Chapter 10: Infighting

It was late April and track season was coming to an end. Charlotte and her trio of friends were looking forward to the end of the season and summer break. It was a late Friday afternoon and the track meet had just ended. Christine and Clarissa asked Charlotte for a ride home. She of course said yes, so they all headed for the fire truck in the parking lot. As they all approached the truck, Charlotte noticed that Optimus was sinking onto his tires. When they were all settled inside, Optimus started his engine with a sign. Charlotte caught it, but her friends didn't notice.

Charlotte moved to the passenger seat, while her friends were seated in the back talking about some national park that was close by. "Hey, everything okay with ya? You seem kinda down…" Charlotte asked quietly to Optimus. The only reply she got was a slight rev of the engine and a sharp turn out of the parking lot. "I'll take that as a 'yes, something's wrong' answer."

Suddenly Clarissa jumped out of her seat and pointed out the window at a sign far up the road. "Look! It's that park I was talking about! We have to do a paper on it. Do you think we can drop by real quick?" she begged of Charlotte.

"Well…I don't know," replied Charlotte with a shaky voice. They did need to visit it for their school assignment, but Optimus didn't seem like he was in a good mood.

"Don't get your hopes up too much. Based on the website I found, it says that the park closes early on Fridays. We couldn't have gone even if we wanted to." Christine said from behind a lit up phone screen.

"In that case, then we definitely can't…" Charlotte shrugged, "Oh well."

"But," the wheels were turning in Clarissa's head, "we could always sneak in the park. It would be easy with Optimus helping out."

The Prime wanted to slam on his breaks in protest, but that was something a sparkling would do so he didn't. He instead grunted in disapproval. "I do not think it wise…"

"Ah come on! It could work!" Clarissa exclaimed. Optimus was about to tell Clarissa 'no' when she started speaking again. "Charlie back me up. We need to get this done and we might as well get it out of the way now. Persuade him. It will be really fun if you think about it."

Charlotte did want to go. Going to the national park with her buddies would be fun, and sneaking in would be a bonus. "Can we, Optimus? I think we should…please" she asked sweetly.

"I…," Optimus started, but Leo popped out of nowhere.

"I say we take a vote. Every one for sneaking into the park raise your hand." Every one including Leo raised their hand. "Well then that's settled, we goin' to the park. Democracy wins!" Leo jumped to the steering wheel and turned the wheel in the direction of the national park.

Optimus mumbled a 'fine' and continued to the park as all of his passengers cheered. As he drove past the national park sign, he failed to notice the weird device that was hidden behind the sign. When he pasted it, a little red light started flashing.

Secret Government Base – Code Name: "Timber Wolves"

The numerous screens in the command center illuminated the sleep-deprived and driven faces of the Timber Wolf Task Force. Displayed on the screens were different satellite images of the area surrounding the recent alien activity as well as other activity in surrounding states. Not tracking down the alien that appeared several months ago had taken a toll on everyone in the center. The "Boss", Captain Leland "Silas" Bishop, was even more upset because it was the second alien he had lost. At the moment, he was in his office sipping on his fourth cup of coffee. As he had been doing for the past several weeks, he was studying the screens, searching desperately for something he may have missed. All of a sudden, one of the screens of the command center began flashing red and a small alarm began to sound. The previously lifeless environment had quickly transformed into a busy, loud and demanding one. Everyone was on full alert.

One of the workers told his colleague to go notify the Capt. The colleague quickly made his way to the Silas's office. He knocked and entered. "Boss, scanner T-137 just went off. What are your orders?" The subordinate gulped.

Silas looked over his computer screen with cold eyes. In the dark room, the light from the screen really pronounced his scarred face. "Scanner T-137…that's not far from here." He stood up and proceeded out the door, the subordinate following quickly on his heels. "Dispatch three helicopters; have them ready in five minutes. I need to suite up."

The officer took off to do as he was told, while Silas went to the hanger to suit up for the mission. As he expected, the rest of the team was there getting ready as well. Something was off. He realized that one of the members was not supposed to be there. The only girl suiting up was the one he did not want to take part in this mission.

"Now just what do you think you're doing? Take the suite off," Silas said rather nicely. This kind of talk was uncommon for a guy like him, but he was usually nice to this particular woman.

