Fl3mme en 3 dimensions

A strange calmness had washed over him when the first cramp, if he could even call them that, had hit. Very distinct from the panic that had first taken a hold of him when a pop up in his HUD told him that the emergence protocols had been initiated.

The pain was nagging at him, deep in his forge and expanding outwards and down, down, <i>down</i> to his emergence canal. Optimus just kept walking, looking around for a suitable place to let the emergence protocols take over.

The protocols that he wasn't supposed to have. Not unlike the forge he wasn't supposed to have. And the sparkling that wasn't supposed to exist.

Sentinel had taken more from the miners than just their cogs, he had also ripped out their chances of having a family of their own, Optimus wasn't sure about the reasoning, he supposed that maybe coged sparklings had been born from cogless miners and that was suspicious, but what does he know? Like clockwork, the next cramp ripped through him. The time in between cramps had been decreasing by five kliks each time, if he guessed correctly, he had about another fifteen kliks before emergence. He needed somewhere to hide, fast. But the weight between his hips deterred him from running.

In the distance, he distinguished a cave, somewhere in his processor registered that he knew that cave, somehow. But as much as he mused, he couldn't really remember. Maybe that hit Megatron landed had rattled his processor stronger than he thought. He just hoped the little one hadn't been rattled also. But considering that his frame hadn't distended yet, emergence had come a little soon.

The panic that had been moved to the back of his processor was settling between his chestplates again.

As if on cue, he heard the ominous hum of a Quintessons' ship in the distance. Optimus hurried his steps.

With every step towards the cave, the feeling of familiarity grew, the need to be in the safety of it had become stronger with each passing nano-klik. Almost at its entrance, the realization hit him, hard.

He knew this cave, Sentinel had murdered the Primes in it.

He immediately wanted to turn around and leave, but the next cramp hit him in tandem with the hum of yet another quintesson ship. They were being very active today, maybe they saw the scuffle the Autobots and Decepticons had? Hopefully not, his team had been separated and they were possibly still looking for each other, and him.

The cave was just as cold and damp as all those cycles ago. He saw on the corner of his optic how Alpha Trion's frame had been discarded with the rest of the Primes. Great, yet another corpse for his sparkling to be born around. Another cramp hit him hard, no time to dwell on that then.

He found a place to sit down and wait for the carrier protocols to take over. It wasn't long until a request to open his panel appeared in his HUD. He ex-vented, and let his panels retract. Not long after, after a particularly bad cramp, he felt something pop down there and a river of some kind of liquid ran down his legs.

That's when he panicked.

What was he even doing? He had no idea about sparkling emergence or what he had to do right afterwards. Frag, he didn't even knew about the poor thing until earlier that solar cycle!

He got up from his place only to fall to his knee-struts. He muffled a shout deep from his vocalizer and clutched at his lower abdomen, where his forge sat.

That had been the worst one yet, he could feel the condensation drop from his forehelm and hear his fans roaring to keep up with his over heating frame. There was something pushing down on what he assumed was his gestational seal.

So that was it then. No more time to wonder about how it was possible for him to be sparked in the first place. No more time to panic and try to get back to his team. This was happening right then and there.

He sat back on his knee struts. Inventing and ex-venting heavily, trying to calm down, he tried to remember what to do. Ratchet had explained it to him some time ago, back when they were both miners. Orion was supposed to help Ratchet study but in the end he just asked questions that Ratchet had by the top of his helm. Something about pushing... with the cramps? That sounded painful, so it was probably the right answer.

He invented and ex-vented again, bracing for the next cramp, now nano-kliks apart, and this time he readied himself to push. When it hit, it was very difficult to remember to vent, push, muffle his screams and stay upright all at the same time. Finally, he felt something shift inside of him, that's when the real pain started.

His calipers clearly weren't ready to stretch so wide in such a short notice. The pain inspired a few whines and very colorful language that would haven Elita covering Bee's audio receptors. Then, a few moments of respite before it started all over again.

He clenched his servos tight, so much so that his knuckle joints creaked. He soon couldn't muster up the strength to remain upright or make a sound. He couldn't do this. He was going to die there, just another corpse to add to the cave. He closed his optics, and waited for the worst.

Two gentle but firm servos grasped at him by the shoulders and sat him upright.

Optimus opened his optics and whipped his helm to look at whoever it was, but there was no one there. His confusion remained with him even through the next cramp.

