There! Are you people happy now? I typed as fast as I could! Thank Primus I didn't have to do my Homework this weekend. No school next week and all. But enjoy! I wish I owned Transformers but I don't Whaa! That sucks. I wonder what would happen if Bill Gates bought transformers… Ooh… Creepy-evil thought. I own Ace, Cody, and that mysterious femme. Oh and Rusty. I also own the idea. It is miiiiiiiiiiiine! And Scythe is DeathScythe119's character. Technically speaking anyway, at the moment. Revised due to a tiny goof-up DeathScythe119 pointed out. Bon apatite!

Shadows of them

Love in all its forms

Ace loved to sit on the balcony of the council hub, looking idly around the peaceful planet. Her twin brother Cody tended to leave her to herself, but today their mother had insisted they wait for a "special surprise" together. It hadn't been long ago that the two sparklings had discovered that they had a father; their mother had always believed him to be dead by a war on the home planet. That had been the entire reason Ace's mother, grandmother, and uncle had left Cybertron; the war. Or at least that seemed to sum it up.

Ace glanced over at the sound of two sets of footsteps; one that she recognized; her mother's, and a heavier, distinctly adult heavy-built mech. Her mother had entirely white armor, and was sometimes called Prime by the rest of the council members. Her mother did have beautiful blue-green optics. Apparently Ace herself was modeled after her father, mostly with his original color pattern (white base, blue legs and arms(though her right leg was a lighter shade of blue) her left hand blue, right red, helmet blue, and various designs all over her chest-plates), and even a helmet shaped similarly to his, so she guessed her father had a red visor across his helmet too; though she doubted he had blue-purple fiber-optic "hair" sticking out the back of his helmet. Cody however was red and black all over (except for two yellow panels on his shoulders), with bright green optics. But like all sparklings; neither of them could transform.

"Hi Mommy! Who's your friend?"

"Mommy?" she heard the shadowed mech murmur in surprise turning to look at Ace's mother.

Ace and Cody looked at there mother when she gave an exasperated sigh, kneeling down and opening her arms, both sparklings jumping in her arms and hugging her tight, noticing her smile, "Sweeties… I-I want you to meet someone… someone very, very special… to me and will soon be pretty special to you two too…" she made optic contact with them, "Ace; Cody… I want you two to meet Red Alert… my… your… our…"

"Wait a micro Mommy. Is he who I think you're saying he is?" Cody asked; pushing slightly away, hope in his little optics.

She smiled, nodding; and hugging the two sparklings tight. The sparklings smiling in her loving grip; both looking happily at the medic-mech.

Lori answered the com-link given to her by the Autobots, a rather frightened Scattershot on the screen, "What's wrong?"

"Red Alert… We think he might have abandoned us!"

She blinked, "He's still missing? But the three days is going to be over in… like two or three hours! Where could he be?"

"I don't know; but I'm not sure why Optimus wants all you humans back at base soon… your dad included."

"We'll be there in just a little bit!"

"Thank you for coming so soon Fred. I think that if Red Alert does come back it maybe a good for him to have a good link of friends to remind him why he's stayed in the war so lon-"

The door opened, and Red Alert walked inside; right on time. He seemed… happy. He had an uncharacteristic bounce to his step. He seemed to be simply beaming positive energy. He was actually smiling, and broadly at that. His armor seemed spiff-and-shine, and it made him look like he was just glowing. He wasn't but it was clear that he was a new 'bot. "Sorry to keep you 'lot waiting!" even his voice sounded chipper and warm.

Hotshot's jaw simply dropped, "Who the slag are you; and what have you done with our medic!" he snapped, clearly serious.

"Calm down Hotshot; since when is it illegal for me to be in a good mood?"

"You haven't been in a good mood like this since-……" Hotshot fell silent; afraid that he had ruined Red Alert's good mood.

