A/N: I want to apologize for the long wait on some of my stories. I recently lost a good friend of mine and fellow fanfic writer and the loss was much harder than I anticipated. It really stunted whatever creative power I had and left me in a state of much sorrow. It's hard to realize just how much people influence our lives and our passions until they are no longer there. For the next while all my stories are going to be dedicated to her.

AJ. I will miss you. I will miss you and your laughing encouragement more than I can ever say. This one is for you.

Special thanks to Razorgaze as my Beta, and Hummergrey for her constant friendship during this sad time. You both render me speechless with your skills, friendship and dedication. Please check out their fics. The links are in my profile page.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but my OC's. I am not making any money from this. Please do not sue. The song is "Everything Changes" by Staind


She blazed like a comet across the heavens, scorching her way across the sky and across the expanse of his spark. Terrible beauty and awesome destructiveness scattered in her wake as her form crashed into the earth. He ran in his bi-pedal mode, not wanting to waste the power to transform, to waste the time until he held her in his arms again. His Ariel, his Elita. The name didn't matter so much as the spark that burned in her chamber.

She was here.

She had found him.

Elita… Ariel… home.

If you just walked away
What could I really say?
Would it matter anyway?
Would it change how you feel?

I am the mess you chose
The closet you cannot close
The devil in you I suppose
'Cause the wounds never heal.

Emotions shattered his spark, disrupting his concentration, cascading in thousands of different memories across his processors. They danced in the corners of his vision, spinning time backward on the cosmic wheel of the universe. Moments when he was simply Orion, a bridge-builder of little consequence, and she simply Ariel, the femme that cherished him regardless of his station. There was love there, tender and simplistic in its power. But all-consuming nonetheless in its strength.

But there were also moments when they fought back to back as Optimus Prime and Elita-One. Carnage and spilled energon, pieces of fallen comrades and hated enemies building up around them as blaster fire lit the night sky, brighter, more terrifying, and as endless as the stars. Moments when he fell to his knees in despair, his spark nearly extinguished under the suffocating weight of loss and a command no sentient being should have been forced to carry.

And always she was there, always loving, always supporting. His Elita… his spark's one great desire, and one great love. The only thing he had allowed himself to feel for eons was that love. And now, after so long apart, after having to give the order that enraged and infuriated her and ultimately separated them, she was mere meters from his arms.

But everything changes
If I could
Turn back the years
If you could
Learn to forgive me
Then I could learn to feel

Sometimes the things I say
In moments of disarray
Succumbing to the games we play
To make sure that it's real

The memories mixed and whirled, a bittersweet aria of history made into music as he crossed the ground in quick easy strides. Her spark echoed back that song, pouring her love and loss, her anger and her forgiveness in a torrent that nearly drove him to hands and knees. She loved him still, loved him with all her spark. She was angry with him still, angry beyond her ability to express.

Yearning for his spark in her hands, for the feeling of their coming union.

Yearning for him on his knees with her blaster pointed at that same spark, demanding apology after apology as her finger quivered on the trigger.

Light of my spark, she called to him even before her form revealed itself from the entry comet. Orion, my love, what have you done?

He crawled the rest of the way to her unfolding form, brushing ice and dirt and other bits of space debris from her face. Later, my spark's desire. Later, please. Let me hold you. Let my spark know yours before the rest of the universe finds us again. You and I. Just you and I, please…

Arms he had ached for ever since giving that horrible but necessary order wrapped around his shoulders, optics shining into his. His entire frame shook, need and relief wracking him down to his core. His fingers still fit against her frame, remembering with vivid clarity how she liked to be held, where to hold her against his own body. He jealously, greedily pushed aside the lingering thought that maybe, possibly, his brother felt that way when he held Laura in his claws.

No. No, he would not go there just yet. Not in this moment. Not when he could do little more than allow himself this one, selfish moment of joy in holding his beloved in his arms again.

But it's not just us anymore, Orion. Elita spoke into his spark, making it almost impossible to banish the thought. She can hear us. She knows, and what she knows, I know. Orion, my light, you must let Laura go.

