The five humans stood together in a wide expanse of open desert, binoculars practically glued to their faces as they watched the Neutral space craft be chased by the Decepticon space craft. The seven Cybertronians stood far away from their tiny organic friends, gesturing and attempting to talk to whoever was on the Neutral ship to get them to land so they could protect them. Currently the two ships were playing chase through the sky over their heads; it was already obvious who would win. The Neutral ship was surprisingly tiny and looked like it was barely managing to hold together; one could hardly see how it managed to fly, much less take the sharp turns necessary to avoid the Decepticon fire. Compared to the Neutral ship, the Decepticon ship was large and in much better condition.

Sam and Miles were there to act as mini-field medics for any wounded Neutrals. Both had received a crash course in Cybertronian anatomy; they were taught how to get in to the hardest to reach places for Ratchet and they found out about the places that would lead to immediate or fast death when wounded and why they shouldn't even bother to try to help then. Though Miles had a lot less to learn than Sam, something the med-bot had continuously grumbled about. They were also given a backpack to carry with Cybertronian symbols on it that declared them as field medics.

Will, Epps, and Fig were there as well, just in case the two teenagers managed to get in something that they shouldn't be in. Trailbreaker was brought along specifically to act as a shield either for Ratchet or the humans; Ironhide, Bumblebee, Sunstreaker, and Sideswipe were there to act as the brawn of the operation and take out the Decepticons; Optimus would go and guarantee peace and freedom for any surviving Neutrals once their ship landed and the Decepticons were no longer a threat; Ratchet would make sure to take care of any Neutrals, his own 'bots, and any 'cons stupid enough to beg for salvation.

Epps whistled, watching the two air crafts move around. "Alien. Definitely alien."

The other humans couldn't help but silently agree, despite all they had already been through with the seven Cybertronians nearest them, the sight above them just seemed to be the weirdest they'd seen so far. After the initial shock had worn off it was easy to accept the Cybertronians and not really think about how they came from outer space. It was even easier to accept when there had previously been little to no Decepticon activity, so the fighting had been non-existent for the human faction of NEST.

They were riveted by the chase going on above them; how the Neutral ship could evade the Decepticon ship for so long was unsure, a clear miracle, but their luck had run out. The Decepticon ship managed to land a hit, having dropped below the Neutral ship to fool it and managing to appear in front of them instead of where they were expected to. The blast breached the ship's hull and it went into a sudden nose dive. It wasn't right where the humans were standing, but it was close enough that the Captain panicked.

"GO, GO, GO!" Will yelled, not even needing a moment to think about it. He ran, the others not questioning his order and just immediately running after him.

It hit far enough away that they were completely safe, turning to look at the impact, but the tremor that rushed through the ground from it knocked them all to the ground. The following blast of hot air kept them down momentarily, the soldiers knowing well enough to close their eyes as soon as they saw it coming, but when nothing else happened and they could hear the Autobots calling to them the three soldiers picked themselves back up. Miles and Sam stayed down for another moment, dazed from the sudden fall and eyes watering from the blast of hot air that had kicked sand into their eyes.

Fig and Will took off running to where their Autobot comrades were, Epps staying behind to help up the two teens and make sure that they were alright. Trailbreaker broke away from his fellow Autobots, moving to the civilians and the Sergeant when Optimus ordered him to.

"Primus," Sam muttered, wiping at his eyes. "I thought I was all good with earthquakes cuz of Prowl, but I guess not."

"Prowl's not heavy enough to knock you two on your asses," Epps pointed out.

"Prime wishes for us to check out the ship," Trailbreaker told them, interrupting before any further inane conversation could be had.

The three humans nodded, letting Trailbreaker lead the way as he walked toward the downed ship. They had to jog to keep up with the mech, but none of them voiced a complaint at this. Cybertronians could be hurt on the ship, it was expected that Trailbreaker would be moving a little fast to get them there.

