A/N: This is meant to be sort of another prequel to my When We Stand Together fanfiction, but really it can fit in just about any other Transformers universe.

Disclaimer: I do not own Transformers or any of the characters in it.

Walking through and seeing the aftermath of a battle was always a hard thing to do. Seeing the carnage and offline bodies of both factions would weigh heavily on ones spark. But for Optimus Prime, this time was much worse. The carnage and bodies had not been the result of a battle, but of an attack on an innocent town. True some of the citizens may have been Autobots, but their were surely also neutrals and those too young to decide which side of the war they would choose. That was what made it worse to the Autobot leader – knowing that those who were not part of the war had been killed by it.

Optimus was glad that his sparkmate was back at the base. While Elita had wanted to come help search for survivors, he knew that she would not have wanted to see the lifeless husks of the sparklings and younglings in the town. It was sickening knowing that the young ones would now never have a chance to see their home world free of war.

"Slaggin' 'Cons! What did they have to gain here?"

The Autobot leader turned to see his angered Weapons Specialist and close friend standing a little ways away from him. Optimus agreed with Ironhide's sentiments. What did the Decepticons have to gain from attacking this town? There was no obvious answer, and it was likely that they would never know the true reason why.

"I do not know Ironhide," Optimus answered somberly. "Right now though, that should not be our main concern."

"Optimus, I don't think we're going to find anymore survivors."

It was highly likely that Ironhide was right. They were fortunate enough to find the few mechs and femmes that they had. Currently all of the survivors were being transported to medics to have their various injuries treated. But Optimus wasn't ready to give up on the search just yet. There were still a few homes that needed to be checked and he didn't want to risk leaving behind any survivors.

"Go regroup with the others Ironhide. I will join you soon."

"Nah, I'll help you look. You take that one, I'll search that one, and we'll meet at the last?"

"Very well old friend."

Optimus walked into the first home. It was clear that the place had been ransacked. Everything was strewn about, but there were no signs of the Cybertronians that lived there. Perhaps they had been fortunate enough to escape, or perhaps they were amongst the bodies outside. He searched throughout the entire place, but there was no one in there.

When he arrived at the last house he could tell that Ironhide's luck had not been much better than his own.

"The 'bots were dead in the home I checked."

"There were none in mine. Let us hope that we have better luck here."

"Doubt we will."

The first thing Optimus noticed when they walked inside were the toys littering the ground. Almost instantly he dreaded what he and Ironhide would find. Either a sparkling or youngling had lived in this home, and Optimus was not looking forward to seeing another offlined one. The next thing Optimus noticed was the mech lying offline in front of an open door. It was possible that he had been trying to hide his mate and sparkling from the attackers – though the open door was enough to assume he had failed.

Sure enough inside the next room was a femme, offline just like her sparkmate.

"No survivors here either," Ironhide sighed. "Lets go Optimus."

"Where is their sparkling?"

"What?"

"There were toys in the first room, so they must have a sparkling or youngling. I have not seen its body."

"Optimus it's probably offline. Its creators are offline, I doubt the sparkling or youngling managed to survive."

"I would rather make sure Ironhide. You can leave if you wish. I will rejoin you shortly."

The Weapons Specialist gave a small nod before turning and walking away, leaving Optimus alone to search for the missing member of the family they had found. He glanced around knowing that it was likely that the sparkling or youngling would have been somewhere in the room with the femme. Had she attempted to hide it? After a closer examination there was a small trail of energon leading to the femme. Had she dragged herself over to where she had offlined? There was a small chest a short ways away from her...

Curiously, Optimus walked over and opened it up only to find large baby blue optics staring up at him in terror.

A sparkling had survived.

Gently he reached inside the chest to pull the tiny creature out, causing the sparkling to let out a terrified screech. Optimus wasn't surprised by the reaction. To the sparkling he was a strange mech who wasn't one of his creators.

"Shh, I will not harm you little one. You are safe."

The sparkling was not any more assured as he cradled it close to his spark, making sure to shield it to where it would not see the dead bodies of its creators or anyone else outside.

What will we do with you little one? Optimus wondered as he headed to meet back up with the other Autobots.

Elita walked towards the entrance of the base anxiously. She had heard that Optimus had returned from the search and rescue mission, the one that she had not been allowed to join. It had frustrated her to no end when Optimus told her to remain at the base. As much as she loved her sparkmate, he was going to have to learn to let her out in the field more. She was as good of a fighter as most of the mechs that had went on the mission, there was no reason for him to be so overprotective.

The sound of crying brought the pink femme out of her thoughts. A sparkling? There had been a sparkling survivor? Her optics widened as she quickened her pace until she arrived at the location of the crying. There in her sparkmate's arms was a tiny yellow sparkling, clearly distressed by the look on its face. With a small shake of her head she walked over and plucked the sparkling from her sparkmate.

Before the war she had helped out at the youth centers where sparklings and younglings would stay at while their creators were at work. As a result she had grown accustomed to trying calm an upset sparkling that wanted its creators and knew how to calm them. This was a slightly different situation, but it was worth a try.