He shook his head violently, hoisting her into his massive arms and turning back towards the base. I can't.

Can't, she answered quietly, Or won't?

But everything changes
If I could
Turn back the years
If you could
Learn to forgive me
Then I could learn to feel

When it's just me and you
Who knows what we could do
If we can just make it through
The toughest part of the day

He would not answer her, not as he carried her across the tarmac of the base proper, not as he laid her upon the medical berth for Ratchet to examine. His memory core played out all the reasons why he could not honor her request. Sending the human back to Megatron, sending her in as a slave to die bent and broken at his brothers will, was anathema to everything he believed in, to everything that burned in the center of his spark.

But was she really a slave to him, that worrisome part of him asked. Had his brother spoken truth in the fact that Laura had somehow enslaved him?

Impossible. Illogical. And yet… staring into Elita's eyes, he knew that it had to be true. Laura was indeed his slave, but no more so than he was hers. Somehow, against the better part of every bit of knowledge contained in their entire race, Megatron had fallen in love. And the tragedy of that entire sequence of events was the fact that his beloved was human. She would die of natural causes long before he was ready to loose her.

The thoughts cast darkness across the landscape of his mind, clouds of doubt and fear eclipsing the light that her return had shown throughout him. His optics dimmed with uncontrolled sorrow, knowing what would happen when this human woman died. And in that, he found the answer to his beloved's question.

Light of my spark, I cannot let her go. I cannot risk their bond growing stronger and then her life force ending so soon. If we thought he was the death of our race now, imagine how much more hate will exist in him when she expires? Imagine how his hatred of the human race will exponentially expand? There would be no limits to his rage. It is better than he forgets her now. It is better that they are separated before…

He could not bring himself to state the word 'Sundering.' He could not imagine the pain as a joined spark was split in two with the death of one part of it. The very thought made his legs tremble, nearly brought him to his knees. Primus, he could not do it. He could not loose Elita, and he could not risk the destruction of the human race all because of the love of one femme.

Light of my life, Elita called gently into his thoughts. They are already one. Sundering will occur when the spark of life in either is extinguished. None of us are promised our full measure of life. Not the humans in their incredibly shorter spans, and certainly not ourselves. Let her go, Orion. Let them know love while it still exists.

His love is poison and pain. It cannot do her any good.

The anger returned to his beloved, faster than even he thought possible. And her reply sent him reeling, from both the venom in it and from the ultimate truth in her words.

"The same could be said about ours…"

But everything changes
If I could
Turn back the years
If you could
Learn to forgive me
Then I could
Learn how to feel

Then we could
Stay here together
And we could
Conquer the world
If we could
Say that forever
Is just more than a word

He turned to leave then, unable to stay, to meet the accusatory stare in her lovely optics. His name was Optimus now, and he stood as Prime over the remnant of a dying race. Orion would have given in to whatever Ariel had asked, given freely of love and let fate hand out what it would. But those days were long gone, ripped from him by the very mech he called brother. The darker parts of his spark wanted so much to deny everything Elita had said, if only to make Megatron feel some kind of torment in response to all the evil he had done.

But the whole of him, the mingled parts of Orion and Optimus knew that could never happen. He was not his brother. He would not cause harm just to cause it.

"You are more like him than you realize."

He spun, angry to be interrupted in the middle of his thoughts, angry that this little human had managed to sneak up on him. But most of all, he was angry with himself. "You should not be here."

Laura shrugged a shoulder, acting as if the looming thunder in his voice wasn't intimidating. "Where else would I be? I want to see her."

"She does not want visitors at this time."

The human woman laughed, the sound high and wild. "Oh, yes she does. She just doesn't want to see you right now. And you know why."

He stood staring at the doors to the medical facility long after they had closed behind the human. Long after her words had imprinted themselves on his spark…

If you just walked away
What could I really say?
And would it matter anyway?
It wouldn't change how you feel...