The oxygen tanks read empty.

BlackArachnia stepped out of the cargo ship she was on. This red dwarf planet was good enough to stay in for a bit, at least until the ship's oxygen tanks were refilled. Being techno-organic sucked; you needed to breathe and you'd hurt if you moved the wrong limb the wrong way. And she had to wear a helmet to conceal the more gruesome of her transformation. She didn't like herself at all.

But she had to. Optimus had promised her that he'd love her, no matter what she looked like. Even went as far to let her cry on his shoulders. Cybertronians didn't cry. They leaked coolant when their bodies overheated, and sometimes coolant would leak out of the head and roll down their faces. But it wasn't the same as crying, not at all.

Of course their little moment had been rudely interrupted when a young, yellow mech popped out of the inner control bank underneath the screen. He had been fixing the gravity control, which had explained the randomly feeling lighter and heavier during the whole ordeal (which had made her feel nauseous and unwell). After a bit of staring, he had hidden himself back inside, refusing to get out, but promising that he wouldn't mess with the controls. He said that he 'didn't want the ship to start flying upside-down on him'.

Of course it was a bit difficult to convince the yellow mech to get out of the control panel. He refused to comply under most circumstances, wouldn't tell them his name, and the autopilot had been locked to 'just go straight and try not to hit anything' by the same non-compliant mech living inside the control panel. After several fruitless attempts to convince him to get out, he had slipped out a small nugget of information that had sparked BlackArachnia's abilities in the physical-psychological sciences, her profession back at the Autobot Academy.

BlackArachnia stopped herself. This train of thought led nowhere. No, it didn't lead to nowhere, it led to Sentinel Prime. She sighed, and tried not to think about him too much. That incident in Archa Seven, where she had gotten her organic form and where Sentinel had… She shook her head, trying not to cry. He was a little bit of a jerk, she would admit. But he was a lovable and persistent little dork too, he had good enough goals to justify the majority of his less-than-favorable actions. He was a good guy on the inside, and he had yet to corrupt those in any way.

Why'd he have to go and die?

"Stop it! Focus on something else! Look at the topography on this red planet or something, there's nothing to cry about! It's not like you're a raggedy patched-together mess of a femme after that day either! You're beautiful and you know it! At least Optimus thinks so! Yeah!

"Optimus…

"Ugh, you're really out of it today, aren't you self? Oh great, now I'm talking to myself. Ah who cares, it's not like anyone can hear me in this thin atmosphere." As if her words were an invitation, a random sound from her left reached her audios/ears/whatever they were now. Turning her whole body, nothing really caught her eye immediately. Just a weird mound towards the faraway sun of the Solar System (BlackArachnia knew that the Solar System was a planetary orbital system orbiting a rather odd, life-giving sun).

Mound? There weren't any mounds on uninhabited planets like this. The only time planetary features happened were if something moved it around, like energy from a sun or water vapor from the core or even another living creature. What could have made that mound over there? Wisely choosing to think about the mound, since it was the only remotely interesting thing on this random dwarf planet (something in the back of her head told her that the correct term for it was "Eris", dubbed by the organic inhabitants of another planet close by), she transformed into her organic mode and tapped lightly towards the mound.

For once she was grateful for the light-footed appendages of her organic mode. It was much quieter than her stabilizing servos, and made movement six times faster with the extra legs. Turning the mound carefully, and making sure nothing dangerous was around it. There was a strange hole-like indent into the rather large mound, something seemed to show through. Nothing really big, just something… what color was that? Orange? Red? There was another color next to it, maybe green.

Transforming back into 'robot' mode, she reached out and rubbed some of the dust off. The items inside were a bit more prominent, this time revealing that they were… arms? They were strange arms, though. They were blocky and in a position that could be described as an embrace. There were little 'wings' on the arms as well. From what she could deduce, there were bodies underneath this mound. And, judging by the vibrant, saturated colors on the arms, they were online.

Cautiously, she reached out one arm towards the cream-colored arm. It was very warm. Almost to the point of being hot. No. It was a… different kind of warm. The kind of warm BlackArachnia couldn't explain. And yet, something in the back of her mind told her that she would be feeling this exact kind of warm again very soon. It was nice, though. Very comforting.

Digging out some more of the bigger rocks and mounds first, she managed to reveal as much as she could of the two bodies hidden inside the mound. Soon enough she found the bodies of nearly identical mechs. They seemed pretty young, though she couldn't tell at this time. One thing was for sure, these two were most definitely 'children'. And twins. Don't forget the fact that they're twins.

