Eleventy-first chapter! Wooo!
Chapter 111 – The First Night
(RPOV)
Ratchet could hear Optimus laughing before he even made it back to the med-bay. He frowned, listening to the tone before grinning. Proper laugh, which meant Kae was fine.
"So, Kae's a bot now," Will stated, sitting up on the berth as he watched the auto-bots lounging about before heading to their recharge cycles.
"She is," Optimus rumbled.
"Is everything there?" Ratchet asked worriedly. Optimus turned to face him before breaking out into a broad grin.
"Everything," he rumbled in the tone of an absolutely besotted bot. "Her kindness, her strength, her smile, it is all there."
"Not to mention her humour!" Sideswipe grinned. "I have no lungs. Honestly!"
Optimus was grinning like the besotted bot that he was. He crossed over to the berth Major Lennox was sitting on and offered the man his hand.
"Wow! Gettin' carried about by Prime, I thought this was an honour offered only to a certain femme who guards your spark." Will teased Optimus, sitting awkwardly in his hand.
"Ratchet has been gossiping again," Optimus rumbled with a wry grin.
Ratchet shot an innocent look at the bot and grinned as he carried the Major out toward communication central.
(WPOV)
Will felt a bit weird, really. Somehow, he had wound up sitting in Optimus' hand, being carried to communications central, he almost felt like he was usurping Kae's spot. Except come to think of it, she wouldn't really fit in his hand anymore.
Actually it was kind of awesome, and this was a half-mile walk he hadn't been looking forward to, he was blasted tired.
"Thank you," Optimus rumbled a good ten feet above him.
"Optimus, you're the one carrying me," Will grinned, realizing precisely why Kae was always sitting in this hand, he laid down and crossed his ankles. "This okay?"
Optimus glanced down at him and rumbled a low chuckle.
"Kae's habits are rubbing off on you," Optimus rumbled patiently, and Will realized another point in favour of this spot. You could clearly hear another inflection to the titan's speech patterns from this spot, a hidden one. There was definitely amusement there.
"I can see why she made it a habit," Will grinned, "so why the hell are you thanking me? I sure as hell wasn't looking forward to this walk."
"For so readily accepting Kae's uploading into her new form," Optimus rumbled calmly, "I fear that there will be few who would even try to understand why."
"Well, auto-bot or not, she's still a born citizen of Earth. And besides, all the good points that everyone pretends to have she's got in spades. If anyone deserves a lifespan like yours it's her."
"Which is why I am thanking you," Optimus rumbled in the same deadpan tone. Will could still hear the underscore of amusement. This spot was awesome. You could hear Optimus talking, not just the overtones of his Prime voice.
"So you still going to marry her or what?" Will asked with a broad grin, "Sarah was so looking forward to that wedding." Optimus jumped and stared down at Will. A pensive tone seemed to hum through his frame.
"I will have to ask her," Optimus stated finally as the doors to communications central opened automatically in front of him. "I am not certain which marriage tradition she would wish to follow now, or if she will still wish to be bound to me."
"Whaat?" Will asked, absolutely shocked. "Why the hell wouldn't she? She absolutely adores you!"
"She also out-ranks me by a wide margin now," Optimus rumbled in a calm tone.
"Nah," Will shrugged, "It's Kae, I don't think she's even physically capable of caring about rank."
Optimus looked down at him in amusement.
"Mikaela can have her pick of any auto-bot she could possibly want," Optimus snorted. "I am very certain even Megatron will wish to court her."
"Seriously?" Will stated in a deadpan tone, "ask her, Optimus. Seriously. Although if I were you? I'd keep my helmet on if you decide to tell her that Megatron would wish to pay her court. I will pay to be a fly on the wall for that conversation."
Optimus snorted and turned to the communications tower, delicately settling Will in his spot. Will listened with interest as Optimus made his reports, finally including some technical information of what precisely had become of Mikaela. It sounded both cool and terrifyingly painful. Will could understand why Optimus had been reluctant now.
