….:::~CHAPTER 15~:::….

The night was calm. The air was still. There were no stars to be seen in the sky that night. Across the state of California north of the great city of Los Angeles. Things were quiet and nothing was disturbed…only it wouldn't remain that way.

All at once a raging inferno fell from the clouded-over sky and crashed to the earth in a display of flying dirt and vegetation…and then another.

The steam cleared as two metallic forms moved and twisted to take on new forms.

"Primus Charger, why did we have to touch down so far from the signal? Now it will take forever to track it down!"

A large figure rose from its crater slowly looking down at its much smaller feminine companion.

"Nightfire you know why we had to land farther away. These organic creatures classified as humans that inhabit this planet more than likely have detected our presence. This way we will be able to adapt to new alternate forms and make our escape before any of them even arrive at the scene of our crash."

Rubbing her slightly damaged armor, Nightfire scoffed. "Well, couldn't we have at least landed closer to where that message from Prime was traced from?"

Looking out of the corner of his dark blue optics Charger scoffed. "Patience little sister, we will meet up with our fellow Autobots soon enough. Now where is Phoenix?"

Looking around Nightfire sighed. "He WAS right behind me. I thought he—."

Just then a raging, out-of-control fireball flew through the air just above their heads and crashed in a display of flying dirt, rock and debris.

As the dust settled and the atmosphere became quiet, the object of curiosity also transformed into similar forms to that of the two Autobots that now stood watching.

It stood… and slowly grinned. "I think I need to work on my landings, huh guys?"

Both Autobots shook their heads and spoke at once. "Phoenix…"

Nightfire growled quietly as she paced around her younger sibling and smacked him on the back of the head. "You can never stay out of trouble, can you?"

"Enough. Both of you."

Looking up, Nightfire and Phoenix grew quiet. Charger merely sighed as he looked to the haze of lights in the distance.

"It appears that we are not far from a human settlement. We must take on alternate forms to blend into our surroundings. We do not want our presence known to the humans just yet."

Nodding Nightfire looked away from their younger brother. "Agreed. But tell me Charger, just how are we going to get new alt. forms, hmmm?"

Looking back to the haze, Charger groaned quietly. "We must journey to the outer parts of that human city, or at least a road leading to it. There we will find new forms."

"Well, then what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

Taking off in a rush, Phoenix brushed both his older sister and brother with the haze of light set in his sights.

"Phoenix, wait for us you slag head!" Quickly Nightfire raced after him.

Merely shaking his head, Charger quietly followed.

…

Cars raced down the interstate with their lights beaming brightly. Their drivers completely oblivious to the outsiders hiding in the trees that lay watching in the trees running parallel to the interstate.

Charger sat quietly merely watching.

Sitting next to him, Nightfire sighed quietly. "Soooo…which alt do we pick? There are so many to choose from."

Not even turning his head to meet her gaze Charger merely sighed. "Choose the vehicle form that best fits you. But try to keep it simple."

Suddenly leaning over on the shoulders of his siblings. "Yeah, see here's the thing bro, simple just really isn't in my programming. NOW THAT'S A SET OF WHEELS I LIKE!"

Just then a beam of light shot out from Phoenix to a vehicle racing down the interstate moving too fast for either Charger of Nightfire to fully get a glimpse. Retracting the beam Phoenix quickly transformed into his new alt form. Sitting in the trees with its engine purring quietly a red Firebird Trans am idled. It's signature…a phoenix, glittering brightly in the now moon lit night.

"Well guys… what do you think?"

Transforming, Phoenix slowly turned to admire his new armor.

Nightfire merely scoffed shaking her head. "What part of simple don't you seem to get?"

Walking past Nightfire, Phoenix merely grinned to himself and shrugged. Looking back to the interstate Nightfire sighed. "My turn…"

Watching for only a few moments, Nightfire suddenly activated a similar beam of light that Phoenix had used and scanned a vehicle racing down the road. Transforming into her vehicle form she sat still with her engine's low growl escape from under her hood. She was a machine that could easily challenge her younger brother. A black dodge Challenger quietly idling in the moonlight. It's purple and grey tribal markings detailing up and over both doors. Transforming, Nightfire gazed down at her arm taking in the detail of the markings that now resided on her legs, arms and chest.

"Oh yes, I could easily get used to this."

Crossing his arms Phoenix huffed. "Were you not the one who told me that we were supposed to 'keep-it-simple'?"

Pointing a single digit to her younger brother, Nightfire was going to speak but stopped when she felt a hand rest on her shoulder. Looking up her optics met Chargers. He merely shook his head as he slowly stalked past.

