He found her on her island, watching the dark sky and its many scattered stars, like wayward glitter on an endless canvas. She would have heard the Bridge opening behind her, but she didn't turn to face it.

"I thought I'd find you here." Optimus brought himself beside her, drinking in the warm breeze from the distant beach.

Airachnid half-turned her head towards him, then nodded up at the sky. "I was showing Scorpia what she was named after." Optimus followed her gaze, to the Scorpio constellation hanging above them. It had been a stellar cycle since he'd last seen it in this or any sky, and so much had changed since then he wondered if it was even the same cluster of stars looking down at them.

Scorpia especially had changed so much since then, growing more every day as her armour layers came in; dark purple over a dusky pink protoform, like a muted copy of her mother. Soon she'd be too big to fit in Airachnid's arms.

"Daddy! Want hug!" Scorpia wriggled and stretched out her arms as far as they'd go, trying to grab Optimus' own. The sparkling's grin was one that could make even the coldest mech melt, and Optimus was powerless to disobey as he scooped Scorpia up and nestled her close to his chest. With his spark pulsing against her cheek, she trilled softly.

Airachnid watched as Scorpia curled her braid around her digits, still small enough to look like a toy engulfed by Optimus' embrace. "Where is everyone else?" she asked.

"The Dinobots are at the starport, awaiting the arrival of another one of their own," Optimus told her. "Grimlock is eager to introduce you to Sludge."

Airachnid blew out an amused huff. "That would be interesting."

"As for Dreadwing, he is leading an aerial scout over Cybertron's surface in search of Starscream. So far, there has been no sight of him. Wheeljack left some time ago, to retrieve his daughter. The other Autobots are saying their goodbyes to the humans." He knew Airachnid wouldn't want to join in with that. The humans had bonded with the Autobots closely, so much so that she didn't quite believe that they'd so readily leave them behind. She felt that she'd just be intruding on it.

"They're really going to leave them?" she asked.

"Cybertron needs them more," he said, "And the humans understand that. Though… I think Ratchet will choose to stay behind. Deep down, he seems to like Earth more than Cybertron."

Airachnid didn't laugh like Optimus thought she would. "In another life, I think I would have liked Earth too," she admitted.

"You don't have to leave it behind. We can always visit-"

"No." Airachnid cut him off instantly, hugging herself tightly. "No... too many bad memories." She turned back to the sky, losing herself to the stars again. She'd been like this ever since Cybertron, ever since she faced off against Megatron. She didn't like to talk about what happened, and he didn't ask. He looked down at Scorpia dozing in his arms, wondering how much of what Airachnid had experienced was locked away in the bond with her daughter.

"Airachnid…" Optimus breathed in deep. "When we came back, Ratchet gave Scorpia another examination. Just a brief scan-"

"And?" Airachnid didn't bother getting angry at having her daughter examined without her permission. She seemed beyond emotion for such small slights as that.

"…The Dark Energon has all but disappeared," Optimus answered. "She's as healthy as she can be."

Airachnid blinked, her broken back leg twitching dramatically as she pulled her face up. She didn't seem to believe him at first, skepticism giving her face a stone-hard veneer, but she knew Optimus would never lie to her.

"…B…But how?" She peered intently at Scorpia, as if trying to see evidence of it written on her skin.

"He seems to think that Megatron was the true source of the Dark Energon affecting her spark," Optimus explained, gesturing to the gurgling sparkling as she rolled against his servo. "When he died… so too did the link between them both."

He waited to see the relief on her face, the smile that would bloom into a grin as he kissed her; but it never came. "I should have killed him long ago."

"He is gone now, Airachnid." Optimus took a tender hold of her shoulder, the one still healing from Megatron's blade. "That's all that matters."

Airachnid looked at his hand, lacking the strength to shrug it off. She wasn't convinced, and it was unlikely that would change. Optimus sighed and let her study the stars again, glancing at his internal chronometer.

