Author's note: This story follows the fanfic timeline beginning in "Family Ties", created by Phantom, a fellow tf fanfic writer. Her fanfics can be found here My thanks to her for the initial stamp of approval and allowing me the use of her character, Andromeda.  Nova is my character.

This story is rated 'R' for language and certain conversation. You have been warned!

Onto the story!

* * * *

Chapter 3

Nova lay awake in her Infirmary bed during the middle of a Cybertronian "night". According to First Aid, she should attempt to get up tomorrow and attempt to walk to see how well the repair work held up under light exercise. She'd been unconscious during most of the birth, so the medics had to do a little surgery to get the baby out, and then patched her up. First Aid told her sadly that the baby was dead even before it was even out of the womb. Nova felt like crying, but was all out of tears. She'd been crying off and on throughout the better part of the week, crying for her baby, crying for herself. This wasn't Rodimus's fault at all. It was hers! She'd exerted too much energy, taking her frustrations out on him over his behavior. She knew he'd left the Energon goodies for her, but she was too proud to take any form of charity. Primus, she was such a fool, her pride keeping her desperation at bay. She thought she could conserve her energy until she got her first rationing of Energon on Cybertron.

Now she was all alone, and she didn't think she could take the silence in her world ever again. 

* * * *

Rodimus paced. Again.

He had to see Nova again. Just to say sorry, and then they could drag him away in shackles if they liked. Yes, he'd go right now. But what if ...

He couldn't think about if the rest of the Autobots jumped him first. He had a RIGHT to say what he wanted to, he OWED her that much.

He ran out of his quarters, headed for the Infirmary. He passed First Aid in the hall, who mumbled, "Metroplex."

Rodimus turned on his heel, not sure if that message was for him. "What?"

"You heard me." First Aid said.

He'd bow and scrape to First Aid later. He turned and ran past the Infirmary on toward Shuttle bay 1, where his personal cruiser was. Without even giving the tech bot on duty the information needed for clearance, he jumped in and started his ship up, headed for Earth.

A few minutes later Optimus's voice came over the intercom. "Rodimus! You'd better not be doing what I think you're doing!"

"I'm going, Dad."

"Rodimus..."

"All I want to do is apologize properly to her. I owe her THAT much at least."

"You WANT to die, don't you? She's probably strong enough now to take you on for what's happened."

"She should. I earned a good beating."

Optimus sighed. "I'll inform Ultra Magnus not to shoot you down when you come for clearance."

"Thanks, Pop. I owe you one."

"Just call me Optimus and I won't kill you when you get back."

"You can't kill me, Optimus, I'm your baby!" Rodimus could FEEL Optimus roll his optics. "Anyway, if I don't come back tonight, you'll get a pretty good idea why."

"Rod, I would NOT take advantage of her right now."

"Bleh! Who said I was even interested in Nova? I meant I'm gonna find some other hot young thing to wine, dine and then hopefully get lucky with."

Optimus groaned. "Whatever. I doubt any femme will give you a chance after all this. Optimus out."

Rodimus killed his side of the connection with an angry fist. SOMEONE had to believe him that he didn't mean any of this, preferably a femme!

During the trip, mostly while the autopilot was on, Rodimus rehearsed what he was going to say, thoroughly this time. He had to be direct, no hidden innuendos, no pushes that he wanted to "make up" for this, just that he was sorry, and he was begging for forgiveness.

"We will arrive on Earth in two minutes. Now breaching Earth's atmosphere." The computer said in a flat monotone.

"Computer, find the exact location of new female recruit, Nova."

"Searching...." After a few minutes the computer came back "No recruit matches."

"WHAT?!" Rodimus cocked a brow. "Come on Mags, I know you're busy, but you're NEVER behind on your work." Now he did an exact match with Nova's coloring, against her name and rank. Still nothing.

"Computer, link me to Ultra Magnus's files directly."

"Access denied."

"WHAT THE -" Rodimus was furious. "Computer, explain."

"Autobot Rodimus Prime suspended from further duties, therefore denied access to others' files."

Rodimus made a fist. He was gonna kill someone.

"Am I allowed to know if Nova is even working for the Autobots still?"

"Yes she is, but that is all the information you are allowed access to."

"Computer, hail Autobot City, specifically Ultra Magnus."

"Ultra Magnus is currently in a meeting and is not to be disturbed."

"Tell him the Autobot version of Unicron is speeding toward Metroplex and will eat the first robot in sight if he doesn't get his ass out of the meeting, pronto."

"..."

"COMPUTER!"

"Understood. Ultra Magnus will meet you at Landing Pad 3."

"*Thank* you, Computer." Rodimus leaned back in his chair and sighed.

* * *

Magnus was waiting for Rodimus alright. Waiting to kill him.

"You'd better have a good god-damned reason for being here." Magnus growled as Rodimus came out of his shuttle, all smiles.

"Chill, Mags baby. You need to relax more. I'm here to see Nova."

