Spring
Transformers Prime
Cast: Springer x Arcee, supportive Ultra Magnus

**8**
That's right, it's spring and Ultra Magnus, leader of the Wreckers, has arrived. As much as Wheeljack is not happy to see the Commander, Arcee is even less happy to see him arrive alone. She's trying desperately to be professional, but her spark is doing absolutely crazy things inside it's chamber and her brain is processing a thousand different questions, rants, and scenarios.
Although the Autobot Second in Command is trying to settle in, he is not a fool to Arcee's aloof coolness towards him. He knows that prim persona of hers that everyone is used to seeing as well her reserved honest personality. He is one of the rare few that has seen her other side. Should he be surprised that she hasn't come to see him one-on-one? Maybe, maybe not. There is a lot to attend to right now and she is a professional. One of the traits that had made him proud to see his own Second in Command find desirable in a mate.
Ultra Magnus sighs heavily watching one half of the bonded pair he holds so close in his spark silently slip out for her assigned patrol. Once more, she has not asked to speak to him alone. Her silence is killing him. How little does she know that to see her alive is a hope to him.
"Ultra Magnus, is there something on your mind?" The Prime asks a fellow commander.
Twice the white and blue one tries to find the right way to ask this question. Twice he fails. How can he ask Optimus this question without revealing a private fact that he may not have known before about Arcee? The last thing Ultra Magnus wants to lay on sweet Optimus' spark is the fact there is another bonded pair split by this war.
Finally the great mech takes a deep sigh and pushes out an order for himself, "I'm going to go join Arcee on this patrol and get a feel for this planet, if that is alright with you?"
Optimus Prime is no fool either. He knows there is more going on than the General will reveal, but if it was vital, the mech would have already said so, therefore this must be something personal. Probably between one of his team members and one of Prime's current team members.
As much as everyone wants to think of Optimus as a nieeve thing in leadership (being the youngest Prime on record), he's not. With a spark mate of his own, he knows when another is romantically involved with another. When Arcee wound up with his ragtag team, she was suffering badly. Not just for Cliffjumper or Tailgate (teammates) but for someone else that was among the gossip lines. It infuriated him that others saw the lean and skilled femme as some sort of tart. No, there was only one she spent her personal time with. She kept her body pure to him alone. As for her spark, he wasn't a hundred percent sure if it was bound and tied to the triple-changer.
That was until Ultra Magnus arrived and Arcee found more and more reasons to stay away from the General.

Without waiting for an answer from his silent and frowning Prime, the General drops to his wheels and heads out. Ordering troops is one thing. Watching their sparks break is another. He's not sure if he should just race up to her and force a conversation or just stand back some more and wait for her. He is ill-equipped for this task with her.
"General, is there something you need?" She slows down giving the distance a chance to close. On top of that, she's initiating the conversation neither really wants to have.
"I need to know how you are doing," his voice is soft.
Her engine hitches a few times and she barrels down the road. Ultra Magnus once again is stuck on weather to pursue her or leave her in peace. No! He's tired of the hiding, he dashes after her.
Around the next corner, he sees her standing on a cliff edge looking out over the city. His heavier weight knows better than to stand on the precipice beside her, so he gives a respectful distance but close enough to be a comfort.
"Arcee… what happened?"
"I went out on an assignment and got captured. They tortured Tailgate to death in order to get the information from me." Wrapping her arms around herself she shivers, "It's not a pretty as Crystal City but still, it's works in a pinch."
"Arcee…," this time his voice is not of a commander but one of a warm patriarch.
A lifetime ago, after a triumphant battle, Springer had dragged Arcee before his superior officer and demanded that he bond them. Nothing made the General more proud than to cup the cheeks of a couple desperately in love and say, "Go, be bonded, be happy, become One." It wasn't a traditional ceremony but all they needed was his blessing. With a final flick of his helm, he smirked, "Dismissed, Commander, Soldier." With that he gave them both the night off to join their life energies together. The war needed a future and these two were making the best of it. That was near a cliff overseeing Crystal City that he watched the pink and blue femme and the green and yellow mech sneak off hand in hand to one of the few hotels still intact and under Autobot control. That moment was a life time ago, before she went missing and Springer swallowed down his pain to dive in and lead suicide missions.
Arcee turns and looks up to her bondmate's commanding officer, "Now you tell me what happened."
"It was hell-"
"It's war, of course it's hell!"
"He went bitter when you went MIA! Do you really want me to tell you how many bot's he slew with his bare hands trying to find you?! Do you want me to tell you how many times he charged ahead of his squad-" He chokes and looks away, "I should have relieved him of command. I knew he was hurting too much, but he was also a damned good strategist!"
