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 (Sunshadow and the Decepticon Nightfire belong to Litahatchee/ Letohatchee) 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.

Thanks to the wonderful and amazing REVIEWERS of chapter 52: ice around the moon, flamingmarsh, Faecat, kris126, hummergrey, jadedfalcon, Flameshield, Shizuka Taiyou, plenoptic (for two), renegadewriter8, xCubicZirconia, TheInuyashaKaidanWriter, 1bloodtempest, Marinelife37, Lecidre, CuteKittten, Bluebird Soaring, greenleafprince, and Saberfang90.

Responses to reviews for ch. 52 have been moved to 'RESPONSES TO REVIEWS' on my biopage.

Enormous thanks to Kesera for the ch. 39-47 reviews! I was so surprised and excited!

And thanks to dresdenlace for the ch. 17 review *smile*

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Eternal thanks goes to Karategal, lady tecuma, Hearts of Eternity, grlwdgrntrk, Violetlight, Phoenix13, and i-love-me-some-leggypoo for letting me use their ideas and/or terminology and for all the inspiration. The name, Nightfire, belongs to lady tecuma. The Decepticon femme character with that name, however, is mine.

This chapter is in the present. Normal print is the present. Bold print is transmissions. There are several point of view changes in this chapter. They are separated by page-breaks.

Enjoy!

Night Fire

Chapter 53

Mistrust and Suspicions

by Litahatchee

Optimus sat in stunned silence as the humans addressed them. It wasn't what the humans were saying, but more of what Chromia had said before that and his faltering hope of ever seeing Elita One again. He only had one memory in his processor that meant anything to him at that moment, an image of his sparkmate smiling up at him as her spark whispered her undying love for him.

Upon their departure from each other, neither one of them promised anything. They parted knowing that it could be the last time they ever saw each other. If the war had taught them anything, it was that nothing was certain.

The only thing they had that was etched into the fabric of forever was their bond. No matter what or how much something had changed on the outside, their sparks were forever bound together. Their love was certain and everything that happened to them throughout the long war further strengthened that love beyond imagining. Optimus became determined that no amount of distance could break them apart either.

"Optimus?" Ratchet's voice cut into his thoughts. Optimus looked at him lethargically, as if he'd just come out of a long recharge.

"Hn?" Optimus answered as unprofessionally as if it were just he and Ratchet in the room discussing their long friendship together.

Ratchet switched to their inner link. Optimus was obviously severely distracted, understandably so after hearing Chromia's accounting. Furthermore, Ratchet knew how bad Optimus's spark was hurting, and not just emotionally. Ratchet would do his best to help him, but in the end the only thing that could save him would be his sparkmate.

"Are you okay?" Ratchet asked in concern.

"I don't know," Optimus answered out loud in Cybertronian.

---

Ironhide and Chromia glanced at each other. They figured Ratchet was talking to Optimus internally, but that he answered out loud was unusual for him. Then Chromia felt a stirring in Bumblebee's spark as Bumblebee reached for something again, something other than her. She looked at Bumblebee in puzzlement. When he noticed her gaze, he stopped trying immediately.

Feeling the confusion in her spark, Ironhide opened his link with her, "What's the matter?"

Chromia pointedly held Bumblebee's gaze while answering Ironhide, "Nothing."

It certainly wasn't nothing, but now wasn't the time to address it. Bumblebee knew, or at least suspected, who his mech creator was and Chromia was certain that that mech was in this room. Both Ironhide and Ratchet told her that Bumblebee had been found, but she was beginning to realize that that wasn't the case at all. She wasn't angry with Ironhide, though. She was sure that Ironhide truly believed that the little mech had been found, or truly wanted to believe that. She could see in his memories that he had suspicions, but she didn't delve into them to see what the suspicions were.

Even Bumblebee told her he didn't know who his creators were, yet here he was possibly reaching for one, one that wasn't reaching back. She narrowed her optics at him and he diverted his gaze to the floor. Had he lied to her? And if he did, why did he lie to her? Or maybe he was afraid of something. He didn't seem to be the type that could lie. Was he afraid of telling her something? Why? And why was his mech creator ignoring his calls?