"OHH NO!" Magnus jumped in front of Rodimus, flinging his arms wide. "Not another step. Go back to your shuttle and go back to Cybertron. We do NOT need you here right now causing more trouble for that poor girl."

Now Rodimus was starting to get ticked off. "Magnus, I came to apologize to her, that's ALL. Do I need to pull rank and MAKE you step aside?"

"Not if you're relieved of duty." Magnus reminded him. "You're NOTHING in the Autobot army right now." Magnus pulled his gun out of subspace and poked Rodimus's midsection. "You're gonna apologize and then you're gonna leave. Kapesh?"

Oh boy. Magnus was pissed. At least he was letting him see Nova. "Yeah, sure thing, Mags baby." Rodimus shrugged.

Magnus did NOT like the grin that was on the former second in command's face. "Move." he growled. "We're gonna make this very short and sweet."

Magnus stowed his weapon away and they began their march to Nova's little hole in the wall. New people never got the big offices, until they were promoted, but Magnus noticed Nova never complained like the others. She gave her silent acceptance and her thanks for a second chance.

Magnus pushed the bell at Nova's door, and they both waited. Finally, Nova came to the door and it opened, revealing her pretty white with orange splashes colored body. She saluted as soon as she recognized Ultra Magnus, but began to quiver when she saw Rodimus.

"Nova, Rodimus Prime has something very important to tell you." Ultra Magnus explained.

Rodimus took a deep breath. "Nova, I just want you to know that I'm sorry, and I regret."

Nova cocked her head. "Regret?"

Rodimus nodded. "Regret. DOING THIS!" Rodimus grabbed her arm before either Magnus or she could react, and ran down the hallway, then transforming and throwing Nova in his cab, Nova screaming the entire time.

"RODIMUS!" Magnus was screaming! He was really ticked off now! Rodimus grinned. He heard the City Commander transforming as well, tires screeching after him. "You are SO deactivated!" Magnus yelled into the comm. link. "I'll drag you up to Quintessa and have the Sharkticons eat you!"

"Aw, you old goat! You gotta have some faith in the Chosen One!" Rodimus called back gleefully.

Those words stopped Magnus. Chosen One...he'd sorta forgotten Rodimus wasn't just a fun-loving kid who pulled pranks on everyone. He was the CHOSEN ONE! The one that would save them all...or so it had been said.

"Ultra Magnus?" Nova spoke up.

"Don't worry, Nova. You're gonna be ok. I think." Magnus was LOATHE to let Rodimus go, but his words had struck home. He had to have faith in his "leader" even if he was suspended from duty. "You've got two hours. I want her sitting back at her desk by then."

"Three, and we come waltzing in at the last minute. Rodimus out."

"No, please let me go Rodimus Prime. PLEASE."

"Uh huh. Not this time. This time we're gonna find some place private and -"

To his surprise, Nova began to cry. "Why can't you leave me alone?"

Rodimus didn't know how to reply. He didn't think she'd start crying. "Listen, if you think I'm going to ..."

"I don't want you to do anything! I just want you to just leave me alone!"

Rodimus sighed. "Can you just wait till we get there and hear me out?"

Nova only sobbed in response.

* * * *

By the time Rodimus had found the perfect "private" spot, a large cliff over looking a mountain valley, Nova had cried herself into a recharge session.

"God, one week out of the Infirmary and they have you planted at work. Sick, sick people running this operation." a mental image of Magnus the slave driver came into his head. Magnus was NEVER going to forgive him for this!

Nova awoke when Rodimus lurched to a stop. They had five minutes before they had to be back at Metroplex. "Aw screw him." Rodimus thought. "Screw 'em all. I'm sick of being the bad guy here."

Nova couldn't remember where she was. She was in a car, but...where was the car?! This wasn't Metroplex or the surrounding area!

"Hey, Nova."

"Oh, shit."

"Oh, come on, even a 'Go to Hell!' would be nicer than that!"

Nova forced her way out of Rodimus' cab. "Where the hell are we?"

"Somewhere in the United States. Overlooking some vast mountainous terrain." Rodimus transformed into his robot mode.

Nova sat down, close to the cliff. "Why?"

Rodimus walked over to her. "Because I want to say I'm sorry. For everything."

"You did that before, back when I was still in the Infirmary."

"No, I mean I *really* want to apologize. For all that stuff I said. I shouldn't have at all. I didn't want to talk to you anywhere on Cybertron, because I can't get a moment to myself, and Metroplex is too busy. I just wanted us to be cool on all of this."

Nova began to cry again. She couldn't bear to look at him. Rodimus knelt down to her. "It's my fault Rodimus. ALL of it. I was the one who got angry at you in the first place. I exerted all my energy yelling at you and returning to Tronus. I knew I'd be rationed Energon within the next week if I stayed with the Autobots, but my pride kept me from going back and facing any of you and begging for a second chance. But the pregnancy...the baby took more energy than I could give it...Even when you left those Energon goodies, I KNEW I was desperate, but I couldn't take them. Then I started to shut down on Tronus and I felt something happening with the baby...like it was struggling to live. So I raced back to Cybertron, and when I tried to give the packet back I just...." Nova began to sob even harder. Rodimus wasn't sure what to do. He was too stunned with her revelation at the moment.

