Disclaimer: Don't own TF: Prime, just a love for big trucks.

Tai Prime, Creepy-Pasta, youllbeinmyheart1997, and Blueeyes713...thank you for your faves and follows! What do you all think?

Chapter Four

The News

xxx

Optimus blearily came online, laid out on one of the Rescue Bots berths, Heatwave's by the looks of it with the workout gear stacked military neat on the far wall. The other mechs probably moved him when he passed out...

Prime sat up slowly, internal diagnostics checking on the sparkling and finding it safe and healthy, his own systems on the other hand were suffering, low on fuel and aching. Powering the time machine multiple times had cost him.

Ratchet was going to blow a gasket.

He stood a bit shakily, bracing himself on the wall before walking out towards the main area, finding Ratchet "tearing" the Rescue Bots a "new one" as Miko had so put it before when the medic went ballistic.

"...And to top it off! You Chase have yet to give me the access codes!"

"That is not necessary, Optimus Prime gave Heatwave and I strict orders to not indulge the access codes unless upon his termination."

"Termination?! That's beside the point! I'd say Prime falling into stasis like that counts as a good enough reason...not counting the sparkling and its condition compacting onto Prime's systems-"

"Wait...sparkling?"

Ratchet froze on the screen for a moment, then slipped into rapid swearing in cybertronian, coming up with a rather impressive streak as Optimus stepped closer, optics narrowed at the medic.

"Enough Ratchet."

"Prime! You better get your aft back here within the next astrosec-"

"I said enough!"

The CMO glared but shut up, arms crossing over his chest plates as Optimus shifted and raced a servo over his own chest plates, "The ground bridge technology on this end has been damaged, repairs are being done but they will take time. I will not be returning to base until they are complete. I just sent you a data burst on recent event."

"*sigh* Understood Optimus...just...make sure you get plenty of rest, you shouldn't have been traveling through our ground bridge let alone inferior Earth temporal warps, please take your condition seriously into account of your actions."

Optimus nodded in reply, shifting his weight to lessen the strain on his aching cables, not going unnoticed by Ratchet who sent a medical data burst on normal carrying symptoms, aches were normal...hunger was not supposed to be.

Ratchet shook his head, muttering under his breath before abruptly shutting down the comm link, the screen snapping to black with a soft pop.

The silence only lasted a moment before the Rescue Bots turned on Prime and Bumblebee, the rapid questioning making Prime's processor hurt, a servo going to his fore helm in the universal sign of a migraine beginning to form.

Blades noticed his pain, slipping from between his team members to lightly brush against Optimus, leading him deeper into the bunker to the parked shuttle, opening the locked cabinets and pulling out two cubes of medical energon, adding a flavor burst into each to get rid of the awful taste.

"Thought these might help, always work for me when Dani sends my circuits spinning and I can barely see straight when on the ground."

Prime nodded in thanks, sitting on the floor and leaning against the wall, not trusting his weight in one of the chairs. He sipped one of the cubes slowly, closing his optics and pausing as his tans rolled a little at the sudden intake of fuel before his systems settled. Blades gave him a smile before setting the second cube next to the Prime, leaving to allow him privacy.

Optimus welcomed it, his processor ache had faded to a dull throb, but his frame still hurt. While the sparkling was receiving its needed fuel, it had developed to the stage where its own systems began to pull protoform matter and coding from its carrier. Meaning Optimus felt extremely drained and downright achy.

The mech bent his legs, resting his elbows on them, one servo holding the half empty the cube, the other holding the Prime's bowed helm with a heavy sigh.

xxx

xx

xxx

Blades didn't mind being a translator, while it slowed their conversation down, Bumblebee had the answers they needed.

"So let me get this straight, Optimus Prime had a one night fra-"

"Heatwave! Language! Cody's still here!" Chase snapped.

The fire truck rolled his optics irritably, "Had a one night 'meeting' with a Decepticon, came back sparked, got almost blown to bits when the 'cons blew the Omega Base sky high, was revived by the Forge thing...and is now sparked with a half 'con bitlet yet still on active duty?"

Bumblebee sighed noisily, earning a soft chuckle from Cody, "Basically...yeah...that pretty much sums it up, but techincally Ratchet had removed Prime from active status, Prime just didn't listen when Chief Burns contacted us for help. Optimus isn't one to stand back when others are in need."

"So?! He's carrying for Primus' sake! How could he let that happen in the middle of a fraggin' war?!"

"Heatwave!"

This time Boulder just hauled out and slugged the fire truck, making him stumble forward sharply.

Kade sighed loudly as the Bots began arguing, Bumblebee mimicking him and shrugging in defeat for keeping things calm. The young firefighter had gotten enough information to put the pieces together. He turned and grabbed Cody's shoulder, tugging him towards the lift, once Heatwave started swearing, he didn't stop for awhile.

Graham met the oldest Burns kid's gaze, nodding in understanding to stay in the Bunker with their dad and sister as damage control.

"Kade! Where are we going? What's going on?"

Kade waited until they were in the lift to answer, "Did you understand anything the Bots were saying?"

"umm...'frag' is a bad word to them?"

"Well yeah, according to Chase its the same as the F-bomb for humans."

"Oh, that explains a lot."

"Catch anything else?"

"Something's wrong with Optimus Prime?"

Kade smirked, "Not quite, he's carrying...I guess that's the Bot's term for pregnant, sparkling is another name for baby."

"But isn't Optimus a guy?"

"Well yeah, but apparently things work a bit differently for Bots. Don't ask me about it, 'cause one I don't know a whole lot, and two...well if you really want to know ask dad, he can tell you all about that kind of stuff."

Cody nodded, staying silent as the lift stopped and let them out, the two heading to the kitchen to fix supper.

"So...that means Optimus is going to have a baby...isn't that a good thing?"

Kade sighed as he turned on the oven, pulling out a box of easy-fix pasta to start making, "Yeah...Boulder told Graham that sparklings were pretty rare before the war even started, then after it got going...even rarer for one to be 'born' or whatever...a War isn't a place for a baby Cody, heck some crazy lives aren't meant for them either."

"But...Boulder also said there's so few Autobots left, and that the Rescue Bots are the last as well...wouldn't a new one be something happy?"

The oldest brother sighed heavily, leaning on the counter and not facing his youngest sibling, "It's just...not that simple Cody, it's hard to explain..."

"Oh...ok..."

Kade glanced over his shoulder as Cody set the table, mind racing as he stirred the pasta a little in the pot he'd set to simmer. To be young again...when things seemed so black and white to a kid...and in reality it was such a mess of shades of gray.

Life sure was more than meets the eye...a huge example eight stories below Kade's feet. Six, living, breathing, thinking mechanical lifeforms...one carrying an unborn lifeform...already caught up in a billions year long war before it could even truly begin to live...

Sometimes Fate just sucked.

Review please?