Optimus found his way to Airachnid's clearing on autopilot, heedless to the branches scratching against his paint or the insects scurrying between the gaps of his peds. Despite the pounding frenzy making a mess of his processor, his spark burned clean and hot on what he could only describe as relief; yet that was the last thing he wanted to call it.

The leader of the Autobots falling in love with a Decepticon... even one so similar to Elita in such abstract ways. Tabloid networks would have had a field day, if they still existed. But how could anyone blame him, knowing her as he did? The Airachnid he had known for the past few months was, at the root of her being, no different to a hundred past Autobots he'd once known. She was stubborn, abrasive, antisocial and certainly destructive at what he could only assume was her worst. But also loyal, if only to herself. Fiercely intelligent; not like a scientist, more like someone who had to learn a whole world of information in very little time, and adapted to do just that. And capable of loving back, despite how hard she tried not to. Even Megatron had seen it in her, a spark of complete defiance that he couldn't even try to control. So he tried to burn it out, and only succeeded in creating another for her to nurture, to perhaps one day destroy him.

For all that and more Optimus wanted to admire her, to love her guiltlessly, but centuries of corpses and battlefields still stretched endlessly between them both. And the unbreakable fact that, as much as he would try to fool himself into believing otherwise, she would never replace Elita.

Though Elita had killed just as many as her. For different reasons and different outcomes, but the body count was still the same. A dead spark didn't care if it died for a greater good, or if it was just to satisfy a bloodlust. Murder was murder no matter the circumstances, and Optimus had his own fair share of energon on his hands. If Elita had taken up a Decepticon badge during the war, fought under Megatron's banner instead of his and killed his own soldiers, would he have still loved her? Would the love in his spark have managed to burn through the iron shield of his anger, the one taking the shape of an Autobot emblem?

The questions only made his helm ache, and he had to ignore them else go mad trying to answer them all. For now, he had other things to worry about. Like a cranky Dinobot kidnapping his adopted daughter.

"I will not say it again, Grimlock, put the sparkling down!"

"No! She Grimlock's baby, she like riding on sire's back!" Grimlock's claim was backed by Scorpia's squeals and giggles as she curled into the nape of the Dinobot's neck, holding on tight while he stamped and lunged around the clearing, but all Optimus could imagine was her falling off and being trampled.

"Primus, give me strength for once..." Optimus bunched his cables, waited for Grimlock to complete a circuit, then leapt for a ridge jutting out above his hind leg. With the Dinobot's spinal strut bucking with every step it was difficult to scrabble onto his back, but Optimus managed to hold on long enough that a well-timed lurch forwards propelled him between Grimlock's shoulders. With one hand braced on a horn, the other reached out and swooped up Scorpia to the safety of his chest. She chirped happily even while he tumbled through the air, rolling in the grass to land safely away from Grimlock's lashing tail.

"Dadda can fly!" Scorpia giggled once Optimus set her back on firm ground, flapping her servos like a pair of bird wings and clapping her hands together.

"Not quite, little one," he said quietly, smiling despite the hard impact the ground had on his aft as Scorpia rolled in the flowers, sending wisps of pollen up in small whirlwinds around her. Autumn had already taken over much of the forestry back home, but it had yet to turn the island's tropical trees to rust. For all the sparkling frolicked, she was suspended in an indefinite summer.

Grimlock had finally noticed that his shoulders were suspiciously sparkling-free, and he dropped his maw down to Optimus' level. "Prime always steal from Grimlock..." The mighty sigh of air from the Dinobot's vents could have bowled Optimus over if he wasn't prepared for it, but he always kept his cables tensed when he was nearby.

No, what caused Optimus to end up sprawled in the dirt was the klaxon-screech pealing from Scorpia's mouth.

"Grimlock, what did you do?!" Optimus' audios were still crackling as Scorpia kept screaming, spasming and thrashing in the grass like something invisible was attacking her, and he was caught between wanting to hold her and knowing he might only end up hurting her more.
Despite the Prime's accusation, the Dinobot over his shoulder looked just as shocked with his jaw slack and all rows of denta grinding together, every cord in his body straining to shy away from the scene. "Me Grimlock do nothing! Me Grimlock..." He trailed off, too worried to even defend himself, though Optimus knew he wasn't at fault anyway. Whatever it was causing Scorpia so much distress, he only trusted one mech to find it.

"Ratchet! Come in immediately, there's something wrong with Scorpia!"

"Optimus, calm down, what exactly is the problem?" Though Ratchet kept his voice professional, Optimus could easily hear concern breaking through over the line. Scorpia's cries were so loud, he wouldn't have been surprised if they were leaking through his comm unit.

"I don't know, but... she's in pain, she won't stop crying and screaming and she's spasming-"

The medic struggled to get a word in edgewise to Prime's panic, but one piece of advice made it through to Optimus' audios. "Just try and keep her stable, I'll be right there."

Whatever 'stable' meant, Optimus at least managed to edge Scorpia closer to his hands by the time Ratchet's Ground Bridge appeared only ten nanoklicks later. Grimlock backed away to the treeline, and Optimus reluctantly pulled away to let the medic examine her.