Nova started to gain some composure and continued. "When I woke up, you were standing there beside my bed. I was in pain, and was sort of disoriented, but I knew who you were. Then you left and First Aid came in..." she trembled at the memory. "I just couldn't handle it. It was MY fault. I'd lost the most important thing in my world and now it was gone. I had to have someone else to blame for this, and...I guess I just picked you when you came back to see me."

"But Springer set me straight. You weren't in any danger of losing the baby in battle..."

Nova laughed. "You were more right than you thought you were Rodimus. I am a liability to this army, or I was two weeks ago." She sighed. "I wouldn't have done any good, and in some ways I was being selfish by getting a job with the Autobots because I had to live and so did my baby. Maybe during an evacuation, I might have been captured by the enemy and they tortured me till I lost the baby."

"Don't say that!" Rodimus admonished

"It's the truth! It's MY fault, Rodimus! I should have picked a job somewhere else, where nothing was happening, where there were no volatile situations. But you guys were paying the most and giving the most Energon, which is what I needed so badly."

"Why didn't you tell Ultra Magnus that you were expecting." It was not a question.

"I had planned to the minute we were dismissed, but then you came in and..."

"Oh, shit." Rodimus echoed her words in shock. "This *is* all my fault then."

"No, it's mine. I should have just kept my cool. Let you have your fun. Sometimes I just over-react to the stupidest stuff and..."

The realization had hit Rodimus. "It's all my fault." he said in an empty voice. "I killed that child...Oh Primus!" Rodimus began wandering around aimlessly.

"Rodimus!" Nova was crying again. Rodimus looked back at her and started to teeter over. "Please, just let me bear this burden alone. It was never your fault. You tried to save me and the baby by leaving the Energon. Please! Just blame me, I'M the one that had the responsibility of caring for it!"

Rodimus was still dazed and he looked down at the femme. "But..."

"Rodimus! Please!" she begged and without thinking, wrapped her arms around him. "Please don't torture yourself like this!"

Without thinking as well, Rodimus wrapped his arms around her for a minute, before saying, "Come on, I'll take you home."

* * * *

Rodimus and Nova drove back slowly to Metroplex and four hours later they arrived, Magnus looking furious. Neither had said a word on the trip home.

"Tomorrow you DIE, Rodimus!" Magnus was almost gleeful. Nova transformed from her Formula-1 car form to her robot mode, and joined Ultra Magnus. Rodimus did not transform.

"Optimus knows your late, and I'm to personally deal with you." Magnus's enthusiasm could barely be contained. "You're confined to your quarters for now, Rodimus. Tomorrow I'm going to give you a punishment you've been asking for since this fiasco started!"

"No."

Like the day they'd all met, all optics turned to Nova.

"Rodimus may have done something wrong, but he made it up today. To me. That's what's important here. I don't need a bribe or any special treatment. I want my baby back, but I can't have that. That's MY punishment for my pride. Rodimus did everything he could to make his actions up to me. He visited me, begged me to come back, even left Energon for me at home because he knew I didn't have any. I had to blame someone for my baby's loss, and I blamed him. He was stupid, but he's young. He's *allowed* to be stupid right now."

Rodimus wanted to say something, but Magnus smacked his hood.

"It's all my fault that any of this happened. I'm sorry for blaming you Rodimus. I'm sorry for the uproar I caused. I don't deserve to be in this army right now with the way I've acted toward my superiors. I'll hand in my resignation tomorrow morning at 8 a.m. Earth time. Goodbye and thank you."

She quickly turned on her heel and ran off.

Rodimus and Magnus stayed put, too stunned to go after her.

Rodimus transformed into his robot mode. "Magnus, you can't just let her go like that!"

Magnus sighed, all thoughts of punishing his friend and commander fleeing his memory banks in droves. "If she's that stubborn, Rod, what could I possibly say or do to make her stay? She's got her mind made up."

Rod looked at the empty hallway where she'd been. "Everything's gone to hell in a handbasket. After all that, she's still leaving." Rod's comm. beeped just then, and hoping it wasn't Optimus, he answered it.

"Rodimus? It's First Aid. I've tried to hail Nova but she's not answering."

"What's the matter, First Aid?"

First Aid looked uncomfortable relaying personnel information that wasn't about Rodimus to him. "Just get Nova back to Cybertron. Pronto. I'll tell you then." he signed off.

First Aid's tone told both Rodimus and Magnus that something was VERY wrong. A glance from Ultra Magnus told Rodimus to get Nova, he'd get his shuttle ready for take-off. Rodimus only hoped the medics efforts this time were not in vain, for Nova's sake.

<-- Chapter 2 || Chapter 4 -->

return to Phantom's Fanfic Archive