"Don't hold it in, scream if you need to," A femme's voice, crystal clear, resonated through the cave, again Optimus saw no one in front of him.

There was a low hum in the cave, Optimus didn't know how he had missed it, probably too lost in the pain and fear to realize when it had started. There was not much time to dwell on it as the next cramp hit, even sooner than the last. Optimus pushed with it, but this time the sparkling did not move. Optimus wailed, the servos on his shoulders held on tighter.

"The sparkling's shoulders are stuck, you'll have to squat so the sparkling can pass through, move when the pain is lesser," The femme spoke again, and Optimus could just nod and move in tandem with the servos on his shoulders.

Now, in that position, it was harder for him to vent, but when he pushed, the sparkling moved from their place. He almost laughed in relief, Optimus could feel tears rolling down his faceplate.

Each push was torture, each passing nano-klik could not go by fast enough. Optimus couldn't quite place where the agony was worse, if in his forge, his valve, or in his vents. The answer made itself clear when the sparkling reached the entrance to his valve.

It was the second worst pain he had ever felt in his life. Almost like his array had been set on fire, somewhere in his processor, he registered that he was screaming and that he was being talked to. He couldn't understand what she was saying, but got the idea when she grabbed his servos and guided them under his array. Right, the sparkling, they were coming out and would probably need him. Venting rapidly, he pushed through the pain, and then it receded.

A sigh of relief escaped from Optimus' intake, but soon that relief turned to despair at the realization that the sparkling was stuck again. It seemed that their shoulders would not go through. Optimus knew what to do, although he didn't like it, at all.

He vented hard. Taking two digits and hooking them on the sides of his valve, he used his servo to hold the sparkling as best as he could, and pulled at his valve while he pushed. The pain was there again, but only for a moment.

The sparkling finally slid out of him, and if it weren't for his reflexes, the poor thing would have probably fallen to the floor. Shaking from the exertion, he pulled his crying sparkling to his chassis, and fell backwards, legs finally giving up from under him. Looking at the ceiling, he saw the light of the Matrix illuminating the cave. With no other living bot inside but the two of them.

Their EM field exploded next to his own, telling him he had a little mech. Right now the only thing he could communicate was a deep confusion, probably not being used to the world outside Optimus' forge. Then there was love, a very deep love, like he had never felt before and then… victory?

It took him longer than he would admit to recognize those were his own emotions in his own EM field.

Optimus laughed, laughed so loud that it covered the cries of his sparkling. Laughed until his vents creaked and it sounded strange to his ears. Laughed until his intake was hoarse. He laughed, and laughed, and laughed.

Slowly coming out of his laughing fit, Optimus noticed his sparkling suckling at the air. Oh, right, he had to tend to the little life that depended on him for everything. If something had made an impression on him about what Ratchet had told him about sparklings is that they needed a special type of energon produced by the carriers in their chests. Slowly, as to not disturb them too much, he separated his sparkling from his chassis and exposed his own protoform.

While the transformation seams gave way, Optimus looked upon his creation, covered in energon and gestational fluids, metal still soft from the forge and colors opaque. He saw the shoulders that had given him trouble, a big pauldron on each. He had audials like him, but his were layered and opened like crystal flowers.

He then directed his gaze to the strange cord that seemingly connected to the side of the abdomen of his sparkling and followed it down, traicing the path with his digits too. He followed it until it got lost inside of him. This cord connected them, something probably vital when his sparkling was inside his forge. He wondered about this conection for a moment, and a twinge of sadness touched his spark thinking back at all the things he had missed about his carrying cycle. It was quickly stomped by the overwhelming love he felt when he looked back at his sparkling's faceplate.

His sparkling started to get fussy again, so he quit his gazing and put his sparkling close to his chest. He quickly found the nozzle in Optimus' chest and started to suckle with intent. It hurt a little, but it was nothing compared to the pain he had just gone through.

His fuel pump finally slowed down inside his chassis. As he watched his creation refuel, the Matrix seemed to thrum gleefully and slowly cool down inside his chest. He hadn't thought too hard about it, but the Matrix surely had something to do with all of this, didn't it? There was no other explanation, and he didn't know enough about medicine to know why he suddenly had a forge.

His sparkling unlatched, yawned and curled into Optimus' chest. Optimus' spark melted in its chamber. He pulled his sparkling close and kissed his forehelm, his sparkling stirred but settled again soon enough. Optimus smiled down at them, so wide that his cheeks hurt.

