Looking back to the incident, all Autobots and the one Decepticon spy in disguise had to agree on one fact – the Decepticons had it coming, for trying to endanger a youngling in HIS presence. True, they might have been unaware of what they were unleashing, but still, it wasn´t exactly a guarded secret of the Autobot army, so, they should have at least suspected something. And the spy definitely did mention this in his report! Did nobody read them?

Nevertheless, they all pitied the idiots that ended up on the receiving end of the destructively-protective rage. Because, if there was one thing no sane bot with a lick of self-preservation wanted to face, it was that Unicron-incarnation unleashed, since there was next to nothing that could stop him. Pain and death were inevitable, and that´s speaking of the better alternative. And all of this was laughably predictable, for those who knew that particular mech and what was he capable of.

Yet, not even they could predict the events that this particular incident would trigger…

Sari knew she was in deep trouble, as she watched her friends fighting the Decepticons, only for a shadow to fall over her. The little girl didn´t even have time to turn before she was grabbed from behind. Realizing that it was one of Starscream´s clones, she screamed as the hand holding her, lifted her from the ground, which drew the attention of the Autobots.

"Sari!" Optimus screamed and tried to get to her, but was intercepted by Lugnut, who nearly shot his head off in the process.

"Take her and return to the base!" commanded the bomber, which caused Sari to panic.

"No! Let me go!" she yelled, trying to free herself.

Her captor growled and tightened his hold on her in a painful squeeze. "Shut up, brat! I don´t want to hear your whining!"

Sari yelped in the tight hold, the sensation being so strong she feared the Decepticon was going to crush her. Tears rushed into her eyes as she wished somebody would save her, an image of a particular mech coming forth in her head. If only he was there…

"I said shut-ACK!" the clone´s words were cut off in a choked sound and somebody snatched her from his hand, once its grip loosened.

The human girl only had time to see a blue blur, before she was brought to a broad chest and then her saviour was moving again. He was fast. She heard the sound of metal hitting metal and something crashing against a hard surface. Sari didn´t have to be a genius to figure out what happened, but she still peeked out from between the fingers of the hand holding her, to see the seeker clone from before lying motionless on the ground. His throat was cleanly cut through, energon pooling around him, and his armour was quickly turning grey, which told the red-haired girl that he was no longer alive. She knew her saviour killed the clone, even without needing to see the outstretched arm and the hand gripping a big cleaver knife-like sword stained with energon.

The sight of all of that should have scared her since she was just an eight-year-old girl. A small, squishy girl that could be crushed easier than the seeker… but instead, it made her feel safe. Safe and protected. Especially, since she knew who was the mech that saved her.

"Are you alright, kiddo?" Sentinel asked quietly.

"Now yes," Sari replied, giving a grateful hug to the fingers curled around her. She didn't know how he got there and was so fast to save her, but she didn´t care. He was there and that was all that mattered. "Thanks for saving me."

"Don´t thank me yet, kid. We need to get out of there first," he murmured, his blue optics focused on the Decepticons that took notice of what happened and headed his way. "I´m going to need both hands to fight, so these are the options: I can cut my way through and get you to one of the others, or…" he wanted to say more, but she didn´t let him finish.

"I´m staying with you!" the girl decided firmly.

He glanced at her as if to confirm her decision.

She gazed up with a determined look in her eyes.

With a curt nod, he opened a small, hidden storage space on his chest and without prompting, Sari climbed inside. She gave a quiet "Good luck" before he closed the storage space, and she breathed a small sigh of relief. She trusted him to take care of things and to end this fight quickly.

If anybody could do it, it was her Alma. He was the best.

He should have seen this coming. Really. After all, he was one of those who knew Sentinel the most. Yet, even after vorns of friendship, it still caught him off guard, when it happened.

