💀Aurora💀

Although, he does want his team to relax a bit during this rare off time. Glancing around, he watches each guardian interact with their respective human charge, each in their own activity and conversation. Despite the difference in species and size, he’s glad to see how his Autobots have grown to care for their companions.

“Optimus!” Ratchet calls out from his spot by the center console, his digits quickly working over the keypad. The Autobot leader looks up and makes his way over to the medic, the other Autobots and humans in the missile silo suddenly perking up with interest as well.

“There's an escape pod entering Earth's atmosphere. It's sending out an open distress signal. So whoever it may be inside, the Decepticons, and possibly humans, will also know of their location.”

Optimus nods at Ratchet's explanation, then turns slightly to face the rest of his team. “Then we must be wary that they are possibly not our ally. Ratchet, bring your medical kit in case they are injured. Rafael, if you would please, be our groundbridge operator. Jack, contact Agent Fowler to make sure the humans do not interact with the signal.”

The small human charges of the Autobots nod, Raf taking his place at the human desk on the catwalks while Jack pulls out his phone. The smallest of the trio is quick to type away on the computer, the ground bridge powering up behind them as Optimus' battle mask snaps into place.

“Autobots, Transform and roll out!”

“Soundwave, what is it?” Megatron asks, turning so his side faces his most loyal soldier as his screen starts to flash with data and a trajectory of an object landing on earth.

“An open distress call from an escape pod landing on earth?” Megatron hums, his servos rested behind his back as he stands tall on the bridge of the Nemesis.

“The Autobots will surely have picked up the signal as well. Send Knockout and Breakdown with a team of Vehicons to welcome them if a Decepticon, or destroy them if Autobot.” Soundwave nods, the two turning away from each other as the Warlord returns to studying the monitors in thought.

Walking through the groundbridge, the path of the pod was easily spotted, a deep trench running through the earth covered in scorch marks caused by the hot metal.

“There!” Arcee calls out, pointing to where a large amount of trees had fallen at the end of the line of rock. Peaking out underneath is the smooth, dark metal of a Cybertronian-made escape pod.

“Bulkhead, help me move the trees out of the way.” Optimus orders, the green wrecker nodding as the two step forward, holding the trees up as Bumblebee and Ratchet find the hatch in the pod.

“No insignia. It could be either faction.” Arcee notes from her spot behind Bumblebee. Optimus and Bulkhead successfully push the trees to the side, watching as Ratchet inspects the door, swapping his servo for his tool to break through the seal.

Another groundbridge opens behind them, and the Autobots quickly form a defensive wall around their medic as he works. Knockout and Breakdown step out with a group of Vehicons, both sides readying their weapons. “We'll be taking whoever is in that pod, Autobots.” Knockout says as Breakdown pounds his servos and brings out his hammer. “Dead or alive.”

“Protect Ratchet as long as you can, Autobots.” Optimus commands his team, glancing behind him for a moment as he swaps to his blasters. Bulkhead and Breakdown quickly charge at each other, the arch nemesises trading blows between wrecking ball and hammer.

Arcee and Bumblebee quickly go in for the Vehicon troopers while Optimus stays close to Ratchet, firing his blasters from a distance. Ratchet eventually gets the door to open, but Breakdown lands a major hit on Bulk, sending him flying into Optimus.

Knockout takes that opportunity to hit Ratchet with his Energon Prod, causing the medic to collapse from the shock sent through his systems. “Looks like you did the hard work for us-”

Knockout cuts himself off as he looks into the pod, his face immediately losing its victorious smug smirk. He steps back, debating silently.

“Breakdown, stop.” The Decepticon medic calls out, to the confusion of everyone, Autobot and Decepticon alike. There aren't any Vehicons left, but Knockout still orders “All of you hold your fire!”

The battleground is completely still as Knockout gently, uncharacteristically so, pulls out a smaller, light gray pod inside the escape pod, one with a window that he stares into with disbelief.

Ratchet slowly picks himself back up, recognizing the small pod being held by Knockout as well. “By the all-spark…” he whispers under his breath.

Knockout turns to Breakdown, who had found his way behind his Conjunx. They stare at the pod, then at each other, slowly coming to a decision as they put the pod down in front of the still prone Ratchet.