Kneeling near the edge of the tree line Charge did the same as that of his younger sister and brother. Scanning the highway as both his siblings did before, he thus stood and transformed. His vehicle mode could easily out rank Nightfire and Phoenix in one main area…strength. Transforming, Charger took on the form of that of a 2010 Dodge Ram pick-up truck. Modified with higher suspension and larger off-road tires. Not only decorated with ghost decal of a king cobra, but also supped up with a guard bar on his grill and over-head lights on his hood. His engine and overall vehicular self complemented his personality perfectly; silent but deadly when provoked.

Transforming Charger sighed quietly. "Let's move out, we must go before we are discovered. Nightfire can you trace the signal?"

Nodding Nightfire pulled up an arm mounted scanner. "I should be able to get a fix on the signal within a few short nano clicks Charger. But it will take a little bit of time."

Grumbling, Phoenix let his shoulders sag. "Oh come on you guys, I think our mission can wait a little while can't it? Can't we at least go see what the fleshies are like?"

Turning away from the monitor Nightfire growled. "Phoenix, you know we can't abort this mission. Amaris is counting on us! We can't under any circumstances let her down. We made a promise that we would find Priyasha no matter what!"

Charger nodded. "What Nightfire speaks is true little brother, we have a promise to keep. Now…let's move out."

Transforming suddenly into his vehicle form Charger rolled out of the brush down the hill and onto the interstate. Phoenix transformed and followed close behind.

Looking up to a patch of sky where the clouds had subsided and the stars were shining through, Nightfire sighed and whispered quietly. "We will find you Priyasha…"

Transforming suddenly into her vehicle form and raced off after her brothers.

"… we will find you."

…

…

"Dad? Daaad? Daddy? Pssst. Are you asleep?"

Kayda sat quietly on her knees as she sat up on her father's chest watching as he made no signs of movement.

Sighing she quietly climbed closer and tried to whisper, her face almost directly above his. "Dad…wake up!"

Just then Optimus' optics came on line and he raised his head, hitting it against Kayda's.

Pulling away suddenly, Kayda held her aching forehead and groaned. "Ouch! Daaaaad…"

Rubbing his optics, Optimus slowly sat up. "Kayda? What is it sweet-spark? What's wrong?"

Sliding down into his lap Kayda sighed.

From a command from his processor, the lights of the room came on and dimmed slightly. Tilting his head slightly and situating himself, Optimus looked down into his lap at Kayda. "Kayda, what's the matter?"

Looking up with troubled optics, Kayda heaved. "Daddy…I can't sleep. I've tried and I can't."

Stretching his muscle cables slightly Optimus groaned to himself. "What is troubling you that you can't power-down properly?"

Seeing Optimus look down at her, Kayda couldn't help but feel a little uneasy. But she needed to get this burning question off of her chest-plate.

"Daddy, what happened to my creator? Where is she, and why did she go?"

…

The silence seemed to last forever. Optimus didn't say a word…he couldn't. All he could do was stare at Kayda with a gaze of utter bewilderment. He knew this day; or in this case night was going to come, but he honestly didn't think it would be this soon.

"Daddy?"

Regaining full gravity of the situation, Optimus slowly looked down. Kayda's optics were emotional and filmed over with a thin screen of lubricant.

"Please daddy, I want to know the truth."

Sighing heavily Optimus pulled into his arms and let his massive stabilizing servos slide off of his berth and let his pads meet the floor. Nestling Kayda beside him with an arm around her Prime knew that the time had come. She needs to know…

"Kayda…sweet-spark…I was waiting to tell you this when you were old enough to understand but the truth of the matter is…is that in all honestly…I'm not quite certain where or even who you came from."

Looking up suddenly Kayda froze. "W-Wha?"

Groaning Optimus sank off of his berth and kneeled on the floor; thus becoming almost optic level with Kayda. "Kayda…the truth is, is that as far as I know…you don't have a creator."

Kayda struggled but then whispered softly. "Daddy…I-I don't understand…"

Closing his optics and turning away Optimus groaned quietly, but then looked at Kayda through the corner of his optics; their bright blue light pleading for Kayda's understanding. "Sweet-spark…maybe I should just show you."

…

…

The hallway was quiet and dimly lit. Kayda walked quickly and quietly to match the long strides of that of her sire's. He was quiet now. And had a troubling look of mixed feelings on his face plates. To most bots and humans alike, Optimus was extremely hard if not impossible to read for emotion, but with Kayda…that was different, she could read him like an open book. But of course; have a bond link to him does seem to help. She could feel his uneasiness and unwillingness to want to go in this direction but alas he was forcing himself to do it.

