"Come on, you can do better then that!"

Orion Pax chuckled, putting on a burst of extra speed in his land mode. The Female in front of him let out a squeal of laughter as Orion transformed and executed a perfect, high speed tackle hug. The vehicle he hugged skidded sideways and transformed, chuckling along with Orion and embracing him.

"You're getting better." Ariel commented.

"That or you're just letting me catch you faster." Orion said with a knowing grin.

Ariel made a slight shrug. "Maybe...maybe not."

"Oh-ho. So you mean I am doing all on my own?" Orion smirked. "So does that mean...your getting older?"

Ariel mock-slapped Orion, her mouth agape in a half-gigle half-shout. Orion chuckled and got off of her, helping her to her feet as he did.

"I, mister, am not getting older." Ariel told him as she began walking down the aveune. Orion caught up quickly a put an arm around her. "I just happen to be in need of a new accelerator."

"Oh?" Orion asked playfully. "Well, I can think of something to get that accelerator back in top shape."

Orion grinned wickedly as Ariel's face panels heated. The female glanced from side to side of the avenue, but those bots within listening distance merely chuckled and looked away.

"You are a wicked, evil minded Autobot Orion Pax and you will come to a horrible end." Ariel said.

"Maybe." Orion's voice had gone suddenly serious. "But know this Ariel - if that ever happens, I hope it's protecting you."

Ariel was speechless. She looked into his optics and realized he was completely serious. "I..." She glanced away, then looked back and her expression was hard...but Orion saw through that thin mask and saw the touched look in her optics. "I don't need protection, Orion Pax."

"I know you don't." Orion said much more cheerfully, hugging Ariel tight. "Still, let a guy maintain dreams of glorious deactivation in defense of the Female."

"If you insist." Ariel said, slightly disturbed and slightly awed at the same time.

-------------------------

"So...he's dead."

Chromia and Moonracer looked like they wanted to melt into the deck below their feet as they looked away from their leader. Seated in the command center of the Autobot Resistance Headquarters on the surface of Cybertron, Elita One gazed at a wall off to her side, her hand a fist up against her mouth.

"Has a new Prime been selected?" Elita asked, calmly.

"Yes ma'am." Moonracer spoke before Chromia, but still could not look at Elita. "Ultra Magnus has command."

"Very well then." Elita sighed and slumped back in her chair. "Advise Autobot City we await their orders."

Chromia and Moonracer left the office at a dismissive wave from Elita's hand. As the hatch closed behind them, Elita's defenses crumpled. Her face twisted in agony, and she buried her head in her hands, suddenly envious of the few Humans she'd met to be able to expell moisture from their eyes. At that very motion, Elita One wished very much she could cry.

But she couldn't. Instead, she reached down to a bottom panel of her administrative desk and tapped in a three digit code - 729 - and a slot pushed out, revealing a small holocube. Elita took the cube in shaking hands and keyed it to life, and gazing out of it was a smiling, young bot who was once named Orion Pax.

"Oh Orion..." Elita breathed. "Why?"

Why had he left her like this? To die in mortal combat with a madman on a world not his own, for what? The Decepticons would come back with a new leader, the war would rage on. Why sacrifice himself like that?

His words came back to her, words spoken so long ago and of an incident at the factory where he and she had worked alongside their long time friend, Dion. The time the Decepticons had captured both of them, and Elita had saved him, only to have him save her in turn. She knew then, why he hadn't given up at the end, when Megatron had a gun almost screwed into his head, why he had sacrificed his existence...

...He'd done it for her. The Autobots, the cause of freedom, and even for the Humans, yes. But Elita knew, in the forefront of Optimus' processors at that moment was her face...and what Megatron would do to her once he was gone.

Elita leaned back, and held the Holocube to her chest and deactivated her optics. They were suppose to go together, that was what they'd promised themselves when they'd reawakened in Alpha Trion's lab...they would go together. But Optimus - Orion - had left her behind to carry on as best as she could. It was just so blessed unfair...

"Elita!" Chromia burst into her office so suddenly that Elita jumped, and dropped the Holocube in the process. Both Female watched in horror as the cube clattered to the floor, and promptly shattered. Elita watched in agony as Orion Pax's smiling visage flickered once, then seemed to vanish. In that brief nanosecond, Elita registered the flickering image's smile had seemed to have been tinged with bitter sweet regret...but that had to have been her own imagination - hadn't it?

Chromia stared in horror, then shook herself. "Elita, I'm sorry but Moonbase One has just been destroyed!"

Elita glanced up sharply, the agony in her eyes betraying her calm voice. "Decepticons?"

"No." Chromia shook her head. "Something else...something big."

Elita stood, gently stepping over the broken Holocube, and began barking orders. The pain receeded - it didn't vanish, but it had been replaced by her own sense of duty to the Female Autobots who looked to her for guidance and strength. Orion Pax, Optimus Prime, the Cybertronian she, to use a Human term, Loved had left her to carry on without him, but he'd instilled within her the sense of duty and responsibility of a Prime, and right now her Autobots - and his as well, she thought fondly - needed her.

If they insist.