-Few Days Later-

Ratchet looked at Optimus. The red and blue mech held his helm.

"And run that by me again?"

"Luna yelled at me cause apparently Elita has told her that she loves me. And Megatron commed me earlier today and told me that Nova asked him if he loved me...Ratchet I don't understand anything that is going through my femmes' helms! I thought maybe they want another parent but I'm not sure."

"Do you love either of them?" Optimus was silent.

"I don't know Ratchet...I honestly don't know...I thought I was starting to feel feelings for Elita again before Atlas was born...but they're gone."

"That was probably just being sparked talking. If it's no longer there then it was probably just your body reacting to elevated stress and wanting to be dependent on someone because it's a carrier's natural instinct to seek out someone else to trust. Usually it's the sparkling's sire but in different cases for a single carrier they usually seek out a close friend or a parent or sometimes in rare cases the sires even though it could be from rape or the sire is dead or missing. It's a very interesting but a very unknown instinct." Ratchet looked at Optimus. The red and blue mech stared at the floor.

"What would be best for my children Ratchet...I don't know how I could make them both happy...But I don't know what I feel for either of them. Luna loves Elita but Nova loves her sire...What should I do Ratchet?"

"You have a romantic history with both. You lasted the same amount of time with each of them though. However, it was while you were still just a clerk. You're different than you were then." Optimus nodded slightly.

"I once loved Ariel...But Not Elita...She changed...And I once loved Megatron...before the corruption...I don't know what I think of him now. I trust him but...I don't know what to do…Ratchet I don't know what to do…I'm afraid I'll upset one daughter if I ended up with the one she doesn't want and I'll upset the other if I ended up with the one that she doesn't want…Ratchet what do I do?"

"I don't know Optimus but if you aren't attracted to either one of them don't worry about it. But if you're attracted to one of them then go with what your spark tells you. And check and see if your destiny mark has appeared. If it has then you have meet the one you're meant to be with and you should see whose mark matches."

"It...has...it appeared a long time ago...but I noticed not too long ago that it started becoming a bit blurry and dull..."

"What do you mean blurry and dull?" Optimus held out his right servo and a mark showed on the palm of his servo.

"It is blurry...I don't know what that means...If only my sister were here. She would know what this means."

"You have a sister?"

"Yes. A younger sister. She is a medic and she does a lot of study on things like destiny marks and different instincts."

"Ah..." Ratchet looked at the faint mark.

"This is so odd. I've never seen a destiny mark that look foggy like this before." Optimus sighed.

"I should look at some of the notes that my sister gave me before we left Cybertron. I still have a few of them." Ratchet walked over to his stacks of notes. He looked for the ones from Echo.

"There they are." He pulled out 3 and looked through them.

"Luck is on our side. This one is a copy of her research on destiny marks." He put the other 2 back and looked through the notes.

"Destiny Marks are very odd they appear faded if the bot's destined partner has either died or take on a foggy appearance if the two have somehow be separated from each other for long periods of time by, for example, war," Ratchet read. Optimus looked at him.

"It's a very strange occurrence and I have only seen it with a few bots. One in particular was a patient of my carrier. His mate had died in the war and his destiny mark became faded," he continued.

"Let me see your mark again Optimus." Optimus held out his servo.

"it's foggy. That means you've been separated from your partner. I don't know who you would have been separated from that could have possibly been your mate. Was there anyone you were really close to before the war besides Elita and Alpha Trion?"

"My parents and a few friends."

"Who? Names, Optimus."

"Jazz, Prowl, You, Mirage, Hound, and Megatron used to be a close friend at one point, albeit for only a period of a few months before he caused the rebellion."

"If I remember right Jazz and Prowl bonded during one of the peaceful moments during one of the holidays during the war and Hound and Mirage bonded when they were 15 stellar cycles."

"Yes...you aren't my destined mate Ratchet. Your mark matches Ironelle's surprisingly."

"Yes. And Megatron couldn't possibly be your destined mate. When Knockout and I gave routine checkups to all of the Decepticons and Autobots Megatron didn't even have a mark. He couldn't be..." Optimus looked down.

"I don't know. I really don't know Ratchet. I guess I get lonely sometimes but I don't usually pay attention. I've never really looked about having a mate before."

"Except when you were sparked. Both times. With Nova and Luna you were very clingy to me."

"I'm still sorry about that Ratchet."

"It's fine. I didn't mind." Ratchet looked at the blue and red mech. Optimus stared at his servo at his destiny mark. It became a bit clearer

"Ratchet did you see that?"

"See what?"

"My destiny mark isn't as fuzzy anymore." They watched and the mark became clear.

"I didn't see anything about something like this happening in Echo's notes." Ratchet grabbed the notes and looked over it again.

"Nothing." Optimus looked confused.

Nova walked in with Megatron carrying Atlas.

"I'm sorry to bother you Optimus," the grey mech said softly, to not wake Atlas.

"While the sparklings were playing outside your youngest started crying. I tried looking for you but I got him to settle down." The grey mech gently placed Atlas in Optimus' arms.

"Oh. Thank you Megatron." Atlas curled up against Optimus' warm spark chamber. Megatron watched slightly. Ratchet watched them both and looked over Megatron's frame for any sign of a mark.

"Megatron let me see your servos." The grey mech looked at the medic, confused.

"What?"

"Just do it." He held out his servos.

"Palm up." The medic saw what he was looking for. On Megtron's right servo was a destiny mark.

"It matches Optimus."

"What?" they said. Nova looked up at them confused.

"Optimus it matches."

"Matches what? What matches?"

"Optimus hold out your right servo." Optimus did as he was told. Megatron saw the matching marks.

"You two are destined mates."