Author's note. Been a little while since I updated but I hope everyone likes this chapter.

Suggestions are welcome.

Enjoy and please review.

Blackarachnia sighed as she sat in her ship, contemplating the task ahead of her. She had just received all the information needed for searching for the Decepticon prince and his carrier, as well as fresh supplies. There was also a detailed list of planets, moons and asteroids which had already been thoroughly searched so she could cross those off her list of potential planets.

Meeting with Megatron hadn't been easy; she had never seen him in such a bad mood, not even with all Starscream's betrayals. Speaking of Starscream's betrayals, he was the reason that Megatron had a new form. The Seeker had placed a bomb on his leader's back which had gone off and almost destroyed the Decepticon Warlord. But of course, Megatron had survived and his body had been reformatted into its present, non spiky form. She wasn't why Megatron had chosen a new body but possibly he wanted to be able to interact with his son a lot more.

His last form certainly hadn't been built for dealing with Sparklings, only for fighting. This new form allowed him to fight but he didn't have to hold back so much when it came to close interaction with others, including Sparklings. She briefly wondered what Optimus would think of Megatron's new form, would it have made a difference if Megatron had looked liked that when the Prime was first captured? Megatron's old form certainly hadn't come across as 'mate' material and especially not as a parent. The Decepticon was very charming when he wanted to be and combined with his new good looks, could very easily seduce a lot more bots.

She shook herself, what did it matter if Optimus found Megatron more attractive or not. Something told her that unless Megatron developed a new personality, Optimus would not want to be with him. She remembered that Optimus's taste had leaned more heavily towards Femmes but he'd admitted he wouldn't rule a Mech out. Chances were, Megatron had probably put him off Mechs for life...

"Get a grip," she hissed to herself, she was being ridiculous.

Focusing on the matter at hand, she started thinking of where Optimus could have gone. Obviously, he would not only need a good hiding place, it would need to be a safe one. How many Cons had actually taken into account that having a Sparkling meant Optimus would be looking for very specific locations? For instance, while Arachnid Seven would be good in the sense no one would suspect Optimus of going to it; the planet just wasn't a safe place for anyone.

In order to find Optimus, his son and possibly those other Autobots, she had to think as they would. Where would she go, if she had a son and needed to hide from a very dangerous Warlord? Firstly it had to be safe, second it needed to be well hidden and thirdly...she had to have access to vital supplies. These Autobots, unless they had disguised themselves, could not rely on trade and supply ships; they would need to settle in a place where they could acquire all that they needed. So, if they had decided on an organic planet, it would likely need to have some sort of civilisation.

With this reasoning in mind, she felt like she could narrow down some of her choices although many would still need to be investigated. Many planets were simply known by the most basic details, like location and whether they were organic or not. So many had never been properly explored, it was unknown whether they had intelligent life or if the planet was dangerous. She would to do the exploring; if nothing else she would be collecting new data for the charts.

"Let's see, where shall I go first?" she mused as she crossed out a few planet options.

She paused as she considered a rather remote system which was just off the usual routes. It had eight planets, one of which was a blue one. There was a note which stated there was a high probability of life, likely organic on this planet. There was also a red planet which had great potential to be colonised although no one had shown interest yet. The Techo-organic considered it thoughtfully; it was certainly a possible location.

Blackarachnia nodded, she would visit this system, it was a good place to start. She just needed some other options and if this system was a dead end, she'd move on. Somehow, she would find Optimus and...well, she had no idea what she'd do. But find him she would, and succeed where all the other Decepticons had failed.

"See you soon, Optimus," she murmured before activating her engines and disengaging from the main Decepticons warship.

Valour's POV

Valour squirmed and giggled as Prowl helped him with his Halloween costume, he was on fire to go trick a treating. This year, he was going as a Cyber Ninja and that meant he was being painted sliver with some cool blue highlights. Of course, Prowl had told him his colouring didn't really matter but Valour still wanted to look like the typical Cyber Ninja, complete with some rubber shurikens.