Oh how he ended up wishing he had. Red Alert gave him a genuine smile, "It's alright Hotshot; everything happens for some reason or another; it was just her time I suppose." He seemed almost in another world; mentally anyway.

Optimus gave him a strange look. Since the incident, Red Alert had never once talked about her that he knew of; and if he did he would've never spoken about it so cheerfully. All of the humans and Autobots exchanged uneasy glances, Leo Breaker decided to break the silence, "All right ya hippie; what've you done with our Red Alert?"

Optimus Prime frowned; something was seriously wrong here. "Red Alert… that note you left…"

Red Alert held up his hand; he was still in a good mood, but a more serious tone took over for his response, "Sir; I have been asked not to disclose any of the information I gained with any Cybertronians; Autobot or Decepticon. I'm not even supposed to tell you where I was. All I can tell you; is that I'm probably going to "disappear" and learn more from them." He made deliberate optic contact, "And I learned a lot." His tone was even darker at that moment, before returning to his new self, "Though I truly hope that I will soon be able to share what I learned with you. All I can say is that peace between Autobots and Decepticons; I saw it everywhere I looked where I was, there's almost no differentia between Autobot and Decepticon decadence. The nicest 'bots in the Universe as far as I've seen were there."

"Hey! Are you badmouthing all the hard work that we Autobot's have done!" Hotshot took a personal hit to the Cybertronians universe wide. "Who do you think you are!"

"Calm down Hotshot! I'm sure Red Alert didn't mean anything by it! Right?" Scattershot was absolutely terrified a fight would break out.

Little did any of them know; Red Alert had no intention of fighting anyone, especially Hotshot. But the comment had hurt him, so he turned to him sadly, "Hotshot, I'm not badmouthing anyone. Don't you remember 'bots like Scythe? Elita-1? Orion Pax II? Destiny? Why would I abandon a cause that I lost close friends for; that I lost Destiny for? What in the universe would make me abandon what I lost so much personally for? And all the Autobots I've seen deactivated in this? And you of all bots should remember what else I lost when Destiny was vaporized. And yes Optimus…" He muttered, looking at the leader, "… I am using her name. Primus… For the longest time I had convinced myself that it was my fault she was vaped. If I had told her-… well… you can ask Hotshot if you want to know. But I'll say this, I will repair Autobot solders; but I will not fight in one more battle."

Fred frowned, "You hadn't wanted her to enter that fight in the first place. Had you known something was going to go wrong? Or was it just the face that you loved her so much?"

"Once again, ask Hotshot." Red Alert was still in a good mood, but not anywhere's near as happy as when he had entered. He headed for the door outside.

"Red Alert. Go to your quarters. We will discuss this later. You need I cool-down period." Optimus growled. All those names had hit home with him; Elita had been his bondmate, Orion was their younger sparkling, and Destiny…

"Yes sir, Optimus Prime sir!" he left to his quarters; leaving everyone dumbstruck. Red Alert was the last 'bot you'd expect to show tartness to Authority.

"I haven't seen him acting that strange since he and Destiny were hiding their relationship." Jetfire mumbled.

Everyone turned their attention to poor Hotshot; he hit his hand to his head, "Why did I have to open my big yap?"

"Hotshot?"

"Okay Optimus. Okay. Well… A few days before… I overheard those two talking… remember? She had had trouble processing her energon, and she never seemed to have enough in her system…"

"Get on with it; what was wrong with her?"

"… Red thought she was with spark, and was giving her a scan to be sure that night. And you guys know how those scans can take a couple of days…"

"… So… she didn't know for sure if she was or not…" it dawned on Optimus what had happened that day. And why Red Alert had been so adamant about her staying back at the base, despite how much Destiny had wanted to fight. He had known. But she didn't. And Red Alert hadn't wanted to tell her in front of everyone. "Oh… my… Primus… I just thought he was being protective of her… Primus…"

"You couldn't have known Optimus. Don't dwell on the pass." Vector Prime whispered to Optimus.

