Optimus rose first, packed up his thin mattress and blanket, and he started exploring. Alone. Well, not completely alone. Divine spoke to him occasionally, tracking his spark signature with its main computers. "Divine?"
"I am alert."
"Are you a female?"
"I do not understand."
Optimus chuckled as he walked, looking into some quarters. He found blankets and pillows to use. "Did your captain refer to you as 'she' or 'he'?"
Sometimes, a ship was specially made for a captain, and the captain could customize it, make it sentient, half-sentient, or not at all. Divine Light was sentient, and it might have chosen its preferred gender.
"Female. I am a she. Captain let me choose. I liked him very much." Divine's voice took on a more feminine tone, and Optimus decided he liked it. He smiled and lifted his pack, setting it on his shoulders. He looked down the hall and saw a figure standing at the end.
Ooooptimus... It waved, and Optimus chuckled.
"You can't scare me, Jazz! I do not scare easy!"
Ooooptimus, come here... The figure turned and walked left. Optimus quickened his pace, rounded the corner and smacked into a wall. "What...?"
"Dead end," Divine said softly.
"But I saw Jazz walk..." Optimus hesitated. "Divine? Where is Jazz?"
"Scanning ship. Jazz is in the second class pool with Arcee, Bumblebee, Nemesis, Prowl..."
Optimus shook his helm, looked right, and froze. A door was creaking shut, and Optimus read the number to Divine.
"Room three-oh-one belonged to: Ionus Prime, Firebomb, and their daughter."
He walked to the door. It clicked shut, and he reached for the handle. "What happened to them? Did they make it out?"
"Searching list of casualties. Ionus Prime: Not listed. Firebomb: Not listed. Lief: Listed. Death by trampling."
Optimus twisted the handle and stepped into the room.
ooo
Jazz drank his Energon out of his thermos. He shared it with Prowl, and he looked around. "Where's Prime?"
Nemesis flipped through an old datapad he found, smiling down at the pictures. "Oh...he's probably wandering around. He'll show up."
"Divine?" Arcee looked up at the arrays of cameras and speakers above them.
"Yes?"
"Where is Optimus?"
"Scanning ship. Optimus is in the living quarters of Ionus Prime."
Nemesis tilted his servos palms-up in a what did I say? shrug, then went back to flipping through pictures. He chuckled.
Arcee stuck her glossa out at him, sipped her Energon. "What's he doin'?"
"He stands in the middle of the room, his helm tilted back. He regards the ceiling. His optics are pale white. He mumbles. I do not know what he speaks of. I...he has just fallen."
Nemesis was off his aft in moments, charging down the halls and ripping doors off of rooms before he found his brother sitting on the berth and flipping through a magazine.
"Ah, Nemesis. Look at this."
He stared at his brother. "Were you...?"
Optimus blinked blue optics up at him, frowning. "Brother?"
"The ship said that you had collapsed after having what sounded like an episode."
"No, no I have just sat down. Divine?"
"Yes?"
"Did you tell my brother I had fallen?"
"Yes. I observed you. I have footage."
A holographic display shot up and Nemesis saw...his brother walk in, look around, sit down on the berth, and lift the magazine. At that moment, Nemesis came running in and the footage cut.
Optimus raised an optic ridge at Nemesis. "I think Divine is malfunctioning. As you can see, I am well." He got up, grunting when Nemesis touched a digit to his chest. "Nemesis?"
"Show me." Nemesis glared at him. "Show me you are my brother."
"Nemesis..."
"SHOW ME RIGHT NOW!"
Optimus' optics narrowed and he opened his chamber. A half of a spark pulsed in his chamber, and further back, the Matrix hummed in greeting. Nemesis' optics closed and he collapsed into his brother. "I had to be sure... I'm sorry."
One time, during the war, a mech had pretended to be Optimus Prime. It was an Amalgamo spy, and he was one of the best, but he forgot some details, like the fact that Optimus Prime was a split-spark, and so he had half of a spark, and the fact Optimus bore the Matrix, and so the Matrix had to be seen. Nemesis was the one that wasn't fooled, and he still remembers the cold horror he felt when he didn't see his brother's spark or the Matrix in that imposter he had called his brother for days.
"All is well, my dear brother." Optimus kissed between his optics, took his servo, and led him back to the pool.
Jazz got up. "Aye, Prime. You okay?"
"Yes. It appears Divine had a malfunction. Divine?"
"Yes?"
"Scan your systems and report any bugs."
"Scanning now. Scan complete. Last de-frag: Eighty-six million years ago. I take full responsibility for the confusion. Do you accept my apology?"
"We do." Optimus smiled and he looked back at the group of mechs and the femme. "Are we ready to explore?"
ooo
The ship was huge. Optimus paired every bot up: Nemesis with himself, Arcee and Bumblebee, Prowl and Jazz. They had to comm in regularily, and it was Jazz's turn to report. Just as he tapped his comm to report that the quarter halls of second class had nothing to report, the door to room 301 swung open and a tiny form of a Seekerling stepped out into the hall and turned her big, black optics to focus on them. Prowl stiffened beside Jazz and they clung to each other while the Seekerling turned her whole body around.
Her mouth moved, her optic ridges lowered, and her voice came to them as if she was underwater or down a long hall, finally reaching them a few kliks too late. "Daddy?"
Jazz fumbled with his comm, his mouth working to form the words require back-up.
The Seekerling's mouth snapped open, opening more than should have been possible, and the scream deafened the mechs, bringing their servos to their audios and they fell to their knees. When the screaming was over, they opened their optics and blinked at the sobbing sparkling. The sound reached them late, and she lifted her helm.
