Just like Ariel, Fender was a good sparkling. Even though he was only a couple years old and still quite young to determine if he was sweet and kind like his sister or as mean as a Decepticon he was good to his creators. He hardly whined and when he did it meant he was either hungry, wanted attention, or did something 'dreaded'. Ratchet was glad to have another mech around the house. He had always wanted one, not that he didn't want Ariel oh by all means he wanted her—if he could he'd ask for her all over again, but he can't and so Fender will have to do.

Omega Supreme would come home with Ratchet and would love seeing the little guy. Fender adored him like Ariel. He wasn't used to seeing a big transformer, but it fascinated him so. He was still in his crawling stage and could now show a lot more emotion than when he was a newspark.

Ratchet was glad to see Arcee happy again. When Ariel died she was a broken 'bot. She would have just whithered away into nothing. He was glad she had just sparked a sparkling before Airel's death, if she hadn't then Fender wouldn't be here and she—wouldn't probably smile again.

They tried teaching Fender some words, but it was still 'goo goos' for this mech. He wasn't old enough to start speaking. He could squeal, screech, cry, whine, and fuss, but that was it. He was too young to do anything else even though on occasions he tries to say 'dada' and 'mama'.

Ratchet saw Arcee slowly come back to normal, but she still had her barriers up. She was still afraid of losing this one too. She was so protective over him. She took him to the doctor every year even though Ratchet was one and kept telling her he was perfectly fine.

She was skeptic over doctors' advice ever since Ariel. She didn't want him to end up in the well of allsparks just like his sister. She didn't even take him outside, but slowly—that all began to change. She began taking him to the playground to see other sparklings.

Other mothers even let their small sparklings play with them. Orion Pax though, he wanted to be near Fender all the time. He was like a sibling to him. Orion would pick up Fender and take him on the slide and do it all over again holding Fender by the chest and letting his abdomen dangle like any normal child would do when holding something small whether it be a pet or sparkling.

Arcee watched them carefully and so did Orion's mother. He once got in trouble for dropping him and felt ashamed. Fender was alright though and was unharmed. In fact, he laughed as he fell off the back of a swing.

Orion was a little leery about holding him afterwards, but Arcee told Orion his metal was starting to get unusually tough and so dropping him wouldn't hurt. Orion tested it out with giving a little kick to the lad, but Fender went on acting like nothing happened. Orion smiled and was soon off holding and carrying Fender everywhere. Orion's mother was glad he started learning responsibility with younger children for she knew he'd grow up to be a leader with younger subordinates just like his father.

Arcee was glad she was helping mature Orion. He loved everything about Fender and would often speak of his older sister and how nice she was and how fun she would have been.

"You would have liked her Fender," said Orion as he started digging up some energon sand in the sand box. "Did you want a big sister?"

Once he looked at Fender, Fender just starred at him with a mouth full of wet energon sand. He looked at him sideways and started wiping off his mouth saying—

"Bleh, that doesn't taste so good Fender, Believe me—I tried it once."

And so all was normal. The war went on as usual and there were more losses than ever. Ratchet had to be called in to battle because so and so ever night Arcee would pray to Primus he'd walk through those doors. He did, not matter how tired he was he held his family close thanking Primus he had them to come home to.

It was tiring going from battle back to home, but Ratchet did it for Arcee and Fender. He wanted Fender to remember him when he grew up into that fine young mech he pictured in his mainframe. That fine young mech attracting all sorts of femmes. He chuckled thinking of this and hoping one day he don't bring home a expecting femme.

That he, and Arcee, dreaded. They knew they didn't have to worry about that for a good long while though. He was still only a sparkling just starting life. They wanted to enjoy him now.

They would often show holograms of his sister Ariel and tell him her name hoping he'd remember her that way, and when he was old enough to understand, the stories they told about her. Yes he would have loved her and she him. He'd probably be the only sparkling of theirs. Arcee didn't want the chance of an 'accident' happening to another innocent life.

Ratchet, on the other hand, wanted ten sparkling and so far had two, losing the eldest. Oh Well, there was no convincing Arcee to do anything and he respected her wish and fears even though he thought they were foolish. It was a long time before Arcee let Racthet bond with her for she was afraid of sparking another sparkling. It was hard for Ratchet since his sparkmate didn't want to be as near to him as she was when they first fell in love.

He had to try everything to calm her down before bonding with her again. He had to tell her everything was going to be okay and that she had nothing to fear.

"I don't know if I can do this Ratchet," said Arcee hugging herself as Ratchet sat next to her in he kitchen.

"Arcee nothing will happen," said Ratchet trying to reassure her. "Don't you understand that I love you and ache to be one with you again?"

