(posted Dec. 2, 2007)
Disclaimer: All Transformers characters, settings, etc. are the property of Hasbro and any other respective owners. Any original characters AND THE PLOT are the intellectual property of Litahatchee/ Letohatchee. No part of the story, ideas, or OC's are to be used without the express permission of Litahatchee/ Letohatchee. Litahatchee/ Letohatchee is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
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CREDITS: Thanks to grlwdgrntrk for letting me use her idea on how a femme's spark splits and how it leaves a mark on her spark each time she has a sparkling, from her story 'Face Down.' Special thanks also to Karategal, Hearts of Eternity, and lady tecuma.
WARNING: Prepare yourselves...character death, non-consensual situations...Very sad! I'm sorry!
HUGE WARNING HERE! This may be disturbing to some readers. I'm disturbed and I wrote the damn thing! I almost changed the story, but sent the chapter to Madame Soybean to see what she thought. After telling me she could no longer continue with her day, I was convinced it should be changed. Later, she wrote and said that I need to continue with my original plan. "If it's making us all react and feel emotion, it's great writing if you ask me," she wrote to me. So, that being said, you have the option here to skip this chapter. A short explanation of what happened is at the very end. You don't have to know how it happened to understand the rest of the story, just that it happened.
Italics are a flashback and bold words are transmissions through personal links. Regular print is the present, except for one memory clip.
Enjoy!
Night Fire
Chapter 10
Sunshadow
by Litahatchee
When Optimus first established Floatilla, Megatron paid little attention to it. He didn't care what Optimus did with all those weaklings. He took notice of it when the Decepticons started sending their bondeds and younglings there, but he still paid little attention. He did not approve of spark-bonding among his soldiers, inside or outside of the ranks. A weakness was introduced when one allowed his life to be completely dependent on another's for survival. However, if his bonded soldiers sent their sparkmates to Floatilla, then he would stand little chance of losing them because of this weakness, so he tolerated it.
All the younglings at Floatilla were given a choice as to what faction they wanted to join. However, it soon became apparent that most of them from Autobot pairings chose to be Autobots. A new Neutral faction was born where some chose not to belong to either. This did not help reinforce the Decepticon ranks. While most Decepticon younglings chose to be Neutral, some were choosing to be Autobots. Megatron started taking notice. As far as he was concerned, the Decepticon femmes were traitors.
Megatron was no idiot. He also saw the strength that some bonds possessed, especially when the bonded pair were both combatants. The most notable pair that the Decepticons came against time and again was Ironhide and Chromia. They were taking the Decepticons out mech by mech. Megatron had no doubt that Optimus and Elita were just as strong. There were other pairs out there that cost him as well.
The Decepticons tried to use the weakness of Autobot bonded pairs against them by targeting and killing one of the pair. They were successful in some cases, but usually paid dearly for it, losing more Decepticons than it was worth. But, Ironhide and Chromia were just unstoppable. They knew exactly what they were doing. And, with Floatilla producing more and more Autobots, it was only a matter of time before more bonded pairs like them would spark up. Megatron could not afford another Ironhide and Chromia. Floatilla had turned into a virtual Autobot factory. He decided it was time to put an end to it.
Megatron's plan had been brilliant in its execution. The first thing he had to do was make the Autobots think that there would be lasting peace, so he called for a cease fire, which they accepted happily. He had time. He had nothing but time as he let each vorn pass, the Autobots becoming more and more complacent, thinking the peace was real. There were times when some of his more eager soldiers became impatient and attacked small outposts, but Megatron quashed the disputes quickly, killing them for their insolence. How dare they interrupt his plans? However, he was able to gain some trust by quelling these disputes, so he strategically ordered a couple as the peace wore on, just so he could continue to show his 'dedication' to keeping it.
Even Optimus seemed to be falling for it. Soon they established open communication again. They were bonded siblings after all. Optimus was weary of him, but he was hopeful. Megatron used Optimus's weariness against him, even encouraged it, knowing that Optimus would never suspect his true intentions.
The goal was to kill everyone at Floatilla and then move on to the AllSpark while the Autobots were in shock. So, when he called for a gathering to be held at Kaon, he was pleased that Optimus suspected an ambush at Kaon was Megatron's plan all along. Optimus wanted to meet at a neutral location, but that did not take away from Megatron's plans, as he chose one that was close to Kaon, yet still far away from Floatilla, where the real ambush would be taking place.