"We should be heading back soon," he said, "for the ceremony-"

"I'm not going, Optimus." Airachnid interrupted him in a fell swoop, having prepared it with such effort that it was clear she'd just been waiting for him to bring it up.

"Why not?" Optimus asked. She hadn't made any hint before at wanting to avoid such an important event, no reservations or doubts… but this was his sparkmate, who never admitted anything like that if she could help it.

And now here she was, having to face all three all at once. She forced herself to face him, keeping her optics low. "Because... you and I both know Cybertron is no place for my kind. It never was, and it never will be. In the end, it doesn't matter who I once was. You can't convince an entire planet to accept me, and I wouldn't want you to try. It's best for both of us... if I simply leave." Her tone cracked at the very end despite her efforts, and she flashed a smile regardless. It wasn't the one he'd been waiting to see. "I hear Regulon Four has some pleasant summers."

Optimus hadn't even thought to prepare for something like this. He'd been so sure that everything was okay, that the hard part was over with. Was this why she'd been so withdrawn, so unwilling to return to Cybertron again? "Elita-"

"Don't." Optimus knew better than to speak on with the sudden leap of fire in her optics. "I'm Airachnid. I am not an Autobot... or a Decepticon... I'm not even a good mother." She looked down at Scorpia dwarfed in his arms, cradling her face with her claws as if worried she'd fade away. "I can't give Scorpia the life she deserves... whatever life she can have. But at least this way, I know she'll be cared for. As long as no one knows who sired her... or carried her, then I'll be happy with that."

Optimus listened intently, desperately trying to find the right thing to say. The thought of losing Airachnid, Elita, again after all they'd been through, after they'd come so far… he couldn't even think of it as a possibility. "You would have your child grow up without her mother?"

"If it meant no one would hate her for what her parents have done, then yes. Without hesitation." And Optimus knew she meant it when she looked at him, and then down at their daughter. "She won't even remember me, it's... it's better this way."

She refused to look straight at Optimus again, perhaps fearing he'd manage to make her stay, or just hiding the coolant threatening to spill out of her optics.

Optimus didn't speak for a long moment, silently asking himself if Scorpia knew what was happening, if she could have made a difference in her decision. But all she did was yawn and point lazy half-opened optics up at him, simply enjoying being alive. Optimus wondered at what age most bots ended up losing that feeling, as he took Airachnid's shoulder again.

"Allow me to show you something, Airachnid. One last thing. If it does not convince you to stay with me, then I will not stop you from leaving."

Airachnid looked at his hand, then at the face of the mech so utterly in love with her. "...Very well," she replied.

Optimus nodded, a grateful smile taking over as he called in another Bridge. He lead her through it, then up the main stairs of Metroplex's interior. With his job done, the Metrotitan had assumed his city form again and became the Autobot's main harbour while they rebuilt Cybertron. Optimus sometimes heard his spark thrumming through the walls.

Airachnid stumbled on some steps, dragging her heels behind her, aggressively and stubbornly wishing to be somewhere else while Scorpia delighted in Metro's shiny new walls. Optimus pulled Airachnid up the last few flights, depositing her on the landing that lead outside to the grand balcony overlooking the city's main street. She knew what lay beyond that door, had walked down the very same street and eventually lead Breakdown to his death, and she fixed Optimus with a dangerous scowl.

"You're not trying to trick me into doing this ceremony anyway, are you?"

Optimus shook his head, still smiling. "No. Look outside."

Her scowl softened into a pout, and she reluctantly marched over to one of the drape-drawn windows. She stood there for some klicks, and when she pulled away from the cover of the drapes she looked as if she'd just born witness to the Allspark itself.

"There's… there's thousands of them. Hundreds of thousands," she said, drawing blanks with her expression from the shock still coursing through her.

"Yes." Optimus had seen them all himself, as well as the banners, posters, flags, countless other celebrations bearing himself and his beloved- all of them showing how she looked now, not during the War. "Cybertron wants to welcome its leaders back home."