Coming up on the med bay Optimus suddenly stopped. Kayda suddenly felt a twinge of fear run through her spark…only the fear wasn't hers. Looking up at Optimus she could easily tell that her sire was fighting an internal battle with himself. For some reason he didn't want to go into the med bay…but he had to.

With one last moment of struggle Optimus finally pushed the med bay doors open and quietly slipped inside with Kayda close behind. Ratchet was at the work bench working on what looked like, to Kayda, a small metallic body.

Optimus sighed and looked at the medic. "Ratchet I need the security code for storage unit 2689 please."

Looking up Ratchet quietly groaned. "Prime, what is it? It's the middle of the night! Can't you see I'm busy with IronHide and Chromia's—."

Just then Ratchet saw Kayda hiding behind Optimus' right stabilizing servo staring at him with uneasy and confused optics. Sighing Ratchet slowly nodded and turned away to a monitor. "I'll…get them to you right away Prime."

Nodding Optimus looked at Kayda. "Thank you Ratchet."

Turning back around, Ratchet handed Prime a downloaded security key. "Prime are you sure that Kayda should—?"

Raising a hand Optimus spoke. "She needs to know Ratchet."

Ratchet simple nodded and turned away. "I…understand. It's in storage, right where you left it."

"Again, I thank you old friend."

Ratchet merely nodded as Prime turned to a door on the far side of the med bay. A door that Kayda was forbidden to enter.

She remained silent as she stayed close behind her sire as the moved slowly down a long narrow corridor. Until they suddenly stopped in front of a massive steel door with the numbers 2689 printed in large black stencil letters on the door. The lock was huge thus sealing the room tight.

Sliding the security card through the lock, the door sudden unlatched with a loud 'bang' and slowly cracked open. The air that escaped with cold, damp and musky.

Standing aside and pulling the door open further Optimus motioned Kayda to move inside.

Slowly, Kayda moved away from the protection of her sire's shadow into the pitch black room. There were no windows, no shafts, nothing. It was like a solid cement vault.

Flipping a switch to turn on the lights Optimus moved inside past Kayda.

There were several crates neatly stacked on top and side by side on the west wall. But one crate stood out from the others as it sat alone on an observation table. Moving toward it, Optimus beckoned Kayda to come closer.

Doing so Kayda was surprised to hear the uneasiness in her sire's voice.

"Kayda…I don't know where exactly you came from. But you should at least know what we know…"

Activating his right hook, Optimus carefully cracked the crate open and pulled down it's walls.

Slowly approaching, Kayda was amazed by the sight. It was…a pod.

Transforming his hand back to normal, Optimus carefully picked Kayda up and placed her on the observation table right next to the pod.

"Kayda…"

Looking up Kayda could see and feel the sorrow in his optics. So she listened to what he had to say.

"My dearest Kayda…five earth years ago…on a cold morning NEST had detected an unidentified flying object entering earth's atmosphere. We were deployed to investigate and possibly even confiscate. When we arrived upon the scene on the crash, we found this pod…"

Slowly Optimus motioned toward the pod and then continued.

"It was sealed. There was no way inside. Ratchet had advised IronHide and myself to be cautious as we investigated the strange markings that were present on it. The marking that you see Kayda…"

Optimus then pointed to a symbol on the casing on the pod.

"…all of these marks are the language of the Primes. This scripture here reads; 'to save a dying world, one star shall shine brighter than all.' I touched the symbol that means 'star' and the pod had suddenly opened. Thus…"

Kayda looked at the pod, and then at her sire. "Thus what daddy?"

Looking at the pod, Prime carefully caressed the inside delicately with two steady digits before pulling his hand away and looking at Kayda.

"Thus revealing YOU Kayda. Or at least half of you."

Kayda was silent she merely turned to the pod…staring at it.

Sighing Optimus rested his hand on her shoulder gaining her attention once more.

"When the pod opened itself your basic protoform being was revealed to us…to me…the only problem was that you only had half of your spark…and alas…you were dying."

Looking up from her sires grasp, Kayda swallowed hard. "I was dying?"

Slowly Optimus nodded. "Yes. You were. If I hadn't intervened you would have gone offline."

Looking away Kayda struggled. "But how daddy? How could you have saved me? Why did you save me?"

Looking down at Kayda and drawing himself closer to her, he whispered. "WHY I did it Kayda is not important. What is important is that I did it because you were dying and you needed me. I did it by giving up part of my spark to save you. And it worked…that's all that matters."

Looking away Kayda continued to struggle with this new information. Pulling her even closer in his grasp Optimus whispered and cooed as her forehead slowly rested against his.