Megatron would take care of two problems by having all the Decepticon bondeds distract the Autobots at the gathering. Neither the Autobots nor the Decepticon bondeds would know until it was too late. There was also the matter of distance, so even if his Decepticons failed him, by the time they would get to Floatilla, it would still be too late. However, he wanted the Autobots to arrive at Floatilla eventually, so the Decepticons 'distracting' them were not to put up much of a fight; just enough to make the Autobots believe it was an ambush. Then, once they figured out the true intent, they would race to Floatilla only to find total annihilation. The Decepticons at Floatilla would then attack the arriving Autobots in a full-on assault as Megatron went for the ultimate prize: the AllSpark. In their shock over the blow at Floatilla, they would never suspect Megatron going for yet another objective.
The war, for Megatron, had always been about galactic domination and planetary control. He would take out Floatilla and any chance of new Autobots being produced from bonded pairs. He would see to it, personally, that every bonded femme at Floatilla be exterminated. He would then take the AllSpark and use it to create more Decepticons. In this way, the Autobots would be overwhelmed and he would take Cybertron and, ultimately, the universe.
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Elita watched in horror as Megatron opened Chromia's chassis. He hadn't done that with the other femmes. Chromia struggled with renewed fervor as he reached in and wrenched out her spark maliciously.
Elita shuttered her optics sadly, bracing herself for the pain of their dying bond, full of regret that she had done nothing to try to prevent Chromia's death.
However, the pain never came; the link never died…
...And that's when Elita heard it. Her energon ran cold and her spark fell heavily, her abdomen fluttering in dread. She knew what it was immediately.
A clip from earlier in the day replayed itself in her CPU:
"I have something I want to show you," Chromia said to her softly, that same warm smile crossing her faceplates again.
Elita found herself wishing that it had been Chromia's spark and she knew, she knew that both Chromia and Ironhide would be wishing it had been Chromia's spark for the rest of their lives, however short it seemed that was about to be.
Elita was afraid to look. The next thing she heard was Chromia's pleading.
"Please!" Chromia was absolutely terrified now as her motherly instincts forced her to beg. "We'll do anything! Anything you want! Just please don't hurt him!"
Elita painfully unshuttered her optics to an image that would burn itself forever in her CPU. Dangling from one of Megatron's clawed hands was a tiny sparkling not more than two vorns old. It was a mech, with a frame as black as Ironhide's. He was squeaking in terror, reaching out to Chromia as she pleaded desperately for his life. All that mattered to her now was his survival, whatever it took to insure it. Her pleas went unnoticed, or not so unnoticed, as Megatron laughed at her struggling helplessly in his grip.
Elita cried in agony for her friend. She realized, with sadness, that they had waited until they thought the peace was going to last. Both Chromia and Ironhide had obviously opted to carry the mech, a very loving gesture. She regretted everything, everything negative she had ever said about Ironhide, even the joking. She would give anything to take it all back right now. She would give anything to take Chromia's place.
---
Chromia thought her spark might explode with terror. Her sparkling didn't understand why she was so frightened and why his mech creator was so angry. All he knew was that it was making him scared and that he was in pain from being disconnected from her spark-casing so harshly. He didn't understand why everything was so cold. He wanted to crawl back into his hold in her chassis and reattach himself to her warm spark-casing. His spark kept calling to her and when she didn't respond to his needs, he reached out to his mech creator, whose chassis was so roomy and warm…
Chromia tried to send calm and reassurance to the sparkling through their bond. If she could just get him to relax enough to go into recharge.
Megatron felt what she was doing through his tap with her. Disgusted, he tightened his grip on her throat, causing her self-preservation programming to kick in and abandon the connection with the sparkling. Chromia fought it, the terrified shrills of her sparkling, as she abruptly disappeared, giving her strength to fight it. She managed to send love and warmth to him and he began to calm down, but what he really wanted was to be carried again. Chromia was crying now. What was taking them so long?
She heard what sounded like a seeker above them. When he flew into her field of vision, she noticed it wasn't a seeker at all. It was Silverbolt! For the first time since this began, Chromia felt hope. There were explosions at the entrance to the city as the Autobots began to arrive.