Valour had already taken great delight in throwing those shurikens all over the place, pretending to bring down all sorts of villains. Prowl had warned him not to go tossing them around when they went out but obviously Valour already knew that. Ever since he was little, he had known he had to be gentle with organic things, especially humans and animals. And since his best friend Sari had come along, he'd learned to be extra careful.

He grinned; he could still remember when she was a tiny little baby, so delicate that only he was capable of holding her. There had been heavy supervision with this but he'd never dropped or hurt her when she was a baby. As she'd grown, he'd looked after her, watching her learn to crawl, then walk and finally run. It was true that while playing together, she'd earned bumps, bruises and some scraps but never anything serious and she'd have very likely gotten them anyway. Actually, before she'd come along, he'd been begging his daddy for a pet because he was lonely for playmates but Sari easily filled that void.

That didn't stop either of the two friends from wanting a pet now but they still needed to wear down the Prime just a bit more. It was probably best to wait until those Dinobots were more settled; they still weren't fully getting on with everyone. They didn't mind him and Sari too much, mostly because they believed Sparklings to be beneath them but for some reason, they didn't like his daddy.

He really didn't understand why this was; his daddy was the best bot in the whole wide world. But he was sure that his daddy would win them over, he couldn't like his daddy? Speaking of daddy, he was always sad around Halloween but Valour wasn't sure why. They always had a party after going trick a treating and nearly everyone got dressed up but his daddy was always sad. Valour had asked why but all his daddy would say was that he'd once had a really bad Halloween.

He'd need to ask his daddy about it, he didn't want him to be sad.

"Prowl," he chirped as Prowl finished painting a sliver blue strip on his arm. "What are you going as?"

"Your chaperone," Prowl replied dryly, smiling as Valour pouted.

"Prowl," Valour whined. "That's not a proper costume, you have to dress up."

"Well, I can go as a Cyber Ninja, like you," Prowl suggested slyly as Valour now squealed with indignation.

"You're already a Cyber Ninja, that's cheating," Valour protested accusingly as the older Mech laughed.

"You know I'm not into that sort of things. Besides, if something happens then I would only be impaired by any costume I was wearing," Prowl pointed out. "Just think of all the sweets and goodies you're going to get tonight."

Ever since the Professor's business had kicked off, he'd set up a little shop which specialised in catering to the resident, sentinel robots. Not only did it supply different parts and oil but it also produced Energon treats and snacks. This meant that on certain holidays like Halloween and Christmas, humans could buy these treats so they give them to the happy little robot Sparkling that everyone loved.

Optimus was careful about how contact Valour had with humans, in case of unsavoury characters but it was very true that Valour was a favourite of all the human children. Every two weeks, Valour and Sari would have a play day in a local park or sport centre with the children in the area. One of the Autobots was always there to supervise and since Valour was so good at being careful, they had been a great success. It made the Autobots seem less distant and made everyone feel less bothered about them being there. Valour and Sari had made many friends who they would sometimes meet up on other occasions to see new films or go bowling, fun stuff like that.

It was funny but because Valour grew up so much slower than his human playmates, some of them had become adults since he'd first met them. But he was still friends with quite a few of them, some of them even had kids of their own and it was their houses he was especially welcome on Halloween. It was odd to think that Sari would one day overtake him in relation to age; she would be an adult long before him. But that was ages away, he didn't bother to worry about stuff like that, worrying was for adults.

"I'm going to bet the biggest pile this year," Valour boasted proudly. "Even bigger than Bumblebee's or Bulkhead's."

"I'm sure you will," Prowl said smoothly, those two always went with Valour and Sari. Valour wasn't worried about completing with Sari for goodies as she ate human sweets. It was a bit of a shame that she and Valour couldn't eat the same things but neither of them really minded. At the very least, it meant that they never argued over goodies.

"Don't worry, I'll bring you some Rust Sticks," Valour assured the Cyber Ninja who smiled again.