Chromia had her own suspicions. One of Bumblebee's lost bonds was a Decepticon femme. Bumblebee had described as much. She also just recently found out that Ratchet had fallen in love with Nightfire, a Decepticon femme that met Bumblebee's descriptions. Ratchet even deflected Chromia's suspicions that Nightfire had been Bumblebee's femme creator. Chromia was beginning to believe he did that on purpose, that he was possibly protecting Bumblebee. Maybe he was protecting himself also.

Nightfire had been bonded to someone else. Chromia initially thought that Bumblebee was Nightfire's and that his mech creator had been Deluge, which would mean that the second void in his spark was because of the loss of Deluge. It still puzzled her that Bumblebee's second loss was a recent one, but ever since she found out about it, she hardly had a moment to evaluate it further.

It was clear by Bumblebee's own actions that he had a sparkbond with either Optimus or Ratchet. Ratchet having a sparkling with Nightfire would have been impossible. However, if they found a way, then the implications of that would be enormous for their kind. Guarding that secret would be foremost on Ratchet's mind, especially if the Decepticons could exploit it.

Yet, Ironhide said Bumblebee became frustrated while around Optimus sometimes. A creator not acknowledging a bond with a youngling would most certainly be frustrating to the youngling. Ironhide didn't say Ratchet, he said Optimus. That would mean that maybe his connection was to Optimus instead.

Chromia wasn't sure how she felt about that possibility, for a couple of reasons. The main reason, however, had to do with Elita. Surely Elita would have told Chromia if she and Optimus had a sparkling. Even if she had been trying to keep it a secret, especially since Bumblebee had been created well after the Floatilla Massacre and any sparkling would be a target for immediate death, surely she would have said something during all those vorns they were together without their mates.

Of course, Elita never spoke about her ordeal with the Decepticons, so she certainly kept things to herself a lot. Chromia did too. That was a horrible experience for Elita, so not talking about it was understandable. Having a sparkling, though, would have been a joyous occasion for her. She wanted one so badly. She even said that she and Optimus were going to try for one, but that was before Floatilla changed everything for them. Even so, having a wonderful memory of finally having that sparkling with her mate would be something to talk about, something joyous to keep the hope alive, a light among all the darkness.

It dawned on Chromia that perhaps that was why Elita was so hopeful all the time. It would have been nice if Elita had shared that hope with her, though. No, wait...

Elita would have shared that hope with her. Elita was always trying to lift Chromia's spark. Something such as a surviving sparkling would have definitely made her feel better. Elita would have known that and she would have used it.

Chromia's first suspicions about Bumblebee belonging to Ratchet and Nightfire had to be correct. There was no way Elita would have kept that from Chromia if Bumblebee were hers and Optimus's. Chromia was sure of it.

---

"The humans are waiting for your response," Ratchet transmitted to Optimus, snapping him out of his reverie.

Optimus hadn't been paying attention. He always recorded everything happening around him, however, so he went over the recordings of what they had said in a mere second of their time. The humans would never suspect that he was lost in thought throughout their address. They wouldn't even realize that the comment he'd made out loud in Cybertronian had anything to do with anything. They probably heard it, but they certainly wouldn't know what he said and it was so fast to their ears that such a short comment wouldn't even register anyway.

As Optimus looked over what all they'd said and Colonel Lagier's displeasure with Ironhide hiding the new arrival for so long, the underlying tone of the reason for this meeting was that the humans feared losing control. They didn't say that, but Optimus could spot that fear easily in such a young species. Gathering himself mentally, he pushed his private issues aside in order to concentrate on his duty as Prime.

It bothered the humans that he ruled his Autobots absolutely. They saw that it worked, though, and didn't question his authority over his kind. However, they were constantly telling him that he had no control over the humans. Optimus never wanted that to begin with and it irked him that they wouldn't trust that he was being truthful and sincere when he said he didn't want that.

Optimus studied their history, though. He saw that it was riddled with dictators and tyrannical rulers. That would make humans of all cultures suspicious and mistrustful of any absolute ruler, so Optimus worked hard to dissuade the human fear of him taking over the world.

Part of the fears of this Colonel losing control was because of that fear. It was not only his job to 'control' the aliens, but he had a deep seeded need to feel he was in control of the aliens as well, for his own peace of mind and that of his government's. However, Optimus couldn't do anything about something that even he himself had no control over. Ironhide wasn't a being that bowed to authority by any means. Furthermore, if Ironhide felt the need to protect his mate, Optimus wasn't going to question that.