"Nope. Sorry, you know I can't do that. This is my job, plus someone has to keep an eye on you," the woman said somewhat sarcastically as she put her short hair in a baby ponytail. "Now let's move out!" she ordered the men into the three fastest helicopters. The mission had begun and they were about fifteen minutes from their destination.

Silas made sure he was in the same helicopter as the woman. "This job is dangerous; I wouldn't want you getting hurt now." He explained to the hardheaded women next to him.

She laughed, "Must we have this talk on every mission? You and I both know I was reassigned here, and this is what I do. I have to come."

The Boss rested his hand on her thigh, "But you have a family that would dearly miss you if anything were to ever happen to you, Mrs. Ire."

Anna slapped the unwanted hand away, "Exactly, I have a family so back off. You need to stop hitting on me Silas, if my husband ever knew you had the hots for me and did things like that he wouldn't hesitate to shoot you."

Silas smiled his twisted smile, "He can try, for I welcome a challenge...not that he will be much."

"So you think. Just get focused; we can't afford to lose the alien this time. Sector 7 wasn't pleased with the latest results."

"Then let the hunt begin," replied Silas as the helicopters took off into the setting sun.

National Park – After hours

It was surprisingly easy to sneak into the park. Then again, with an advanced alien helping out, why should it not be easy? With the sun just barely hanging over the mountains, nightfall was just around the corner. The night shift patrol were notorious for skipping their routine patrols in the farther parts of the park. Fortunately for Charlotte and her friends, tonight was one of those nights.

"Sweet, we're in," Clarissa whispered. The national park they had snuck into consisted of small canyons with all sort of plant life, ranging from the smallest of bushes to breathtaking seventy-five foot trees. The park had a single river that flowed through it, but there were small ponds and creaks spread out here and there.

The group of friends explored with the little light that was still provided by the sun. They went to as many of the information markers spread throughout the park as they could. When the sun had set completely, everyone but Charlotte pulled out their cell phones for light. Charlotte had Leo as her light. They were relieved that they were able to get some great resources for their school assignment. Everything was going smoothly, until they entered one of the caves at the edge of one of the many canyons.

The girls stood at the entrance of the dark, creepy cave. They were debating whether they needed information about it or not, since none of them wanted to go any farther in. Optimus was standing in the canyon next to them. His abdomen was at the level of the cave entrance. He quickly grew tired of their discussion and took a knee so that he was eye level with the cave entrance.

"Step aside," he directed. Charlotte and her friends did as they were told. The cave was suddenly lit with light. Charlotte looked at Optimus to see what he had done. She was a little surprised to see that his eyes were like spotlights looking into the cave. "There, you now have enough light to continue with your research."

"Sweet! Thanks Optimus," Clarissa said as they all entered the cave, completely oblivious to the growing sound of helicopters in the distance.

While Clarissa and Charlotte were taking notes, Christine was making shadow puppets on the wall. "Hey guys, check this out." Christine laughed as she made a variety of animals. She was actually pretty good at it.

Charlotte was shaking her head, "Very nice, but do you want to come over here and be useful?" she asked while stifling a giggle.

Outside, Optimus sighed. This is going to take forever, he thought to himself. He really wanted to get back to his base to continue working on his "project". Then Optimus had heard helicopters a few minutes prior, but the sound had grown uncomfortably close. He began to feel as though something were wrong. He turned his head in the direction of the rotating rotors, which were behind him. But before he could turn completely, he heard a series of complaints coming from the now darkened cave.

He quickly looked back into the cave apologizing, "Sorry, my bad."

Charlotte yelled from inside the cave, "It's okay! Is everything alright out there?" she asked.

"Uh…" Optimus hesitated to respond because he wasn't completely sure if something was amiss or if he was just being paranoid. He didn't have that much time to think about it though, because he quickly turned to the sound of three military helicopters coming straight at him from over the treetops. "Stay in there and don't come out!" Optimus ordered as he distanced himself from the cave to lead the helicopters away from Charlotte and her friends.

Back inside the cave, the three teenagers and little transformer roamed about blindly in the dark. "Did he just yell at us to stay in here?" Leo asked as he activated his lights.

When the girls saw the little light, they gathered around it. It was Clarissa who answered Leo. "Yeah, I think so, but why would he?" They all were wondering the same thing. What was going on out there?

Charlotte stood up. "I'm going outside and to see what's going on," she said as she started making her way toward the cave entrance.