In the distance they could hear the sounds of metal clashing with metal, cannon fire, and gun fire, but they knew better than to look back, instead watching as Trailbreaker paused outside of the very obvious door to the ship. The opening in the hull wasn't big enough for him to slip the humans through, and he feared the metal being too hot to touch for them, so he settled for the actual door. The mech spent little time looking for a way to enter, instead starting to bash his way through. While he took a few minutes to do that the humans inspected the outside of the ship. It was much bigger up close, but they had been told that it was tinier than most Cybertronian ships, which were made to house hundreds comfortably. This one could probably hold about five mechs from the looks of it.

Once Trailbreaker had made a hole big enough for him to enter, he picked the three humans up, just holding Sam and Miles loosely together in one servo and the Sergeant in his other to get them inside. He placed them back down almost immediately, moving past them to the Command Center at the front of the ship. The humans heard him muttering in Cybertronian as soon as the door opened and as they got closer they could see why.

A mech was sitting at the controls, slumped over and the optics offline. There was evidence of him being in battle, poorly welded together wounds and stains of energon along the frame. Trailbreaker glanced down at them, but seemed to think better of it, going into the room himself and closing the door behind him.

"He's not going to make it," Sam said softly. He and Miles had both seen where the mech had been hurt the worst, one of the few places Ratchet had said meant immediate death because it cut through an important energon line and several important wires.

"Think Trailbreaker is going to make it easier on him?" Miles asked, voice just as soft.

Epps didn't bother to answer the question, instead steering Sam and Miles away from that door and down the hall.

"We have to search for other passengers," Epps reminded them.

The two boys nodded, following the soldier as they walked close to each other. The first room they entered showed another mech, looking much like the first one, except this one was slumped against the wall and his spark chamber was wide open. From their angle it was very obviously extinguished, so they left that room behind.

The next room seemed to be the med-bay; when they entered it they could see a couple of berths. One was occupied, a Cybertronian with an oddly shaped frame laying on top of it. It was the first femme any of them had seen outside of simulated images. Next to her was a mech, half slumped over her prone form. She was battered and war torn, but the mech was in reasonably good shape. There was no question the femme was dead, but Epps moved in closer to check the mech.

Sam swallowed, whispering. "Primus. Bee, he told me about sparkmates, where if one offlines then the second one usually does, too."

Both teens averted their eyes, Epps returning to them and shaking his head to signal that the mech was dead. He put one hand on one of both of their shoulder's.

"C'mon, boys, let's go." He whispered softly, gently leading them out of the room.

He was a soldier, had been for years. The sight of the two like that wouldn't get to him now, not in a moment where he needed to be calm and head cleared of irrational emotions, but it would later. He knew the teens couldn't exactly help themselves; he didn't say anything when Sam's eyes misted over as the teen looked back at the two Cybertronians over his shoulder.

They were about to enter one of the last rooms when Miles heard something that sounded odd, breaking the quiet of the Neutral ship. It was coming from the very last room in the corridor and he turned towards it.

"Do you guys hear that?"

Epps nodded, "It sounds like Cybertronian! Let's check it out."

The three practically sprinted towards the room, but had to stop when they reached the door. It was closed tight, the keypad was far above all of their heads and even if it had been in reach none of them would have known the correct code. The pounded on it, hoping whoever inside would open up, and after a moment the door slid open. They rushed in, only to stop in shock. It was another femme, this one alive, and desperately reaching out to them as she spoke in broken Cybertronian. From her wounds and the pain in her optics it was obvious she wouldn't last long, they couldn't even tell how she'd managed to open the door with the state she was in.

"She's gonna die if she doesn't get help now! We need Ratchet for this, there's too much going on!" Miles exclaimed worriedly, taking a deep breath before screaming. "TRAILBREAKER GET YOUR AFT IN HERE!"

The femme flinched at the sudden unexpected loud tone, her whirling and clicking getting more frantic as the sound of running peds could be heard. Trailbreaker entered, staring in shock at the femme for a moment.

