Here's a filler chapter with a slight romance beginning to blossom for the ages. Along with a familiar, surprising face from his past.

Enjoy.

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TFA: Deals with Our Devils: Chapter 13, The Heart of Helheim.

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Optimus was stomping through the forest of dinobot island causing the ground to lightly shake with every step he took.

A short while after optimus stormed off due to his little rage after killing those two and chopping up those abominations and burying them deep into a ditch then so they could rot without stinking up the place. He noticed another signature; one he knew all too well. One that made him visibly flinch. Like an animal being on guard before he relaxed his servos. Recognizing the scent.

It smelled like godhood and death, "Like Helheim".

"I assume the mountain troll was one of yours"? Optimus asked a cloaked feminine figure as she walked through the woods. His posture calming as posture.

"Now, now, Darkened Knight, I'm shocked"," no greetings for little old me"? she said in a playful mocking voice.

Standing there was a giant of a woman by human standards, considering the fact she was a little over seven feet tall, yet had a beautiful feminine frame that was well toned with muscle underneath. She then pulled her hood back to reveal a partially shriven, beautiful face and clean black hair with a smile written on her features as she starred up at his massive frame.

"Hello, Hel….".

"Hello to you too, my Dreger". She said with a warm smile to her close friend.

…

A time before, a time in the pit.

On Hel's visit to the pit, she noticed one thing about the mech.

He had a fire inside him. One that would make her feel something as appose to the searing cold of her realm that was inside her. Something that made her feel warm inside, the very warmth that a knight would give to a maiden in the heat of the moment during a test of strength for his service to her in times past.

Hel watched the young mech with keen interest as she couldn't help but admire his spirit. And the fact that she was emotionally flustered by this, her mother the female jotunn Angeraboda raised her away from the company of others aside from her two older brothers, who were known as Jormungandr the midguard serpent, and Fenrir the wolf that would eat Oden who scorned them and their father so.

As you can imagine having a snake and a wolf for brothers was not very good company growing up.

But when she saw the fire in the young dark mech in the arena as he continued to fight with the ferocity like a demon himself. She could tell that the weaves of their fates were already intertwined by the fates themselves, she would have to see what they have to say when she gets back to the nine realms. She wondered what they had in store for them in the time to come?

"I'll have to meet this peculiar cybertronian". She thought to herself as she smiled at his axe in hand before swung it down against the ram demon with the pitchfork before it was blocked with unmatched speed sending a shockwave of heat throughout the arena.

Little did she know that some of the other gods, most notably Hades, Anubis, and Chernobog gave her a mix between baffled, and interested looks as she looked on with admiration in her eyes before looking down at the young mech with renewed interest that he could fluster something in Hel's cold soul.

Also, while this was happening, on top of the arena in his private office, the shadowy figure let out a small chuckle as he looked on at Hel while shaking his head thinking how impressed he was. Then decided to take a mental note of that for later on.

"Mabey I could use that to my advantage". He thought to himself. As he scratched his smoke like chin breathing out a smoke mixed with sparks as he did.

…

Back to the present Hel and optimus were taking a stroll through the woods while Hel was on his shoulder and Hel asked, "So Nemesis". (Her and the other Deities use his official title in these instances even though I still call him optimus to avoid confusion later on in the story). "From what I heard, you caused quite a ruckus in the city of Detroit", please tell me, …. what did you feel when you punched megatron like I asked you to"? She asked with genuine curiosity in her voice.

Optimus didn't change his gaze as he continued to follow the river that he washed his hands in earlier. Though he let out a slight sigh as he neared the clearing and let her climb on his hand so allow her to get down on the cool grass. While he sad down a few yards away from her

"…. Nothing but complete and utter….". He then paused at this choosing his next words, "…. nothing….". "Just nothing, no hatred, no regret, nothing held back, no sadness, no pity". "If anything at all it was all so…. disappointing".

She tilted her head as she leaned her side against a tree and stared up at his towering frame allowing him to continue.

"I guess I just don't care anymore". "Considering the fact that I have seen the veil of death and found it to be a cruel joke in the end on my part", "… Just like my life has always been".

"…. Is this the fate the Nornir, fates, spark, or whatever cruel cosmic forces spin for me"? He asked not looking up, "to be a damned soul to never know the warmth of love for the one I would have given everything for". "And in the end, I don't feel anything but enraged at the thought that I even once cared, if this is what it means to be in love, then it was never bestowed on me".

"…". Hel listened quietly at what he was saying. Then after a moment chose her words.

"You loved her with your very soul, and she loved you". "Then you lost that affection". She replied to optimus.

Optimus merely nodded his head in slight defeat at her words.

"I would have traded places with her if I could, I would have died for her, but I can't". Optimus continued. "Not now, not ever". "And I can never change what has been done to me". "Or what I've done, much less what still needs to be done".

"…".

"True…, the powers that be can spin cruel fates at times and I've never seen quite a broken soul as your own". She then walked over to optimus and places her wilted hand on one of his massive black claws. Rubbing it in circles which soothed his previous tension as she did. "But if there is one thing, I know its that you are the first to make me feel warm inside instead of cold and bitterness. "Which is an achievement in itself".

Optimus looked down at her with his blood red eyes as she spoke again.

"You have faced mountains and terrors of the deep, yet I sense your journey is only beginning, and you shall move even more before this is done".

Optimus blinked, thinking about what she meant by that.

"But if you ever feel lonely think of me and I'll be there to cheer you up, so you have someone to lay your burdens on". She said as she leaned against his hand and arm and whispered.

"My noble Dreger".

Optimus thought about that for a moment as he laid his head back against the tree. Sitting there in silence with Hel resting against him thinking about what she meant to him. And what he was feeling in those moments when she would visit.

…

Optimus awoke in the middle of the night and looked down to see an empty hand with a patch of small green flowers growing around his darkened palm and a bitt of green lipstick in the shape of a kiss that seemed to glow with runes surrounding his lower arm and hand before they disappeared into his skin.

Optimus lifted up his hand in front of his face and flexed feeling the renewed energies coursing through him as he did.

He looked up at the night sky and at the moon deep in thought of how he ever earned her affection.

One thing was sure though, tomorrow the hunt would begin again.

…

Let me know what your reaction was and expect more flashbacks to happen in the next dozen or so chapters.

Till next time.