Author's note. Finally, Blackarachnia makes her debut appearance, hope you all enjoy.

Suggestions are welcome.

Enjoy and please review.

"You asked to see me, Megatron," the techno-organic said politely as she entered the Throne room.

"Yes," came the growling reply.

Blackarachnia stared at her leader, he looked very different from the last time she'd seen him. Before, the best way to describe his form was spiky, he was created for fighting. It had been a wonder he didn't cut himself with the amount of sharp edges to his body. But now his form was smooth, there were no spikes adorning his body anymore.

He was also a lighter colour now, instead of dark grey he was more of a sliver grey with a few red highlights. It was actually a good look for him, he was definitely a lot more handsome and civilised looking now. But that was as far as it went for her, she'd never consider interfacing with him. While he was physically more attractive, he was just a little too dangerous for her to get that close to.

His glowing red optics were the same as ever and regarded her angrily.

"I have a special mission for you, Blackarachnia," he now said in his gravelly tone. "I want you to search for organic planets and scour them for my property."

"What property might that be, Megatron?" she asked, it wasn't hard to figure out why she was being given organic planets.

"My son," hissed Megatron. "My Sparkling son and his whore of a carrier."

The Femme raised an optic brow, wondering what the story behind this was.

"Did the...ah...carrier run?" she questioned softly, noticing how his expression darken even more.

"He did," Megatron growled, starting to pace a little now. "He was a worthless Autobot Prime that we captured, that I took to my berth and Sparked a son with. But right after he Sparked my son, he escaped and no one...no one has clapped optics on either of them."

Blackarachnia didn't say anything as Megatron quietly snarled.

"It's been fifty stellar cycles and not even the Autobots know what's happened to him."

"What are their names?" Blackarachnia asked softly in a curious tone.

"My son's name is Valour," Megatron said tersely. "The Autobot is called Optimus Prime."

Megatron had turned his back to her which was lucky because she silently started in shock. Optimus Prime, the Optimus Prime she had known, had born Megatron's son? She could not believe it, how had that happened? How did he manage to stumble across the Decepticon warlord's path? One thing she knew for sure, the Optimus she had known would never have willingly interfaced with the large Decepticon.

This meant that unless Optimus had dramatically changed, he had been raped.

She swallowed slightly, that was definitely one of the more unsavoury parts of the Decepticon culture. It was a culture, a culture where you needed to be either highly skilled or physically powerful to survive and prosper. She had skills and the smarts to be fairly high in the hierarchy but it did help that...no one wanted to interface with a techno-organic. Most of the time, she didn't really care, she preferred it that way. A little bit of flirting was fun but it never went beyond perhaps a kiss and a few touches.

Sometimes...it did get pretty lonely but it felt like if any Decepticon wanted her in that way, they would attempt to own or control her. And that was completely unacceptable, even when she'd been Elita One; she vowed any partner she took would be her equal. She might be a freak now but that didn't mean anyone was going to walk over her.

But back to the matter at hand.

"Is there anything you can tell me about this Prime, something that might be useful."

"He is an academy reject," Megatron stated dismissively. "When he was captured, he was leading a team of Space Bridge technicians. We believe he met up with them after his escape as they have disappeared as well."

"I assume you have information on them as well," she replied, trying not to sound sarcastic, Megatron was in a dangerous mood.

"I do," he growled, facing her again. "And I have been searching for fifty cycles and my patience is running thin. I have no idea where Prime might flee but I want every single place he could have hidden searched. That includes fully organic planets where most of my troops do not want to search. You are the one who can tell whether or not Prime is hiding on one and that is your mission."

She bowed her head slightly, saying.

"I understand Megatron, I will find the Prime and your son."

"If you do, you will be rewarded," Megatron stated softly. "But if you fail, like all the others, you will be punished."

She bowed her head, she knew Megatron meant every word. But now that she knew who it was Megatron hunted, she was determined that she would be the one to find him. One way or another, she would meet Optimus Prime once more.

Back on Earth

"Optimus? Hey Optimus...hey!"

"Mm?" Optimus mumbled, blinking open his optics as he realised there was a small form sitting on his chest.

"Sari...what is it?" Optimus said tiredly as she grinned up at him.

"You said you'd take us to see the new dinosaur exhibition at the zoo, remember?" she said brightly and Optimus resisted groaning. It was his turn to take the kids out but he felt so tired. Taking care of one Sparkling was hard enough but two felt near impossible. He'd no idea how he would have managed if he didn't have his team with him.