She turns and slams her fists up as high as she can into his torso, "What HAPPENED! Why are you here and not he?!" It might have been harsh. She didn't mean she wanted Springer over Magnus, that would be unprofessional. The Autobots need all the commanders they can get.
Soft large paws wrap around her fists holding them to his body, "I want to know myself." Her shoulders slump seeing his pain. Now she gets why he didn't just come to her and tell her about her sparkmate, he feels guilty as a commander. He takes both of her fists in one hand so his other can cup her helm and bring it to his warm body. He needs to feel her alive. If the last thing he can do for his SIC is keep his sparkmate alive, then By-Primus he will! His thumb soothes the nape of her neck while they look back over the city below.

Ultra Magnus remembers how his spark swelled watching the lovers dash away in giddy delight while he saw to the clean up of the battle. It actually brought a smile to his face to hide the fact the loyal and deadly Wrecker Commander Springer was giving his spark away while the rest of the team was sifting through scrap and looking for anything useful.
Arcee remembers how Springer could barely contain himself any longer. Flipping to his flight mode, she latched on to him and he took them to the roof top access to the hotel. From there, using their military stealth, they snuck into the once elite and glorious place. It's a place that neither of them ever would have been able to afford for a honeymoon. Sneaking through the halls, they found a "clean room". Many of the rooms had been destroyed by a battle or two. Some of the others had been destroyed by vandals and vagrants, but there were a few that were still useable while not being pristine.
After getting the door halfway open, it's here that Springer lifted Arcee into his arms and wriggled them both inside the room. Neither could help but laugh. It was far from a romance movie, but perfect for them. With a giggling kiss, he sets her down, "Help me get this closed?"
It takes both of them wedging their weight against the mangled door in a twisted track to get it closed. They pant against the closed door and she looks up to him with a perspired brow, "Was it good for you?"
He bursts out laughing. Wreckers are a vile and virile group. The new generation of Cybertronians will probably be spawned by this group if they had their way… and if interfacing was the only way to reproduce. Their physical exploits are more fact than fiction, unfortunately. Except these two.
Arcee may not be a true Wrecker, but she has certainly been accepted into their fold more than once. The Femme Division is just that: divided and scattered. Elita-One has her team scattered far and wide doing her best to keep them alive. Therefore, her members do not stick long with one group or another. Thus to see Arcee popping up more and more often with the Wreckers… yeah, its no surprise why.
Springer rolls his shoulder and looks down to her letting his optics go dark and his voice sultry, "It's just beginning for you." One hand cups the trim hip, the other softly her helm allowing him so show her just how much he loves and treasures her with slow movements of his lips against hers. Massaging, pulling, pushing, he begins the love making.
Arcee reaches up cupping his helm right back letting it be known she doesn't want him to stop. Her other hand begins to release his chest pieces so that she can get to his spark chamber. As the first bits of green armor fall to the floor he lifts her pedes off the floor again and takes her to the glorious rich berth. He lifts his face only long enough to find the edge of the top cover that has shattered shards of crystal sprinkled across it. With a jerk, that covering is removed leaving them a safe place to continue the joining.
He brings one knee then the other to the berth top and slowly bends to lower her down. As he does so, his lips return to her throat, the little bit of her exposed chest and on down. Slowly they take their time exposing themselves to each other. War be damned. Let the someone come and get them, they will be more than pleased to die together while making love.
Physically they had joined a few times before now. Each time was better than the last. Sometimes swift and needy. Sometimes angry and passionate. Sometimes slow and savoring. Everything paled when Arcee's spark touched Springer's filling the room with a starburst of light and emotions. It was one thing when Spring infused his body into Arcee's, it's another when she infused her life WITH his.
It made her giggle to know he wanted to wrap his body around hers the first time she bloodied one of the Wreckers with a single punched for assuming she was 'easy'. It frightened him a bit as to how to approach her when he WANTED her.
It swooned his spark to know she drooled watching him coolly and confidently dispensed the orders and then checked his weapon as easily as checking his appearance for a date. That was the day she knew she was doomed.
On and on the love and desire merges and melds the two lives together.
By the time the sparks had burst in an over-joy of emotions and the bodies collapse from the earlier battle and the romantic joining, both are too mewled to even speak. Soft touches, and smiling optics say it all. Entwined beneath a luxurious bedding, Springer smirks, "I should have asked you sooner. I always wanted to stay here."
Instead of joining that joke among the crooked pictures, shuttered window, over turned furniture and busted chandelier, Arcee snuggles in tighter to his embrace. "I don't want to ever leave."
His smile fades swiftly knowing they will have to go back to the war come morning, but for now, he just holds his mate close. "Shh, not now. Shh, I have you. Stay with me." He doesn't want her drifting into tomorrow's worries, he just wants her here and now. She nuzzles into his chest and throat…..