"I do to Ratchet, but I'm just afraid of sparking," she said turning her head away from him. "What if there is nothing wrong with Fender, but our other sparkling takes all the curses?"

"Arcee," sighed Ratchet turning her head to his. "If we spark another sparkling than sobeit. Primus wants us to have more. I want to have more you know, but that is not the reason why I want to bond with you right now."

"Then why do you?" she asked looking at him with dark optics.

Ratchet then leaned in and gave her a soft and tender kiss that was nice and slow. Ratchet placed his hands on her shoulders and it took her a while till she placed her hands on the sides of his face making the kiss deeper. Ratchet noticed this, but didn't make it any deeper than she wanted to go. He soon broke the kiss and just watched as he looked at Arcee's breathless expressions.

Her optics were offline and her lips slightly opened from the previous kiss. Her head was a bit tilted back so this gave Ratchet the opportunity to lean in and place tender kisses to those sensitive wires. Ratchet had wrapped his arms around her waist as he did this and as soon as he had she placed her hands on his shoulder submitting her body to his. Ratchet was a careful as could be and so halted his kisses seeing if Arcee wanted to continue.

He waited for her to look at him and once she had she wrapped her arms around his chest and placed her head next to his spark just sighing. Ratchet gently rubbed the back of her head as he looked down at her and asked—

"Well Arcee?"

Arcee just let out a sigh as she snuggled closer to him and tightened her hug on him. Ratchet took that as a yes and so got up and tenderly took her hand in his and led her to their room, but before they entered he saw the horror in Arcee's optics as she gazed into their night-filled room. Her optics fell to his asking 'Are you sure?!' Ratchet just smiled a reassuring smile as he pulled her close and embraced her in a kiss. Arcee wrapped one arm around his neck as the other rested on his spark chamber.

All fears seemed to vanish as Ratchet held her and kissed her like this. Ratchet soon backed up and led her inside where they had bonded for the first time since Fender was conceived. The next day when Arcee awoke in Ratchet's arms she never felt so whole in her life as she gazed at the, still, recharging mech. She just smiled and sighed going back into recharge just wanting to stay like this forever.

To Arcee's happiness she did not spark a sparkling so this made her start to ease up on the 'not bonding' with Ratchet. She began to get more loving towards him since that last bonding. She wasn't afraid anymore of sparklings. As a matter of fact the more she bonded with Ratchet the more she began to want another sparkling though she never told Ratchet.

She began to lose all her fears of sparklings and Ratchet. She began to start to become the old Arcee she used to be before Ariel passed away. All her friends began to recognize her personality and loving nature. They were all happy their Arcee was coming back.

Ratchet was glad so that Fender may be able to know his mother like Ariel and he knew her. She began to play with Fender more and stop being so paranoid around him. She let him wander off on the playground, but not as far. He was growing and there was nothing she could do about it.

Whatever Primus had for him she couldn't do anything about it and so let it all go. She was still just a motherly as before, but she knew she could trust friends to watch out for him just as well. Like Orion, or Omega. They loved the little mech just as much as she did and she was happy he had someone else to hold on to.

He wasn't one of those frightened little sparklings that hated other people and only loved their mother, no he was adventurous and she knew that when he grew he'd be joining that army in a sparkbeat. She knew he'd be one tough mech to mess with and they could use of those. No matter how much she'd hate to see him leave to the army when he reached age she knew it was his destiny. With other sparklings, he showed it.

He'd like to show how tough he was like a certain mech she knew. Yep he was just like his father. He looked like him and acted like him, just not as feisty, probably getting that from her. Well only time would tell how he turned out.

But soon though, the war got bad. Soon towns and cities that used to be safe and secure were now taken over by the Decepticons. Where Arcee lived had not been invaded yet, but it was getting close. Ratchet had not known this before it was too late.

Soon he had been called to save a town that was his own. He couldn't believe the town he and his family lived in was being invaded as he spoke by Decepticon warriors. He was now afraid for Arcee and hoped she evacuated with the other transformers before-hand, but she didn't hear about Decepticons nearing their town because she was out on a picnic with Fender. Once Ratchet got there and the fight to save the town began he instantly ran home to try and see if Arcee and Fender had gone, none one was there, but then again they hadn't left.

Where could they have gone?! He wondered. He told Omega he was going out with the other mechs to search to see if any transformer hadn't left and sure enough there was, but Arcee wasn't there. Deep in his spark he knew this day wasn't going to end pleasant and so he HAD to find them.

Arcee had gone to the normal picnic sight she and Ratchet and Ariel used to go. There she put Fender down in his carrier as he just starred at her with a blank expression. She giggled seeing he had that a lot. She fixed their food and soon took him out.