"I want my daddy..."
Jazz tapped his comm. "Optimus, you gotta hear this." He opened the link, making it public, so that Optimus could hear the soft sobbings of the Seekerling. The others could hear as well, and the excess chatter died down.
"Do you know where my daddy is?"
Prowl knelt down, reached out to her. "Who is your daddy, little one?"
Jazz had to move closer so Optimus and everyone could hear her soft reply. She cried a little louder and she wiped at her optics. "Ionus Prime..."
Prowl cooed gently, patted her helm. His servo went right through her and felt as though he put it in ice water. He shivered. "What's your name, sweetspark?"
She stared at him for a long time, then she cried out. "I-I-I don't remember!" She pressed her face into her palms, and before Prowl could ask anything more of her, she faded away.
Optimus was silent for a long time. "Autobots, meet Jazz and Prowl at their location. Jazz and Prowl, remain where you are. Divine! Lead us to them."
"Right away," chirped the ship.
Jazz and Prowl pressed to each other. They didn't move from their kneeling position, didn't look up from where the Seekerling had been.
So when he came charging down the hall, they didn't expect him.
ooo
"Signal lost. Prowl and Jazz are not found."
Optimus scowled. "Not found? You were just tracking them!" Nemesis was shaking behind him, swinging his light back and forth. He jumped at everything, and the stunt Divine was pulling wasn't helping
"Signal lost. I will scan for their spark signatures. Scan complete. I have located: Four sparks."
He groaned and turned left, the way Divine had pointed him before she lost their signals. "Run a scan for heat."
"Scanning now. Scan complete. I have located: Five hundred and sixty-three heat signatures and counting."
Optimus stopped walking. "What?"
"Scanning now. Scan complete. I have located: Five hundred and seventy-six heat signatures and counting."
"Holy frag!" came Arcee's voice across the comm. "Is everyone else hearing this!?"
"Scanning now. Scan complete. I have located: Six hundred and two heat signatures and counting."
Optimus walked, picking his pace up and up until he was sprinting down the halls. He tripped over Jazz and Prowl, who were laying unconscious on the floor. Jazz groaned. "I found them," he shouted into the comms. "Divine! Stop messing around and show the others the way to me!"
"Very well."
Arcee rounded the corner in front of them, and she knelt. Bumblebee was behind her, and when Optimus turned to check for Nemesis, he stiffened.
His brother was gone.
ooo
Optimus stood over Jazz and Prowl as they came around. Bumblebee and he had carried them down to the second-class pool and they were waiting for Divine to locate Nemesis. She had yet to check back in.
"Ugh...what happened?" Jazz rubbed his helm and frowned. "I feel like I was hit by Astrotrain on drugs."
Prowl laid back down and clutched his helm. "I second that opinon."
Arcee crossed her arms and looked at Optimus. "What is happening, Optimus? Why is this happening?"
The Prime shrugged helplessly and he sighed. He was concerned for his brother, but he knew better than to assume Nemesis was completely helpless and was floundering in the dark against a stray Insectilet litter. He jerked at that thought. What if the heat signatures Divine was picking up were actually Insecticons emerging from stasis?
Prowl mumbled his reply to that. "Possibly, but we would have encountered the hive by now."
"And she would have picked up heart signatures," Jazz sighed. He twitched and groaned, rubbing his helm in a tired way before closing his optics.
Optimus opened his mouth to say something when the signing picked up again.
La, la la, la la la, laaaah, la la la, la liiiii...
"Divine! Scan heat signatures!"
"Scan complete. I have found: One."
A tiny Seekerling stepped into view, her wings fluttering. "Why are you guys in the pool? There's no water, silly."
Optimus smiled gently. He could see the wall through her, but he knew she was real. She would be real for a little bit. "Hello, child. Who are you?"
"I don't know," she said. "Who are you?"
"My name is Optimus Prime."
She scowled. "You can't be Prime! My daddy is Prime! He has the Matrix! So you can't be Prime! Liar!"
The ship shook with her outburst and Optimus struggled to soothe her, but she only bared her denta and screamed like a normal youngling would in a tantrum.
"Easy!" he finally shouted and he sighed, opening his chamber and revealing the Matrix. "See? See, I am Prime."
She stared at the artifact in his chest for a long time before she shook her helm. "No...you can't be Prime...that would mean Daddy is dead..."
"Aren't you dead, lovely?" He moved closer to her, offering a fond smile. "Lovely, are you alive?"
"Scanning now. Scan complete. I have found: Two heat signatures."
Optimus ignored Divine. He knelt in front of the femme, who whimpered.
"He says I am." And she pointed at the hall leading to the dining hall.
In the doorway stood a writhing figure of blackness, jagged white denta revealing as he opened his mouth and roared, charging Optimus just as he had charged Jazz and Prowl, but he balked and shrieked when he saw the Matrix, backing up to a safe distance and snarling at the Prime before running down the hall, disappearing in the shadows. Optimus turned back to the femme, but she was gone.
"Scanning now. Scan complete. I have found: zero heat signatures."
Arcee whimpered at the announcement. "Why aren't we being listed?"
Optimus blinked down at her slowly from the edge of the pool. He could feel it now. The Matrix was going crazy, beeping and whirring. Optimus was being surrounded by the dead. "Because we are still alive."
I kid you not, this is starting to freak me out. I'm practically peeing myself everytime Mom opens her door (it creaks) and I can feel that surge of adrenaline go straight to my toes. XD This is turning into a Rose Red meets the Gray Ghost. XD Haha!