Optimus suspected this fight would be a nightmare. There were just too many of the Decepticons for his team to take on their own, but he hoped that they would be able to hold on until backup arrived. The truck got a message that one team was on the way to help them, so there was hope. Or at least, that was what he was thinking, until he realized his team had lost track of Sari. He was quick to start looking for her, in between dodging attacks aimed at him, when he heard her screams and saw her in the clutches of one of Starscream´s clones. He moved to help her, but the sound of a canon flaring close to him caused him to jump back, narrowly saving himself from having his head blown off. He heard Lugnut order the clone to take Sari and horror gripped his spark, particularly when Sari screamed in the clone´s grip and then cry out when the seeker nearly crushed her in his grip.

There was a blue blur and he saw Sentinel, his best friend and rival, arrive at the scene. And, that was exactly the moment things went to hell.

For the Decepticons, that is.

The blue mech moved without hesitation, ramming his rarely used sword weapon through the clone´s neck, just as he snatched Sari and cradled her protectively against his chest. He watched how his rival, in one fluid motion, pulled out his sword and with a spinning kick, sent the seeker´s corpse crashing against the ground. How Sentinel and Sari seemed to have a quiet conversation before the mech allowed the small girl to climb inside a small storage space that Optimus didn´t know Sentinel had on himself. And afterwards, the blue mech pulled out a second sword, identical to the first one from somewhere and got into a strange fighting stance. A stance that Optimus hadn´t seen in a long while, but he still knew that when Sentinel took it, things usually escalated quickly.

Although, that usually depended on how angry his friend got, so Optimus went over his mental list, marking things he noticed, as the Decepticons approached Sentinel.

Endangered sparkling, or in this case, human child on him?

Check.

Two swords that looked like they could gut out a bomber, with no shield in sight?

Check.

Blue optics cold as steel and sharp as a knife?

Check.

A blank expression on the other Prime´s face, which slowly morphed into a sweet smile?

Check…uh-oh.

"Frag," the curse slipped past his lips without him realizing, as he fully processed what that twisted smile on his friend´s face meant in this situation. Particularly in combination with those cold optics. There was only one thing he could do, if only to insure, there would be no damage dealt to his team, so he immediately turned on his communication frequency to reach everyone.

Team, this is Optimus Prime. Do you hear me?

Clear as day, sir.

Clearly, boss bot.

Clear kid, though this might not be the best time for a chat.

Clearly, sir.

Good. I don't have time to explain, just listen and listen carefully. Whatever happens, do not approach Sentinel Prime and keep away, until the screams die down.

Dead silence filled the other side of the frequency before Bumblebee´s incredulous voice was heard.

What screams?

As if to answer Bumblebee´s question, there was a mixture of yelps of surprise, cries of pain and loud curses that filled the area and made all the Autobots, even the newly arrived ones, turn around to stare. Some of them, like Optimus, winced in sympathy when they realized what was going on. Others, like Optimus´s team, found their jaws dropped and optics widened. Because, when a bunch of Decepticons managed to reach the blue Prime, instead of being overwhelmed, as some expected, Sentinel started tearing through the enemies as if they were some cheap rag dolls. His swords cut through his opponents with ease, separating limps and wings from bodies, and as he wielded them, the onlookers got the sudden impression that they were witnessing some sort of a dance of death. The same ruthlessness with which he killed the seeker bled into each of his moves, which were fast, steady and without a single moment of hesitation. It also brought forth a scary sort of grace, as Sentinel led the movements of his opponents exactly how he wanted them, like a dancer leading his partner on the dancefloor. And combined with that was a destructive power of a hurricane that took everything with it, the results of which were the enemy bodies piling up underneath Sentinel´s feet. All this while those cold blue eyes surveyed every move of Sentinel´s opponents, and while that twisted sweet smile on his face widened, sending shivers down the spines of everyone watching.

Those who knew Sentinel well, all had one common thought running through their heads: Thank Primus this nightmare is on OUR side!

Finally, the fight ended when Lugnut, clearly enraged by the turn of events, snuck right behind Sentinel to attack from his back, which the blue mech seemed to expect. Side-stepping the punch, the blue Prime spun around and cut off the attacking hand, before he went for the bomber´s throat. Lugnut only narrowly managed to save himself, before he clearly decided to retreat and save his life. The Decepticons that somehow managed to survive Sentinel, and were still able to move and more importantly fly, quickly followed suit, leaving behind the broken bodies of their comrades, who were either dead or in too much pain to move.