Megatron immediately ordered the deaths of the remaining bondeds. The Decepticons attacked them without mercy, killing every single one within a breem. Starscream would have none of it, but he didn't mind killing Autobots, so he and the rest of the Decepticon seekers rose up to take on that Aerialbot coward, Silverbolt. The rest of the Aerialbots were not far behind, no doubt.
---
Ironhide's spark nearly extinguished when he felt their sparkling calling him. The little bot was scared and he wanted to be carried. He really liked Chromia's cozy chassis, but he was ready for Ironhide to carry him now, so that he could stretch out a bit. There was so much room in his mech ceator's chassis. Ironhide reassured the sparkling that he would be carrying him soon. Ironhide could feel Chromia struggling to calm the sparkling as well. The young mech seemed to reach a state of contented calm as he received warm feelings from his creators. They were both in a state of utter panic, but they were responding to him, and that's what he understood.
Ironhide had only been a few breems behind the first arriving Autobots. He was running through the chaos around him, shooting any Decepticon that so much as looked in his direction.
---
Megatron tossed the little sparkling in his hand until it was lying on its back in his enormous palm. He positioned his clawed thumb on the little bot's chassis, right over his spark.
"Let me get rid of this for you," Megatron said to Chromia, as if he were doing her a favor.
"No! Please!" Chromia cried desperately.
Megatron could now feel Ironhide responding to the sparkling. All of this was better than he could have dreamed.
"You are not going to make it. You are going to lose everything," Megatron taunted Ironhide through his link with Chromia, delighting in the sick irony that he could do so through the tap.
Taking his sick pleasure from their terror, he applied pressure with his clawed thumb.
"IIIIRRRONNHHIIIDDE!!!!!!"
Chromia's energon curdling, anguished scream rang out across the plaza, echoing off of the surrounding buildings.
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Ironhide found Chromia out in the desert. She was curled up in a ball on the edge of the enormous Earth formation that dropped into the canyon below. Ironhide bent down to pick her up and she started thrashing about, pushing him away from her.
"Chromia, shhh. It's me," he said soothingly as he sent her love and warmth through their bond.
He knew this was coming. He had hoped for more time, but there had been just too many reminders since she arrived to this planet. She turned to look at him, her optics full of sorrow and pain.
"Hide," she whispered as she wrapped her arms tightly around his neck and allowed him to lift her up, her spark latching onto his dependently. Even though his spark was hurting from one Pit of a shock she sent to him earlier, he latched onto hers tenderly.
"I can't remember his name," she whispered painfully in his audio receptor. Chromia was shaking with sorrow. Ironhide squeezed his optics shut and held her tighter.
He knew she wanted to delete the memory, but he was hurt when she wanted the entire chip removed, as it contained every single memory about their sparkling. It hurt him that she was so willing to have it all gone. She eventually accepted that their sparkling was gone and wanted his memory, but during the times she tried to delete the incident, she would wind up deleting other details on the chip, not necessarily related to what Megatron did to her. Ironhide had no idea one of the details was the name of their sparkling. Ironhide never forgot his sparkling's name, but he had not spoken the name since their sparkling was so brutally taken from them.
"I'm sorry," he whispered painfully as the memory came to the front of his CPU.
What he remembered most about it was her scream, right before the spark shattering pain. He had been so close...
For the trillionth time, Ironhide went over all the 'What if's.' What if he had gone faster? What if he hadn't stopped that first time when he thought he'd lost her? What if he had just taken her with him to the meeting? He wasn't carrying that day because of the suspicions that it was an ambush. What if he had been carrying anyway? What if he'd just asked her not to go to Floatilla until he got back? What if…? What if…? …?
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Ironhide was so close, but he was not close enough. He heard her scream his name…
…And he knew. In the astrosecond before it hit him, he already knew. His spark skipped in fear. Then it hit him. No amount of warning could have prepared him. Searing pain ripped through his spark as the bond with his sparkling was severely torn away. He never felt a dying bond like this. Many mechs that he had been bonded to had been killed over the vorns. All of them were painful, but nothing, nothing like this. It felt like a piece of his spark was slowly being hacked out, each cut bringing more and more pain. He was in excruciating agony. He fell to his knees, screaming.
