Alternate ending. What if Hope wasn't a femme? What if Primus decided that Arcee's first child should be a mech? honestly, I didn't know what would happen if I just made the sparkling a mech. I mean, who would stop her from killing the baby? But now I think I know what will happen. Let's just see if I can pull this off...
"I still think you should try and enjoy yourself here, Arcee... You might find that you actually like it here."
She glared at his back until the door shut behind him. Then she scrabbled to a sitting position and swiped the scanner off the nightstand. She scanned her belly and waited for the image to pop up.
"Please be a mech, please be a mech, please be a mech." She could kill a mech. It would look exactly like Megatron, she figured.
And then the scan came up. It was, in fact a mech.
Mech. 14 Earth pounds. Silver armor.
Exactly like Megatron, she thought and she looked around. Nothing sharp here. She got to her pedes slowly and walked slowly down the halls, dodging the Vehicons. But when she got close to the MedBay, she saw Megatron and Knock Out. She scrambled to find an unlocked door, and when she did, she ran inside.
It was empty. The room hadn't been touched or looked at for eons, it seemed. When Arcee took a step, she left a pedeprint in the dust on the floor. She found what she was looking for under the berth.
A box.
A box of knives. She dumped them onto the floor and scrambled through them. Long knives, short ones, daggers, a sword...and then she found one that looked like it could do the job. The blade was covered in dried Energon as if it had already done this job. She held her breath as she pressed the blade against her belly...and she cut the thing out.
The silver mechling spilled out onto the floor, coughing and sneezing while the Energon on it picked up dust. Arcee stared at it for a long time before she dropped the blade.
Unknowingly to her, this room's walls had seen this happen eons before to a femme named Silence, who cut the twins Dreadwing and Skyquake out of her body. She would have left them to die on her floor, die from the cold since they were already close to their due date and could survive on their own. But she couldn't. Like Arcee, she had fallen in love with the little mechling.
She slowly reached out to touch the sparkling, feeling it already lose body heat. She bundled it into her arms and she looked him over.
Yes, he was like Megatron, but there was blue streaks on him that certainly came from her, and his blue optics were ringed with purple, definitly from her. She smiled down at the little thing and she touched its helm, stroking it. The sparkling closed its optics. He didn't cry once. She loved him more.
ooo
Arcee woke in the middle of the night to the smell of smoke. The sparkling was instantly alert and squirming around, sensing her carrier's fear.
"'Nade in the Decepti-hole!"
She recognized that voice! "Wheeljack!"
"Aye! Prime! She's in here!" The door was blown off the hinges by another "'nade in the Decepti-hole!". She cried in delight when she saw Optimus run in and grab her and the sparkling.
"Arcee, the sparkling..."
"It's mine and Megatron's," she explained.
Optimus' optics darkened and he snarled, turning towards the door with her in his arms. The other Autobots backed away and gave him plenty of room for him to run into the hallway and through the GroundBridge. He dropped Arcee and the sparkling into Ratchet's arms. "Take...them," he growled. Nemesis was thrilled, fighting to take control of his brother's body. Him coming to the surface provoked a physical change in Optimus, making his optics darken and his digits become claws while his armor faded to black and purple.
"Optimus, calm down... It's a healthy little mechling."
"Optimus isn't here!" Nemesis snarled as he walked over to the sparkling, snatching it away from Arcee. "I'll kill it myself..." He raised his claws to slash the mechling's belly open and...
The mechling mewed. It should be crying from the way it was held: one massive servo clamped down around his helm holding it twenty feet or so off the floor while the other prepared to do a Starscream maneuver...
Nemesis staggered back, tucking the sparkling to his chest. "You are...so brave..." He gave the sparkling back to Arcee. "Like your carrier..."
The mechling watched Optimus take control of his body and purred when the Prime stroked his helm gently.
Arcee watched him. "He's Megatron's, but he can be yours."
Optimus gave a small nod and he sighed, lifting the mechling. He squealed in delight. "Hello, little one..." He cradled the sparkling in his arms, smiling down at him. "Hello, child."
Arcee watched the mech and the sparkling, smiling as she fell asleep slowly, and she began to dream of her child, thankful that she hadn't killed him when she had the chance.
