Rush

Prologue

Vorns ago on Cybertron:

Optimus Prime looked over the remains of Cybertron, optics fogged with sadness. Why had the war come to this? There were no more sparklings, hardly any femmes left, and Cybertron had completely run out of energon. It would be a miracle if another generation of mechs and femmes came about. 

Optimus almost jumped out of his armor when he heard a sound. Peering around a broken building, he spotted somebot frantically digging through a pile of rubble. As Optimus got closer, he realized it was the Decepticon TIC Soundwave. It was so out of character for the silent mech to outwardly interested in something. To almost seemed as if the Communications Officer was... desperate to find whatever he was looking for. Soundwave started to let out desperate cries and chirps  as he tore through everything. 

Then, he stopped and lifted a servo to one audio, tilting his helm. He was receiving a comm, most likely from Megatron. Then, the servo dropped and Soundwave sagged in defeat, rose to his pedes, transformed and flew towards the Decepticon ship that was waiting a ways away. 

Once the coast was clear, Optimus stepped out from behind the building and made his way to wards the pile. As he got closer, he realized it was a pile of mostly empty stasis pods. Why would Soundwave want to be going though these, he thought. 

Not exactly noticing what he was doing, Optimus started to open some of the unopened pods, trying to see if he could find whatever Soundwave had been looking for. The Prime finally lifted up a tightly sealed pod. This one was heavier than the other ones, maybe it carried a relic? Out of curiosity, he opened it and gasped. 

Looking up at him with large blue optics was a sparkling femme. She had an indigo paint job with violet energy lines. She had thin, delicate servos, and the standard femme pedes. And then, Optimus realized she looked a lot like Overdrive, the femme army's general. Only, Overdrive was killed cycles ago in a mine explosion. But it was possible the femmeling was Overdrive's. Overdrive was said to have been sparked, but no one ever knew for sure, because it was said the sparkling was premature and died right after its birth.  

The femmeling chirped and something fell to the floor. It was Overdrive's badge as well as a small data pad with the femmeling's name, "Skyrider". It was confirmed, the sparkling was Overdrive's. But who was the sire? Based on the little femme's wings, it could have been one of the Autobot Seekers. And if it was, that meant the little femme had no creators. 

The sound of familiar thrusters nearing meant Megatron was checking for survivors. Quickly, Optimus set the small femmeling and the badge back into the pod and sealed the lid. It would keep the femmeling alive and 'frozen in time'.  

Clutching the pod to his chest, Optimus made his way towards one of the still-working escape pods and set in on course for the planet he was sending the rest of his Autobots to. Earth. Optimus shut the stasis pod into the escape pod and got the controls ready. All he had to do was press this button and-

"Well, well, well. Look at we have here..." Megatron grinned evilly, "Tell me, Optimus, is that a relic you have hidden in there? A weapon perhaps?" The deception warlord purred, blaster coming to life. Optimus online his blaster as well, standing protectively in front of the controls. 

"Hand over the pod, Optimus." Megatron ordered. 

"Never." Optimus growled. He was very protective of this femmeling, he realized. With a snarl, Optimus spun around and smashed his servo down onto the red button, and the pod roared to life and shot at hyper speed towards Earth. Megatron bellowed in rage, transformed and flew towards the Nemesis, no doubt to follow the pod's trail. He heard Megatron yell one last command to his troops, "Decepticons! We're going to Earth!" 

Optimus threw himself into a pod and set course to Earth, where he would meet up with the rest of his Autobots and hope the pod got to Earth safely.

Present day:

Optimus and the  Autobots had never found the pod. And Optimus had never told them it was a sparkling in there, all he'd said was it was "precious cargo" that could not go to the Decepticons. And after many search mission, it had been confirmed that the pod had never made it to Earth, and was either still drifting in space, or it had been destroyed. 

Optimus never fought down the guilt that gnawed at his spark. Overdrive's was probably either dead or forever stuck as a sleeping sparkling, and it was all his fault. I'm so sorry, Optimus thought as he lay down in his berth, your sparkling's life has been ruined because of me. I'm so sorry... And with that, he drifted into a restless recharge.