Ironhide refused to believe it, he couldn't believe it. What on Cybertron just happened? How could he not be there for his family?
Ironhide remained on his knees, broken and defeated. The attacking Decepticons saw it as their chance and advanced on him...
---
Chromia completely and utterly gave up and gave in to Megatron's tap as her sparkling died. Megatron could now easily gain access to anything he wanted in her CPU. Another interesting tidbit of information presented itself. Megatron was beside himself. His luck just kept getting better and better. He knew this operation would be successful, but he had no idea this operation would be this successful.
"Elita One is here," he turned to Blackout, unable to keep the excitement from his voice. "Get her!"
---
Optimus had been imploring Elita to remain hidden until he got there. There was nothing she could do. All she would do by showing herself would be to make herself a target. However, when she heard Megatron, she jumped up and ran in the direction of the arriving Autobots, transmitting frantically to Optimus that she'd been discovered...
---
This operation had proven to be most successful indeed. The Decepticons had successfully eradicated the femmes and younglings. Megatron had successfully eliminated all the bondeds of Floatilla. He was currently successfully ridding himself of Ironhide and Chromia; the discovery of the sparkling had been an added bonus. Now he could rid himself of Optimus Prime easily by killing Prime's sparkmate. How could Prime allow himself such a weak indulgence? His weakness would be his undoing.
Megatron saw Elita jump up out of her hiding spot. She took off running in the direction of the arriving Autobots. Megatron watched her with lust-filled optics. She was just as beautiful as Chromia. And, oh, the things he could learn from her CPU! He was going to kill her, of course, but he was going to enjoy making Optimus suffer first.
Megatron turned back to the now limp Chromia in his arms, who had given up all efforts to fight him.
"Ironhide," Megatron said to him through Chromia's link as he embraced her almost lovingly. "I am going to kill the ones you love and watch you anguish over their lifeless bodies as you slowly die."
---
Ironhide could hear Megatron loud and clear now as Chromia lost all hope. Ironhide's resolve was set. He would not give Megatron the satisfaction. Chromia was still alive and as long as he remained that way, she would remain that way. His love for her was the greatest thing he had ever known. He would not give up on her now, not while he still had a chance to save her.
As soon as the Decepticons were upon him, Ironhide attacked, channeling all his pain and anger into a fiery vengeance that flared and grew, spreading inextinguishable death. The first two took the full brunt of it as he grabbed the throat of one with his left hand, digging his fingers in deep behind the wiring, and violently pulled up and out, the entire vocal processor unit ripping completely free of the mech's neck. The Decepticon went down, a gurgling sound coming from his vents as they filled up with energon. Ironhide simultaneously blew a hole in the chest of the other with his right cannon and reached into the hole, yanking out the Decepticon's spark.
Ironhide's optics flashed a murderous red as he twisted the gun off of a third and thrust it into the abdomen of the unlucky Decepticon, shoving it under his armor and pushing it up into the soft wiring beneath his spark. A fourth and fifth attacked, Ironhide successfully pinning one on his back crushing his head beneath his feet, energon swiftly pooling around him, and yanked an arm off of the other, who didn't press the attack after that.
More attacked him as he advanced towards Megatron and his Chromia. One landed a blow to his right knee. It buckled, but Ironhide kept going, Pit-bent on killing every one of them, spark-raving mad with rage.
---
Megatron watched Ironhide coming. He was impressed. The crazed black mech was making quick work of the Decepticons. Megatron was even impressed with his tactics. Too bad he had just killed the sparkling. He might have had a chance of coercing Ironhide into joining him if he hadn't done that.
Megatron watched as Ironhide took on injuries, none of them slowing him down, his optics now a deep crimson as he pulled off any limb that came into reach of his hands. He was covered in energon. Several Decepticons decided it wasn't worth it and tried to flee, but Ironhide's cannons dealt their fatal blows.
Megatron shook his head in a tiny bit of regret; Ironhide would have made a great Decepticon. Megatron still possessed his femme, but Ironhide would also be difficult to control. Even Optimus had a tough time controlling him. And as soon as his femme recovered, they would have that bonded strength again...
No, it would be best to be rid of them.
