The Million Year Love Song
"Optimus Prime, something rather exciting has been discovered on Cybertron. I thought you might like to know about it."
—Megatron calls to say he's discovered girls. From the TF Wiki
The room was almost quiet. Not silent of course. Nowhere on functioning Cybertron was ever silent, but quiet enough for the gentle hum of the medical berth to be the most obvious sound. A large boxy figure stood immobile next to the berth. It served as an imposing sentinel watching over the slight, rosy form reclining on the polished metal of the bed. A delicate glowing cable connected the two beings in the room. It sparkled with energy, a bright, beautiful thread in the dusky cluttered workshop.
The old mech turned from the tableau in the dimly lit room. These two had earned their moment alone. He walked softly and surprisingly briskly down the hall to a well-appointed command suite and activated the communicator next to a display screen. On the screen, three more lithe forms were just emerging from a smoking hole that had once been a secret bunker. A second screen, smaller than the first and inset into the worktop below the main screen flashed red for an instant, then resolved into the image of a lively scuffle in the Decepticon Space Bridge Control Room. Alpha Trion smiled to himself and raised his gaze to the main screen again.
"Chromia, my dear," he said with courtly politeness. "I believe you and your valiant sisters-in-arms will discover an ideal opportunity to do some good if you head with all swiftness back to the Space Bridge tower."
Chromia narrowed her optics for a moment suspiciously as she attempted to spot the source of the signal. "It's probably not worth my time to ask how you got this frequency, is it Alpha?"
The ancient scientist chuckled, "Indeed not, Chromia. Now don't delay. Your chance is fleeting."
"Where did the Decepticons take Elita, Alpha Trion?" Chromia asked, optics flaring with desperate concern.
"Go to the Space Bridge for your answers." Alpha Trion said firmly as he closed the comm. frequency.
He smiled again as he watched the three Female Autobots leap into their transformations and speed away. Then he settled down into the command chair to track their progress using his extensive network of cameras and sensors hidden across the surface of their battered planet.
"Elita….Elita-One…"
The voice echoed between her audials and her Spark. It reached her in the dark non-space that was her refuge from the terrible draining pain in her body. The body that had been rebuilt once and repaired so many times, the body she had broken by using her one last resort and stopping time. It had been a nice body. She would miss it.
"Elita can you hear me?"
Again the voice flowed through and around her. Her Spark flared brightly as if the voice were a breeze and her soul an ember. She had almost withdrawn completely. She lacked the will and the energy to respond, but the voice teased and coaxed her.
"Elita, dearest…"
And with the words came the feeling, the rising tide of strength that lifted her up and out of her own lethargy and pain. She could feel her own sensors again. The pain was fading, the deadly weakness clearing from her systems.
"Elita are you there?"
She was there. The voice led her back to herself, back to the solid ground of her mind and limbs. She was there, she was herself.
"Elita! I love you, come back to me."
And with a great uplifting rush she looked up and saw. He was standing over her. She reached out with both arms for him. "Optimus!" she cried.
The silent tableau crumbled as the two figures embraced.
After an endless moment of closeness Elita put her bondmate at arm's length again. She examined him minutely, knowing his tendency to let his own injuries wait, un-mended, while he sat vigil for a wounded friend. The solid frame was familiar and mercifully undamaged. She sighed in relief and the crinkling amusement in his optics brought a rising flush of heat to the delicate coolant lines in her face. He had taken on a new alternate mode in the millennia they had been apart. It was very angular and looked almost clumsy. She pursed her lips, considering.
"You don't like it?" he asked, a hint of amusement lightening his usually grave tones. "I didn't have much choice." He shrugged.
She shook her head. "I don't mind it. I liked the one you had during the Tarn campaign the best, though." She grasped his hand and squeezed. "I think your paint's faded. And what's this brown dust?" she rubbed some of the substance from the back of his hand. "Where HAVE you been, Optimus Prime?"
He laughed at that, a knowing laugh tinged with relief. "Dearest," he said, dropping to one knee so their eyes were level. "I was lost. But I've found my way home again."
She snorted. "That's charmingly imprecise for a military commander," she said acerbically. He had always been one for grand sweeping gestures. She had come to realize that it was an outgrowth of his idealism. He honestly believed that if he could find just the right thing to do…or say…at just the right time then everything would work out splendidly. It made him an inspiring leader and a very frustrating mate. Over the many long ages she had occasionally wondered what it would be like to be bonded to a more straightforward mech, like Prowl or even Ironhide. Somebot who knew when to answer a simple question with a simple answer.
He sobered, sensing her frustration. "We were stranded and in stasis on a little organic planet until a year or so ago. The sentient beings who live there call it 'Earth'. It's a few parsecs from where Cybertron was, and it's incredibly abundant with energy."
She frowned. "And the Decepticons?" She more-or-less knew the answer to that question, but she wanted him to tell her about it.
