Sweet Child

Orion... Or should I say, OPTIMUS?

The only thing I thought was, protect the youngling. I danced out the swords path, and hugged the yellow bot to me. I clearly confused my attackers.

"Bots these days! I mean, you can't even hold a sparkling!"

"I'm not a Sparkling!" I rolled my optics.

"Oh, are you a big, grown up bot? Nope. Now, hush sweetie, I need to deal with these idiots." The yellow bot finally had enough. He bit me, and I raised an optic ridge. He looked to me with disbelieving optics.

"I had to deal with Orion. That's like a pinch." The femme stopped in her tracks along with the green one. The femme held a digit to her Comm link.

"It's not a con. But it's not a bot, and she seems to know Optimus. Well, she knew him as Orion. What do you mean? Bring her to base? Sir, she's holding Bumblebee like a sparkling!... Fine." I coughed, and switched the youngling to my other hipcomponents.

A portal opened to my left. I stepped back a little, before following the green one. We entered an underground base, with primitive equipment. A medic stood behind one, grumbling to himself.

"Nice pad. Could use some windows. And maybe some colour. I'm thinking some blues... Oh, where are my manners? I'm Paradia. Nice to meet you." The midic glanced up, and took a double take.

"Paradia? As in, Optimus' adoptive carrier, Paradia?" I nodded, shifting on my pedes. The youngling was squirming violently, clearly wanting to get down. I rolled my optics, and put him down. He ran into the halls, probably finding his leader.

"So, Paradia. I'm Bulkhead. I was a wrecker, but I opted to go to Prime's team." I nodded. An ex-wrecker? Interesting.

"The name's Arcee. Prime's third in command, and leader of the late femme decision. What do you do?" I thought for a while. It was silent, and I steeled my nerves. It hurt to talk about my sparkling.

"I... Was a breeder... Before I was announced sterile. My first and only sparkling died, and I am unable to conceive. I'm good with sparklings, and I... I'm useless really. I guess I could hit something enough to kill. Maybe. If I absolutely had to." I shrugged, putting off the emotional pain.

A mech walked into the room, coloured red, blue and white. I blinked, and opened my servo-struts. He rushed into them, keeping quiet. I smiled.

"Hey, Orion. No wait... It's Optimus now. Shh. What?" The last part was directed at the stares. I glared at them for ruining the moment. Optimus stepped back, and shared a tiny smile of warmth with me.