"Is she safe now?" General Moreshower asked in a worried tone.
"Mikaela is in a recharge cycle in her quarters, and her personality and characteristics seem to have been fully uploaded. There is no sign of the madness in her." Optimus rumbled. "Which has most of us astonished. A short period of madness is common after a casting."
"What were her first words?" Moreshower asked intently. Will grinned as Optimus cued the soundbyte.
"I have no lungs. That. Feels fricken weird." Mikaela's voice stated again.
There were several snorts over the channels.
"That's Mikaela alright," Moreshower stated with a grin.
"What form has she taken?" another asked intently, "We need to keep it on record."
"She has not chosen as yet, as I said, she is resting, " Optimus stated calmly.
"We will keep you informed as to her progress," Will added patiently.
Faces on screens nodded before they winked out. Will turned and looked at the door with an inward sigh, this walk was a mile. He could feel the past 50 hours he'd been awake gnawing at him. Fuck. He had absolutely no idea how Chance and Kae managed to stay so cheerful without sleep.
He jumped as Optimus offered him a hand again.
"Your quarters are on the way to mine," he rumbled.
"I think we should get the Vatican to make you the patron saint of tired soldiers," Will groaned, laying down in Optimus' hand as several techs chuckled around him.
"I believe I would need to be Catholic for that." Optimus rumbled above him.
"Hey, do you guys have religions?" Will asked curiously.
"In a sense," Optimus rumbled calmly, turning toward the doors.
"Do we get to learn what it is?" Danny called out curiously as Jerry nodded enthusiastically. Optimus looked back with a low laugh.
"If you are certain you wish to know," he rumbled quietly.
"Hit me!" the Danny grinned as several others nodded enthusiastically, spinning in seats to watch Optimus intently.
"In the beginning, there was the cube, we knew not where it came from, only that it had the power to build worlds and create life. Primus was the first, and sired seven sons."
"The seven Primes!" Will stated in shock.
"My direct ancestors," Optimus rumbled, looking down at Will again. "The All-Spark created most of us, except for the Prime caste. We were sired, the knowledge of our fathers passed directly into my own codes. The curse-gift of leadership. When the All-Spark was lost, so to was our planet, our race. We are capable of reproducing, but most of our Femmes were lost in the war. When we came here... I had hoped to bring it home..."
Optimus fell silent, and anyone could see him lost in memories.
"The All-Spark was here," Will stated in a soft tone, "Mikaela destroyed your hope to repair your home."
"Upon my orders," Optimus murmured, "I was born into war, taken from my family and hidden for the chance of survival. Your world, despite your race's capacity for violence is still peaceful, majestic. I cannot let the devastation that destroyed my home, destroy yours as well. That is the religion of the Prime caste, above all else we were guardians."
"Wait, you said Mikaela outranks you now..." Will frowned. Optimus glanced down at him with a small smirk, "you said she's-!" Will was glad he was already sitting. That in itself was a complete and total shock right there.
"She is the incarnate of the All-Spark, our creator." Optimus rumbled in amusement. "And she may have her pick of any bot or Femme in this universe. Or several of them really."
"Kae, our Kae is a freaking goddess!?" Jerry shouted, the doors opened behind Optimus.
"I'm the host to the All-Spark," Mikaela's voice stated firmly. "She's eternal, I'm... well I'm potentially a hell of a lot more long-lived than I was yesterday, but I'm still not an eternal being. I'm also better described as the spawn of Satan, a familiar Daemon if you like. Think about it, what goddess has my temperament?"
"Athena?" Will called out with a grin. "Kind and gentle one minute, kicking ass the next? Yeah, my vote is Athena."
"Mikaela, what are you doing up?" Optimus asked in a strained tone.
"It's three in the morning," she groaned. "I woke up and made it halfway to the mats before I realized I'm twenty-five feet tall now. I honestly don't know if I broke anything."
Optimus stood stock still for a long moment, staring at the newest bot. Will belatedly realized she was still technically naked. Will tapped his hand.