“...The Nemesis isn't the place for such a small, fragile thing. We know you'll take good care of them.” Knockout whispers to the other medic before the two turn away, bringing a servo to his helm and the other to the servo of his beloved, his voice returning to its usual cockiness. “Soundwave, we require a groundbridge back. Target was… terminated upon impact.”

The green and blue appear for only a second as the two cons disappear, the Autobots quickly surrounding and helping each other up, most of them confused by Knockout's sudden decision and his deception to Soundwave.

Bumblebee is the one to pick up the small pod, whirring in shock when he looks inside. “It's a sparkling!”

“They're an unbonded Newspark.” Ratchet explains, carefully standing up and accepting the pod from Bumblebee. “No markings or coloring. Who knows how long they've been stuck like this, unable to grow up without a guardian.”

“Rafael, open the groundbridge.” Optimus requests into his comm, staring at the pod, and the curled up grey figure inside it.

“Wait, so that's a baby version of you guys?” Miko asks, staring into the pod, the only sign of life being the breathing blue biolights running across the soft mesh of the sparkling’s grey protoform.

“Well, yes. Right now it's just a frame and a spark.” Bulkhead responds, equally as fascinated as Miko and the other kids. “They need-”

“She. She's a femme.” Ratchet corrects, currently running every possible test to make sure the sparkling is healthy and wasn't adversely affected by the crash landing.

“She requires a guardian bond with an adult spark. That's sorta how we pass down traits and have generations like humans do, by connecting our sparks together. That's also how our ‘Marriages’ work.” Arcee finishes the explanation, crossing her arms while Bulkhead nods.

“...Does that mean one of you will become her parent?” Raf asks, and the Autobots all silently glance at each other. None of them had ever really considered that possibility. They're literally at war, none of them have the time or ability to raise a sparkling.

“Well, Bee's too young. Ratchet's too old-” The medic sends a dirty glare Arcee's way, but she quickly continues. “Optimus is a prime, Bulkhead has Miko and that's enough trouble already, and I'm way too emotionally unavailable.”

“But we can't leave her in there, can we?” Jack asks, placing a hand on the window of the pod, feeling the vibrations of the youngling’s spark against the glass.

“Unfortunately without a proper guardian, she cannot live outside of the stasis pod. Young sparks feed off the energy provided by the bond in order to grow.” Ratchet explains, eventually satisfied with the results of his testing. “She won't be in there forever, just until we decide what the best course of action is.”

The three humans allies of the Autobots all nod slightly, giving one more glance at the frame inside the pod before leaving the medical berth and returning to their little tv area they made in the base.

Optimus stands at the main console, occasionally glancing back at the Medbay area, his spark uncertain. He agrees with the children, that the poor bitlet in the pod has been in there longer than any sparkling should. But he also agrees with his team, and he would not force any of them to take on the sparkling if they do not wish to.

He stays silent, staring at the monitors in front of him as Ratchet approaches from behind. “She's surprisingly healthy. And no damage to the sparkling pod as well.”

“That is good, old friend.” Optimus responds, turning to face the medic, schooling his features into a neutral expression. Ratchet seems to see right through him though, his optic ridges furrowing. “How are you, Optimus?”

“I was not damaged in the battle, Ratchet. I appreciate your concern-”

“That's not what I mean and you know it.”

Optimus exvents, his finials dropping ever slightly before he turns back towards the monitor. He doesn't respond verbally as he stares at nothing, but Ratchet just lets out a sigh through his vents and places a servo on the Prime's back. “You two did talk about having sparklings. Talked about them growing up in a world outside of the caste system, and being free to choose who they wanted to be.”

Optimus’s servos freeze at the mention of a life he once dreamed of. That Orion Pax dreamed of with Megatronus once their revolution was over. Now, as Optimus Prime and Megatron, that dream is the furthest from reality.

“...I doubt I would be a worthy candidate for such a little comet.” He whispers softly, the matrix feeling heavy in his chassis. The sparkling deserves someone who isn't burdened with so many other responsibilities. “The Matrix of Leadership is interconnected with my spark, and I do not know how that would affect a guardian bond.”

“Comet?” Ratchet comments, chuckling a bit to himself as he looks up at his oldest friend with a soft gaze, reserved only for Optimus. “I believe it is a fitting designation for how she came to this planet.”