Leonardo jumped up trying to stop her, "But Optimus said to stay in…" the little iPod was suddenly thrown off his feet by some unknown source from the outside. And he wasn't the only one, the humans all fell down too. The ground and walls shook violently for a few seconds. Leo was on his little hands and knees, "That can't be good."

Outside, Optimus had just made impact with the canyon wall. He grunted when he looked at the blast wound on his chest, courtesy of one of the helicopters. As he tried getting back on his feet, they shined a huge light on him. One of the helicopters shot a grapple around Optimus' left forearm. "Scrape," was all Optimus managed to mutter before being viciously pulled by his bad arm. Before he was pulled to far, he dug his feet into the earth, stopping himself from being dragged. He reached over with his good arm and was about to pull himself free from the wire when another grappled was shot. Its target was his right leg. After it lassoed around his lower leg, it was tightly pulled, causing Optimus to spin and fall.

The ground shook violently under the huge transformer, causing the humans in the cave to collapse again. "What the heck is going on out there!?" Christine squeaked as she tried getting off the hard ground.

"I'll go check it out." Leo volunteered. "You guys stay here where it's safe." He mumbled, "I think," as he made his way to the entrance. He emerged to see Optimus on the ground, smoking emerging from his chest, with three helicopters circling around him. "Yikes!" Leo turned on his heels and ran back to explain to Charlotte what was happening. "We got a situation! And it's not good!"

Inside the head helicopter, Anna Ire noticed something odd about the alien they were attempting to capture. Yeah, it was the biggest one they have ever documented, but this one was just different from the rest. "Silas, do you notice anything different about this one?" Silas lifted an eyebrow as his answer. As far as he was concerned, it was just another invader that needed to be caught and studied. "The way it's fighting. How it's not using any of its weapons to defend itself? It's not even trying to run away. Is none of this is odd to you?" Charlotte's mom asked.

Silas was giving her a slightly confused look. "Well now that you pointed it out, I guess it's a little strange. But we will have to worry about that later. For right now, we just need to capture it. Our orders are clear." Silas saw that the robot was getting back up. "Shoot it again, don't let it recover!" he ordered.

Optimus dodged the shots that were fired at him. "You're going to have to do better than that," he taunted in Cybertronian. He didn't become the leader of the autobots by his good looks. No, it was his military and combat skills that got him this far. When he got shot the first time it was because the cave would have been hit, so to protect everyone inside, he had to take the hit. Now, however, these humans were just getting on his nerves. They shot another grapple around his right arm, trying to pull his arms apart. "Now you're gonna get it."

The Timber Wolves team had never encountered a robot so strong before and were taken by surprise when the alien easily pulled the two helicopters that had it by its arms down with one pull. It was gracefully done for none of the crew were injured in the crash, just stuck in the ground. The head helicopter was still in the air and still had the target by the foot.

Silas made eye contact with the red and blue robot. "I don't like the look it's giving me." And he was right to think that. Silas let out a small gasp as he saw the alien smirk at him.

Optimus pulled the wire around his foot towards him causing the helicopter to get closer and closer. He then abruptly stepped on the wire that was still suspended in the air, making the helicopter go crashing to the ground. Not all of the humans were knocked out from the crash, so Optimus set his lights to the brightest level and shone them on the military aircrafts to blind them as he retrieved Charlotte and her friends.

"Time to go," Optimus insisted as he rested his hand at the cave entrance.

Charlotte and her friends emerged into the light squinting. "Do you mind telling us exactly what's going on," Charlotte coughed as she laid eyes on the helicopters.

"I'll explain later." More helicopters were coming, "Now let's get a move on." Optimus scooted everyone in his hands and took off toward the road. He had to be careful not to give any of the teenagers' whiplash from his running. He could easily hurt them with all of his up and down movements.

"I think I'm gonna hurl," Christine mumbled. Her face had taken on a green hue, and she was covering her mouth so as to void vomiting.

"Not on me!" Leo screamed as he tried to get away from the sick girl.

"Stop squirming!" Optimus commanded as he jumped over the park fence, careful not to harm them. Now that they were on open road, he could transform and get them out of there. "No one move," he ordered as he transformed with them in his hands still in mid-sprint. Now that he was on the open road, he could easily be spotted by anything, including traffic cameras. To avoid being caught on camera, Optimus shot out an Electro Magnetic Pulse, shutting down all power in the surrounding area.