Airachnid blinked, shook her head, looked through the window again to be sure of what she was seeing. "Do they... do they know?"

"Yes." Optimus had made sure of it, letting every spark coming back home know of Elita's survival. "But you can see yourself that that knowledge does not keep them away."

Airachnid gulped, hanging her mouth open with no idea of what to say. Scorpia caught wind of her mother's hesitation, peering up at her from Optimus' cradle as if to judge her final verdict.

"…I won't... be alone out there, will I?" Airachnid asked.

The sun rose up and bled light through the slit in the door, cutting a bright column between them. Optimus kept smiling, closing his hand over her own and squeezing her talons with his wide digits.

"You won't be. I promise."

Airachnid stared at his smile through a film of coolant, the crescent of soft lips that managed to soothe her like nothing else in the galaxy, and nodded. Around them, Metroplex's spark hummed as if he was watching in approval.

Still holding her hand, stabilising and mirroring the tremors along her protoform, Optimus pushed the door open. The new dawn ahead of them was blinding, but its warmth was all that the two of them could wish for.

...

Iacon heaved, but Kaon lay as empty as the day it was abandoned. No one patrolled its streets, no one came to clean up the ancient energon stains or the truly dead Metrotitan on its border, no spies overhead or optics along the walls saw the lone figure walking down the pitted pathways. His peds didn't drag, the loneliness hardly sagging his shoulders. He walked and walked with a silent purpose, one he'd been preparing for centuries. When he finally stopped, it was at the foot of what once might have been a starscraper; now just a mangled shrine to Megatron's war, and one of the last havens for Cybertron's vagrants.

Somewhere within the rubble, red optics narrowed to slits and further still to a razor-sharp glow, until they recognised who was waiting for them. Like a shadow detaching itself from the walls, the beast slinked forwards like a ghost of scarred black plating, something dragging like a burden behind it. The figure knelt down to greet his old friend, the last two survivors of a long-gone age, and the beast bowed his head gratefully to the comforting grasp of long digits. Then he inclined his head lower, as if asking a silent question. The answer came just as quietly, heard only by his own processor over the tentative remnants of a once-unbreakable telepathic link.

"She is safe now, with the one she deserves."

The beast closed his optics, gathering his tail close to his lithe body. The creature seemed to say something with his low growl, perhaps another question accompanied by a light flick of his tail against his master's leg. The mech nodded once.

"Agreed. Rumble and Frenzy will be waiting for us." He turned away from his companion, allowing him to leap onto his back and seamlessly integrate with the rest of his plating, just like the drone nestled in his chest plating. The tail flicked out behind him, kicking up the remains of Cybertron's very last war, and curled around a leg as the mech transformed into a sleek jet, shooting through Kaon's empty streets, higher and higher, taking to the stars and far beyond.

As tempting as it was, he avoided flying over Iacon. She deserved to live in this peace she made, without him hanging over her.

xx

THE END

xx

It's been a long, long couple of years, but my first long-form fic and certainly my longest is finally complete. Even if there's parts I might not entirely be happy with, I'm just glad to say that "hey, I actually finished something for once and it's pretty cool".

To everyone who favourited, followed and especially those who would leave reviews after just about every chapter; I'm sure I don't need to say how grateful I am to all of you, but what the hell I'll say it anyway. Massive thanks especially to those friends who helped me with writing chapters and figuring out where to go, I'd still be stumbling along at this point if not for your efforts.

As a final note, because I know I'm going to be flooded with requests… no, I don't have any plans for a sequel. Not for a very very long while, if at all. I've spent the past four years working on this fic and, though I'm proud of it, all I want to do now is focus on something else. Also, as far as I'm concerned, Airachnid/Elita's story is over. There's nothing more for me to tell, and I feel like dragging it out any longer would just be unnecessary.

Also, I will not give permission for anyone to write a continuation of their own. Please just let this story sit as it is, for what it is. Believe me when I say I've done all I can, and I have no wish to continue it.