The Prime's son maintained that everyone had a favourite treat and he had made sure everyone offered at least one favourite. Bulkhead loved oil truffles, Bumblebee adored Copper Candy, Ratchet liked High Grade mini cubes and his daddy enjoyed E-Treats which happened to be Valour's favourite too. And with a lot of cajoling, Prowl had admitted that he didn't dislike Rust Sticks so Valour always made a point of getting him some.

"Thank you Valour," Prowl said as he finally finished. "There, you look every inch a Cyber Ninja."

The Mech still couldn't believe how much he'd been able to relax around the team, especially as he hadn't been happy to join them in the first place. Frankly, he'd been almost hostile to them all until Optimus had been taken. Then, he needed to help keep the team together and then Optimus and his son had been found...things had just developed from there. He now genuinely considered them all friends and had become very fond of Valour and Sari.

Since his Master Yoketron had died, he'd had trouble finding inner peace but his...family had done a lot to help him find it. Or maybe it was the beautiful nature of this planet, either way; he was a very different bot from the one that had stumbled across the space bridge technicians all those stellar cycles ago. He liked to think that his Mater would be very proud of him for what had been achieved here.

"Cool," Valour chirped as he hopped down from the stool he'd been standing on. "I'm going to find daddy and then we're going out."

"Alright," Prowl chuckled even though he knew the kids and Bumblebee would be bouncing by the end of the evening.

Giggling, Valour ran off to find his daddy and found him collapsed on his berth in his room.

"Daddy, look at me?" Valour shrieked, leaping onto the berth and jumping up and down to get his daddy's attention.

"Hmm, you look great," Optimus said as he raised his head slightly to smile at his son. "You're best costume yet."

"I know," Valour said proudly before collapsing on his daddy's chest. As a hand gently stroked his back, Valour asked curiously.

"Daddy, why are you always so sad on Halloween?"

He heard a sigh as Optimus said.

"Before coming to Earth, I didn't have very good memories of this day. Something bad happened a long time ago."

"What happened?" Valour asked softly, cuddling into his daddy's chest.

There was a pause and then Optimus said quietly.

"A dear friend of mine died this day and...I still miss her a lot."

"What was her name?" Valour asked, feeling very sorry for his poor daddy.

"Elita One, she was training to become a Prime with me," Optimus explained. "We were exploring a strange planet and there was an accident. I...I feel like I could have saved."

"I'm sure you did all you could, daddy," Valour quickly assured him before adding. "Was she your best friend, like Sari?"

"Something like that, yeah," Optimus replied. "I think of her the most on this day and it makes your daddy sad."

Valour cuddled further into his daddy, purring comfortingly.

"I'm sorry daddy," he said kindly. "I wish I could make you feel better."

Optimus chuckled.

"Valour, you make me feel better all the time. You're the one who's brought light to my life when it was pretty dark. Don't worry about your silly daddy, he'll get over it."

"Daddy," Valour purred as he was hugged.

They lay there in silence for a few minutes before Valour said.

"Did you want to marry her, daddy? Were you in love?"

Optimus made a choking sound of shock before saying.

"I loved her as a friend, I don't know what would have happened if things had been different."

"I could have gotten some brothers and sisters," Valour said after a moment's consideration. "Do you think you'll ever get married, daddy?"

"Who knows," Optimus chuckled. "But I'm afraid the only other bots here are your uncles and I don't fancy marrying them."

"Of course not daddy, that would be weird," Valour exclaimed, making Optimus chuckle again. "But what if someone new came, would you go out with them?"

"If they liked me and I liked them, sure," Optimus said absentmindedly. "But you know what I said Valour, no talking to strange bots."

"I know," Valour replied, with a roll of his optics. "If I see any strange bots, I shouldn't talk to them and I need to come tell you."

"That's right," Optimus said seriously. "Don't forget that Valour."

"I won't," Valour promised as his daddy smiled back at him.

A few hours later

Valour stared in horrified fascination as he was hauled up a building like a fish on a line. While Bulkhead and Bumblebee had been arguing about something and Sari had gone on ahead slightly, something long and sticky had splattered him and drawn him up. He couldn't yelp out because some of the sticky stuff had gone over his face but he could still see. He wasn't really scared, he figured his daddy might have organised this to make Halloween scarier. Valour was the kind of little Sparkling who liked to see what was happening before he decided to get scared.

