Optimus' position…

Megatron's sword punctured Optimus abdominal armor. Optimus cried slightly in pain and Megatron punched him into the rock wall. He groaned and energon fled from the wound.

"I said I wouldn't hurt them. I said nothing about you." Optimus tried to get up but Megatron pushed him back into the rock.

"The next time I see one or both of those twins I will take them from you Optimus."

"You'll never take Nova and Luna away from the Autobots and I!" Optimus growled.

Megatron delivered a final blow to Optimus' abdomen and more energon poured from the wound and then he transformed and flew off.

::R-Ratchet…I require medical assistance.::

A swirling green portal opened and Ratchet, Bulkhead, and Arcee came through.

"Optimus!" Ratchet knelt down.

"R-Ratchet. Mega—"

"Save your strength Optimus. You're losing a lot of energon. Can you stand up?"

"I can try." Ratchet and Bulkhead helped Optimus to his pedes and they led him through the ground bridge

Nova and Luna were talking to Redcord and Shadow until the other step through the portal. They saw Optimus with energon flowing from the wound in his abdomen. Luna started crying and she jumped down.

"Luna stay there!" Ratchet said. Nova held her sister as Optimus was placed on a berth. Ratchet grabbed his patch kit and started trying to mend the wound.

"R-Ratchet."

"Optimus save your strength. Bulkhead get Ironelle!" Bulkhead ran out of the room. Arcee knelt in front Luna.

"Luna it will be all right. Ratchet's going to fix it." Arcee cradled her face gently.

"But…but mommy was leaking! Lots of energon!" Ironelle walked in with a cube of energon and she looked at Luna.

"He'll be ok. I promise."

"L-Luna." She looked at Optimus.

"Optimus you need to be still," said Ironelle. She hooked the energon line into Optimus arm. Ratchet made the wound stop bleeding but Optimus had fell into stasis.

"Mommy?" Luna started crying again.

"Optimus' vitals are stabilizing. There going back to normal. He'll be all right Luna. He's not offline."

Luna ran beside the berth Optimus was on and she held his servo.

"Please get better mommy."

"He'll get better Luna. I promise. It's just a sword wound," Ratchet patted her back.

Wheeljack sat in his and Bulkhead's quarters with Shadow. She was tracing the seams and edges of his armor and finding them on her own armor. Wheeljack watched with a smiled plastered on his face. She giggled a as Wheeljack moved his finger up and down her small back wings.

"Mama! That tickles." That made Wheeljack smile.

"Really?"

"Yes!" Shadow slapped at his much larger servo. He pulled his servo back.

"Ok I'll stop." Shadow smiled at Wheeljack and then laid on his chest. Wheeljack set his servo over her back.

"Mama why don't I have a carrier? How was I created?" Wheeljack said nothing as his optics went slightly wide.

"Um…Shadow…why were you asking?"

"Because Ellie is Red's carrier. Who's mine?" Wheeljack took his servo off Shadow's back.

"I'll tell you later Shadow. Go find Ellie!"

"Ok." Shadow slipped off Wheeljack's chest and ran out of the room.

::Bulkhead! Get in here! We need to talk!::

Bulkhead arrived in their quarters a few seconds later.

"What is it Jackie? What's wrong?"

"Shadow asked the question!" Bulkhead's optics widened slightly.

"She did?"

"Yes! I told you that she was going to ask eventually!"

"I know. How are we going to tell her that you're her carrier?"

"I don't know Bulk. I wasn't ready for her to ask this soon!" Bulkhead held Wheeljack's arms.

"Take it easy Jackie. Don't stress yourself out." Wheeljack looked away. Bulkhead hugged Wheeljack and held him. Wheeljack rested his helm on Bulkhead's chest.

"Bulkhead this is hard. Why does Primus make everything so fraggin' hard?"

"I don't know Jackie. He just does." Bulkhead stroked Wheeljack's shoulders.

Wheeljack tossed in his berth.

Wheeljack's Dream

"No way tiny!"

"Wheeljack! You'd better let me come along! What about you and Bulk's sparkling!? You're going to get revenge and you're going to kill your sparkling!" Ironelle yelled.

Miko laid against Ironelle's chest and struggled to keep awake. She yawned.

"Maybe you ought to power down for a while," said Wheeljack.

"Yeah, you sound tired Miko," said Ironelle.

"I'm good." She replied.

"He's going to make it. Right?"

"No question kid. Bulkhead's the toughest wrecking ball I've ever known and Ratchet's a great doc. The best."

"He's...sort of been in tougher places than this. 'Member Jackie?" asked Ironelle.

"Yeah. Sea of Rust. Dark days lost two almost three wreckers in our unit."

"Yeah. There's no way Bulk would miss all the stuff we had planned. Car sledding, worldwide smash-a-thon, we been making a list." Wheeljack held back the tears growing in his optics as he spoke again.

"Like I said Bulkhead's too stubborn not to pull through. I know it, Ellie knows it and I bet you do too."

Wheeljack looked at the two and saw Miko was asleep and Ironelle with her optics closed.

Hardshell picked him up again and threw him to the ground. Inside the Jackhammer Miko yelled. "Wheeljack! Ironelle!" The Insecticon picked up the wrecker by his head and 3 times in the abdomen. Then threw him up and punched him. Wheeljack felt the bond between him and the sparkling fade a bit, as he landed. He weakly turned to his back. Hardshell came towards him pounding his fists together. Wheeljack tried to sit up but couldn't. "Go kid. Get out of here. We're done for." He wheezed with tears falling from his optics.

Wheeljack and Ironelle laid on the ground and Hardshell towering above them.

"Your sparks will now belong to Megatron." Wheeljack grabbed Ironelle's servo and held it. Ironelle sobbed a little before falling unconscious. The Jackhammer flew up and shot missiles. They blew up Hardshell. Wheeljack stood up pulled off a piece of Hardshell's armor retracted his facemask and fell back down.

"Nice work kid."

"Wheeljack you know it's dangerous to have a sparkling right now," said Optimus.

"Wheeljack when were you planning to tell us that you were with spark?" asked Ratchet with crossed arms.

Wheeljack let tears fall from his face as he stroked his finger over Shadow's palm. She yawned and wrapped her fingers around Wheeljack's bigger one.

"Hey little one." He picked her up and held her to his chassis. She clicked at him.

"Yeah my little Shadow," he cooed quietly.

"Let me scan Shadow Wheeljack." He moved towards Ratchet and he scanned the tiny bot.

"Scrap!" Ironelle rushed over and looked at Ratchet.

"What's wrong doc?"

"Her spark is wanting to give out. Put her in the bassinet.

"I'm going to go get the spark support machine!" Ratchet ran out of the room and came back in a matter of seconds. He hooked up a few wires to Shadow's arms and he set a machine on her chest and secured it. Ratchet scanned her once again. Her sparkbeat was going back to normal.

"Thank Primus. If I hadn't have scanned her should've gone offline."

"Why did her spark try to give out?"

"Premature and late sparklings can sometimes be in danger of having their sparks go out. Their carriers can as well."

"She's a beautiful femme Jackie...I promise I'll take good care of her until Bulkhead wakes up."

"Thanks Tiny. I owe you." Ironelle hugged him.

"Sayonara Jackie.

"Sayonara Ellie." Wheeljack transformed and sped out of base.

Wheeljack jerked out of recharge. Bulkhead looked at him.

"Jackie are you ok?"

"Yeah. I'm fine Bulk. Just a dream."

"Are you sure? You have tears on your face." Bulkhead got off his berth and walked to Wheeljack's. Bulkhead wiped the tears.

"I'm fine. I promise."