"I'll comm Ratchet," Trailbreaker said in clear English, for the benefit of the humans, and then he switched to Cybertronian, telling the femme he would be calling the best medic around. The femme keened as he did so and after a moment Trailbreaker started using a long list of human cuss words. "He's under fire, I gotta go bring him here! You guys work on her, you'll be able to seal any wounds better than me."

And with that he ran back out. Epps was at a momentary loss as to what they should do, he could read the panicked expressions on Miles' and Sam's faces. Miles had said that there was too much going on for them to handle, but they had still been trained and they could still use that.

"You're the medics!" Epps snapped at them, watching both of them jump at his harsh tone. "Get to work! Give Ratchet a little less to worry about when he comes in here!"

Miles reacted first, sliding off his backpack and pulling out the large tool kit that he had stowed inside. He held it up to the femme to show where Ratchet had put the symbols that meant 'organic medic helpers' on it. Sam moved closer to the femme, sliding his own pack off and pulling his tool kit out as well. He stopped when the femme reached out and wrapped a gentle, but shaking, servo around him, clicking and whirling at him desperately. He stared at her with wide eyes, unsure of how best to respond.

After a few moments the femme seemed to get that he couldn't understand her, letting out a frustrated and pain filled screech. The next second all three humans could feel the kind of scan Ratchet tended to avoid, this one being more thorough and personal as it didn't just take their temperature and the hormones they were putting off, but instead went bone deep. Using her other hand she pointed at a body lying underneath some rubble, the humans looking at it obediently. It was a lot smaller then a normal Cybertronian and it was obvious a previous shot from the Decepticon ship had made some of the Neutral's ship collapse on to it.

Miles gasped, "Is that a sparkling?"

Sam and Epps gaped at Miles, looking back to the little body once more. There was no way it could have survived that. The metal itself was unsalvageable; they could just barely recognize what the pile of metal was supposed to be for. There attention was drawn back to the femme when she let out a tiny keen, her chestplates moving aside to reveal her spark. Orbiting around it was another, tinier spark.

"Fucking Primus, the sparkling is still inside of her!" Epps couldn't help how horrified he sounded, "The body she would have put it in is destroyed!"

Miles and Sam shared a horrified look. Epps had been given a more extensive version of the Cybertronian birds and bees than the two teens had. They didn't need to know what a sparkling orbiting around a spark looked like, after all, because there was simply no way they could do anything about it.

The femme moved again, this time grabbing Miles in her servo. He couldn't help the small pained sound he gave when she then shoved him into the same servo she was using to hold Sam. The two were squashed together almost painfully so she could hold them, and she put them closer to her spark chamber, clicking and whirling frantically. The two watched as her own spark dimmed a bit, the tiny spark beside it doing the same a moment later. The femme and her sparkling were dying and she didn't have a body to transfer it to.

Tentatively Miles reached out, touching the tiny sparkling. A jolt of electricity ran through him as soon as his hand brushed against the spark, but it was Sam and Epps that gave a startled cry.

"What the hell just shocked me?" Epps asked, looking around for anything dangerous. Sam followed suit, looking around wildly, and Miles was about to say something when the femme started to speak once more.

"Please, please, help my baby! My sparkling, you have to save my sparkling!" The femme begged, but she was still speaking in Cybertronian. They could hear the distinctive whirls and clicks of the language, but it was like their minds were automatically changing it to a language they could understand. They all looked at one another to make sure it wasn't just them individually and that they weren't going insane. "My mate—dead! I will die! My sparkling, please save him!"

Sam squirmed in her grasp, trying to get out to do something, to do anything. If the femme released him and let him look her over then maybe he could keep her alive long enough for Ratchet to arrive. The chances of the medic being able to do anything was slim, but it was more than anything he could offer her. But he couldn't help the thought that he would do anything to help her save her sparkling.