Everyone was safely inside Optimus, who was now speeding away from the national park. "Okay, now Ima hurl," Christine weakly said right before throwing up in the back of the fire engine.

"Ah," Optimus growled in frustration. His patience for Charlotte's friends was growing thin.

"EW! I didn't think you would actually throw up!" Clarissa grossed out as she scooted away from the mess on the floor. "Someone open a window, it stinks!"

Optimus quickly rolled all of his windows down. "Charlotte, would you please clean up your friend's mess when we get back to your house."

"Sure thing."

Optimus knew he wasn't being followed because, with the power being out, the soldiers had no way of tracking him. He hurriedly dropped Clarissa and Christine off at their houses, since it was on the way to his destination. There wasn't much time for discussion on what had happened earlier.

"Thanks for the ride, Optimus. And sorry for vomiting inside you…" Christine hesitantly apologized.

"It never happened. Goodnight," the fire truck said before it continued its journey down the road. It wasn't long until they were at Charlotte's house. Both parents were still at work; only Tony was home playing video games.

As soon as Optimus was close enough to the house, Charlotte jumped out and went straight inside to get cleaning supplies. "I'll be right back." She was back outside in a matter of moments. Soon the inside of the fire truck smelled of Clorox. "There ya go, all nice and clean."

Once Charlotte was out of him, Optimus transformed and stretched his aching body. He hadn't leaked too much energon, so he was going to be okay. He was more concerned about how the humans were able to detect him and how they seemed, for the most part, equipped with the tools necessary to catch him. Their weapons would have worked on a weaker Cybertronian, but he was a Prime and is therefore stronger than the average Cybertronian. His distress and agitation was grew the more he thought about it. While he was rotating his left arm, making sure it was working properly, Charlotte spoke up.

"Ssssooo, what exactly happened? One minute everything's fine, and the next minute we're engulfed in darkness, you're yelling at us from the outside, and then the walls and ground start shaking. After a while of that, you finally let us out and we see three military helicopters down, and you're just…"

"Be quiet Charlotte!" Optimus raised his voice louder then he intended, but nevertheless, it got the message across. "I do not know exactly what happened! Just be quiet and let me think…" he rubbed the middle of his forehead, trying to calm his frustration but failing.

"Sir?" Leo quietly peeped from Charlotte's shoulder.

Optimus shot him a glare that instantly silenced him. Leo looked down to avoid his gaze. Charlotte on the other hand, got the hint, but chose to ignore it. "Optimus, let us help. We can figure this out together as a team, ya know." She politely suggested.

She was startled backward by his intimidating voice. "I do not need a child's help!" he took a violent step towards the forest to leave, but stopped since he realized what he had just done. He had said those same words long ago to someone else he dearly loved. The last time he had said them was to his little brother, and he had lost him. There was no reason for him to have yelled at Charlotte for simply wanting to help him in his time of need. Optimus turned back to Charlotte, but she had already taken off inside the house with tears forming in her eyes. "Charlotte wait," but she was already gone. "Charlotte," Optimus sighed as he regretfully laid his head, along with his hand, on the roof of the house. "I'm sorry."

Cybertron – Kaon, Decepticon Capital

Back on Cybertron, things weren't going so well for the autobots. They were constantly getting raided by decepticon forces, and were losing more and more warriors with each raid. Starscream had been coming up with crazy war tactics that the autobots were completely unfamiliar with. Even his fellow decepticons had no idea where he was getting these unusual strategies. Only Soundwave and Blackout had the slightest idea as to where he was getting them. The two high ranking decepticons were on their way to interrogate Starscream to get some answers.

"He's getting these tactics from that planet, isn't he?" Blackout asked the faceless bot as they headed towards the labs where Starscream was at.

Soundwave nodded. He projected a video on his face mask. It was Laserbeak's point of view. The video showed Starscream searching the entire planet. It showed that the flier was getting his ideas from the planet's war history from a satellite.

"Well, the video makes it look like he is looking for Lord Megatron, but you and I both know that's not what he's doing."

The communications officer nodded his head in agreement. But he stopped and turned to Blackout and tilted his head in question as he showed footage of the inhabitants of the planet.

Blackout stopped and looked at the footage. "They're small and don't look like much. They shouldn't be a problem so no need to worry about them." He didn't see the humans as a real threat and continued on his way to the labs.