One thing Optimus learned as Prime was that he rarely had absolute control over anything anyway. Convincing the humans of that fact was still difficult to do. Their mistrust was ingrained in them far too deeply.

"I do not know how to set your minds at ease," Optimus said. "We have been living peacefully among you now for a little over five years. We are tired of war. We just want to rest and find peace"

"We have a hard time believing that is all you want," Colonel Lagier wagered. "Five years is but a fraction of a fraction of one of your years, or vorns, or whatever you call your years."

"Vorns is the correct term," Optimus said.

The colonel seemed irritated for the interruption for a second before continuing, "How do we know you're not just biding your time?"

"You're just going to have to trust me," Optimus answered calmly.

Megatron wouldn't have hesitated an astrosecond if he were still around and there was no one to stop him. The humans knew that, which made it that much harder for them to trust Optimus, but asking them to trust him was all he could do. Optimus kept the fact that he was Megatron's brother to himself. He was going to have to keep it that way or else the humans would never be able to trust him fully. They would fear that he could become even remotely like his brother, despite the millennia Optimus fought against him.

Only four humans knew of his relation to Megatron. One of them was in this room, but Will never divulged any extra information he knew about the Cybertronians unless it was to the benefit of the Autobots. For that, Optimus was forever grateful to him and knew that if he could win the trust of that human, then he could win the trust of the others over time.

"This is slag!" Not surprisingly, this outburst came from Ironhide. Ironhide continued, "There is no being in the multiverse that is more trustworthy than Optimus Prime. It is not his fault that you didn't know of Chromia's arrival absolutely immediately."

"Ironhide," Optimus warned before transmitting. "Don't make this more difficult than it already is."

"No, it's yours," Colonel Lagier accused Ironhide.

"It's not my fault either!" Ironhide defended himself.

"If you had reported the arrival as per protocol, we wouldn't have reason to be concerned," Lagier continued.

"Concerned about what?" Ironhide challenged. "That you're losing control? What makes you think you have control over us to begin with?"

"That's enough, Ironhide," Optimus rose his voice.

"This is ridiculous," Ironhide continued anyway. "Why do we have to answer to this paranoid species?"

"I said, that's enough!" Optimus nearly bellowed, clearly angered, his voice echoing slightly off the walls.

"Paranoid?!" Colonel Lagier yelled incredulously.

"Yes, you are being irrationally paranoid," Will spoke up, no longer able to keep his thoughts to himself and in the hopes to help dissolve the tension between Optimus and Ironhide. "I have to agree with Ironhide; this is pretty ridiculous."

Optimus agreed with both Will and Ironhide, but Ironhide's outbursts weren't helping things one bit. Ironhide had quite the reputation among the humans as being a hot head. There were even several repaired holes in the walls where Ironhide took his frustrations out through his cannons. It wasn't unusual for Ironhide, but the humans weren't sure what to think about it. Ironhide was a fantastic protector, but displaying his firepower when angered wasn't exactly helping the humans to think that Cybertronians could be peaceful allies. Ironhide being liaison served its purpose, but perhaps getting Ratchet to be the liaison from now on would be the best thing for all of them.

"We will do our best to comply with your requests, but we cannot guarantee anything, especially when we don't know ourselves," Optimus said once his calm demeanor returned.

"What exactly do you mean?" Lagier asked.

"We did not know one of our kind was coming, so we couldn't notify you of something that we didn't even know of ourselves," Optimus clarified.

"Then you should have told us after the fact," the colonel said without hesitation, pointedly making eye contact.

"Next time, we will make that effort," Optimus replied, equally without hesitation, meeting the colonel's gaze.

"That's not the only thing," Lagier continued. "Barricade is still out there. You said you'd intercept any Decepticon disrupting the peace. We trusted you to take care of it and you haven't."

"Barricade isn't disrupting the peace," Optimus pointed out.

"Barricade is on Earth?" Chromia whispered to no one in particular, but both Ironhide and Bumblebee heard her.

"You must understand that there are very few Cybertronians left," Optimus continued speaking to the human colonel, oblivious to Chromia's concerns. "No harm will come to him as long as he doesn't bring harm to anyone else."

Bumblebee felt Chromia's startled shock a moment after Ironhide did. Ironhide reached out to her in concern and puzzlement, trying to figure out what was wrong, but she deflected his queries, even threatening to block him out if he pushed any further.