And that was when their worlds seemed to dissolve around them.

Will growled to himself, hiding behind Ironhide as he fumbled to reload. Fig was crouched on the ground near him, grumbling things in Spanish. There had been no less than six Decepticons on the Decepticon ship, all coming out extremely angry and ready to fight them. Almost immediately they had managed to damage one of the twins, leaving Ratchet occupied and the other half of the set furious and on a rampage.

A shock jolted through his left arm, making him drop both his gun and the sabette rounds in surprise as his hand seized up. Fig looked over to him with barely concealed worry, but Will just stood up, shaking his arm out and smacking his Guardian on the back of his leg.

"IRONHIDE!" Will shouted, turning to glare up at the back of the black GMC truck. "What the hell just shocked me?"

Ironhide didn't even look at him, intent on guarding them while Ratchet did some patch ups on Sideswipe. Trailbreaker was by the Medic's side, trying to get his attention away from his current patient. He started to talk to Optimus in Cybertronian, and Will was about to yell again, when he could suddenly understand what was being said.

"-wrong with Will." Ironhide informed his Prime, Will listening to the distinct sounds that made up the language but now able to discern words from them. "Should I get him out of here towards the Neutral ship?"

"That may be best if something is ailing him," Optimus replied, "We do not want to lose one of the tiny organics."

Will practically snarled, "Okay, what the slag is going on? You are not taking me away from the fi-!"

He froze as his world dissolved around him, but to the others he just froze. Eyes wide open and unblinking, mouth still open as if to frame the rest of the word fight. The only movement he made was to breathe.

"Ironhide, something is wrong with Will!" Fig went over to his Captain quickly, trying to catch the man's attention.

"RATCHET! WILL NEEDS YOU!" Ironhide yelled, bending down to scan the Captain's body multiple times.

They were all there in that unknown place. They could all sense each other but didn't know how. They knew that wherever they were was safe. There was no light, but it wasn't dark. It wasn't cold or hot, dry or wet. It just was. They realized that wherever they were it didn't involve bodies, but that realization faded into the background. It didn't feel weird. Just natural, comforting even. There wouldn't be anything happening to them in this place. It didn't feel empty, but comfortable. All four of them were there and that felt just right. They had each other.

And then came pieces of a thought that Sam had put together not long ago, echoing in the place that wasn't anything but was everything at the same time.

Save the sparkling!

And with it came the knowledge to Will in images and feelings. Feelings from all three. Feelings from the femme. Feelings from the tiny spark that wanted nothing more than to live. The others just felt the feelings from each other, Will, the femme, and the sparkling that wasn't.

Then there was nothing; almost hesitantly Miles sent emotions towards all of them. Fear, confusion, sorrow, pain, guilt, hope, no hope. Desire—the want—to do something, anything. They sent agreement back, attached with whatever other emotions they were feeling. There was a lot of confusion, some fear coming from the younger of the four, and some anger coming from the older of the four.

Then Epps sent them Optimus' voice, the sound once more echoing around them. A conversation the two had together when Will had been sick and Epps had been filling in for his duties.

There have been little to no sparklings since the beginning of the war, Robert. And that was long before your planet was even made. In fact, I believe Bumblebee has never seen an actual sparkling besides in the data we used to teach him with while raising him. He was just going into younglinghood himself when the war started. But even before that there were fewer and fewer sparklings being made due to the decline, and the way things seemed to be heading. A sparkling was seen as a bless; if one was to be found or created in this time there would be much enjoyment and it would be a sign of good luck to come.

Once the last echo had faded the idea of what would be done to save the sparkling came to them. Energy was needed and they were all more then willing.

But then Will felt a sudden pain, the place of everything and nothing flickering for just a moment. The pain whip-lashed, pinging to Sam, then Miles, and then Epps. Fear and pain became Will's dominant emotions as he tried to think over it, the place clouding his mind. Conveying things with emotions was so much easier then forming actual thoughts in their head's, but he was trained to rationalize and think through things. His mind was trying to compartmentalize, separate him enough so that he could try and focus on his actual body, which had been hurt, but the place wouldn't let him.