The blue mech surveyed his surroundings, as the enemy fled away until they disappeared from his sight. Only then did his posture relaxed. The coldness disappeared from his optics and the scary smile vanished, making the others let out a relieved breath.

Deeming it safe to approach, Optimus sent an all-clear to his team, then walked towards his friend, just as said friend reached up and gently tapped a certain spot on his chest. The hidden storage opened and a familiar red-haired girl poked out her head.

"Is it safe to come out?" she asked, looking upward at the Prime.

"Yeah, the fight is over, Sari," Sentinel replied as he rose his hand and allowed the girl to jump on his palm.

Once she was safely in his hand, the redhead looked around and gasped. "Wow! What chaos! Who did all of this?"

"That would be the blue destroyer holding you, kiddo," Rachet spoke up, as he and the rest of Optimus´ team approached. "All by himself."

"Really?" Sari looked at Rachet in surprise, before a big smile appeared on her face. Pumping her hand up, she exclaimed "Woo-hoo! I knew Alma was the best!"

Silence followed the statement, before…

"EH-mph?!" Bumblebee screamed at the title, before the Jet twins covered his mouth, to watch the scene in silent curiosity. Bulkhead was just as shocked as his buddy but decided to observe for the moment. Rachet had an incredulous look on his face, while Prowl watched everything with a confused frown, unsure if this was normal or not.

Meanwhile, Optimus and the rest of Sentinel´s co-workers suddenly understood why their friend went into an extra sadistic mode for the fight – He unofficially adopted the little human girl as his own!

Ignoring the reaction of the others, Sentinel looked down at her with a raised optic ridge. "What did you just call me?"

"Alma," replied Sari, obvious to the choked noise that left Bumblebee.

"I heard Jetstorm and Jetfire call you that before when you were staying at the Earth base…"

Cue another choked noise, and several wide blue optics looked at the two Autobot seekers.

"…and it didn´t feel as formal as sir or boss, but also not like something you would call a friend. It was something different, but more familiar than the two possibilities. So, I took to calling you that too. Is it…" the little girl looked worried "…is it wrong for me to do so?"

"Depends what you mean by that," the Prime let out a soft sigh as he inquired "I take it you don´t even know what the word means in our culture, right?"

The human girl shook her head.

Optimus decided to speak up and explain. "Sari, alma is a more affectionate title of what we, on Cybertron, call carriers. Or mothers, if we use Earth terminology."

"Oooh!" his human friend drawled out before she beamed. "Then that fits perfectly!" she exclaimed, hugging the blue mech´s hand. "I don't have a mom and Sentinel is exactly like one to me! He is my alma!"

A blush painted Sentinel´s cheeks and Optimus had to hide a smile. It was adorable to see his friend´s reaction, whenever one of his kids showered him in affection in public.

"Troublesome girl," murmured Sentinel, but there was no doubt of the affection in his tone. "We should wait with that until we talked with your potential big brothers about this. I´m not sure what they would say to the idea of having a little sister."

"We like that idea very much, alma!" the Jet twins declared, letting go of Bumblebee and practically teleporting to stand beside their creator to join their little family and officially welcome their newest sibling. Then Jetstorm continued "We´re always happy when the family grows! The more the merrier!"

"And Wasp always wanted a little sister! Plus, he will be happy that he´s no longer the youngest member of the family!" Jetfire added.

"And we can´t wait to tell this to grand-sire! He´ll be thrilled!" the twins finished together.

"There´s more of these nutjobs? And Wasp is one of them? And now Sari is joining them?" Bumblebee asked/whispered in near hysteria before the happenings of the day became too much for him and he fainted.

Wasp paused his work and tilted his head to the side, humming softly.

"What´s is, buddy?" Jazzy inquired, noting the odd reaction from his friend.