A comm appeared in his HUD startling him. It was Elita, when Optimus checked, he had at least twenty missed comms from Bee, Prowl and Elita. Whoops.

Answering the comm, he reset his vocalizer and talked as best as he could. "Hello? Elita? Is everyone alright?"

"Optimus! We have been trying to get a hold of you for mega-cycles!" Elita's voice was harsh in his audio receptor, "Where are you?"

Optimus considered to skip the fact that he was in the cave of the Primes, but decided against it. "I'm in the cave where we found Alpha Trion, I'm in need of Ratchet's assistance, don't worry I'm not injured, but there's a sparkling with me." He spoke as clearly as his vocalizer would allow, wincing at the silence in the other side.

"...Why is there a sparkling with you?" Optimus hadn't heard such a tone in Elita's voice in so long, a tone of disbelief mixed with curiosity, what he used to hear when he got up to his shenanigans as Orion Pax.

"I'll explain once you're here, be careful, I heard quintesson's ships nearby, and make sure it's just Ratchet and you," With that closed the comm. It was going to be a few mega-cycles until they found him. Until then, he had a sparkling to take care of.

★

A voice slowly pulled Optimus out of recharge, someone was here.

Instinctively, he put his servos around his sparkling and curled into himself, tugging at the cord that connected them both. He checked his inner chronometer, forty seven kliks had passed since he talked to Elita. Honing in to the voice that spoke, it was clearly Elita's voice, she was saying something about looking for him. How had they arrived so fast?

"I'm here!" he yelled out, his voice sounded hoarse in his audio receptor.

The rushed steps of two mechs came closer and closer, until a pair of pink legs where righ in front of his face.

"Ratchet, they're here!" Elita spoke over her shoulder, and then finally turned to look at him, "Well you look like scrap."

Optimus chuckled, and just sat up. He saw Elita's face change from mildly annoyed, to surprised, and then confused when she saw the cord. She was about to speak again when Ratchet appeared.

"Alright then, where's the little scraplet," Optimus unfolded his servos and gently passed his sparkling over to Ratchet, who just looked at him dumbfounded.

A pause.

A heavy one.

"Optimus," Elita began, "Where did the sparkling come from?"

He sighed, and got ready to try and explain as best as he could. "From my forge, apparently I have one," He organized his thoughts for a second before speaking, "I believe the Matrix has something to do with this. It seemed to be happy with this entire situation."

"Alright, let's just make sure both of you are alright first. We can worry about how this is possible later." Ratchet finally took Optimus' sparkling in his servos, holding him by the back of the neck and under his aft.

Optimus' sparkling started to get fussy again, but settled soon enough. Ratchet took out one of his weird scanners and pointed it at him, when nothing beeped he put it away. He did the same with Optimus and then gave his sparkling back to him.

"The good news is that both you and your sparkling seem to be healthy, or at least the scanner didn't detect anything, I want to do a full check up later though," Ratchet paused and Optimus nodded, "The bad news is that you haven't delivered the energon cache yet, don't worry, it's not common but it's not unheard of that the frame takes a while to deliver it.

"What happens now is that you have to deliver the energon cache. The energon cache is what processed the energon and fed your sparkling. You will probably have contractions again but they won't be as intense as the ones from emergence. After that we cut the gestational cord, the remains of the cord will naturally re-absorb into the sparkling's fuel tanks. I'm guessing he has already refueled because of how calm he is, that's good, it means that the opening between his fuel tanks and the cord has closed. Now, I'll guide you through this."

Optimus nodded, vented and knelt. Ratchet put his hands out to take Optimus' sparkling again, then he motioned for Elita to kneel and passed Optimus' sparkling over to her. Elita, who as far as Optimus knew never held a sparkling, held firmly to him with both servos under his armpits. She was looking intently at him, like she didn't knew what to make of the little life in her hands.

Ratchet put a servo around his shoulder and used the other to hold Optimus' own servo. "Now, vent deeply, I'll count to three and when I'm done, push," He made a pause while Optimus vented, "Alright now. One, two, three."

Optimus pushed, once, twice, three times and then he could feel a flood of warm energon run down his leg joints.