So he only wriggled a little as he rose higher and higher until he could see that the figure that had him hooked. It wasn't a human, its size and shape suggested that it was a robot like him but he knew it could easily be a large drone controlled by a human. All he could really make out were some glowing red optics although it almost looked like there were four of them.

"Well, what do I have here?" a voice purred as he finally reached his kidnapper and drawn into their arms.

"Mmm?" he muffledly exclaimed, extremely surprised to see it was a lady bot holding him, he'd never ever seen one before.

"Oops, let me get that for you," she chuckled, a sharp looking finger peeling away the sticky stuff from his mouth.

"Who are you?" he blurted out, staring wide eyed at the lady bot who was wearing a very impressive Halloween costume.

"A friend," she answered smoothly. "I saw those unsavoury looking characters had you so I decided to rescue you. You can never be too careful, after all."

This made Valour squeal with laughter.

"They aren't unsavy...unsorvy...they're not bad," he exclaimed. "They're my uncles and we're going trick a treating with Sari, I'm a Cyber Ninja," he added proudly.

"Trick a treating? What's that?" the spider lady asked as she cradled him in his arms.

"It's a human holiday where you dress up and go round people's houses and get sweets," Valour explained patiently before frowning. "Aren't you dressed up for it?"

"Ah...not exactly," she said softly before asking. "Why don't you tell me your name, my little Cyber Ninja?"

Valour wrinkled his nose slightly.

"I'm not really meant to talk to strange bots," he told her. "My daddy said I had to come tell him if I saw one."

"But can you talk to organics?" she questioned and when he nodded, said.

"Well, I'm actually a Techno-Organic, that's half bot, half organic. Did your daddy say you couldn't talk to Techno-Organics?"

"No...," Valour said slowly, wracking his processor to see if his daddy had. "He didn't."

"Well, there you go," she said with a smile, revealing pointed fangs like the ones Bumblebee had. Except Valour had a sneaking suspicion those were her teeth.

"Tell you what," she continued. "I'll tell you my name and you...can tell me your daddy's name. That way, you're not breaking your promise."

"Okay," Valour chirped, his daddy certainly never said he couldn't tell anyone his name. "What's your name?"

"Blackarachnia," she purred softly.

"That's a big name," he said in awe as she chuckled.

"I know...now, you're daddy's name...?"

"Optimus Prime," Valour answered promptly, giving her a slightly apprising look before suddenly asking. "Are you married?"

"Married?" she repeated in confusion, even as she inwardly smiled at Valour's former comment.

"You know...do you have a...have a...mate," Valour finished as he finally remembered the bot word for being married.

"I...," she stammered, actually caught off balance by this. "No, little one, I'm not."

"Oh," he said brightly. "So you can go out with my daddy then?"

"Go out...?" she repeated, now extremely taken aback.

"Yeah," Valour said excitedly. "See, my daddy doesn't have anyone, just me, Sari and my uncles...oh and the Professor. He wanted to marry this lady bot called Elita One but she died so he's really lonely. I think you and him should go out, then you can get married and give me some little brothers and sisters."

"You...seem to have given this a great deal of thought," she said slowly, her mind reeling. Had Optimus really cared about her that much?

He grinned up at her as he said.

"I want daddy to be happy...and I want some brothers and sisters. I want at least two of each, what do you think?"

"I...ah...," she stammered, looking for something sensible to say but was distracted by the sound of yelling from below.

"Valour!"

"Where are ya, little buddy?"

"Oh, they're looking for me," Valour explained, still a little tied up by the sticky stuff. "Can you put me down?"

"Tell you what," Blackarachnia said silkily. "Why don't I take you to see your...daddy?"

"Okay," Valour said, he didn't see any problem with that.

The spider lady smiled, she was finally going to see Optimus Prime after all these stellar cycles. And what a reunion it would be.

Author's note. What is Optimus's reaction to Blackarachnia? Will she give away the Autobots location? Find out next time, until then.