"I feel like I just missed out on something that was both sweet and funny and it involved my Atman and older siblings." The green Autobot paused, before he added "Also, some idiot probably set off Atman´s sadistic side."

"…sometimes I wonder how can you know these things with such certainty."

"It´s a family trait."

"And since I know your family, I believe you."

In a far galaxy, a blue mech with red optics lifted his head up from the contracts and documents he was working on. His honed sixth sense was tingling, which meant something happened involving his son. As he examined the feeling, he realized it was similar to when his little mech-ling brought his third grand-sparkling into the family.

A small smile played on his lips as he leaned back in his chair. "So, my Nellie adopted another youngling. How sweet of him. Maybe I should pay him and the boys a visit. It has been a while since we saw each other, after all," he mused out loud. Then a thought occurred to him and his smile turned into a smirk. "And it would give me a good excuse to take a look at the secret admirer the boys informed me about."

With that in mind, he quickly finished his work and went to send a message to his grandson about the impending visit.

On Cybertron, a certain Supreme Commander felt a shiver run down his spine. He thought about what could have caused this but quickly dismissed it as something unimportant. Instead, he focused his attention on the site, where he selected and then ordered a few small items, which he planned to gift his sweet Prime.

"…vat ze slag did ve chust vatch?" asked Blitzwing in his Hothead, after a beat of stunned silence, voicing the thought of nearly every Deception in the room. They´d gathered around to find out why the last team sent to confront the Autobots returned so few in number and in such a horrible state. Even Lugnut, one of the strongest fighters of their army, returned covered in cuts and missing one arm. They were all curious about what happened, particularly since the survivors kept mentioning a blue Unicron-incarnate. But they all kept flinching whenever questioned, instead of answering, so somebody suggested that they watch the memory logs from the survivors.

They did just that, but the resulting videos were…well, the word unnerving didn´t even begin to describe the massacre they saw. All of that was done by the hand of a single Autobot. And one that they all just dismissed as an annoyance, instead of the real threat that was shown in the videos.

Starscream was the next to snap out of his shock. "Blast it, are you sure the videos aren´t fake?"

"Positive," Soundwave confirmed. "No alternations found."

"But how could an Autobot pull something like this off? They´re just a bunch of passive weaklings, not…not…whatever this was!" the seeker objected, waving his hand towards the screen, where the fight played out, this time from another angle and point of view. "That just doesn´t make sense!"

"Well… Sentinel was always a bit different," Blackarachnia spoke up shakily, making everybody turn to look at her.

"Different…how exactly?" a pale Swindle questioned.

The spider femme rubbed the back of her neck, as she spoke. "At the beginning, when we were in the Autobot training camp, he was a nightmare to spar against, because it tended to end up as a painful ordeal for his opponents. He never injured anybody, mind you, but still…seeing him knock out a mech five times his size in less than two cycles…tended to leave an impression. Never mind that, when somebody tried to pick a fight or bother me or that fool Optimus, Sentinel would casually drop a scary fact about the Cybertronian anatomy and then ask if the offender wanted a demonstration of that fact," she openly shuddered at the memory. After watching the videos, she was now positive he would have followed up with that threat if pushed too far.

"Vhat schcary facts?" Blitzwing asked, switching to his Random personality.

"Did you know that there are pressure points on every ground-type mech that, when activated, make even the slightest pinch would feel like a stab wound? Want me to show you, where they are on your body?" Blackarachnia quoted the first thing that came to her mind, in her best imitation of Sentinel´s voice.

"…schcary," muttered the triple changer with a split personality.

"Yeah. I and Optimus helped him get better…or at least taught him to tone down these things," the black femme looked at the screen. "I don´t know what happened after we parted ways, but either somebody in the army encouraged this behaviour…or Sentinel kept a few secrets too close for me to find out."

"He must have kept it secret," decided Starscream. "We would have noticed this brutal fighting style, or at least somebody would have reported this!"

"Could something just…set him off?" suggested Swindle nervously. "I mean, he did seem pretty protective of that Sumdac girl…Maybe it was because she was in danger?"