Soundwave started walking too, but was persistent to show Blackout images and videos of all the militaries from all of the different nations. He continued showing him all of Earth's mightiest weapons and the damages that they could cause.

Blackout lifted an optic ridge. "You see them as a possible threat?"

Soundwave just shrugged.

They arrived at their destination. Blackout punched in the passcode to get into the labs. They entered to see Starscream talking with the head scientist. The scientist was huge and very well built. He had a dark purple color scheme and carried a massive gun. If his deep voice didn't scare bots off, his one red optic would have. Starscream was giving Shockwave some type of liquid when Blackout and Soundwave approached them.

"I need you to make more of the substance in that bottle, and lots of it." Starscream ordered.

Shockwave examined the liquid. "May I ask what it is, and why you need such a large amount?"

"Don't worry, it won't hurt you." Starscream laughed. "Just have it ready ASAP. The autobots won't know how to handle it."

"Starscream, we need to talk." Blackout sardonically interrupted.

The decepticon leader growled as he turned to Blackout, "Can't you see I'm busy! You worthless, piece of…"

Blackout interrupted again, "You don't look busy."

"What?" Starscream asked puzzled. Soundwave pointed behind him. Starscream turned and saw that Shockwave had left him and had gotten to work already, pretty much ending their discussion. "Oh, I guess in that case I can spare a few minutes of my precious time to…"

"Yeah, yeah, we know, so stop gloating about yourself." Blackout waved his hand to shut the seeker up. "Have you found any clues on Lord Megatron? Did you find out who sent that encrypted message? That was your original objective. Is any of this ringing a bell?"

Starscream was insulted. "Why you!" He raised his arm, about to attack, but Blackout was quicker. He jumped back and let Scorponok out of his carrier, giving him the advantage of two against one.

Things would have gotten ugly real quick if Shockwave and Soundwave hadn't cut in. Shockwave pulled Starscream back. "It would be illogical to have a fight in the laboratory. I suggest you take this elsewhere."

Starscream agreed with him. "True, but I have to go anyways. I have more important matters to attend too." He gave Blackout, who was being held back by Soundwave, a dirty look. Then he left.

"I can't stand that guy." Blackout didn't even bother to hide his hatred for the seeker.

"It is true that he isn't well liked, but he has his uses." Was Shockwaves 'logical' answer. Soundwave walked to the table where Shockwave was working on the liquid that Starscream had given him. Soundwave pointed to the liquid, and tilted his head asking what it was. Shockwave came up beside him. "What Starscream has given me has two hydrogen atoms and one oxygen atom."

"What is it?" Blackout questioned as he had Scorponok return to his carrier.

"Not sure, it isn't something he found on Cybertron. But whatever it is, he plans on using it against the autobots."

Cybertron – Iacon, Autobot Capital

With all of the recent attacks and increasing number of casualties, Ironhide had begun to question his leadership. The autobots were looking up to him, and lately, he was failing them. Ironhide crushed the arm rests of the chair he was sitting on as he received another report from Jetfire that a supplies vessel was attacked, no survivors.

"Not again," Ironhide sighed in defeat.

"Don't be tew hird on yerself mate, its war, it hippens." The air commander tried to comfort his friend.

"I can't help it. If I had made a different decision, maybe those men would still be alive." He regretted as he looked down.

Jetfire wasn't sure how to snap him out of his current state. It was normal for a new leader to question their skills around the beginning, but there was no time for that right now. "Ironhoide, swoitch plices 'ith me an' pretend ya wer' talkin to Optoimus. Wha would ya tell 'em?"

Ironhide huffed, remembering when he actually did have this conversation with Optimus. He shook his head, laughing a little at the memory.

Jetfire noticing his attitude change then asked, "Naw, whot is he tellin ya mate?"

Ironhide looked up at his second in command. "What does he tell everybody, Jetfire?"

He smiled behind his battle mask, and he and Ironhide said in unison, "You have a lot of growing up to do."

"He sura loved ta say tha, didn't he," Jetfire recalled.

"Yeah he did," Ironhide felt better now that he snapped out of it. "But we still got a problem on our hands."

"Oh eah, tha raids. Whot ah ya thinkin mate?"