Plop

Optimus looked down between his legs, in the floor was a mass of what appeared to be protoform. It was the color of energon and had lines like the vines of the few cybertrees that remained after two million stellar cycles of war. These vines conjoined into one that became the gestational cord. Maybe it was the remains of fear turned victory that were lingering around in his processor, or maybe it was the love he felt for his sparkling making him think weird, but to him, it was a beautiful sight

He let go of Ratchet's servo and used both of them to silently demand his sparkling back. Elita, however, was looking at him with her optic ridges furrowed in confusion. She quickly glanced up at Optimus and then back at his sparkling, then she took notice of his awaiting servos. She handed him back to Optimus with a pensive look or her faceplate.

It wasn't until Ratchet cut the gestational cord that she spoke.

"He looks like Prima Prime."

Both Optimus and Ratchet looked at her with shock, and then back at Optimius' sparkling. The colors weren't there, but the pauldrons, the helm shape, and even the audials all seemed to be similar, if not the same, to Prima Prime's. That… just made things more confusing.

Ratchet turned to look at him again. "Optimus," he almost whispered, "Who is the sire?"

What a question that was. Who was the sire? Optimus didn't know how to respond. He raked his processor for an explanation, for any encounter that he might have had, even when he knew there were none. He opened his intake, but closed it again not two nano-kliks later. Looking down at his sparkling, who recharged soundly against his chassis, he wondered where he had even come from in the first place.

After thinking for a moment, he spoke.

"I don't think he has one," he said, "I haven't interfaced with anyone since-" he shut up.

The air in the cave became heavy for a moment. Before clearing when Ratchet, clearly trying and succeeding to lift the tension, spoke in his usual "done with this" voice.

"I'm still going to call him scraplet for the rest of my life, but it would be better if you give him a designation," He poked Optimus' sparkling in the cheek, and Optimus playfully swatted at his servo.

"A designation?" Optimus asked, more to himself than to anyone in the cave, "I haven't thought of one, seeing how all of this is so sudden."

"How about Dawnbreaker?" Elita suggested, Optimus considered it, but then shook his helm.

"Elita-2?" Ratchet almost got hit upside the helm for that, but he dodged the flying servo with a smile.

An honest giggle escaped his intake, he was about to say something about in-fighting when a little yawn caught his attention.

Looking down at his sparkling, he saw how he slowly opened his optics, a bewitching blue. They remained unfocused for a moment, before locking in on Optimus' faceplate. A small servo reached up before being retracted. Another yawn, and his sparkling was deep in recharge again, like he had never woken up.

So like, to understand this AU you need to understand three things

1) My genuine belief that tf1 Optimus will be tied or connected somehow in the creation of new sparklings

2) The fact that merging with the Matrix is considered "Interfacing" (IDW Optimus put it this way, not me)

3) My interpretation that the Matrix and the bearer are constantly spark merging.

I lied it's 4) My obsession with the Virgin Mary, she should have been at the cluuuub

So, the AU starts by Optimus somehow in the surface, his entire frame has been aching for a while but he is still needed to fight the Decepticons and the Quintessons.

Maybe a fight goes wrong, but it sends him panicking because his HUD just fucking told him "Emergence protocols initiated" and it's a little earlier because of the fight but that's not an impediment, the little one wants out and he wants out now

So you might want to guess, where does our dear Prime go to give birth?

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That's right! The cave of the Primes! You get nothing for guessing correctly <3

Plot twist; Optimus didn't have a forge, another thing Sentinel took from the miners. The Matrix gave it back when restoring his frame, after all, it needed it for restoring the rest of the Primes. So yeah he freaks out a lot a lot

And yes! He is going through this TWELVE more times

The first one is Prima naturally, the little one gives Megatron a run for his money in "things that nearly killed Optimus multiple times" and almost gets stuck in the birth canal once or twice (Optimus doesn't want to think what would have happened to them both if his coding hadn't kicked in at the right moment) and Optimus can't see the little one without getting his carrier coding out of hand and deciding right then and there that he needed to find a sire for their sake. Also Optimus absolutely loves the little bastard like he hung the moons and the stars

And all the time, he felt the presence of other mechs in the cave with him. Someone definitely helped him stay upright, and he could squeeze his hand around a much much larger one when the contractions hit.

Right so he goes back to base, and everyone pretty much noticed how white and gold the sparkling is. Everyone assumes that somehow D-16 is the sire, keeping on brand with the platinated colors, and, well, Optimus doesn't correct them. Besides, it was just one sparkling, what harm could it do if a few rumors ran around here and there?

Ohhhh boy, not a week later, he discovers that maybe it won't be just one sparkling.