
"Let's just call 'im 'Wheeljack jr.'." The sparkling beeped contentedly, helm fins lighting up a soft pink. "Can the little bitty talk?" Ratchet shook his helm. "Does Optimus know about 'im?" The medic shook his helm again. "Can he transform?"
"I don't know, Ironhide. Wheeljack just passed him off to me to deliver the polarizer to Optimus, he didn't tell me anything. I don't even think the team knows about him." Ratchet looked at the sparkling and poked his face shield. "I don't even know why Wheeljack-- er, made him?" The sparkling nodded. "He made you?" Ratchet confirmed and the mini-me nodded again, beeping again. "I don't know why Wheeljack made him."
"Guess that means you're on sparkling sitting duty-" Ironhide tried to walk away but Ratchet grabbed his arm and pulled him back.
"Oh no you don't. We're on sparkling sitting duty. If Wheeljack managed to clone himself, I'm pretty sure this is a clone, then Megatron cannot know about him at all." Ratchet set the sparkling on the medislab for only a moment before the little bot whined and made grabby hands for him again. Ratchet let out a short exvent and picked the sparkling up again, his features softened when the sparkling rested its head against his shoulder armor.
"Do you think he's as clumsy as Wheeljack is?" Ironhide crossed his arms as he watched as the sparkling looked around the Ark with wide optics. "I mean, sparkling's are already pretty clumsy, and with Wheeljack being, well, Wheeljack, you think he's just as bad?"
"More than likely, but I'd venture a guess that he's probably just as smart." The sparkling nodded its helm vigorously, buzzing at Ironhide with a playful pink hue tinting its fins. Both mechs stood there for a minute in relative quiet just observing the sparkling observing them before Ratchet spoke up again. "I'm gonna disassemble Wheeljack when he gets back."
...
When the Autobots came back to the Ark, Wheeljack dropped the mangled remnants of the polarizer and made a beeline to find Ratchet and his clone. As he rounded a corner and began to shout for his clone, Ratchet met him halfway and shushed him. He pointed to where Ironhide was dozing off sitting in the floor with the little white sparkling curled up in his arms, its helm fins slowly blinking a soft white as it slept against the red van. Ratchet guided Wheeljack back towards the rest of the team, “Everyone needs to keep it down right now. I think Wheeljack has some explaining to do.” Bumblebee had just transformed after dropping Spike off at his house when he tilted his head to look up towards Optimus.
“Did Wheeljack make a new invention, Optimus?” The taller bot shook his head and shrugged his shoulders.
“I’m not sure, Bumblebee.” He motioned to the scientist, “What is it you need to explain to us?” Wheeljack looked past Ratchet to see Ironhide now walking towards the group slowly, doing his best to not jostle the sparkling and wake it up.
“So, you know how I was telling you about a project that would help our numbers against the deceptions while also providing myself, Ratchet, and Sparkplug with building new inventions? Originally I was working on making a small drone the size of a human,” Ironhide tapped the white autobot's shoulder and carefully passed the sparkling off to him, muttering a quick thank you before continuing, “the first several versions of those drones failed catastrophically, way too easy for Megatron to control.”
“Yeah, we know.” Hound piped up, “Took a couple weeks to destroy the last of them.”
“So I figured that I could clone myself, and that took multiple revisions until I could get it right enough. The first several were like the drones, but eventually…” he shuffled the sparkling in his arms to cradle it face up so the team could lean and see it better. “I figured out that a larger form factor was the problem, so I went smaller and smaller until I created my mini-me.”
“Which doesn’t have a name, mind you.” Ratchet added.
“Yet. It doesn’t have a name yet. It’s just as smart as me but just smaller! You can ask him any ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions and it’ll answer correctly! The little bitty is a genius!” Hushed murmurs from the Autobots blended into a soft sound that made the sparkling crack open one optic to peer up at its creator. It chirped and reached up with tired grabby hands. “I told ya I’d be back little bot. Go back to recharge, you're okay.” It’s sire’s hushed voice soothed it back to sleep, tucking its little servos closer to its chassis and snuggling more comfortably into Wheeljack's arm. A soft chorus of ‘awe's’ made Wheeljack shush his team.
“So if you have a baby now, does that make you its sire?” Bumblebee asked. Wheeljack initially scoffed until Ratchet nudged him with his elbow. The scientist looked down at the sparkling.
“I’m uh… I’m not sure.”
“Wheeljack!” Ratchet accused, “You created him-it- that makes you its sire!”
“Technically Primus made all of us, but we don’t call him our sire. I’m more a creator than a sire.” Wheeljack reasoned. “I’m not really sire material, y’know. I mean sure, I make sure it's fed and doesn’t hurt itself.” Bumblebee took a couple steps towards the sleeping bitty.
“Sounds like a sire to me, or a father. Like Sparkplug and Spike." Ironhide harrumphed.
“Poor thing was cryin’ for you after you left, clung to Ratchet like a scraplet. He’s pretty attached to ya, y'know… like you're his sire.” He clapped Wheeljack's shoulder. “Better to admit it now, make it easier for when some of us gotta stay behind and watch ‘im while you're gone. He’s just like you, had to look up smarter games and puzzles ‘cause he didn’t want to play regular sparkling games.”
While discussions of Wheeljack's sire-hood were going on, Optimus was thinking about shift changes and how the Ark could be sparkling-proof. Despite it being a clone, a sparkling wandering around the Ark could be dangerous, the Decepticons were known for breaking in from time to time and now there was the potential for the sparkling to get caught underfoot. In addition, the sparkling would need toys to play with, fuel to consume, and more educational materials outside of learning about engineering. Luckily, Teletraan 1 could provide some of those necessities, but there was still an entire sparkling to look after. And almost as if he could sense that Optimus was going over every detail in his processor, Jazz nudged his side.
“Don’t worry, Prime. We’ll figure this out. You know what they say, right? It takes a village to raise a sparkling. There’s enough bots on board to keep the little guy safe when the decepticreeps try and blow something’ up again and we all gotta be on the field.” He reassured the Autobot leader who nodded as Wheeljack and the rest of the Autobots dispersed to wind down after fighting Starscream and Rumble. “I’ll make sure that Shockwave don’t get his hands on that baby, Prime.”
“That’s something that we’re all going to have to ensure. Who knows how much damage could be had if there was a clone of Megatron with the learning potential of a sparkling. He won’t be allowed to leave the Ark so long as Megatron wants to take over Cybertron.”