She could have sworn once she heard the shelling of gun fire. It must have been her imagination and so she continued the picnic, but soon she heard louder explosions like it was nearing her. She stood up for a moment trying to see what was going on, but before she knew it a bomb landed only feet away from her exploding shards of metal everywhere. Arcee was a soldier she knew what to do, but she had a sparkling and couldn't let him get harmed and so she took him in her arms and made a run for it.

She knew she wouldn't be able to find cover and the only chance she had was to out run it, but then again she looked back seeing overhead Decepticon aircraft invading. She gasped seeing them blot out the sunlight. What was she to do now? Fender began to cry and so she held him close trying to calm him, but couldn't seeing how she was afraid as well.


"Arcee, ARCEE!!" cried Ratchet trying to find her, but she was no where to be found.

"Ratchet," said Omega Supreme coming to him. "Have you found them yet?"

"No, they must have—!" started Ratchet, but was cut off my a frag bomb that landed only meters away from him.

"Ratchet!" cried Omega watching his friend fly backwards in a building.

Ratchet got up quickly trying to fix his audio receptors as they played nothing but static.

"FRAG!!" he spat. "My audio receivers are damaged."

"I'll hold them off as you fix yourself," said Omega running off.

And so Ratchet worked as fast as he could to fix his hearing. Once he had he felt the ground shake. And ran to see what had happened. There he saw Omega Supreme smoking from hard laser fire to the core.

"NO!!" cried Ratchet seeing his optics flicker to near offline.

He then ran up to him trying to fix him, but bombs flew and the Decepticons began to poor down fire from the skies. Omega was such a large target he was getting the most damage.

"Slag it!!" shouted Ratchet. "Omega you have to get up!"

"I . . . I can't," he groaned in pain.

"You have to or you'll go OFFLINE!!" cried Ratchet not wanting his best friend to die like this.

And so, slowly, but surely Omega stood up and started protecting himself. Ratchet was glad, but soon he was shot in the shoulder by an unseen Decepticon. Omega looked down and saw the soldier soon laying fire to his whole body instantly putting him offline. He then looked at Ratchet seeing him struggled to get to his feet.

Once he stood up he stumbled to the left and right with his hand on his audios. He couldn't hear again because everything was so muffled, but Omega, on the other hand, could. He heard from afar a femme scream—

"SOMEONE HELP!!"

Omega knew that voice. It was Arcee, Ratchet was too dazed to do anything so he took the rest of his energy and left to go find her. Once he did he saw she was with Fender trapped in an open field having bombs explode everywhere and fire rain down on them. Poor little Fender was crying his head off and so Omega came in to try and get them out of there, but he was soon struck with bombs and fire. He cried out in pain, but shielded Arcee and Fender from most of the hits.

"Omega NO!!" cried Arcee seeing him sacrifice himself to protect them.

Omega then stood up and shot at the oncoming Decepticon ships leaving his spark open to attack. They shot dead at him, but he refused to go down. He turned to Arcee and cried saying—

"Arcee, Ratchet's in the town go to him!!"

"Alright," shook Arcee as she started off seeing more Autobot soldiers pour in to try and help Omega only putting him in more danger as he tried to protect them all.

Soon his spark was struck one-to-many-times. He fell backwards and the whole ground shook. Arcee lost her balance and covered her sparkling knowing now Decepticon warriors were pouring into the field. She looked around and saw they were fighting with the Autobots and so she got up almost breaking down in sadness seeing Omega's motionless body. She looked ahead and saw Ratchet coming.

"Ratchet!" she cried to him.

"Arcee NOOOO!!" cried Ratchet trying to get her to stop seeing a Decepticon from behind shoot a missile at her.

Arcee turned and saw it, but it was too late. She tried to dodge it, but it only swerved striking the ground only inches away. She fell back a could yards and Fender left her arms flying the other way. Ratchet took out his magnets and grabbed Fender before he hit the ground.

He took him in his arms and came to Arcee who was offline. He gasped seeing her like this and so put Fender down and tried to revive her. It was only seconds, but it felt like an eternity. Arcee's optics came back on, but she was still pretty wounded.

"Oh thank Primus!" he gasped holding her close.

All Arcee did was give out a gasp not recognizing him. Ratchet let go of her seeing this. She then mumbled out in a bit of panic.

"W-who are you? . . . where am I?"

Her optics scanned around in fear of where she was. She then heard the bombs exploding and shelling and so curled up in a ball wanting it all to stop. Ratchet's spark was overwhelmed by sadness seeing her like this. This was the trauma she needed to forget all over again, oh why Arcee?

He then looked behind him and saw Omega Supreme's offline corpse. His spark sank so far now he couldn't move. All he did was limply hold his son in his arms and cry out in saddness—

"NOOOOO!!"