… Arcee nuzzles into Ultra Magnus protection. They both see it at the same time. That's not a shooting star streaking across the skyline. That's not a missile slamming into the ground outside the city.
Both break their hold and Ultra Magnus touches his com, "Ratchet, what was that?"
"Cybertronian for sure, but past that, unknown. There's an odd shielding to the signature, unless it's fading."
"We're on our way!"
In nothing flat, the armored transport and motorbike are tearing down the slope towards the crash sight. They just hope they are there before the human military. Neither knows if it is friend, foe, or neutral or even alive. With the Cybertronian race dying, it doesn't really matter all that much either.
Both are tearing up the terrain as the smoldering mess begins to move. Ultra Magnus flips to his pedes yanking his weapon on line. He tries to put a hand to hold Arcee at bay, but she can see the poor thing is pretty banged up. "Sir, we need a medic."
The strips of green to the weak and wriggling form are very familiar to her, but she's sure it's just a trick to her optics considering she had just had a pretty passionate flash back. Ultra Magnus still holds her back with an ordered hand and has Ratchet bridge in.
The weak protoform in the crater turns his helm to the vortex bringing Ratchet forth, "What do we have, General?"
That snaps the greenish helm to the tallest mech with one weak bluish optic going wide. The other optic doesn't seem to register anything. "Sir?" crackles out from a sparking vocorder.
There's only a few green Cybertronians that would call him 'sir.' Magnus keeps the weapon trained but does look into the hole for more signs of who this could be.
Arcee drops her arms and scoops up a twisted helicopter blade that bounced out of the hole. She smoothes her hand down it and there, she sees a small mark she would know anywhere. She had put it there during a sparring match with a certain mech.
Without waiting for the other two, she throws herself into the hole and clutches the battered thing. "Darling?"
The one good optic goes even wider and the chest hitches erratically. "No… it can't be!"
She grabs the burned and bleeding face, "Springer, is it really you?"
His one good hand lays over hers, "Arcee? They said you were dead."
A tear escapes her and her chest hitches in panic, "Why can't I feel you?!"
Ratchet looks up to the great General who is completely stunned with slacked arms to his sides. Ultra Magnus looks like he's seen more than a ghost. He's got a weak smile as well as if he's happy to see this ghost.
The thumping of incoming human military leaves Ratchet the only one coherent enough to respond. "Fowler, call off the military. It's a friend. If you could, please remove the children from the base."
"Rodger. If it's a friend, why are we removing the children?"
"I am in no mood to explain Cybertronian mates to them tonight."
"Oooo, right. Understood. Will do ASAP."
To his relief, the military holds their positions keeping all other traffic away from the sight, until Ratchet can get his brethren out.
"Ultra Magnus. Magnus!" Ratchet touches the arm again.
"Huh?" The blue one blinks to the red and white one. "What?"
"Help me get Springer and Arcee back to base." He can't help but mentally laugh seeing the normally so composed one distracted.
Ultra Magnus crouches down and lays a hand to femme's back, "Arcee, let me take him back to base, alright?"
She swipes a tear away and nods. Ratchet lends a hand helping her out of the crater while the senior officer lifts one the remaining members of his dying division into his arms. "You are safe, Commander. Soon, we will have you back as One."
Springer lulls his head to his Division Leader's chest. "Tell me this, Magnus. Am I delirious?"
Magnus lets off a soft rumble, "Since you laid optics on that femme, you always were a bit delirious, Springer."
Springer doesn't laugh back. Magnus stops for a moment and looks down seriously into the very loyal mech he is so proud of. Any sire would be proud to see this mech join his spark with his daughter. "Springer, your mate is alive and well. She is here and as soon as Ratchet figures out what you have done to your spark, you will feel her again. So shush and let me get you both home."
Arcee heard this and looks up to Ratchet for pleading help. With a rarely shown expression of deepest-compassion, Ratchet slips his hand into hers and gives it a squeeze with his smile. He sends her a private com: /Arcee, with a sparkmate by his side, it's amazing how fast a mech will heal. Chromia and Ironhide? How many times should either of them be dead and are not?/ She squeezes back. With a light scowling smirk, he narrows his gaze, /Why didn't you tell me you were bonded?/
She twists her lips for the right answer and finally comes up with, /You never asked?/
For that he can't help but laugh lightly crushing her hand carefully.

Inside the base, there is no sign of the children and Optimus gives his reply to such, asking the next question everyone has on their faces, "Who is it?"
Ultra Magnus proudly shows the beaten and mangled form in his arms, "Commander Springer."
Wheeljack's optics go wide and he leaps forward, "SPRINGER!"
Bulkhead is right at his side, "Holy Primus! I thought you were dead!"
Now Springer weakly chuckles, "That is still a possibility."