"…he does have a protective streak when it comes to sparklings, from what I remember. He even helped to raise a few, if I heard right," Blackarachnia admitted.

"Ze Sumdac girl iss technically a Human Sparklingkt," Blitzwing pointed out, before his optics went wide "undt ve tried to kidnap her. Ve´re schcrewed."

"Oh, Primus," mumbled Swindle, realizing exactly the same thing. If that chaos bringer ever got his hands on them, there was little doubt in the money-lover´s mind that it would be a painful ordeal for them all. Silently he wondered if he could get out of the inevitable beating by revealing where Doctor Sumdac was being held. Or maybe sell out some of the hidden bases? Maybe offer a shiny new weapon of good quality as a bonus? Desperate times call for desperate measures, after all, and he had a few rare beauties he could offer.

Naturally, this would be the perfect moment for when Starscream´s ego decided to kick in. "Please! I bet I could take out the bastard without problems!" the magenta seeker boasted, puffing up his chest.

"By all means, be my guest, you peacock," Blackarachnia shrugged. "Just let me know so I could prepare the speech for your funeral."

"What did you just say, you insect?!"

"Then again, there might not be anything left of your body. No physical body, no funeral for our brave, but imbecile seeker."

"You little-!"

As the two started to bicker, Soundwave decided to ask for input from Megatron who, up until that point, remained silent. The masked mech hoped that the Decepticon leader would be able to come up with an idea about how should they proceed. He was, after all, the most intelligent, competent and level-headed of all bots he met, since joining the fraction.

But when he turned to face the mech, he was taken aback by what he saw. The warlord´s attention was completely focused on the screen and his usually stoic but stern expression was nowhere in sight. Instead, the grey mech looked awed by what was shown, ruby red optics shining as they followed every move of the Prime shown on the screen. There was a blush on his pale face and he even leaned slightly forward, as if wanting to get closer to what he saw. Then, after one video ended and another started, he raised a black hand to touch his own face, and with a soft sigh, a small dreamy smile appeared on his face.

That reaction honestly threw Soundwave off, but he managed to pull himself together enough to slowly inquired "Lord Megatron? Are you alright?" which attracted the attention of the others in the room. They all recoiled once they saw the out-off-character expression on Megatron´s face.

At first, the mech didn´t appear to hear him, but then he opened his mouth and spoke in a soft voice.

"I think I´m in love."

The reactions to this statement varied: Soundwave contemplated whether he overestimated Megatron as a level-headed, rational being, or whether the warlord caught some bug that affected his processor. Starscream thought the grey mech finally lost it or had a death wish, while privately thinking about the possible ways to use this to his advantage. Blackarachnia wondered if her boss had a hidden masochistic side and planned to stay as far away from this as possible. Swindle wondered if Megatron would pay him to be his wingman, and what was the best way to manipulate these things in a way that would allow him to remain relatively safe. Finally, Blitzwing was torn between anticipating the chaos this would bring, the fear for his life, and resignation because he knew his boss would drag them down with him, no matter what.

The Decepticon leader remained oblivious to this, too focused on planning the next course of action. He needed to create a strategy, one that would make up for the millennia he remained unaware of this perfect mech´s existence. That was an oversight, but now that he knew of the blue mech being the brilliant hidden gem that he was, the warlord was determined to have him.

He would make Sentinel Prime his.

On two different planets two twin seekers and a lone green Autobot felt their Alma/Atman-sense tingling, alerting them of some unwelcomed disturbance that was going to head their way. Once they realized this, they promptly went to check over their weapons and do some quick revision on their anatomy lessons. They had the feeling they would soon need both.

The blue mech with red optics felt his son-sense disturbed before he shook his head "I guess it will be a longer vacation than I expected. Wonder what Nellie got himself into this time?"

On Cybertron, the Supreme Commander froze, before a scowl appeared on his face. He sensed that a rival for his Prime´s affection just came up. And there was no way he was going to allow that to happen and risk somebody else winning the mech´s spark.

Sentinel was HIS.