Bumblebee wasn't sure what was going on, but Chromia's reaction came after the mention of Barricade. What did Barricade do to her?

Still oblivious to the inner struggles of his Autobots, Optimus unknowingly fortuitously suggested, "Perhaps it is best that we move on for now."

"Agreed," Colonel Lagier conceded.

"Seconded," both Ironhide and Will said at the same time.

Happy for the distraction from the shock of finding out Barricade was on the same planet as she was, much less still alive, Chromia gave Ironhide a sidelong glance. Simultaneously amused and concerned with he and Will speaking in unison, she transmitted to him, "Are you sure he's not becoming your symbiote?"

Happy that Chromia seemed to be fine from whatever it was that disturbed her about Barricade, Ironhide held up his hands in a defensive gesture of the implications of her question. "I swear, he's not!"

"We have some of the supplies you suggested to start with for the rebuilding project," Colonel Lagier said next, switching gears.

Ratchet let out a soft chuckling snort, which prompted a grin from ear to ear across Will's face. Chromia glared at Ratchet while Ironhide glared at Will. The colonel paused, not sure what was going on but not missing anything. He only paused for a second, though, especially since Optimus continued to watch him expectantly, obviously still listening for what he had to say about the supplies, as if nothing out of the ordinary was happening around them.

"It will take time to get the budget for the project in order," Colonel Lagier continued after he glanced questioningly at Will's rather large grin. "It will also take time to mix and build some of the materials, but we could go ahead and transport what we have to the Lennox property."

"That sounds good," Optimus said. "I look forward to this cooperative effort between your kind and mine."

"As do I," Colonel Lagier said. The higher ups were looking forward to it also...

---

...They had been sitting around too long debating what to do with and about the aliens. The first thought had always been to acquire knowledge of their weaponry, which was met with persistent resistance from the aliens. It had been Will Lennox who finally sold them on the idea to try and learn something else from the aliens.

Will had always tried to tell them that there was more to the aliens than their weaponry. It took five years for them to finally change directions with their alien allies. It wasn't that they didn't learn anything in the last five years, but more progress could have been made between the two species had they tried to concentrate on something else, especially when it became crystal clear that the aliens were only going to allow so little when it came to weapons.

It was also clear that the aliens didn't particularly trust the humans, and vice versa. The new idea was that perhaps gaining the trust of the Cybertronians would get them to open up a little more about their weaponry. Hopefully the humans could gain their trust with cooperative efforts such as the barn rebuilding project and the cultural study.

Many of the higher ups were particularly interested in the cultural study. None of the humans realized these machines could have mates. When the new arrival showed up and they found out that it was Ironhide's 'sparkmate,' as Optimus told them, curiosity piqued.

It was obvious these machines could wage war with each other, but it was thought that that could be a program gone awry. Mating was entirely different. When they approached Optimus on the subject and why he didn't tell them his kind could have mates, he said simply, 'You didn't ask.' However, he dodged a few of the questions that arose on how Cybertronians reproduced and if a mated pair could reproduce. They weren't entirely sure why, but they didn't push the issue at that point, especially when he told them the femmes of his kind were hunted down and killed.

It was at that point that it became obvious Will's insistence on a cultural study was well founded. Will had a Cybertronian living with him for years. He got to know that alien and realized early on how deep these machines truly were. Enough had been speculated on the machines and how they worked. It was time to find out from the machines themselves. And while they were 'learning' from the machines, they could decide for themselves how true the alien claim for a search for peace really was. This cultural study could give them an idea just how dangerous the aliens really might be.

Maybe these efforts would help ease some of their fears too, or compound them; no one could really be sure.

8888


AN: Ironhide never knew that it was Barricade that recognized Chromia at Floatilla, which is in chapter 9. Perhaps if Barricade hadn't pointed her out, she wouldn't have lost Sunshadow the way she did. Granted, Ironhide may have lost Chromia, but perhaps Sunshadow would have lived. You may also want to reread chapter 20, which is the chapter where BB and Chromia are discussing his lost bonds and also where Chromia's suspicions on where BB came from begin. Also, in chapter 6, Chromia was concerned about Will becoming Ironhide's symbiote, so that little blurb in this chapter where she asks him, '...are you sure...?' is a play on that earlier chapter.

I wanted to point out those particular things since it has been so long since the posting of those chapters. Thanks for all the support!