"Kayda, I know all of this is very difficult to understand and may come as a bit of a shock…but know this and always remember. I love you. I will always love you. And no matter how you may have come into existence or how you came into my life, that still doesn't change the fact that you are my daughter. And you always will be. Do you understand?"

Looking up into her sire's optics, Kayda slowly smiled. "I…understand daddy."

Pushing his nose plate closer to Kayda, Optimus playfully whispered. "So, do you still love me?"

Giggling softly Kayda threw her arms around her father's face and pushed her face against his. "Of course daddy…I will always love you."

There was a short moment of silence that passed before Kayda looked up. "But daddy, do I have a creator?"

Sighing, Optimus shrugged slightly and swept Kayda into his arms. "I don't know Kayda…I don't know if she is out there or not. But…we will find out if she is out there or not together…now won't we?"

Clinging to his chest and rubbing her face into his neck cables Kayda softly purred. "Yeah…"

Optimus merely chuckled rubbing his chin over the top of her head.

Slowly turning around Optimus carried Kayda out of the vault, shut the lights off and closed the door. Locking it with a swipe of the security card, Optimus walked back down the narrow corridor.

Ratchet watched in fascination as the two walked out of the vault corridor back into the med bay and then into the hallway. Ratchet was dying to ask, but alas he kept his inquiries and curiosities to himself. Whatever happened back there in the vaults was between Prime and his offspring.

…

Later that night Optimus sat quietly with Kayda in his lap. Both nestled in Prime's massive cement lazy chair watching the large 12 foot flat screen television that Kayda had begged her sire to get quite a long time ago.

Kayda was quiet, merely dazing off as she watched a Mythbuster's marathon go on through the night. Looking up to see her sire's chin she smiled and giggled softly.

Looking down Optimus returned with a soft smile of his own. "And what do you find to be so amusing?"

Kayda merely shrugged. "Oh I was just thinking…"

Optimus slowly raised an optic ridge. "Oh? And what were you thinking about?"

Stretched her tiring muscle cables, Kayda giggled softly. "Maybe its better that I became your daughter the way I did instead of the way IronHide and Chromia are having their sparkling."

Raising his optic ridge higher Optimus huffed playfully. "Ohh, and why is that?"

Kayda simply shrugged. "It all sounds so…well…messy."

Turning away Optimus let himself choke with laughter. "Kayda…"

Kayda merely giggled as she jumped down off of her sire's lap. Optimus let his laughter subside and watched Kayda until she reached the doorway. "Kayda, where are you going?"

Turning around, Kayda stretched the muscle cables in her arms. "I think I'm going to go power down daddy. I'm starting to get tired."

Standing to his full height and stretching the muscle cables in his arms, chest, and neck. " I believe that that sounds like a good idea."

Turning around to turn the television off, Optimus stopped at the sound of Kayda giggling. After turning it off and rising Optimus tilted his head and smiled at the sight of Kayda watching him. Crossing his arms and slowly walking across the room Optimus smiled. "What are you giggling at?"

Smiling, Kayda turned and streaked into the room. "I'm stealing your berth and you can have mine!"

Sprinting after her Optimus scoffed playfully. "Oh I don't think so youngling!"

Running into the room Optimus playfully pinned Kayda down onto his berth as she jumped up and sprawled out. Giggling Kayda squirmed under his hand and stared up. "Daddy, this is my berth now…you can have my old berth."

Drawing his face closer, Optimus grinned mischievously. "And again…I don't think so young femmling."

Poking her in the nose plate with a single digit Optimus smiled. "I'll tell you what though…I think I can share my berth for at least one night. Alright?"

Sitting up and sliding to the right a few feet, Kayda giggled as she padded the berth. "Oh…okay."

Picking Kayda up into his arms and gently sat on the berth. Lying down, Optimus watched as Kayda crawled up and sat on his chest. "Hey, dad?"

Laying his head back and closing his optics, Optimus sighed. "What is on your mind my child?"

Shrugging, Kayda smiled sheepishly. "Do you think I'm special?"

Slowly looking up, Optimus stared blankly into Kayda's optics, but then slowly smiled lovingly. "You are the most special Cybertronian to ever come into existence in this universe."

Smiling back, Kayda slowly sank down against her sire's chest. "I love you daddy."

Smiling lovingly, Optimus let his head fall back against the cool cement of his berth. Gently he caressed Kayda's head. "I love you too Kayda. More than you will ever know."

…

As the moments passed after Optimus turned off the lights he listened as Kayda grew quiet and her movement lessened. Now, she laid limp on his chest deep in recharge. Gently stroking her head armor, Optimus could help but wonder…was this the end of the truth coming to the surface, or was this just the beginning of something more?