"Alright, give me a moment," Optimus replied sleepily, stretching out his joints and trying to wake up a bit.

"You're worse than Ratchet," she laughed as she clambered off the poor Autobot leader. "He's always taking naps and complaining about taking us out."

"He's an old bot, Sari," Optimus reminded her patiently. "Just remember that'll you'll be old someday."

"Yeah but not for an age," she responded brightly, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "Come on the fresh air will wake you up."

"Hmm," he grumbled, feeling older than ever. He'd never, ever make a joke about Ratchet being old ever again.

"Okay, okay, I'm up," he said with a slight yawn.

"Cool," Sari exclaimed before rushing off, yelling for Valour.

Despite his tiredness, Optimus smiled, he did love seeing his kids happy. Sometimes, Sari felt like a daughter to him and a sister to Valour. The two really were that close, always learning or playing together. They hadn't spoken yet with Sari about her origins but she seemed to regard herself as practically an Autobot anyway.

"Where's Valour?" he asked as he loosened himself up for the trip.

"Trying to climb Prowl's tree," Sari said as she examined a slight tear in her dress before deciding it wasn't important. "He wants to surprise Prowl."

"Good luck," Optimus laughed, Valour had been trying to do that ever since Prowl surprised Bumblebee. Sadly for his little son, although he was a good climber, Prowl was much better. And the Ninja bot always went to the very top of his tree where naughty little bots couldn't reach him.

"He'll do it one day," Sari defended with a grin, she always enjoyed watching someone attempt to get the better of Prowl. Bulkhead was too good natured and Ratchet had no problem with punishing anyone who tried to play a trick on him.

"We'll see," Optimus chuckled, knowing Prowl found it amusing that Valour was trying to imitate a ninja bot's stealth.

Sari grinned before rushing off to find her friend. Optimus followed at a much more leisurely pace out into the beautiful sunshine. That was definitely one of his favourite things about Earth, its yellow sun. Not only did it make producing Energon easy but it just felt so good on their armour. He allowed it's warmth to wake him up some more before marching over to Prowl's room which was partially open to the elements.

Prowl was actually visible at the top of his tree, spread out in a sunbathing pose. Optimus smiled as he started trying to visually find Valour. At first, he could see nothing but a tell tale rustling of leaves soon clued him to Valour's position. He chuckled as his son suddenly came into view, bright blue optics fixed on Prowl's relaxed form that was still quite high above him.

He suddenly glanced down and spotted his friend and father and gave them a huge grin. He didn't wave or shout out to them, which would have given the game away. He dug his little fingers into the bark, trying to haul himself up a tricky patch. Someone, he actually managed and beamed down with pride at his best friend and father. But as he looked back up at Prowl, to his horror and confusion, the cyber ninja was gone.

"Where...?" he began to say but was suddenly grabbed from behind and tossed up in the air.

"Eee," he squealed as Prowl laughed, catching the little bot in his arms, bridal style.

"Better luck next time, Valour," he chuckled as Valour pouted.

"No fair," Valour muttered, crossing his arms.

"You're getting better, one day you'll do it," Prowl assured him before slinging the little Autobot over his shoulder and jumping from the branch. Valour squealed, this time in delight as Prowl neatly landed on the ground.

"I'm going to get you one day," Valour promised as he was set back down on his feet.

"I'm sure you will," Prowl said indulgently before giving Optimus a nod. "I'll see you later Optimus, I may check out these dinosaurs."

"I'll be happy to see you," Optimus replied with a smile as Valour started jumping up to grab his hand and tug it.

"Daddy, come on," Valour said with the slight whine of an impatient child.

"I'm coming Valour," Optimus said patiently. "Let me say goodbye to Prowl, it's not polite to rush off."

This just made his little son pout and sigh, but he stopped trying to tug his father into action. Optimus patted his head, knowing that Valour was just excited but wanting to teach him patience. It might take a while as Valour was still a child but Optimus was confident that his son would grow into a fine Mech. They just needed to be consistent with their lessons and the little Sparkling would learn them.

"Okay, now we'll go," Optimus declared once he'd said a proper goodbye to Prowl and he bent down to scoop both children into his arms and walked to the road that led to the connecting tunnel to the mainland.

