Nemesis ran away. He gathered his two daughters into his arms, tucked them in the black Dodge Avenger, strapped them in...and he drove away.
"Daddy's taking you to the cabin," he said as he drove. Victori saw he wasn't wearing his seatbelt. "Daddy's taking you to the cabin..."
"Mama?" Lioness knew one word, and she used Mama for anything warm and comforting.
Nemesis shook his head, trembling. They were asking for his mate, Airachnid. After they, the Cybertronians, ended the war, the Autobots and Decepticons were allowed to come together and mate as humans to keep their under cover rules. Optimus chose Arcee (at long last), and Nemesis chose Airachnid, who bore two femmes: Victori, and then later, Lioness, named for her mane of golden hair that couldn't be tamed. Ever. Not even with a brush set and a stylist.
He was going too fast. He knew that. The Avenger's engine wailed as it hit 90 miles an hour. And then the deer jumped in front of him.
Victori screamed "Daddy!" and Lioness simply howled as Nemesis twisted the wheel out of reflex. The car tipped over and plummetted, rolling and rolling down the steep bank that was on the right side of the road. A tree stopped it, and the car died. It refused to go anywhere.
Nemesis looked back at his children. Victori was whimpering, but Lioness was quiet, staring off into the distance outside the car. He cooed and scooped his little one-year-old up, stroking her hair that was matted again. He laughed and purred, taking Victori's hand. "Shhhh," he purred. "The cabin is up this path. Shhhhhh..."
Victori didn't see a path, but she trusted her sire and she followed him, even when she felt they were being followed. Lioness fell asleep against her sire's shoulder.
When they were in the cabin, Nemesis laid his daughters on the couch. He stroked their heads, then walked to the glass sliding door. He fingered the edge of the blade he had stole from the kitchen. It dripped with Energon from Airachnid. Funny, how they were told they were different depending on what faction they were in, but Energon was Energon, no matter what vein it flowed out of.
While Lioness and Victori watched, he slit his throat and slumped to the floor. Victori whined sadly and crawled to snuggle into her sire's belly while he was still warm. It was autumn outside, and it was cold. But Nemesis was warm and inviting.
Lioness wandered into the kitchen after falling off the couch. It was there that she found something more promising. "Mama!"
Soft hands cradled her face, touched her hair and combed through it with constantly-flexing fingers. Victori followed her sister's voice and knelt by Lioness. Her glasses were broken, dangling off her ears, but the gentle hands plucked those off and threw them into a corner. All Victori could see was a skinny black-brown figure with flowing hair that acted like she was under water, fanning out above her and swaying with some invisible current. Then there was red, and Lioness cooed.
"Cherries!" Victori cheered and scooped them up, spitting out the pits and helping her sister do the same. But when she looked for the one that gifted them with these delicious things, in the middle of autumn, there was no one to be found.
But Mama, who had been called by Lioness and would forever be that to the little girls, was standing behind them in the shadows, plucking at her dress and making Cybertronian-like noises the girls loved to hear from their sire and carrier. The girls relaxed, feeling safe, even with their sire lying dead in the next room.
ooo
Two years later...
Optimus woke up, stretching and yawning. Arcee was curled up beside him, twitching in a dream. They had a little apartment, with little furniture. They weren't often there. Optimus was off getting inspired with his paper and pencils and Arcee had gotten wound into Miko's band somehow.
The Prime shook his mate's shoulder, stroking her white skin. She didn't get out much anymore, and her blond-and-blue-streaked hair was fading back to its usual brown-gold tones. He preferred it like this, but she had to keep up with Miko's black and pink hair, and that was okay, too. He didn't mind so long as his mate was happy and safe.
Nemesis had dropped off the grid. No one had found him or his daughters. Airachnid had been found, dead in her bed, but the other three were gone, as if they never existed.
Optimus looked over at the picture on the nightstand of his brother and he touched it.
"You still think he's alive?" Arcee shifted, setting her chin on her mate's chest. "It's been two years without contact or...anything."
"Yes, but I cannot give up on him. It feels wrong to give up on him." He sat up and got out of the bed, rubbing his eyes with his knuckles. "I desire to go to the national park."
"Miko has another song to record, so I'll be...out. Call me or something, mm?" She got up and pushed by Optimus while he buttoned his shirt up. She came out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in her mouth and a graphic tanktop that advertised Miko's band around her neck. She pulled that down over her small breasts (she had no use for a bra for they weren't as comfortable as they were advertised to be) and she pulled the toothbrush out of her mouth. "Maybe we can go out for dinner."
"If I sell a drawing of mine," Optimus said as he kissed her forehead, "I will take you out to dinner and buy you another tanktop, because you look lovely in these." He traced out the drawing of a fist on the black top she was wearing now, then he guided her head up to accept a kiss. He purred. "Do you still like Applebee's?"
"Mm-hmm," Arcee purred. "I'll be the one with the tattered jeans."
"I will look for that," he said and he pushed her out of the apartment and down the stairs after snagging his portfolio of drawings he chose to sell. Several more were framed, taped, and pinned to the walls around the apartment. They had no need for wallpaper.
They walked to their destinations. Miko lived in the apartment complex two blocks away, and Optimus had enough change to take the bus twice. He squeezed Arcee's hand and drew her into another kiss before he let her go and he waited for the bus.
He sold two drawings on the bus (one of Arcee staring out the window, another of a heron holding a fish in its beak while it decided how it was going to swallow its meal). He sold another of a squirrel and its group of young in the park while he worked on a drawing of a toad guarding its eggs. He was nearly done when he got the call on his cheap cell Miko pressured him to buy so she could call him.
