"What do you think it means, Optimus?" asked Arcee in the early hours of the next morning, as they laid in each other's arms. They both enjoyed this time together, when they were awake but not yet needed elsewhere on the base.

"I've had many visions in my lifetime," he said as he enjoyed holding her close. "Most of them have been granted to me by the Matrix of Leadership, and all of them have come to pass."

"Why do you think this was a vision? Doesn't it seem more likely that it's just a dream? It's telling me to do exactly what I want most of all."

"Only you can determine if it was a dream brought about by your desires, or a vision granted to you by an ancient Prime."

"How am I supposed to figure that out?"

"You've already started that process, by learning all that you can about Solus Prime. Another clue will be whether it changes now that you have more information. Visions will not change. Dreams can."

"What will we do if we decide it's really a vision?"

"We will have to revisit our discussion about starting a family, with the new knowledge from your vision, if it is indeed a vision."

She turned in his arms to look directly into his optics, and smiled suggestively at him. "That's a conversation for later though. For right now, I have a better idea." She pulled his head down and kissed him deeply, running her hands lightly over his chest.

As Arcee kissed him, Optimus could tell she wanted the closeness of a spark merge, rather than the pleasure of an interface. He was always happy to give her whatever kind of intimacy she desired. She did the same for him.

They had agreed, before they bonded permanently, that they would wait until the war was over to start a family. They risked creating a sparkling only once, when they created their permanent bond by interfacing and merging sparks at the same time. After that, they did one or the other. Their bond allowed them to know what they each desired, and they had strengthened it greatly in the short time they had been bonded.

The merge was intense, a reflection of Arcee's current feelings of confusion, and afterwards they rested for awhile longer before getting up to start the day. Optimus thought about what she had told him, and what he could feel from her through their bond. The only thing he wanted as much as a family with Arcee was an end to the war. That having one could bring about the other seemed too good to be true.

He felt that what she had described was a vision, perhaps granted to her because of her bond with him. But she needed to come to that conclusion on her own - he couldn't just tell her that it was.

He knew how much she wanted sparklings. When she encountered human women, during her trips into Jasper, who were expecting children or had newborn sparklings - infants - he could feel her desire for one of their own. Those were the days when she most needed to merge with him. He hated feeling like he was denying her something he had the ability to give her, but they had agreed to wait after discussing reasons both for and against. It seemed they might be revisiting that discussion soon, and he was certain that if they did, the outcome would be different this time.

An alarm sounded, and they got up to begin their day. Arcee gave him one last kiss before leaving to bring Jack to school. The day was uneventful, for which she was glad. She was anxious to get back to sleep, to see if she had the dream again, and if it had changed.

"My daughter"

"Where am I?"

"Your body is asleep, in your quarters beside your mate."

"And my mind?"

"We are in a representation of my temple."

"Who are you?"

"I am Solus Prime."

"You are not my mother."

"All femmes are my daughters. All of our species are my children."

"What do you want from me?"

"You are bonded to the last Prime."

"Yes"

"You must bear his child"

"We want a family, but we're fighting a war, and it doesn't seem to be ending anytime soon. We can't bring a sparkling into a war. It would be irresponsible."

"The war will not end until your child brings peace."

Arcee awoke from her dream again, still not completely convinced that it was actually a vision, but leaning much more in that direction. It was exactly the same as before, down to every detail. She had tried to ask different questions, but she wasn't able to say anything other than what had been said before. She checked the time, then laid back down in Optimus' arms.

And the dream, or vision, repeated itself again.

Arcee hated to wake Optimus - he got little enough sleep as it was. She didn't want to go back to sleep herself though. She settled back into his arms - her favorite place to be, even if she wasn't sleeping - and thought about what she had seen. She still wasn't convinced that it was a vision, not just a dream, but she was leaning toward vision.

Arcee wanted a sparkling, desperately. She had always wanted a family, but she had accepted that it wasn't likely to happen due to the war. Now she had a bonded mate, who also wanted a family, and they still couldn't start one because of the war. She avoided humans as much as she could when she went into Jasper to bring Jack to school and pick him up, but it wasn't possible to avoid them completely. Humans were so cute when they were sparked - pregnant was their term. Their abdomens swelled to hold the sparkling - infant - and there was rarely a doubt that they were expecting. The tiny newborn sparkling humans were cute too. She hadn't really noticed them before, but since bonding with Optimus, she had seen sparked humans and sparkling humans everywhere. She tried not to let him know how sad it made her to see random human women getting everything she wanted, but she knew he could sense it in their bond. She could only hope she had hidden just how jealous she actually was.

She checked the time again. Close enough. "Optimus?" she said as she rubbed his arm.

"mmmmmm"

"Optimus, wake up please."

He pulled her tighter against his body.

"Come on Optimus, wake up. We need to talk."

He opened one optic, halfway, and peered at her. "Is it time to get up already?"

She smiled at him. He was almost as cute as a human sparkling, trying to stay asleep like that. "Not quite, but I want to talk to you. I had that dream...vision...whatever it is, again. Twice."

That was enough to wake him up. "Have you decided what it is?"

"No. I want it to be true, and that makes me afraid to think that it is."

He was silent, sensing her need to talk it out.

"I mean, if it's just a dream, and we decide it's a vision and have a sparkling, then we have to protect it. And we have to ask our team - our family - to protect it as well. And I'm sure they will love it, and they will gladly protect it, but it's not really fair to them to ask them to. And being your sparkling, it will be in constant danger." She paused a moment and looked around the room. "It will have to grow up here, confined to this base for most of it's life. What kind of existence is that for a child?"

"There are other places on this planet that are safe," he said when she paused, seemingly waiting for an answer. He wasn't certain that she heard him though.

"And if it's a vision, and our child is destined to end this war, it will still have to be protected until whatever that time is. It will still have to grow up confined to this base. It will still be in constant danger."

"Arcee, if we choose to have a child, whatever that child's destiny may be, everyone on this base will love and protect it. They would not think that it's wrong of us to ask them to. They would do it because they are our family."

"I know, but-"

"And there are other places on this planet that are safe. The islands where I placed that rescue team that landed here a few years ago are shielded. We can find other places to install shielding. While much of it's time will have to be spent here, our child would still grow up happy."

"You sound like you're trying to convince me that we should go for it."

He paused to think for a moment. "Maybe I am. Maybe I'm trying to convince myself. I want a child as much as you do, whether it's destined to bring peace, or it just brings us joy. It is a difficult decision though, to bring a child into a war."

"Optimus?"

"Yes?"

She turned around to look directly into his optics. "I want to have your sparkling."

"Even with all those reasons not to?"

"Yes."

"Well, then, let's create one."

I made up a bunch of stuff, as I'm sure you can tell. I had to in order to make this story work the way I want it to.

I raised the rating to T. I won't be writing anything explicit, but if it needs a higher rating, please let me know. I'm not sure where the line is.

I won't be able to update every day anymore. My husband is getting upset with the lack of housework being done while I type :) I do still hope to be done with this by the time my children go back to school at the end of August.