Arcee blanches. Ratchet lets go of her hand and turns that battered face to look into his older hardened one, "Not on my watch it isn't! General, get what's left of his aft into my med bay. Bumblebee I want whatever kibble he left out there brought to me. Arcee! Come!" He waggles a finger at the others, "Leave me alone."
Wisely the rest of the group does so. First thing Ratchet does, is pick up Arcee and plunk her at the head of the medical berth, "Fold your legs and stay put." Then he turns to Magnus, "Put his head in her lap." As soon as that is done, Ratchet takes Springer's good hand and puts it with Arcee's, her other hand he slaps hard to Springer's forehelm making the weak one wince.
"Ow, that hurt," he croaks.
Ratchet snerks and leans his face in close so Springer can see him good and well. "Good, it was supposed to. Means your pain receptors still work."
Springer scowls with his good optic, "Oh trust me Doc, they are all working just fine."
Ratchet shakes his helm and tells Magnus, "Help me strip him. I need to find out exactly what he has done to himself. You Wreckers are crazy at the lengths you will go to hide yourselves."
"Wreck and Rule?" Springer tries to laugh.
Both Magnus and Ratchet groan. Arcee strokes her lover's brow, "Springer, please don't make Ratchet kill you before I get a chance to, 'kay."
Springer tips his helm back. "Mmm, only if I can have a kiss to prove you are real?"
Arcee leans in and gives him a tender kiss. The rest of his body might be weak, but his desire for his mate is still strong. His lips grip hard. Releasing her hand, he grabs at her cheek to kiss her harder. He needs to taste her, feel her and know that she is not lost after all these vorns.
"I think we can leave that bit of his tasset on. Even if there is damage, it can wait," Ratchet snaps pinching the bare thigh making Springer wince accidentally biting Arcee's lip. Magnus chuckles lightly.
Now the true exam comes about. "Springer, what the HELL is that attached to your spark chamber?!"
"A frequency modulator. I didn't want anyone to find me."
"That's all fine and dandy when it's tucked into your asbargo, but when on the ACTUAL spark chamber, it can do some serious damage."
Springer rolls his helm up to his mate, "It didn't matter. When I couldn't feel her anymore, I …"
Ratchet looks up to Arcee and she pales. "When they captured Tailgate and I. They must have had me in a dampening field."
Magnus looks down on his Commander, "You put it on then?"
Springer nods, "But I only activated it when on missions."
Ratchet thwacks the naked chest, "Yes, but even when dormant, it will block spark bond wave lengths. You didn't know that?"
"I thought it would-"
Ratchet lets off a serious huff. "You idiot! Inferno and Firestar. Damnit, Inferno is one of you Wreckers and you never saw him when she would go missing? You hang on, you don't give up! That's part of the duty of a spark mate!" His hands clench into fists ready to pound the mech to bits.
Springer tries to lift, "I didn't give up! I just had to focus! And the silence was killing me. I figured as long as the disrupter was my excuse…"
Ratchet leans in, "Didn't you know she couldn't feel you either when she needed you the most?"
"I had a division to-"
"You don't deserve her!" Ratchet goes to take Arcee off the berth but she hooks her hands into the biceps.
"What about me, Ratchet? Do I deserve to have a bondmate?" Her plea leaves the older mech to let her go. "What about me? When I came back, I found them gone. It's their job to move on. I couldn't find my division either. I didn't go searching for my bondmate. I sulked. I had a pity party and searched for revenge never telling anyone of my true hurt. What would you have said if I had told you I thought I was a widow?"
Ratchet sighs and looks out to the main hall where another mech is pining for his mate. "I would have told you not to give up just like Optimus."
"I'm not strong like Optimus. All I could do was fight by his side, while he can feel his mate is alive and out there somewhere. I couldn't handle you all telling me to hang on just like him. For what? It was easier to bury Springer like I had so many others. It was easier to become callused and cold rather than pining and hoping for a dead dream."
Ultra Magnus brings the bondmate's hand back together, "And now?"
"Maybe I can give Optimus a bit of hope?"
Springer has remained quiet through all of this but now as the pain killers are taking effect, his mind remembers something. "General?"
"Yes, Commander."
"Um, maybe you could take Sledgehammer and the Prime and head over to … there's a blue planet with rings around here. As I came screaming through this solar system, before an asteroid smacked right through my main view shield, and another through my engine intake sending me careening out of control and I had to eject, I thought I picked up a faint signal out there. Faint, very faint. It was on the old net grid wave length. You know, the ones the Femme Division would transmit short burst messages on."
Without a second to spare, Ultra Magnus spins on his heel and dashes straight to the bridge controls. Punching in aggressively, he says nothing. Optimus is staring off into nothing, just pondering the universe when a hand grabs his bicep yanking him off his pedes and out of his daze. "COME!" is ordered and Prime is dragged stumbling through the vortex against his will.