Fred looked to Optimus sadly, "We thought we only lost one life that day… looks like we were wrong… how could he have kept something like that a secret all this time?"

"I-I have no idea… But it must've eaten him up inside…" Jetfire mumbled.

Landmine finally spoke up; looking directly at Optimus, "She would've made a great creator, just like her creators."

"I'd have hoped so. But I guess we'll ever know."

Around the corner, Red Alert couldn't help but chuckled at how naive they were. They had no idea; all the better too. The less they knew the safer Ace and Cody would be. He couldn't help but grin at the thought of those two sparklings; nowadays far more 'bot's were being destroyed than created, so all sparklings that were created were precious.

He turned around and finally entered his room, leaning against the wall, feeling absolutely blissful. He knew that it wouldn't last forever; soon he would need to make a choice that could determine many Autobot lives; and something that in three days had become more important to him than the lives of the Autobots.

In the following weeks Red Alert slowly returned to normal, and eventually started to get slightly depressed; and he didn't seem to care that anyone knew it. Fred decided that a good chat with Alexis, Rad, and Carlos would do him good. So he dragged Red Alert, with the help of the kids, to their apartment on their day off of work. All three of them worked for the government.

"Hello? Oh! Fred; great to see you! Alexis! Come out here!"

"What is it Rad?" Alexis was clearly about six and a half months pregnant. And a six or seven year old boy with dusty-blond hair, and hazel eyes at her heels.

The humans greeted and chatted quickly before Fred pointed Red Alert out to them. Alexis thought a moment and brought Rusty over to him. "Mommy? Why are you taking me to a rescue car?"

She knelt down, with some difficulty, and held him close, "Rusty; sweetheart, this is an old friend of your dad, Uncle Carlos and I."

"But… it's a car… oh! Is it one of your friends from those stories?" She nodded, "Oh… Hi! My name's Rusty; what's yours?"

Red Alert's smile was hidden by his car mode, but it was clear in his voice, "Hello Rusty. I'm Red Alert."

"Cool… Can you transform like Mommy said?"

"Not with people around! Can't have the entire world knowing about us now can we?"

Alexis smiled weakly, "You're better with small children than the rest of us would've thought." She teased.

"Funny Alexis." He said sarcastically. They all conversed for a long time, Red Alert quickly coming to a realization that his human friends had already learned; family is the most important thing. Family first, war second. That was just how it was. And he had to stop being so impudent about it.

Red Alert glanced around the base; it was almost empty, and that was all the better. Midnight wasn't far off, so most of the 'bots were in recharge. He had grabbed a few things to take with him this time; and he couldn't wait to go back. He slunk down the hall, careful to avoid the security system he helped set up. But he couldn't avoid everything.

"You're leaving again." Someone said behind him; he spun around to see Optimus looking down at him sadly, "How long are you planning on being gone this time?"

"Sir… I don't want to harm any of my friends, but I have to go. It just has to be done. I have to do this."

Optimus frowned, "You didn't answer my question."

"Four days. If I'm gone longer, I'm staying there permanently."

The silence was excruciating. Then Optimus dug into his sub-space pocket, pulled out a small communicator and tossed it to the science officer and medic, "That's a universal rang communicator. If we absolutely need you before the four days is up-"

"I'd know. They have a… galaxy wide searching system. I'd be alerted if there were a problem you lot'd need me for." He said, frowning, moving to hand it back to Optimus.

But Optimus shook his head, "Keep it. I'd like a heads up if you're going to be staying there. And I hope that someday you will trust us enough to tell us about where you're going."

The guilt trip. Red Alert should've expected it. But he had to go. He pocketed the device and turned away. "I do trust you sir. But I'm not allowed tell you anything yet… or maybe ever." He left, more depressed than ever. But he couldn't wait to see them.

Ha! DONE! And right on time too! (I wanted to get it done before noon.) and now I will need to, at least for a little while, shift my focus to another story before I get ahead of myself in this.