---
Megatron threw Chromia to the ground and she landed hard on her back. She slowly lifted herself up on her side and turned to see Ironhide. She quickly turned away from him. How could she face him? She couldn't keep their sparkling hidden…
Megatron clapped his hands together, a projectile-like spear shooting from his left forearm as he did so. He pulled it out with his right hand and brandished it over his shoulder, aiming straight for Chromia's spark.
Ironhide ROARED as Megatron threw it. She let out one final scream as it pierced her chassis, making its way through her body, and pinning her steadfastly to the ground. Megatron had intended for it to stop Ironhide in his tracks, but instead he became more infuriated. It did, however, slow him down as he clutched his chest in agonizing pain.
Ironhide was before Megatron in a matter of astroseconds. Megatron was much larger than Ironhide and they both knew Ironhide didn't stand a chance, but that hardly mattered now. Ironhide would inflict as much damage as he could.
Ironhide shot with both cannons, aiming directly for Megatron's spark. He missed, but a huge gaping hole appeared in the larger mech's shoulder. Without letting even a split second pass, Ironhide was immediately upon him, grasping the apparatus below Megatron's left arm that made the spear and wrenching it free while simultaneously seizing his clawed thumb and ferociously snatching it backwards.
Megatron cried out in pain and surprise. At that moment, he received a transmission from Blackout that he had successfully obtained Elita One and was proceeding to the rendezvous. It was time to go after the AllSpark. Megatron didn't have time to play around.
There was a scar across Ironhide's left optic. Using this as a target, Megatron thrust his right hand out, his claws piercing through the scar, and ripped off that side of Ironhide's face, his optic falling below his cheek, hanging on by several wires. As he did this, Megatron fiercely swept Ironhide's feet out from under him, cleanly breaking the left knee. Ironhide writhed in pain and anger on the ground as Megatron transformed and headed towards the AllSpark, which, at the time, was located at Iacon.
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Optimus had done all he could to rescue Elita. Blackout was successful in apprehending her before he arrived at Floatilla. She was transmitting to him, but she had no idea where she was, as Blackout had placed something over her optics.
Megatron had fled, but Optimus had no idea where to, and the Autobots were fighting fiercely over Floatilla. The fighting was beginning to wane and they were able to survey the damage first hand.
It became clear that Megatron had not intended to force the younglings into servitude at all. He killed all of them. Not one had been spared. All the femmes were dead. It was horrendous, pure slaughter. There were lifeless, energon covered bodies and parts of bodies everywhere. Everything was covered with energon as it ran down the streets. When they got to the plaza and saw first hand what the bondeds had been transmitting that was happening to them, many mechs fell to their knees and cried. Some would never recover.
One lone bonded Decepticon femme appeared out of the carnage. She had worn her Decepticon symbol proudly on her chassis. It looked as if she had been trying to scratch it off. She knelt before Optimus and reached up to grab his hand, pressing her forehead to the back of it.
"I pledge what's left of my life to your cause," she said to him.
He didn't know it at the time, but this femme would be instrumental in helping him find Elita. She would not remain nameless and she would forever hold a high position of honor in the CPU of Optimus Prime.
At that moment, Optimus got the call that the AllSpark location was being attacked. For the first time in several hundred vorns, Optimus felt lost and afraid.
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Ironhide held the tiny lifeless mech in his arms, his despair threatening to drive him mad. He opened his chassis and gently placed the sparkling in the hold in front of his spark casing. Ironhide spoke to him softly, telling him that he could stretch out now. There was no response.
Ironhide shuttered his remaining optic, praying to Primus that his injuries would take him soon, as death caused from losing his sparkmate would not come soon enough. He lay down next to Chromia, grasping her hand in sorrow. He didn't make it. He had been so close, but he didn't make it. He couldn't protect them. He couldn't save them. He failed them.
"I'm sorry," he whispered sorrowfully.
---
It was Ratchet who found them. He and First Aid were searching for survivors, any survivors. So far, they hadn't had much luck.
"One more step, and I'll send you to Pit," a voice said to him from the shadows.
Ratchet looked towards the voice and caught a glimpse of a red optic staring him down. He didn't recognize the optic or the mech it belonged to, but he did recognize the cannon being pointed his way...
"Ironhide?" Ratchet asked. "It's me...Ratchet..."