"You still with us big guy?" he asked curiously. Optimus began laughing.
(OPOV)
The door hissed open behind him.
"I'm the host to the All-Spark," Mikaela's voice stated firmly behind him. "She's eternal, I'm... well I'm potentially a hell of a lot more long-lived than I was yesterday, but I'm still not an eternal being. I'm also better described as the spawn of Satan, a familiar Daemon if you like. Think about it, what goddess has my temperament?"
Optimus turned to see Mikaela standing stark naked in the doorway. Beautiful, gorgeous creature that she was, she looked exhausted, her energon levels were still worryingly low. His processors shut down momentarily before they could short out. He onlined them rapidly and found jealousy, an emotion he knew he had absolutely no right to.
Damn every god that might be listening. That was his Kae.
She was absolutely exquisite.
"Athena?" Will called out in his hand. "Kind and gentle one minute, kicking ass the next? Yeah, my vote is Athena."
Primus bless soldiers who could bring you back to the present.
"Mikaela, what are you doing up?" Optimus asked as calmly as he could manage.
"It's three in the morning," she groaned. "I woke up and made it halfway to the mats before I realized I'm twenty-five feet tall now. I honestly don't know if I broke anything."
For his spark, Optimus could not stop staring. There could not be a single rough edge on those protoform metals. She'd kept her schedule of waking for the watch and training, the dear Femme.
Gods, her build was complete, perfect, she looked so delicate, but there was so much inherent strength in that structure. It screamed battle-readiness.
On any field...
Or berth...
Or...
Will tapped his hand.
"You still with us big guy?" he asked curiously. Optimus began laughing.
"Let's get you back to your recharge," he said in a gentle tone, walking toward his Kae and wrapping a gentle arm around her shoulders.
"Wait!" the tech... Danny shouted. Optimus turned slightly, Mikaela doing the same beside him. "So is our Kae like a goddess now or what?" he asked with wide eyes.
Mikaela snorted.
"I most certainly am not a goddess, or demi-god or whatever. I'm just Kae... well, Archangel Prime. And even that sounds far too divine to be me. I'm Kae."
"Who happens to possess a beauty and temperament to make any goddess jealous." Optimus rumbled softly. Mikaela stared at him, optics widened in shock as he lead her out the doors and down the corridor.
"I think I can see it," Will stated in his hand, Optimus glanced down at him. The Major was sitting patiently, looking at Kae with a small smile. "You've got the mystery of female in your every step. The maiden, the mother, and the crone. The goddess in any female."
"Sarah has got you whiiipped," Mikaela teased him with a grin.
"I'm not proud – actually, yes. Yes I am," Will laughed, "I am proud. Sarah had me wrapped around her finger long before I got a ring on it."
Mikaela laughed and glanced at Optimus, she seemed to sense something in him, and reached up to kiss his jaw gently.
"I'm going to go back to my recharge," she said softly before skipping forward, her motions smooth, predatory and graceful. Gorgeous. The Major stayed silent in his hand for a long moment.
"She has literally blown your processors, hasn't she?" Will asked, looking up at him with a broad grin.
"I am going to need to keep a secondary processor running," Optimus mused. "And they shut down before they can short."
Will burst out laughing, laying in his hand and shaking.
"So what did you need to say that Kae left you alone to ask?" he grinned. Optimus stared at him. "Hey, I'm a happily married man. My Sarah is to me what your Kae is to you, don't ask me how she always knows, I told you, the mystery of female."
"You said she had you wrapped around her finger before you got a ring onto it." Optimus rumbled curiously.
"Be honest, if Mikaela asked you to tear the world apart to get something for her, would you do it?" Will asked with a smirk. "You don't even need to answer, you damn near tore us apart when she got bridged away from you. I will do anything for my Sarah. And love? True love is when she knows that you would do anything, but will never ask. The only orders she will ever give us are for our own good." Will sighed and crossed his ankles as Optimus resumed walking toward the living quarters. "We love females, and that love gives them an ultimate power over us. Some collect it, use it to get ahead in the world. The good ones, use it to keep us alive and smiling. Sarah has saved my life, so many times."