Gently she cradled him to where his head would be resting near her spark, before going to grab some low-grade energon. It didn't take much for the sparkling to start drinking the energon – no doubt the little thing hadn't been fed since before its town had been attacked and who knew how long it had been since then. Once the sparkling was drinking the energon, she walked back over to her sparkmate.

"When did you get back?" she looked up at Optimus questioningly.

"I had just returned. Ratchet will need to do some scans on the sparkling. I do not know if it has any injuries or whether or not its a mech or a femme."

"I'll take the sparkling to Ratchet. I know you need to talk to the other survivors to find out what happened. There were other survivors weren't there?"

"Fortunately there were. I only wish the little one's creators could have been among them."

Elita gave a small nod in agreement as she walked off to go find Ratchet. Even though it was finished with the energon, it was no longer crying and it was now snuggled up close to her. No doubt it was getting tired. She would make sure that it got some recharge after Ratchet finished his examination.

"Is that a survivor?" the medic questioned when she walked inside the med bay.

"Yes. Optimus wants you to check over it to see if it was injured. Also we're hoping you'll be able to tell us if it's a mech or femme. I don't like referring to a sparkling as an it."

"Sit down on the medical berth with it," Ratchet instructed. "I know it's not going to like me doing scans, but it might feel better if you're there."

The pink femme sat down, keeping a close watch on the sparkling in her arms as Ratchet started to do his scans.

"The sparkling is a perfectly healthy little mech. He's a little distressed and frightened, but that's to be expected considering the situation. He may feel some pains in his spark occasionally from the broken spark bond with his creators, but there's not much that we can do for that right now. I'm assuming that you're taking care of him until a relative is found or a guardian is assigned to him?"

"I want to, but I haven't discussed it with Optimus yet. I just took the sparkling from him when I saw them."

"Well I'm telling you and then you can tell whoever watches him, keep him close to your spark so he can try to draw some comfort from you."

Elita nodded, completely understanding what Ratchet was saying. Sparklings typically drew comfort from their creators sparks, it wasn't quite the same, but being close to any spark was enough to get a little comfort and security. And this sparkling was going to desperately need some form of comfort for quite a while. She was willing to give him as much comfort as he needed though. Elita could already tell that she would protect him if he needed it.

After interviewing all of the survivors, aside from the sparkling of course, Optimus still was not sure why the town had been attacked by the Decepticons. He also hadn't learned much about the sparkling either. The creators had only recently moved into the town and none of the survivors had known much about them, nor had they known that the couple had a sparkling. With as little information that they had, it was going to be hard trying to track down any relatives of the sparkling.

As he walked back to his and Elita's room, he tried to think of possible candidates for a guardian for the young survivor. Optimus knew that there were many that would be willing to take care of a sparkling, but many of those Autobots were also very busy. He made a mental note to ask his sparkmate if she knew of anyone that would want to take care of a sparkling.

He was careful to enter the room quietly, not wanting to risk waking up the sparkling if it was in recharge. Optimus was right to be quiet, though he really hadn't expected that he would find his sparkmate in recharge as well. The sight was endearing to him to say the least. He laid down on the berth next to Elita, hoping that he would not wake her. The small movements she made to get closer to him, told him that he wasn't entirely successful.

"Has the little one tired you out already?"

"No," Elita murmured. "He is a very well behaved sparkling. He was just tired and I decided that I would recharge with him. Did you learn anything."

"Not much. I do not know how we are going to track down any relatives of the sparkling. None of the other survivors knew anything about him and they knew little about his creators. I am going to have to find a guardian for him. Do you know anyone that would be willing to take care of a sparkling."

"I believe that there is a femme in this room who would like to take care of him."

Optimus looked at Elita to see her looking down at the sparkling in her arms in adoration. He had not expected that she would have grown attached to him so quickly. But then he knew that he really shouldn't have been surprised. Elita loved sparklings and the two of them had considered, and even attempted, to have a sparkling of their own. They had been unable to get their sparks to split to form a new one, and with the war going on they had decided that perhaps it was for the best.

"Elita, you know the risks of growing attached to the sparkling. If something happens to him..."

"I know Optimus. I know that it would be hard on me if I lost him, but he needs someone to take care of him. If he's staying with us, it will be at least somewhat similar to the life he had before."

"We cannot replace his creators."

"I know that and I don't want to replace them. But we could still be like creators to him. Doesn't he deserve to have that much?"

"There are risks to having him associated with us Elita. We would be making him a target."

"We will keep him a secret. And we will only keep him until a relative is found and we are certain that the relative would take good care of him."

Optimus considered her words. Truthfully he would not mind helping take care of the sparkling, and if they could keep him hidden well enough the dangers would not be quite as bad. But he was out in the field most of the time, and Elita was sent out a decent amount as well – and she was always trying to get him to send her out more. Trying to balance in caring for a sparkling would not be an easy thing. But this was something that Elita wanted to do and Optimus found it difficult to deny her the opportunity to be a mother.

"He will need a name."

Elita looked up at him with a smile, "I've been thinking about that. What do you think about Bumblebee?"