BlackArachnia placed a finger to her chin. Twins didn't happen very often on Cybertron. As far as she could deduce, the most probable explanation was that they were split from one protoform. However, a second glance at these two mechs told her that these two most definitely did not transform into land vehicles. For one, there wasn't a tread to be found. That and the aeronautical-shapes of their helmets (the only thing besides their color schemes that differentiated them) told her these two were made for flight. Focusing a bit on the other aspects of their anatomy, they didn't have wings, and instead their legs seemed to have and opening, possibly to extend outward for a turbine. Ergo, these two most likely transformed into space vehicles.

How two Cybertronian space vehicles got to the planet Eris was a completely different question. But for now, that didn't matter. What she needed to know was what she should do with these twins. Their bodies were a bit damaged, she noticed. There was a very good chance that these guys may have been in a fight nearby and simply floated onwards in Stasis Lock until they reached this dwarf planet. Either way, these two were damaged children in the middle of the Milky Way Galaxy doing next to nothing. Unless she woke them up.

She opened her comm.-link frequency to the ship's computer, sending a written message instead of a verbal one, since she didn't want to wake these two up just yet. It was a quick message to Optimus (or maybe the small mech hiding inside the control systems would intercept it) telling either one of them that she had found two abandoned/stranded mechs out in the wastelands of Eris. That may have been a bit poetic, but there was something inside her new organic systems that wished for something more than logical sentience.

Once the rest of her message was over with and sent, she broke the frequency and stared at the mechs. What should she do with them now? Well, no other choice but to take them back to the ship. Reaching out carefully, thinking about how she would get them to the ship, she felt the faceplate of the blue mech. It was a bit cold, but she felt something radiate off of her hand into his head. He felt much more comfortable the longer she held his face, almost burying his head inside her hand. It wasn't really something BlackArachnia had experienced before, so it came off as a bit of a surprise.

The good kind.

Sliding her hand off of the blue mech's face, his face hung in the area where her hand had been. May as well get them out of the mound before-

"hrrnnn….." She darted her four eyes to the orange mech next to the blue mech. The whole 'they're twins' theory, if it had been debated, was now completely true. No other way would one mech be touched and the other mech respond. She stared at the orange mech, watching him open his eyes after who knows how long. He had apparently been asleep for a while, since they seemed a bit difficult to open.

When the orange mech had finally opened his eyes enough to see, he stared at BlackArachnia. It was an innocent, mindful stare. The kind of stare that meant they were thinking intently about something. BlackArachnia smiled, hoping to let him know she was friendly, and opened her mouth to say something.

"Are you… are you my mother?"

She let her mouth hang open. She made a strange sound, and closed her mouth again. Putting her hand to her chin, she thought for a bit, staring at the ground, trying to think of an answer. She had never been a mother. And frankly she didn't know if she wanted to be one. She shook her head and turned it back to the orange mech. He still had that look in his optics, which now BlackArachnia could only describe as spark-slagging adorable.

"eh… let's get you out of there first, then we can talk about that stuff, okay son…?"

"So you are my mother?" Bad word choice. 'Son' was the only thing she could think of after the topic of family was brought up, and her habit of talking to herself had made her slip up with the wrong word. She hoped dearly that it wouldn't happen again.

"Let's just get you and your… brother out of there." BlackArachnia suggested, pointing to the blue mech. The orange mech stared at the sleeping blue mech, and fidgeted a bit, tightening his grip on him. Pulling himself out a bit, he grabbed his twin tightly towards him, making sure he wouldn't get buried by the makeshift roof on top of them. BlackArachnia helped him get out there, tugging at his back. He had some strange kibble on his back…

Pulling them both out after some time, the blue mech was either in deep stasis lock or simply did not want to be fully online yet. The orange mech clearly showed strain at keeping his twin upright, and BlackArachnia quietly reached out her own arms. The orange mech, knowing what she was suggesting, and no doubt trusting her presumed approval of being his mother, placed the blue mech into her partially-organic arms.

The blue mech instantly inched closer towards her body heat, a soft moan coming from his vocals. It felt… nice… holding the young mech in her arms. It seemed to have sparked something inside her organic half. Her processor had acknowledged this instinctual feeling to 'motherly love'. It seemed that every organic female had the natural instinct to care for the young, no matter who it was. She hoped this wouldn't become a hindrance for Optimus or the Little Yellow Mech that Lived in The Control Panel.

The orange mech was gone. Startled, she shot her head back and forth, looking for him. A small, contented sound towards her shoulder alerted her to his presence. He had his head on her shoulder, expertly dodging the spike placed there, and had grabbed hold of her arm. He was smiling, his eyes opened halfway. Looking back up at BlackArachnia with half-open eyes, he had the most adorable smile on his face, the kind that said "I trust you with my life, because you are my mother, and I love you."

Maybe being a mother wasn't so bad.