The kids cheered and bounced in Optimus's arms until he made it and let them down so he could transform. It was rather handy that Valour was small enough that he could easily sit with Sari inside his vehicle form. Optimus always felt a bit better knowing both of them where safely strapped in and he didn't have to worry about them. Sometimes, he wondered how he coped when the time came for Valour to get his own vehicle form.

But that was far enough in the future that there was no point worrying.

"Can we have some music, daddy?" Valour asked as Optimus started his engine and began the journey.

"Sure son," Optimus replied, feeling such a strange sense of pride in that one word 'son'.

He switched on his radio, found a decent channel and soon they were off. Optimus hadn't seen these robotic dinosaurs but was sure they would be interesting to look and that nothing would go wrong.

Several hours later

"Sari," Optimus stated sternly to the sheepish little girl. "I believe we need a new rule and can you think what it might be?"

"Not to use my key without permission," she answered in a very small voice.

"That's right," Ratchet cut in sternly, arms folded as he ignored the sounds of Prowl trying to keep the new Dinobots calm. "And you especially do not use it on random robots that could suddenly develop minds of their own."

"I'm sorry, I was just trying to fix them," she mumbled, looking at her feet.

"We know you wanted to help but that is a powerful device you have," Optimus explained patiently, trying not to let his temper run away from him. "You cannot use it for every little thing you find broken because there will be consequences. Those dinosaurs suddenly found themselves with self awareness in adult bodies and they lashed out as a result."

Sari scuffed the ground, biting her lip as Optimus continued.

"People could have been hurt, it's only thanks to Prowl and Ratchet that we were able to bring them under control. Sari, if we can't trust you with that key, we're going to have to take it away."

"No!" she cried, clutching the precious key to her chest. "The AllSpark chose me, it wanted me to have the key, you can't take it away."

"I'm not taking it away...yet," Optimus explained softly. "But I have to know you will use it responsibly and only when you need to. Can you understand why you need to be responsible with it?"

"Because...because the AllSpark...and you trust me to use it properly," Sari said after a moment's though and Optimus nodded.

"That's right, if we didn't trust you, we wouldn't allow you to keep it in the first place," he said as Ratchet added.

"Sari, you and Valour may think we're just grumpy, old and boring adults who want to suck the fun out of everything. But we are responsible for ensuring that our presence on this planet does not endanger anyone or anything. You know this isn't our home planet, we love this place but in the end, we're just guests. And as such, we have to act a certain way, out of respect for our hosts."

"I know, I'm sorry," she said miserably, still not able to look up at them. "I won't use it again unless you tell me its okay...or if one of you is badly injured."

She added this last point a little defiantly and they knew they couldn't really argue it with her. Apart from the Professor, she was their best link to the human world. Despite living there for so long, much longer than Sari had been online, she still understood it a lot better than they did. Well, with the exception of Valour, he had absorbed the culture very easily.

"Alright Sari, we accept that," Optimus said softly. "Just as long as you understand the consequences."

"I do," she said earnestly and Valour also nodded, he'd been standing near his friend.

"Now, about punishment...?" began Ratchet as Sari groaned and Valour started to protest.

"Hold up, hold up," the medic said irritably. "We're not going to ground you or anything but we do think you should be involved in helping these...Dinobots settle in here. That way, you can fully realise what your actions have caused and what they could have caused."

Sari pouted but their stern faces told her this wasn't negotiable. So she simply sighed and said.

"Okay, okay, I'll help Prowl with them."

"Thank goodness," Bumblebee cut in. "He'd have probably roped me into helping him otherwise."

"What makes you think you're not helping?" Ratchet asked with a rather evil smile.

"What!" yelped Bumblebee as the kids howled with laughter.

"Me Grimlock no want to do that?"

Optimus grimaced as he glanced over at the latest editions to their...team. Combining powerful robots with prehistoric reptiles was not the best combination. Luckily, they appeared to trust Prowl, a lot more than they trusted him anyway. He wasn't sure what he had done to offend them except they kept glaring at him.

"Grimlock, I'm afraid that's how it works," Prowl said patiently.

The tyrannosaurus growled very deeply before suddenly and completely unexpectedly...transforming. This shocked even the other two Dinobots who gaped openly at their leader. Grimlock looked exceedingly smug, folding his arms and although his face was masked, still managed to shoot the other Autobots a sneer.

"That," Ratchet stated dryly as Sari and Valour gawked. "Would be what we would call a consequence."

Author's note. How will Blackarachnia's quest go? How will she react if she actually finds them? Find out next time, until next time.