Fear echoed back from the other three, as well as confusion and worry.

"You are extremely lucky Ratchet was not here to see that," Optimus informed his Weapons Specialist.

The medic had decided that Will would best be left with his Guardian for the time being. Trailbreaker was insistent about Ratchet coming to the Neutral ship and he had gone, but not before he had made sure that Ironhide and Optimus had both agreed that Will didn't seem to be hurt, just frozen. Bumblebee had gone with the CMO and Trailbreaker.

"I wanted to see if he would move if I flicked him," Ironhide grumbled.

"Your flick just bruised his ribs and knocked him over, gilipollas!" Fig cursed at him.

"You get to explain it to him and Ratchet," Optimus said simply, saying nothing when Ironhide threatened to flick Fig for his insult.

In the place that was everything and nothing at the same time Will tried to convey something through his sudden and confusing pain. On the third try he managed to send the right emotions. Tired, patient, experienced, optimistic. He aimed this at the two teens. Then he sent the feeling of wanting more to them, followed by exhaustion.

It clicked for Sam quicker and the teen sent agreement, Miles sending a similar emotion soon after once he finally understood. The teens would give most of the energy, the soldiers only giving some so when they came back to wherever they were going they'd be more ready to get up and fight if need be. Epps sent a pleased feeling at all of them, followed by pride.

Then everything started to fade, and the last thing anything any of them got was a single name. Then the place that was everything and nothing seemed to eject them out of it.

"The Allspark energy in them is building up to a startling level, Ratchet." Bumblebee noted, trying to sound calm though the worry in his optics gave him away.

"Frag it all!" Ratchet snarled.

Entering the ship and walking past the sparkless frames of four Cybertronians had saddened the CMO. Entering the final recharge station to see the femme had dashed any hope he'd had left. He knew there was no way to save the sparkling, though the femme had kept pleading with him. He had finally given in and used forced overrides to put her into stasis. The only help it gave her was taking away the pain and worry in her final moments of death; it did little to comfort him as he could do nothing to help save her, either.

To make it worse, he had entered to find the three humans all looking very much like the Captain. Miles and Sam had been in the femme's servo; the blonde organic frozen with his left arm half raised towards the femme, Sam in place next to him with wide eyes and head turned away from the two. The medic had needed to take them away from her to ensure she wouldn't hurt them. He'd laid them gently on the ground but no matter what he did he couldn't lower Miles' arm or turn Sam's head straight. Epps was standing on his own a few feet away from the femme, narrow eyed and stuck in a somewhat defensive and tensed up stance.

"I don't know what's going on," Ratchet admitted softly.

He had been old even before the war had started, managing to survive the ensuing calamity with good luck and a well trained processor. Little had managed to surprise him in all his years, but it was his time on this little mudball of a planet that had started to through him for a loop for the first time in his life. The organics provided nothing but surprises and aggravations; he had no idea what to do for them when they seemed to be in a frozen state with energy that had no business being anywhere in them was steadily growing.

"Ratchet scan them and keep your scans on them," Bumblebee ordered, "It's like the energy's traveling through them and heading towards the femme!"

Ratchet could hear the awe and slight confusion in the Scout's voice. He focused his scans on the two teens first; Sam and Miles were practically bathed in the energy. It lit up their bodies and seemed to be slowly leaving them, dancing across their skin before lifting off of them into the air. He then turned to focus on the Sergeant and found the same thing happening, although he still wasn't up to par with the two teenagers.

Bumblebee had been right, of course. All the energy coming from the three humans was heading straight towards the femme. The CMO watched in surprise as a bright light started to leak through the femme's spark chamber, making both him and the Scout tense for what came next. The light was strong enough to be blinding even to their well adapted optics, both sending out an alert to their fellow Autobots as the temperature in the room began to spike and the excess energy in the air began to crackle, sparks dancing along the femme's frame.

