~°♡Dear Sister♡°~

~°♡Corruption ♡°~

"Wait wait, you had multiple sisters and you never told us!?" Miko screeched, leaning precariously over the railing to glare in awe at Arcee.
"Yes, I did, Miko. Now can we move past that to more important matters?" Arcee dismissed her exclamation by waving her servo.
"No way!" Miko smirked. "I wanna know all about them! What were they like? How many of them were there? What were their names? What did they like!?"
Arcee gritted her denta, Miko's questions buzzing around in her helm like annoying flies before she finally snapped.
"They're all dead!" She whirled on Miko, her optics shiny with tears. "All dead...except for Opal."
The children all froze, surprised to see Arcee conveying so much emotion. Jack stepped over to the rail and firmly gripped Miko's shoulder.
"Arcee...we're so sorry...we never knew-"
"Because I never told you," Arcee turned away from them, crossing her arms. "There...there were four of us. I was the youngest, Opal was the eldest. Then there was Chromia and Ariel, who later became Elita One."
"Why'd she change her name?" Miko asked out of curiosity.
"Because if any femme bonds with a Prime they become a Prime as well," Ratchet piped up. "You humans call it marriage and we Cybertronians call it bonding of the sparks."
Jack, Raf, and Miko were all silent in shock once more, then Miko spun to look at Optimus working quietly on the console and shrieked,"YOU HAD A WIFE!?!"
Optimus stiffened a little bit, then turned to Miko and slowly nodded,"Indeed, Miko."
"Well now I gotta know everything!" Miko threw her hands in the air. "Bulk! Did you ever have a wife? Little Bulkheads running everywhere??"
Bulkhead choked on his energon and spluttered. "Wha-?? No no, not me. I was wayy too busy to try and court femmes."
"Aww..." Miko pouted. "I wanted to see baby Bulkhead photos..."
"What about you, Ratchet?" Raf asked curiously. "I'm gonna guess Bee's a bit too young to be...bonded right?"
Ratchet grumbled uncomfortably,"I courted...a few femmes in my lifetime..."
"Never took him for a playboy," Miko muttered to Jack and he just shook his helm.
"What...happened to your sisters, Arcee?" He asked gently.
Arcee gripped her arm tightly, swallowing down a rising lump in her throat. She would not cry...not in front of everybody.
"Chromia and her mate were crushed in a building trying to save the refugees inside," she began, her voice shaking. "She was expecting at the time and refused to stand down so her little ones could be born safely.
My sister Elita, was found to be Optimus' Sparkmate and was soon hunted down and experimented on. When we found her..."
She choked up and bit her bottom derma to stop it quivering.
"Putting her offline was the only merciful option," Optimus spoke, a sad tone in his voice.
"Opal is the only one I think is alive," Arcee spoke up again. "Though she disappeared after she left with Optimus to find the Well of Allsparks and not even he knows what happened to her."
*She must be alive if that was her flare* Bumblebee beeped, reassuringly patting Arcee on the shoulder-plate.
"I...I need time alone," she brushed off his servo and headed to her recharge chamber.
The Autobots all waited for her to leave before Ratchet spoke up again.
"Even if one of our kind are missing, there is still the pressing concern of these strange weather phenomena," he gestured to the radar.
The others all nodded in agreement and got back to work.

♡°~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~°♡

On the Nemesis...

"Lord Megatron, what you ask of me is not impossible...but are you certain it's safe?" Knockout inquired cautiously, looking over the body of the femme Megatron had just brought in.
"Are you questioning my motives, Knockout?" Megatron glared at him dangerously.
"N-not at all!" Knockout stammered with a nervous laugh. "A mind wipe is simple enough, especially when their processors are still even mildly active...but transferring synthetic memories all at once? Usually that would take multiple sessions over several weeks. Going too fast could fry her processors and then she's good as scrap."
"Then it is a good thing I don't intend for her to be normal," Megatron smirked, examining the shard of dark energon he held in his servo.
Knockout gulped nervously at the dangerous shard,"But...every attempt at reviving bots with dark energon has turned them into mindless zombies."
"Which is why I am ordering you to give her a mind, Knockout," Megatron hissed. "Do you not see it yet? A mate fully under my control and loyal to me. Opal has always rejected my propositions in the past...now I am giving her no choice."
Knockout shuddered slightly and looked down at Opal's lifeless husk. He didn't like this idea. Not one bit.
"I-I shall do my best. Now, if you please, Lord Megatron, lie here and I shall start transmitting the memories you wish to her."
Megatron nodded and lay on the medical slab. Knockout put him into stasis, then attached a thick cord to his helm and Opal's.
"I'm really sorry," he apologized to her, then began the cortical psychic patch.

Bombs exploded around her and Arcee as they sprinted ahead of the caravan, clearing Decepticons left and right.
"We've got to get these refugees into the city!" She shouted over the chaos. "Where the Pits is our backup!?"
"They said it was held up at the gates!" Arcee hollered back. "They won't get here in time."
She glanced back at the caravan, unaware of Megatron glitching into her memory and slicing Arcee's helm off. She vanished in a puff of smoke and the whole scene glitched for a moment, then reset.
The bombs stopped and the Decepticons circled the caravan. She was frozen, unable to help the innocents. Megatron put an arm around her, smirking.
"Excellent job, my love," he purred to her. "The Autobots are several soldiers less."
"What's happening...?" She whispered, but this started to feel right. "Ar-...cee?"
The name Arcee twisted in her mind, glitching and overridden by static. No longer a name of endearment...but a name to be spoken with hatred.
Megatron grinned beside her as the Decepticons opened fire on the caravan, then disappeared to corrupt more of her memories.

Opal would be his.