Optimus returns the soft gaze with a smile only for Ratchet. “I suppose it is indeed, Old friend.”

The base is quiet and dim, the three Autobot guardians having departed to take their human charges home for the night, leaving only Optimus and Ratchet on base.

Ratchet had stepped out of the main area for a bit, having gone to catalogue their supplies and Energon, leaving Optimus alone with the sparkling pod, the blue of her Biolights still shining through, cycling with her systems.

Comet.

She must have been stuck in her pod since before the Exodus, as newsparks had not been created since the all-spark was removed from the core of Cybertron. It's miraculous that she has survived for so long, eventually finding her way to Earth.

“You're so strong for someone so small. You've been through so much, and have not even opened your optics to see it.” Optimus whispers, turning away from the consoles and gently placing a servo on the pod. He can feel the pulsing of Comet's spark, and he slowly picks up the pod to bring it closer to his own.

Their sparkbeats seem to synchronize as Optimus lays down on the berth with the pod, holding it against his chassis. He feels a prickle of an EM field against his own, wondering if Ratchet had returned and was watching him.

A quick glance over his shoulder seems to say no. Maybe he's simply imagining things? He leans his field into it, and it's a unidentifiable sense of warmth. Not quite a true feeling, but also something that is definitely there.

Could it possibly be Comet's EM reacting to his? Maybe with how close she is to his spark, they can feel each other. It's possibly the first time she's ever felt another, and that makes Optimus's spark clench just a bit tighter.

He can't be a Guardian to a newspark. He's a prime, the leader of the Autobots, and they're currently at war. It wouldn't be fair to a little one who waited so long for her chance at life to have a guardian who cannot give everything to her. To give her what she's waited for so long to have.

How his spark seems to long for it, though. Memories of whispered promises long forgotten, of servos entertwined and dermas meeting in shadowed alleyways. A bond they forged, now severed completely, leaving a ugly scar on both sparks. It always seems to flare in pain whenever Optimus and Megatron meet on the battlefield, as enemies.

Megatronus and Orion Pax wanted Sparklings to live in the Cybertron they planned to create. Now, Optimus Prime lays here, with only the last spark of Cybertron.

He holds the tiny pod ever closer, the rhythm of their sparks seeming to become one. Optimus slowly shutters his optics, indulging just this once in his forgotten dream.

Ratchet finds Optimus Prime recharging with the pod discarded to the side and a sparkling, also recharging, in his arms, a knowing smile on the old medic’s face.

Ratchet knew that Optimus would take the sparkling as his own the moment the team found the pod. It was only a matter of when he could get over his own internal conflict of self-doubt. The Prime always had a bleeding spark when it came to Sparklings, a part of him that Ratchet had only seen reemerge with Bumblebee, and as the scout got older it nearly disappeared again.

Bee will love being an older brother, though.

Ratchet slowly makes his way over to the two frames on his medberth, running his scanner over both of them. Unsurprisingly, both bots are healthy and the bond is fully formed between them. Optimus groans softly, slowly cycling his optics, tiredly looking up at the medic.

“Ratchet…?” He murmers, to which Ratchet just places a servo on the Prime's pauldron before responding. “I didn't mean to wake you, Optimus. I was just making sure you and Comet are alright.”

“...I did not mean to enter stasis in your Medbay, My apologies Ratchet.” Optimus whispers, but makes no move to get up, still holding the tiny sparkling against his chassis protectively.

“It is fine. The creation of a bond between two sparks takes a lot of energy, as you know. And guardian bonds take more out of the guardian than the youngling.” Ratchet explains, pulling his servo away to cross his arms.

Optimus exvents softly, his optics moving down. “I… I should not have done something so selfish-”

“Selfish? Optimus, this is anything but. You're giving Comet the chance at life she has waited for. Primus only knows how long she's been in her pod.” Ratchet responds, his gaze softening. “And you will not have to do this alone, I assure you.”

Optimus hesitates, but eventually nods, slowly reaching his available servo out to Ratchet and taking the medic's in his own, their optics meeting. “Thank you, old friend.”

The next morning was quite a surprise for the returning Autobots, finding their leader curled up on the Medbay berth, a tiny sparking within his arms and their medic sat down next to the berth, his servo still resting underneath Optimus's. All three of them still peacefully in recharge.