"What the fuck is wrong with him?" Fig demanded angrily, kneeling next to the eerily frozen form of his Captain.

He didn't need to be a Cybertronian to know that something had changed. Both Ironhide and Optimus had started to talk almost frantically towards each other in Cybertronian; when Fig had touched Will he could feel the man burning up. He knew it to be even worse when the other three Autobots had wandered over, having either chased off the remaining three Decepticons or offlined them.

"I do not know," Optimus replied gently, "My scans only show that he has a lot more Allspark energy then before. It seems to be dispersing to somewhere."

"And what the frag does that mean?" Ironhide asked worriedly, pacing next to the two organics.

"I am no medic, old friend. I can not say, but..."

Optimus trailed off and Fig looked at him in mild concern. At first he had thought that perhaps whatever was affecting Will had transferred to the Prime as he just stayed still, but he was relieved when the large mech turned to three of his soldiers.

"Trailbreaker, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker: stay here and make sure the Decepticons do not come back. Guard William and Figueroa." The Autobot leader ordered.

Fig was about to protest this, wanting to know what the fuck was going on, when a large black servo came towards him and grabbed up his Captain.

"Just guard Fig," Ironhide corrected, holding his Charge firmly in hand.

Optimus didn't bother to protest; Ironhide had already taken off sprinting towards the Neutral ship. He shifted into his alt mode and started after his Weapons Specialist, leaving Fig behind with three equally confused Autobots.

Ironhide and Optimus neared the Neutral ship almost in unison, slowing down from their quick pace as they got closer because of the worrying sight in front of them. A bright light seemed to have engulfed the entirety of the inside of the ship, some of it shining through the open plating seams and the holes that had been made in the hull. A scan revealed the light to be completely made up of energy, a shocking amount that had no reason to be there. The entire ship creaked, seeming to expand as the energy inside of it peaked, before it started to slowly recede back inside.

Together they stepped inside of the ship, heedless of any threats that waited for them within. In fact they followed the nearly blinding wall of energy, walking down the hall it was disappearing into quickly. They had to keep their optics on the ground so as not to damage them the light was so bright, Ironhide taking care to make sure Will's eyes were covered gently by one of his digits.

They reached the end of the hall to find Ratchet and Bumblebee slumped on opposite sides of the corridor. Both were just outside of the last room there, Optimus and Ironhide watching as some of the energy swirled around the pair for a moment before it too disappeared into the last room that had now revealed itself, the door to it sliding shut. Ratchet and Bumblebee both stirred instantly, Optimus kneeling in the middle of the hallway to try to assess the both of them. The CMO pushed his prodding servo away and pulling himself up slowly and the Prime vented sharply, instead helping Bumblebee to stand. The Scout opened a private comm between the four of them.

:I don't know what happened, Optimus.: Bumblebee sounded dazed, :Just a moment ago we were in that room with a dying femme, Epps, Sam, and Miles. All three of them were practically drowning in Allspark energy and it was going straight towards the femme. Then there was a bright light and I think I was forced out of the room, but I can't say by what, and it didn't hurt. Then I just offlined.:

:It was the same for me,: Ratchet assured the Scout.

:Will started to give off a bunch of energy, too.: Ironhide stated, :But we couldn't tell where it was going. What the frag is going on?:

None of them had an answer for the Weapons Specialist. Ratchet suggested that they go in and retrieve the humans to check them over, but when they tried to open the door it wouldn't budge. All of them were reluctant to use force because they couldn't be certain where the bodies of the organics lay; Ratchet thought he had a pretty good idea but that meant Epps could be crushed by the door if they forced it and it fell inwards.