Ratchet, his closest friend and skeptic of all things bearing the label paranormal, called him with news. "Optimus, you need to come down to the institute. Lioness and Victori were found in your brother's summer cabin. They're alive."
Optimus hurriedly sold the toad drawing and pressed the couple to buy another so he could have pocket change. They insisted on giving him three dollars for the drawing, but he pleaded for eighty-six cents. He was rewarded that and a "four dollar tip". He bolted out of the park, thanking them repeatedly before he did, and begged the bus driver to press against the speed limit until they neared Miko's complex.
He interrupted their practice, but he knew they would forgive him. He looked at his mate. "They found the kids," he whispered. "They are alive."
ooo
"They were lucky to have survived. The hunters, they reported cherry pits and animal carcasses. Primus must have been looking out for the little babies, because they are in nearly perfect health."
"Cherries?" Optimus frowned as he walked with his friend, Arcee lagging behind slightly. "They are Cybertronian."
"Perhaps, but Airachnid was an organic. She might have given her children the ability to adapt, meaning since cherries and animals were the only thing they had access to, they trained their bodies to use those as fuel."
Optimus was glad he was friends with Ratchet. He wouldn't know what to do without them. Ratchet led them down a hallway and stopped in front of a large curtain that was shielding a window. Ratchet told them the window allowed them to watch the children without the children knowing they were being watched. "They are...very unusual right now, but Victori retained much of her vocabulary. Unfortunately, the only words Lioness knows are Mama and Victori. That is all she will say, so it is unlikely she knows much else, but she is still young."
Ratchet pulled the curtain back and Optimus cooed when he saw Lioness laying under the bed. He remembered coming over for Christmas one year and seeing the child curled up under the table. She was a very unusual child, but her family loved her all the same. Victori was nowhere to be found.
Arcee's grip tightened around his arm and all three Cybertronians flinched when Victori suddenly stepped out into view, staring at the corner of the window and squinting.
Ratchet produced an eyeglass case. "She doesn't wear them all the time...she takes them off and leaves them lying around."
"Right, right..." Optimus took the eyeglass case and watched Ratchet open a door, which lead to an anteroom and another door.
"Open that when you are ready. Do you wish to go with Arcee?"
Kids were not her thing. She could deal with teenagers pretty well, but children were beyond her expertice. She shook her head.
Optimus stepped into the room and watched Victori run and hide under the bed, growling at him. He made a wide circle around her, keeping both children in view while he settled on his knees. "Hello, Victori...remember me?" He edged closer, stopping each time when she growled until he could reach out and touch the bed.
When he was that close, Victori put the bed between them, clawing at him in warning. Optimus smiled softly, opening the eyeglass case. "Here...you had a pair of these when you were little...remember? When you were six?" He set them on the bed and watched her as she grabbed them.
She turned them around, squinting until she slowly slid them on and she looked up at Optimus. "Daddy?"
He flinched. He and Nemesis had been twins, but complete opposites. Nemesis had dark hair, Optimus had light hair. Nemesis had dark eyes, Optimus had light eyes. Nemesis had children, and Optimus didn't.
"No, sweetspark... I am your uncle. Do you remember me? Uncle Optimus?" He moved closer, and this time she let him. "I used to come over all the time, remember?"
Victori whined and ran at him, burying her face in his shirt and grabbing at the back as if she thought he would go away. Lioness remained under the bed. Ratchet interrupted with news: Optimus' older sister was coming down from the other end of the country to speak with them.
ooo
Of all the little known facts of Optimus Prime, the fact that he has an older sibling startles even those who have known him the longest. But, after seeing the two square off, it's no wonder.
Optima was tall, nearly as tall as Optimus Prime himself. She had blond hair as a human with pale skin (she didn't get out much) and icy blue eyes that were the same shade as her optics. She was strict, and she dressed like that: black jacket over a button-up white shirt, black slacks, and plain black flats. No jewelry and no rings.
She greeted her brother with a file folder. "I am going to take the children back home, where they will be safe, happy, and fed. Can you give them what they need?"
"Optima," Optimus growled. He pushed the file folder away with a finger as if it might bite him. "I am their uncle. I was there when they were born, when Lioness saw her first Christmas, when Victori learned to ride a bike. Where were you?"
"Doing more important things, obviously."
"Ah. Where you doing those important things when I was fighting the war?" He tipped his helm, staring at her.
Arcee got between them, pushing on her mate's chest and shoving at Optima's shoulder. "Okay. Enough. Optima, glad to see you. Optimus talks...so little about you, but I'm sur-"
"You're the glitch he fell for? Optimus, I thought you had taste."
"Okay, that's it!"
Ratchet got between them this time. "Enough. Take this to court, will you?"
Optimus bared his teeth at his sister. "You are not getting my nieces. Nemesis would not have allowed it, and if he were here, he would spit on your shoes and kick you out the back door."
Optima yawned and shrugged off every Cybertronian insult. "Mm. See you in court with the nieces tucked in my car, brother."
Arcee watched her go. "Please let me hit her."
Optimus growled softly. "Not yet."
oooooooo
I don't really remember why the dad took his babies out there, but...he did. I watched Mama twice last night, and I still missed the beginning. I always turned it on to the opening credits and all those drawings the little girls made. I love the movie so much x3 Hope you guys like it so far x3 This is pretty fun to write, especially with the basic plot and Cybertronians acting it out.