"Go away."
Ratchet approached him cautiously as Ironhide dropped his arm. He was horrified by what he saw. Ironhide had suffered extensive damage, especially to his face. However, it looked as if Chromia…
Ratchet knelt next to her and inspected the projectile. It had pierced her abdomen completely through. However, it had not pierced her spark. It had just missed it, taking out the bottom of the spark casing, but the spark remained intact.
He was going to need Ironhide's help. He was going to need all the help he could get if he was to save her.
"Ironhide, she's alive," Ratchet said to him. "She's gone into stasis lock."
Ironhide remained still. Ratchet called First Aid as he grabbed Ironhide and pulled him as close to her as possible. They were going to need to work fast.
"Ironhide, I need your spark. You need to get as close as possible."
Ratchet would have liked to join them. Doing so would have allowed her to gain some strength, but he wasn't sure if it was possible. He needed to get the spear removed and hope to Primus that he could repair the wiring that it destroyed. For now, just having Ironhide's spark next to hers would have to do. Any proximity would help. Ironhide remained quiet.
"Oh, Primus, I don't know Ratchet," First Aid said upon seeing Chromia's condition when he arrived to the scene.
"We've got to save her, or we're going to lose both of them," Ratchet said and started the task of cutting the spear down close to her frame so that she could be moved.
First Aid was not optimistic at all. In all seriousness, neither was Ratchet, but he had to try.
---
They were able to get them both down to Iacon. Ratchet had to repeatedly pull Ironhide over Chromia's spark. It wasn't that Ironhide wasn't cooperating, he was just unresponsive.
Once they got them into Ratchet's med bay, he and First Aid quickly went to work. They got the spear removed, but had a hard time stopping the energon flow. They nearly lost her then.
Ratchet placed Ironhide on the operating table with her so their sparks would never lose contact. Ratchet became hopeful when they resonated together. He worked on her abdominal cavity while Red Alert worked on her spark casing. She was a mess. Though Ratchet would have liked to replace the whole thing, First Aid was able to weld a plate to the bottom of her spark casing. They didn't have any spare spark casings.
Ratchet had to remove her interfacing port. It was completely destroyed. He also had to remove her chassis, but he would be able to repair it, even though the parts in it and her abdomen were damaged beyond recognition. After some length of rewiring and wire replacements, Ratchet was becoming more confident, though.
"She won't be able to produce a sparkling, but she'll live," Ratchet remarked.
The next thing he wanted to do was join their sparks before seeing to Ironhide's injuries. They were extensive, but not fatal, though he was sure Ironhide probably felt like they were, and Chromia needed him now more than ever. By joining their sparks, she would be able to gain the strength she would need to recover.
He looked up at First Aid's work and got a good glimpse of Chromia's spark for the first time. He froze. He could see immediately that her spark had split; noticing the small scarring that a sparkling causes once it has separated.
"Primus, First Aid, she's already had a sparkling!"
First Aid looked up at him and nodded his head.
"You know about this?!" Ratchet exclaimed in surprise.
"Yes, I built his frame. They wanted me to make him small enough so that he could be carried. Didn't they tell you? They wanted you to build his second frame, once they were done carrying."
Ratchet looked at First Aid in pure shock. Ratchet had been keeping himself pretty busy, but Ironhide did tell Ratchet that he wanted to speak with him about something soon. It must have been about the sparkling's second frame.
Ratchet looked around. The sparkling wasn't with Chromia. They would have seen it when they removed her damaged chassis, though he didn't see her carrying hold, so Ratchet looked again before deciding the sparkling wasn't there.
"Where is he?"
Ratchet and First Aid looked to Ironhide, who was now curled up in a tight ball, his back facing them.
---
Ratchet and First Aid soon learned that the sparkling had died. There was nothing they could do for him, as he suffered a fatal puncture directly to his spark. However, Ironhide would not allow them to take the little mech from him. Chromia was slipping and Ratchet was getting desperate, but tried to remain calm.
"Ironhide, there's nothing we can do. You have to let him go. Chromia is still alive, but she won't be if you don't join with her right NOW. I need you to take care of the living!"
Ironhide had completely given up by this point. He focused on Ratchet with that disconcertingly red optic and growled, "We don't want to live!"