Optimus looked down at the Major in shock.
"Sarah fights?" he asked quietly.
"No!" Will snorted, his voice became soft, "Sarah's face is the one I see when I'm injured, tired. When I'm ready to give up, lay down in the sand and die her love reaches out to me. I get up and I keep going, because if I die in that sand I won't be able to hold her again."
Optimus reached the entrance to the Major's quarters and knelt down. Will sat up in his hand and looked at him calmly.
"Don't you dare back away from her," Will commanded, "Our Mikaela doesn't give a flying fuck about status. Tell her her options, yes. Tell her that Megatron would lust the hell out of her, fine. Give up on your chances of catching her? Absolutely not. She has your number, Optimus, and you know it. Don't let the good one go. Now go interface the hell out of her, or whatever it is you lot do that I officially have no idea that Auto-bots can do. I'll see you in a couple of days, it takes that long for you guys to recharge, doesn't it?"
Optimus couldn't stop the snort of laughter that burst from him as Will shot him a broad, shit-eating grin.
"I will see you when you wake," Optimus rumbled in amusement. Will frowned at him. "You honestly believe me capable of keeping Kae from her work?" Optimus asked in mocking astonishment, "I can't hold her captive in my spark chamber this time, and if I hadn't done that, dying the previous day wouldn't have kept her from her work."
Will was roaring with laughter in his hand, scooting to the edge of his palm and dropping down the couple of feet to the ground.
"Next rota off, you and I are going to go to the bar, drink beer and reminisce about the women in our lives, and I hope to hell I don't see you tomorrow." Will laughed, whipping his arm at Optimus in a mocking order to get moving.
Chuckling, Optimus rose and walked quietly to his quarters. The door slid open to a room lit as though the last rays of the sunset were touching the window. Kae was curled on the berth, recharging. Her hand had crept to where his chest should be.
She looked so soft, so delicate and beautiful.
His spark pounded against it's chamber again. He strode quietly toward her and stopped. Her protoform would be incredibly sensitive after her casting. Unwilling to cause her discomfort, he crouched down and shrugged, his armour falling away from his protoform. Her optics were online when he stood again, walking the last couple of paces toward her and laying down, pulling her gently into his arms.
"Optimus?" she whispered.
"Kae," he rumbled, holding her a bit more tightly.
"Thank you for coming back," she whispered, cuddling a bit more tightly against him. Her spark hummed. A warm, sweet sound that he wanted to hear for the rest of his life.
The feeling of her living metals, almost magnetized to his was intoxicating, she smelled of warmth, steel. Of earth and growing things. This was the Well, he knew it.
Her hand slid gently up his abdomen to rest lightly over his spark. He glanced down at her and was shocked anew. Her eyes were caught somewhere between predatory need and gentle curiosity. Optimus checked his power reserves and smirked. Still high in the amber. He leaned down and caught her lips with his, a hand dancing up her body and memorizing it.
Gods be damned, even if he failed to keep her he would sure as the pit burned keep this memory.
"Is," she whispered, she looked down shyly.
"Kae," Optimus murmured, gently tipping her chin up so that she would look at him. "What is it?"
"I..." she started. "I still have..." she whispered, and held up her hand. Optimus' spark thundered. There, sitting proudly on her finger was his ring, unchanged but for it's size. The protoform metals still answered his call. "Is.. is it okay if I still wear it?" she asked softly, looking up at him with hesitant, worried optics.
Optimus grabbed her hand and pressed a kiss to the ring that said he was hers.
If only for this night.
(MPOV)
Optimus snatched my hand, for a moment I thought he'd take the ring, instead, he kissed it. The next moment his lips were on mine, his hand threading it's way into my spark chamber. I moaned at the sudden onslaught of sensation, my power reserves were mid-amber. Good enough.