"Megatron is there with his elite forces, yes. And he's brought in a few more recently. If he's able to harvest the Earth, he'll have enough energy to restore his army on Cybertron. Elita," he said, tightening his grip in hers. "We've never had a better chance of stopping him than we do right now. The Earth's people are brave and clever. They are standing with us against the Decepticons." His optics shone with delight. "We have an entire world of allies, dearest. I wish you could see them."
Elita-One leaned forward and embraced her bondmate. "I would like that," she murmured into his audial and felt a slight tremor run through his body. Her brief flare of irritation had vanished as she listened to him speak of the Earth and his allies with such hope. She could never resent anything that brought light to his optics like that. "Someday I will."
"Why not today?" he swept her up in a sudden motion, holding her snug against his chest and shoulder as he rose. "You can contact your troops and we'll meet them at the Space Bridge. I know there are more than a few of my Autobots who would be happy to see you all again. And fight alongside you," he added fiercely as he clenched a massive blue fist. "Starscream will flee with his little gang back to Earth. We can catch them and make them pay…"
"Wait!" she said, rapping sharply on his shoulder to get his attention. "What about Alpha Trion?"
He lowered her feet to the floor, but kept an arm around her shoulders. "What about him? We'll bring him too."
"He won't leave Cybertron. He's protecting something and he won't abandon it."
He lowered his head for a moment, thinking. "There's something, it's hard to remember. We lost quite a bit of data when we crashed on Earth." He shook his head. "I can't think of it now."
"It's something important. He didn't tell us what it was, but he definitely won't leave. And we promised to help keep him hidden from Shockwave," she said.
He growled. "We've been apart so long, Elita. So much longer for you than for me. You know, I feared you were dead." He lowered his head to rest it gently on the peak of her helm. "Megatron pulled Cyberton into the Earth's orbit for a short time," he murmured. "And I was almost glad, because I thought we could bring you to Earth then. We would all be together. But you never answered our hails. I even sent a team up there, on some thin pretext, to look for you. When they returned without you, I lost hope."
"I never did, Optimus," she replied, reaching up to gently stroke his shining helmet. "The force of Cybertron's displacement buried us in our headquarters. By the time we dug out, we were moving out of the solar system, out of communications range. But I always knew I'd see you again."
"How?"
"I knew it in my Spark. Others doubted. Many Autobots left Cybertron after you vanished, but I knew that as long as I stayed, you'd return."
He grasped her hands again. "And I have, thanks to Megatron, of all beings. But I must go back to Earth."
"I know, and I must stay here."
"Bound by duty." He said acidly.
"Bound by hope," she replied. "Alpha Trion is the only one of us who knows enough of the secrets of Cybertron to fully restore the planet once this war is over. We have to hide him, and his secret for that hope."
"Indeed," said a piercing voice from the doorway. The startled lovers turned to face it, but did not pull apart. Their closeness was too precious to abandon just yet.
"Thank you, Alpha Trion, for your help in repairing Elita-One," Optimus Prime said with cold formality as he clutched the female Autobot to his side. "Your skill is greatly appreciated."
"Perhaps it was my skill," the old mech said archly. "But you had no small part in her restoration yourself, Optimus Prime. "
Elita looked down and finally noticed the cable that still joined them together. She reached down with delicate fingers and disconnected it. She felt a momentary sadness at the separation, but the lingering traces of Prime's energy buoyed her Spark with strength. Turning back to Alpha Trion she said. "What do we do now?"
"You must decide that for yourselves," he replied serenely. "Optimus obviously desires you to accompany him to Earth."
"But," she said. "I thought you needed us here on Cybertron."
"I do, but that does not mean you don't have a choice, Elita," he said. "The Decepticons are no longer ignorant of your survival. Megatron may choose to target you again. You must decide what to do."
"Come with me," Prime urged, squeezing her fingers between his. "Come to Earth and we'll shut Megatron down."
She thought back to the early days of the war, when the ascendant Decepticons had conquered half the planet while she and Prime were just learning to fight alongside their rag-tag army, and then the millions of years of stalemate and slow attrition as the energy drained away, and then the empty millennia of static waiting. Cybertron had suffered so much. And now it was wandering among the stars. If she left would she ever see her home again?
Elita-One looked into the shining blue optics of her bondmate. She raised a hand and traced the familiar contours of his head and face with gentle fingers. He leaned into her touch with a deep sigh and her Spark flared with an aching longing for him. He had thought her dead. Optimus too had suffered. Could she send him back to their war alone?
"I-I need a moment to think," she said softly. She stepped away from Optimus, and walked out of the room past Alpha Trion. "I'll be right back," she called over her shoulder. She searched for a moment before locating an alcove out of sight of the medbay and sank to the floor wrapping her arms around her knees.
"How did I wind up here?" She said softly to herself. "And what should I do now?"
"I want to be with Optimus, oh Great Primus Below, it has been so very long. And he's barely changed. I want what we had. But is it right for me to ask? If we leave Cybertron I don't know what might happen. I don't want to abandon my planet. What's the right choice to make?"