"What was she doing before she started screaming?" Ratchet asked while carefully taking a firm hold of her helm, forcing her to look upwards while the rest of her tiny body flailed wildly. As if he wasn't already worried enough, Optimus felt his gears clench at seeing Ratchet handle her so roughly. But he knew what he was doing, and he'd just have to trust him despite a surge of protective instincts boiling over from his spark.

Like Ratchet, the Prime had to almost shout to be heard over Scorpia's shrieks. "Just... nothing. She wasn't doing anything, it just... happened out of nowhere."

Ratchet might have hummed to himself, but Optimus couldn't hear. He pressed a digit above each of her optics, pulling the lids open and studying them for a nanoklick before releasing them. "Her optics aren't flickering, so it's not a processor flash. But I can't give her anything for the pain until I know what the cause is... are you absolutely sure she wasn't doing anything beforehand? You didn't see her put anything in her mouth?"

Optimus shook his head wearily, aching to cradle Scorpia or at least save her from the hard ground and Ratchet's probing grip. He could hear mumbles of words in her wails, but it hurt his spark too much to listen to them. "No, she was just rolling on the ground, playing... Grimlock had her on his back before, but he wouldn't hurt her."

"Don't be so sure..." From the side, Grimlock whined solemnly at Ratchet's suspicious glance and mutter. But Optimus didn't get a chance to deflect Ratchet's skepticism with the medic busy at work; palming parts of Scorpia's shaking frame, retrieving a pulse amplifier from his subspace and holding it over her heaving chest, even stopping to wipe away streaks of coolant on her screwed faceplate. But whatever he saw, felt or heard, he kept to himself until he was finished and her screams finally started to dwindle. Avoiding Scorpia's uncontrolled limbs, the medic placed a hand under her back and lifted her up slightly towards Optimus. "Hold her close to your chest. Keep her calm."

Optimus was only too glad to obey, closing his servos around her and eveloping the chaos of her EM field in the calculated tranquility of his own. "What is wrong with her?" He was almost scared to speak, thinking anything could set Scorpia off again just when she was starting to soothe.

Ratchet sighed with a shrug, and the sound seemed to add centuries to the millenias already weighing on his shoulders. "Physically, nothing. At least nothing I could find. Optimus, even if I don't know much about sparkling care, I've never heard of anything like this. Pain like this can't just... come out of nowhere."

Optimus was about to argue against that, but he bit his glossa until he felt energon drip down his throat. "Do you have any idea what might have caused it?" he pressed, letting Scorpia muffle her sniffles against his chest plating.
Ratchet scratched at his chin plate, every vent another sigh. "Well, there's the issue of her brittle armour layers... it may be that the inner dermal layer cracked and injured her somehow, though I can't detect any serious fissures in her frame. Her symptoms are similar to spark arrest, but it's impossible for a sparkling to have one. I mean, her spark won't fully bloom for another few years at the very least. I... could try doing a full frame scan, but I'd need to bring her into the base's medbay-"

"Do it, then," Optimus ordered, shielding Scorpia from Ratchet's splutter of protests.

"You mean parade Airachnid's child in front of the entire team?!" And then he was groaning before Optimus could reason with him. "Where even is Airachnid? Even where she's concerned, a sparkling's pain is an electromagnet to its mother, she should be here."

Now Optimus struggled to keep his EM field at ease, and Scorpia squirmed with a chorus of whimpers. "She is... on a mission with Wheeljack. And Miko."

"WITH MIKO-!?"
Optimus held up a hand to keep Ratchet's outburst at bay, for all the good it would do, forcing his tone firm and unbreakable. "I am not happy about it either, Ratchet, but we don't have time for me to explain. If Scorpia is in any kind of danger, I need you to find it as soon as possible."

The line Ratchet's mouth made could have cut through steel, and his optics were like concrete as he groaned on a whole new level of reluctance. "Right..." He hefted himself up on creaky joints older than the rest of him, turned his glare on his Ground Bridge controller. "Bumblebee was the only one in the foyer when I left. I'll go through first and make sure the coast is clear."

"Hurry, please," Optimus said, though Ratchet was already through the portal as soon as it spawned. Lifting up from his knees, slow and steady with barely a tremor in his burdened servos, Optimus still felt Scorpia's vents in harsh stutters against his hands. He wasn't sure if it was any better than hearing her screech louder than an Insecticon, and Grimlock's worry hadn't budged as he eased closer.

"Is baby okay?" he rumbled, dipping his snout down and nudging Optimus' shoulder. The Prime slightly rearranged his cradle, freeing one hand to pat the Dinobot's trembling jaw.

"She will be, Grimlock. I promise, we'll make sure she is-" The sound of a vortex popping into existence interrupted him, and he wasn't worried by it until he saw the look on Ratchet's face.

"Optimus. Leave Scorpia here." His voice struggled past the iron clench of his jawplate, each word bitten off by gritted denta.

The Prime set Scorpia down next to Grimlock, fighting against the pull of his spark and how she still held onto his digits. "Why?"

Ratchet gulped, looking down at his peds for a nanoklick before having to close his optics completely. "It's... it's Arcee. She's demanding to see you."

xx

I WARNED Y'ALL