Ironhide thought about it, and he didn't like what he came up with. "Well, the decepticons have a new strategy, so there's nothing we can do about that expect to figure it out. But what I want to know is how they know exactly where the platoons are gonna be at those specific times. All of the reports I have gotten describe them as ambushes. The 'cons are in and then out. No survivors, no witnesses."

"Whot ah ya gettin at, Sah?"

"There is a spy among us," was Ironhide's gloomy reply.

"A Traita?! But who?" Jetfire was praying that Ironhide was wrong. "All tha's left are close froiends."

"I guess we were wrong about one of them." Ironhide said without much thought. "We need to find out who it is as soon as possible. So we are going to need to make a list of possible traitors and definite autobots."

Jetfire thought for a moment. "Whot if its tha new guy? Ya know, tha one we foun' in tha 'ole unda-groun'." The air commander suggested. "Whot was 'is name? Mewnshada?"

Without a seconds thought Ironhide said, "No, it's not him. Moonshadow is just a kid."

"How kin ya be so sura? Oi mean, non' of this stirted till he showed up."

"If the kid is the spy, he is doing a lousy job. I think even an amateur spy would know to wait a while before causing trouble."

Jetfire was giving Ironhide a suspicious look. He sighed before he told him, "Ironhoide, Oi know ya gotta soft spot for kids, an' tha's why ya probibly don't think it's 'em. Not all kids are gewd."

He exhaled deeply since he knew he couldn't change the air commander's mind, "Fine, he'll be put on the list of suspects."

"Who else is on tha loist?"

"On the suspect list? Everybody except you, Jazz, Ratchet, Mia, and me."

"Tha's a boig loist. It not gonna be fun sniffin 'em out."

"Regardless, let's get to work"

Charlotte woke up late the next morning. She wasn't feeling very motivated to do anything. She wanted to just lie in bed, but her stomach protested. On her way to the kitchen, still in her American flag pajama pants and pink tank top, she saw that her father was still asleep from what seemed to be a late night. Tony was most definitely still asleep since that was all he did during the day. "He needs to stop staying up all night playing video games," she said to herself as she passed by his room. Anna Ire wasn't home, but that was normal. She was always at work and would sometimes be gone for weeks at a time.

As Charlotte pillaged the kitchen for breakfast, Leo was outside debating with Optimus about what to do now. Optimus had called Leonardo to him because he needed the little IPod's help.

"You want me to get her out here?" Leo asked his creator. "I'm pretty sure she doesn't want to talk to you, Big Bot."

Optimus calmly breathed out. "I know, heck I don't even want to talk to me for what I did. But I need you to just get her out here so I can talk to her and apologize." Optimus kept his gaze on Leo, and got an idea. "Maybe you can help me even more."

"Oh joy…" was the blue and silver bot's sarcastic reply.

Leo found Charlotte in her room planning a date with Netflix. He kindly knocked at the foot of her door to announce his presence. She turned her head in his direction as she was putting her hair in messy bun. She indicated for him to come in with her head. "What's up, Leo?"

"Um," Leo wasn't sure how to start. "I'm just gonna tell ya how it is, Optimus wants to talk to you. He won't take up much of your time, but he understands if you don't want to talk to him."

Charlotte moaned. That's what she thought was the reason why Leo was there.

"Say no more, I'll go tell him." Leo turned on his heel and was on his way out.

"No, wait, I'm coming." Charlotte said as she put on her dino feet slippers and followed her friend outside to the backyard. As she walked out, she saw Optimus standing there looking down with his hands relaxed behind him. She walked all the way to the tire swing that he was standing next too. "You wanted to talk," she asked mockingly as she sat in the swing and started swinging herself. She hadn't gotten over about the previous night.

Optimus turned his sad gaze to her. "Charlotte…I want to apologize for my actions last night. I was way out of line. I should not have raised my voice at you. I let my frustration get the better of me and did not act with honor. This is a big deal and reflects poorly on me. I shocked and scared you. I will work to not repeat this behavior by speaking more softly and calmly next time rather than justifying my ability to treat you disrespectfully and lash out at you."

Charlotte stopped swinging for she was dumbstruck. She guessed that he was going to apologize, but she felt like crap now for ever getting mad at him and his words. She was in for more surprises, since he still wasn't done.

"Charlotte," there was a lot of regret in his voice. From behind his back, he revealed that he was holding red and blue flowers. There was one white one in the middle of red and blue flowers. "I'm sorry." He took a knee and held out the flowers to her.