The low hum of her own systems made a soothing counterpoint to her racing thoughts and she slowly relaxed and cleared her processor. She pushed her confusion aside, forced her longing down and focused her mind on the only question she could honestly answer. "What choice will I be able to live with?"
After a few moments, she rose and returned to the room. The two mechs stood quietly where she had left them. She looked from one to the other, first wise and wily old Alpha Trion then strong and resolute Optimus Prime. She loved them both.
"I'm staying on Cybertron," she announced.
Prime's square shoulders slumped, but Alpha remained impassive. "Elita, why?" Prime murmured.
"Because you were right," she said, stepping close to him and putting her hands on his shoulders. Behind her she heard a faint warbling sound. Alpha Trion moved away from the door and retreated back down the hall.
"I was right about what?" he demanded somewhat petulantly.
A smile flickered across her face. "I see that impulsive Orion Pax is still a part of you, love," she thought.
"You were right about how dangerous your mission was…and is," she said gently steering him backwards and down to take a seat on the edge of the med berth. She stepped between his knees and cupped his chin with her hand. "When you first left, you wanted me to stay behind. I resented you for it, especially after you disappeared. But now I realize why you did it."
He wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her close, nestling his head on her shoulder. She embraced his neck and leaned against him. "I was wrong, Elita," he said fervently. "I should've brought you and everyone. I could've protected you…protected the Autobots…"
"But you DID, dearest," she said softly but firmly. "You gave us time. We were able to continue on, safe as long as we avoided Shockwave and his drones. He didn't push forward, but seemed content to remain in the existing Decepticon territory. When the others left, they went to establish colonies and outposts among the stars. Thanks to you, there are Cybertronians, Autobots, all across the galaxy. And most of them barely even remember the war. You might not have brought us energon, but you bought us security."
He shifted his head slightly and looked at her from the corner of one optic. "The Decepticons could end that quickly enough."
"Maybe," she said with an affectionate squeeze. "But they're fairly easy to avoid and without Megatron to rally them, the Decepticons can be surprisingly tolerable neighbors. They fight each other more than us."
A deep chuckle rumbled through him. "Starscream's not the only ambitious one, hmm?"
"Not even close," she said stroking the smooth cables that ran along the sides of his neck. He vented a puff of warm air and cupped his hands gently against her back and legs.
"Elita," he whispered, the deep thrum of his voice in her audial sent pleasurable cascades of sensation down her body. "I don't know if I can leave you again."
"Optimus," she said, leaning against him, "you never left me." She pressed her hand to the middle of his chest and felt the throb of his Spark, augmented by the immense energy of the Matrix. "And I'll never leave you. Our bodies will go their separate ways for a while, but we're always together."
He crushed her so tightly to him that the metal of their bodies squealed in protest. "You're right. I have to do what I set out for. And you need to remain here, for your own safety, and the sake of Cybertron. And when this is over," he said, his voice again assuming the stirring tones of the Autobot Commander, "when Megatron is finally defeated and his army crushed I will return to you, Elita-One. And together we will rebuild our home."
"Bravo! Well said!" cried Alpha Trion from the doorway again. "Spoken like a true leader, Optimus Prime. You both have given so much, and I'm here to send you off to give some more, I'm afraid."
"What do you mean?" Prime said, getting to his feet.
"Well, it seems that your troops have run into a bit of trouble." The old Autobot said, stepping to a monitor and activating it. "They did a stellar job of routing the Decepticons during their first sortie. But they're in a bit of difficulty now," he gestured to the screen. A small group of Autobots and their female counterparts were speeding along an elevated highway, harried from above by fire from Starscream's null-rays and hemmed in at the sides by Astrotrain and Ramjet.
"They'll be cut off if they go that way," gasped Elita. "That road ends at a cliff."
"Can we get there from here?" Optimus asked.
"Indeed you can," Alpha Trion said, tapping a few keys to pull up a detailed map. "If you follow this road, you should be able to intercept your troops in a few astroseconds."
"Thank you, Alpha Trion, for everything," the Autobot Commander said warmly. Then he turned to the femme and extended his hand with a flourish. "Elita-One," he asked, "are you ready to save the day again?"
"Anytime, Optimus!" she said as hand-in-hand they ran out together.
Alpha Trion looked after them for a moment and his normally serene face was lined with sorrow. He had done what he could to save those two at the beginning of the war, and they had both repaid him, and the Autobots, a thousand times over. They hadn't had very much time together, but perhaps it would be enough to sustain them. He thanked Primus that love was the one thing tenacious enough to bind them together for millions of years.
Author's Note: This is my attempt to explain what happens in those missing five minutes during the Search for Alpha Trion (otherwise known as "the episode with the fembots"). It's taken me a long time to come to terms with Elita, as I considered her a rival during the days of my huge youthful crush on Prime. I hope I've done her some justice now that I'm an old married lady. Love and inspiration to and from my muses, Ha-Hee Prime, Chromia and Ty-Chou and forever my Woobs.