"Ratchet, we're losing her!" First Aid said quickly to him.
Ratchet grabbed Ironhide by his rib-like foreplate and pulled him up harshly, shaking him, "You are going to live! If you don't join with her right now, I am going to join you to her myself!"
To emphasize his point, he pulled open Ironhide's chassis. Ratchet's spark felt heavy for the sparkling inside, but he took it out gently. Ironhide did not protest this time. Ratchet then shoved Ironhide's open chest towards Chromia's.
Ironhide pushed him away, saying, "Stop, I'll do it."
There was a low, harsh clicking noise coming from deep within Ironhide's throat and Ratchet realized he was crying now.
Ironhide pulled Chromia to him, sadly and gently pressing his spark to hers. The result was exactly what Ratchet wanted as she gained enough strength to aid in her recovery. They were going to live. There was no way Ratchet was going to allow them to give up.
Through the meld, Ironhide gained new hope from Chromia's love. She welcomed him into her spark tenderly. She did not blame him. She was afraid that he blamed her. He did not blame her. They still had each other.
---
Ironhide's optic returned to its deep blue coloring. Ratchet was able to save the other optic, but he could not restore vision to it. It looked like it was working, as it shone as brightly as the other, but sometimes, especially when Ironhide was stressed, a cloudy white would show through. Ratchet was able to reconstruct his face, but a larger scar than before now graced it. Ratchet fixed and rewired everything else, but Ironhide would forever have problems with the broken left knee.
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The war had always been about planetary control. Now it reached new heights as it became about what types of Cybertronians were produced in order to achieve this goal. Optimus was able to save the AllSpark from falling into Megatron's hands and he had the AllSpark hidden. No Cybertronian, Autobot included, was allowed to get near it, resulting in no new younglings being produced from it. Optimus could not take that chance, not while the Decepticons wanted to control it and especially not while younglings were being targeted.
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Fighting Decepticons was no longer fun and games for Ironhide and Chromia, as now they were fighting for revenge. Megatron would come to wish that he had made sure that they were dead. He thought they were, but he soon learned that he had missed Chromia's spark. If Megatron thought they were a problem before, now they were more successful than ever against the Decepticons. Megatron was never able to even get near them again.
Their tactics became so brutal that Optimus was forced to split them up. He sent Ironhide to Beta Nebulae and eventually to Artemis I. He sent Chromia to Vector Sigma, where she served with Elita One, who went there once she recovered from her ordeal with the Decepticons.
Overall, they were all separated, as the search for the AllSpark began, after Optimus launched it into space.
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"I want to go home," Chromia said to Ironhide as he carried her back to the Ark.
"So do I," he responded.
Ironhide tried to place her on the berth, but she had a death grip on him. He sat down on it instead, cradling her in his arms as he rubbed her head and neck with his cheek, snuggling her and rocking her back and forth soothingly. Her arms relaxed as she fell deep into recharge. He continued to hold her as he gazed at her face.
"Sunshadow," he said softly to her recharging form. "We named him Sunshadow."
He looked upon her a while longer, his vocal processors beginning to close up and tightness rising up in his chest. His optics started to burn as his emotions overwhelmed him.
Ironhide pressed his forehead slowly to Chromia's…
…and silently wept.
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A/N: Okay, so coming up with a unique sparkling name is HARD. Kudos to lady tecuma for coming up with Nightfire. I came up with Skyshadow at first, thinking it was original and then looked it up on Wikipedia, only to find that three, no less than THREE Transformers go by this name; two Decepticons and an Autobot. Okay, so Skyshadow, while it is my first choice and Madame Soybean encouraged me to keep using it anyway, wouldn't do. Sorry Madame Soybean! It is the best name, but I just couldn't use it. I then came up with Starshadow. Oh yea, that's nice isn't it? No Transformers go by this name, but I typed it in google and found a person on Fanfiction, no less, by the name of Grimlock-something-another who is using it as the name of a sparkling in their fic. ARGHHH! So, going with the cosmos theme, I chose Sunshadow. No one else has this name and I fell in love with it.
SUMMARY OF CH. 10:
Ironhide and Chromia had a sparkling named Sunshadow that was killed at Floatilla. Chromia survives, but is horribly maimed and cannot produce another. Move on to Ch. 11.
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