Ironhide made a noise then, gesturing wordlessly to his servo when the other three turned to look at him in confusion. Will seemed to be unfrozen now, eyes having slid shut and the Captain having seemed to go boneless against the servo he was in, lying as he properly should in his seemingly unconscious state. Then he let out a groan, blinking a few times.

"Now that was wild," Will muttered to himself, groaning again as he used one hand to prop himself up.

The Captain looked up when he realized that he was on a large servo, surprised to see four sets of intense blue optics studying him. Ironhide was looking at him with concern, but he saw Ratchet start to reach out for him and he quickly slid forward enough so that he could jump off of his Guardian's servo to the ground.

"Wait a second!" Will snapped at the medic angrily.

Ratchet froze, all of the Autobots continuing to look at Will, but now they were staring at him in shock. Not only had he jumped out of Ironhide's servo, which the mech would normally berate him for, but he had outright denied Ratchet, the Chief Medical Officer. He knew he should explain, he even opened his mouth to do so, but then he though better of it. The soldier ignored them, walking towards the door he could see in front of them.

It slid open and the Captain walked right in, the door sliding closed behind him and making him disappear from sight. Ratchet let out a disgusted sound, storming towards the door. The medic was determined that he force his way in now, but as soon as he neared it the door slid open once more. They all went inside the room, looking around in shock.

In the middle of the room was a sparkling body that seemed to be in perfect condition. Sam and Miles were the closest to it, the two teens lying on the ground and staring at the ceiling with half-lidded eyes. Epps was sitting on the ground near the femme's body, grinning up at his Captain who had just walked over to him. The femme's body remained where it had been up against the wall, though some plating and other parts was missing.

"Scan 'im," Epps told the flabbergasted Autobots.

In their shock each of them listened, stepping closer to the sparkling lying on the floor. Their scans registered the little mechling as alive and healthy, though Ratchet's picked up that he would need energon soon. They all looked at the Sergeant and Captain, Epps seeming to take entirely too much enjoyment out of them being the ones shocked for once.

"Alright, men, who besides me barely remembers what happened?" Will asked, turning to his fellow humans and still ignoring the Autobots.

Epps grinned to show his agreement. Miles just nodded weakly as he struggled to sit up, using Sam to do so. Sam groaned, mumbling his own agreement as he continued to lay there.

"Okay, good." Will sighed in relief, "Not just me then. Who else has a name nagging the shit out of them for this little guy?"

All three nodded in response this time, Sam finally managing to get himself into an upright position with Miles' help. Bumblebee took another step closer to the two teenagers and the sparkling on the floor, torn between confusion and excitement. Then excitement won out.

"Name him whatever you want, it's an actual sparkling!" Bumblebee chirped happily, practically running the last few tiny steps and dropping to his knee struts in his rush to examine the tiny Cybertronian more closely.

Ironhide moved next to the excited Scout, staring in amazement at the sparkling with him. Sam watched his Guardian with mild amusement, glancing over to Will and getting a nod from him.

"Orion," Sam spoke up softly.

"That..." Optimus stared at the humans, looking about as dumbfounded as a Cybertronian could. "That was my name before the matrix chose me. Orion Pax."

Ratchet looked from his leader, to the humans, to the sparkling and the two Autobots currently examining it.

"Just..." Ratchet was at a loss of words, "What the slag is going on?"

Will just gave a shrug in reply, walking over to Bumblebee and Ironhide to examine the sparkling himself. That name was one of the only clear things that they could remember, followed by the knowledge that they had all been together. Ratchet moved closer as well, going over the sparkling and starting to talk about what he would need.

Sam and Miles just decided to lay back down and let the adults and the Autobots do the talking. They had woken up with some energy, but whatever they'd had left was quickly leaving them. It wasn't long before both fell asleep, feeling utterly drained, but satisfied by somehow saving the sparkling, even if it would never make sense to them. They were both sound asleep before the 'bots and the soldiers had even started talking about what would happen next, because they talked of the sparkling first.