That's when she heard music. Leo had been playing "Hard to Say I'm Sorry / Get Away" by Chicago the whole time. She listened to the words.

Hold me now. It's hard for me to say I'm sorry. I just want you to stay.

After all that we've been through, I will make it up to you. I promise to.

And after all that's been said and done,

You're just the part of me I can't let go.

"Dang," Charlotte started after she got her thoughts together, "you really know how to apologize." She reached out and grabbed the flowers and smelled them. He had gotten them from somewhere in the forest.

"Well, I wanted you to know that I am sincerely sorry for what I've done." After Optimus spoke, Leo took that as his queue to start playing "What I've Done" by Linkin Park. It wasn't long before they heard a piano playing in the background of their conversation.

"So…why so many flowers?" Charlotte asked. She was holding fifteen flowers. Seven of them red, and seven of them blue, with one white flower.

"Fifteen flowers means 'I am truly sorry, please forgive me' according to the World Wide Web. I chose red for it represents respect and courage. The color blue signifies peace. And white symbolizes innocence, purity, and honor." He paused for a moment to let that sink in, "Plus, those colors are my color scheme, so they would remind you of me. You know, as an added bonus."

So let mercy come

And wash away

What I've done

Charlotte laughed a little, "True, and I definitely forgive you. I'd be a jerk if I didn't, oh, and thanks for the flowers." She wholeheartedly thanked as she smelled them again. She had never gotten flowers before…

Optimus smiled his small smile. He then laid on the ground on his front. His top half out in the open, while his bottom half was in the forest. He started gently pushing the tire swing, just like they did so many months ago.

But then Charlotte pulled her face out of the flowers. "So now that we are talking again, mind telling me exactly what happened last night? Like why you were so mad. I mean what happened while we were in that cave?"

The Prime sighed, "Of course." He continued to tell her everything that had happened outside the cave. He admitted that he had been afraid that night, and he was really stressed out about still being stuck on Earth. His autobots needed a Prime, and they currently didn't have one. The attack had added to his distress and that was part of the reason why he lashed out. Optimus explained to her how the humans were prepared to capture him, but they had underestimated him. He was lucky. "It would seem as if they have encountered my kind before, but how could they?"

Charlotte thought about it for a moment, "There are energon stocks on Earth. Maybe a human saw one of the bots who put them there and it is documented somewhere with the government. Then they have at least an idea of what they are up against, you know?"

"That makes sense." He paused, "why didn't I think of that…"

"We're not all perfect, Prime." Charlotte said from within her flowers that she was smelling again. She stopped smelling for a second since she remembered that her dad was home. "We'll talk later. My dad is home so you might wanna skedaddle."

"Again, why didn't I think of that…?" Optimus humbly said as he got up from the ground.

Before the Cybertronian left Charlotte asked, "Hey, can I come by later? To hang out and talk?"

"Of course."

In the ruins of what was once a mighty city on Cybertron, a cloaked mech hid in the shadows. He was waiting for someone, but he didn't have to wait long. He heard jet engines approaching. He watched as he saw the seeker transform and land gracefully. The moons of Cybertron providing the only light.

"I'm here…and I know you are too, autobot." The seeker challenged.

The decepticon was suddenly startled, for he had a knife to his neck. The cloaked mech revealed himself. "You know Starscream, your engines are pretty loud. Anyone can hear you from miles away."

Starscream smirked, "I did that on purpose." He shoved the autobot off of him, "Now, what information do you have on the autobots?"

The light blue eyed autobot gave the decepticon leader a few data pads. "Those are the routes that Ironhide is going to use to transport the energon. Though I am not sure when he is going to transport it. He is keeping things on the down low, courtesy of all of the raids."

"And he doesn't suspect that there is a traitor among the ranks?" Starscream asked his spy.

"No. And if he does, I know how to keep him off my trail."

"Excellent…"

Hi Readers! Yeah, my bad for not updating sooner. Kinda lost the 'drive' for the story for awhile there...but back on now ;)

I do not own Transformers, Hasbro does, so they get all of the TF credit. But Charlotte, her family, and her friends are all my characters. Oh, and Moonshadow is too

Oh hey, Shout out to my ah-mazing editor! She works hard and makes my story better, love ya sis 3