"Kae," he rumbled desperately, "Kae please." I was immediately alert.
"Optimus!" I said worriedly, rolling him to his back and straddling him. I cupped his face gently in my hands. "Love what's wrong?"
"Say it again," he whispered, his spark was sending tones directly to my own. I understood them almost before I heard them.
"Optimus, my beloved," I whispered. "I chose you, Optimus, your mark didn't cast itself in my spark chamber. I don't understand. I thought it would follow me."
"Kae, oh my Kae," he rumbled, the relief in his resonations at a terrifying level. "Marks don't follow in a casting," he added softly, pulling me down and kissing me again.
"Then I'll just have to earn it again," I murmured, and began feathering kisses down his neck. He moaned beneath me. "Tell me what you want," I whispered, letting the vibrations of the vocalization tease the sensor nets along his frame. In a flash he had me on my back, a hand deep in my spark chamber.
I began keening, arching into that hand for more, I onlined a second processor and gave up on it, onlining a third and reaching up, delicately teasing his chamber, it relaxed and opened. My own hand gently slid into his chest as I caught his eyes, stroking his spark with infinite care. He moaned and slid his hand down, investigating the tiny, bared couplings along my side. A finger lightly pressed one and I jumped beneath him, gasping.
"Tell me what you want, my goddess," he rumbled in the devil's own tone of seduction. I reached up with my free hand and dragged his face to mine, kissing him with strength.
"Fuck me until we can't go anymore," I demanded. Optimus chuckled, a dark, ridiculously sensual sound. In moments I was gasping, clinging just this edge of overload as his spike nosed at my valve, pressing slowly in as his hand returned to my spark, teasing and driving me insane.
"My Kae," he rumbled in my ear, withdrawing and thrusting his spike deep. "It would take a thousand lifetimes for me to get my fill of interfacing with you."
I moaned, grinding my hips into him. He dragged my hand from his spark and hauled me onto his lap, never once unseating himself from my valve. His arms snapped around me, urgently crushing our chests together, spark chambers pressed tightly into each other. His lips proceeded to wreak havoc with the sensor nets along my jaw, neck and shoulder. I ground myself on his spike.
"Do you like that?" I purred against his jaw as he let loose a keening groan, thrusting himself into me. "Do you like it when I'm stretched around your spike, spark to spark?" I moaned as his spark caressed mine. I tentatively reached for his with my own, touching, caressing. They began connecting, each point sending a fizzle of pleasure through our processors.
We writhed against each other, teetering on the edge of overload. I reached up and dragged his face to mine, kissing him with every ounce of the need that resonated through our joined sparks. His overload flashed through my system, triggering mine. He swallowed my scream, clamping me tightly to his frame as every processor offlined and re-booted repeatedly. Energon throbbed through me, dancing back and forth between our sparks. My cells flashed fully green for a long moment before I pressed it into him. He roared, thrusting deeply again before a second overload hit him. The excesses sloughed off of us and into the waiting cells in the berth.
We collapsed, vibrating against each other, a tangle of overheated, exhausted servos.
"Kae?" Optimus whispered after a moment.
"Optimus," I murmured, shifting slightly to cuddle closer to him.
"Will you wear my mark again?" he asked softly. There was fear, need, insecurity resonating from his spark. I looked up at him and tightened my leg around his hips, pulling his spike a bit more tightly into myself.
ΩOptimus, I would proudly wear your mark to the end of time.Ω I whispered gently, reaching up to caress his face. He moaned and buried his face into the crook of my neck. His hand reached up and lightly caressed my spark chamber, and I felt a new etching form. This one was different, it should have hurt. It didn't. It was warm, rapidly completing itself, and me.
"Sleep my beloved," I whispered. "Sleep and dream of beautiful things."
In a matter of minutes, we dropped into our recharge cycles, completely entwined.
And thats all from me folks! See you next week, and always remember, reviews are energon, and energon fuels the plot bunnies!