When All Lights Go Out I (TFP)

Chapter 38

Jack turned to face Optimus, looking at Azura who was trembling as she huddled against Optimus. "I am not mad at you, Azura. I am sorry that I accused you of lying before...but now I realize you had a good reason to not say anything. I hope you don't feel too embarrassed." She did not look at him as she listened to Jack. "You at least have Optimus with you. I know it is every foster kid's dream to have a parent, so I guess you are lucky." She still said nothing and Optimus moved to sit down. Jack walked closer and climbed onto Optimus's knee to sit. "I do not know what it is like to go through a whole fourteen years thinking I know who I am, only to learn I really don't know who I am. So I am afraid I cannot understand that. I only understand that it must have hurt. Kind of like what happened with my father."

She turned her head to look at Jack as he mentioned his father and smiled at him kindly. "I appreciate that you are not mad, Jack. I don't know why you are not mad, but..."

"I am not mad because I no real reason to be mad, Azura. You might not have told us the truth, but I no longer care. I think Optimus is a great dad to you." The leader smile widened as he listened to Jack compliment him. "I may not know what happened three years ago, but I guess the past cannot be changed. You can only move forward. At least now you can mend what has been broken."

"I guess...you might think differently when you learn how I came to be," Azura said, swallowing nervously as she thought about the very story. "Even...I do not know what to think. And I have only heard the story once."

"I guess. But I won't be told until Miko and Raf arrive soon, so I can only speculate right now. Though I really don't think I can think of you any differently. I mean, I am going to assume you were...um..." Jack paused as he thought about it for a moment and looked at Optimus curiously. "Whatever the term is for conception..." He shrugged and looked back at Azura. "No matter the incident, I cannot really imagine it to being your fault. If you are seventeen and still considered an infant in Cybertronian standards, that says to me you weren't even fully formed when it happened."

"You would be correct, Jack. Azura was only a new spark with no form around her life force," Optimus responded to the boy kindly. "I remember the moment she was created. My system was so overwhelmed by it, and yet, my spark could not bring myself to harm her. I had already felt a sense of love for her, even...even if the hardest decision I ever had to make was just after she had been...after her spark came into existence."

The boy made a strange face and huffed a little. "I also have to say that I am having a hard time trying to imagine you carrying a sparkling, Optimus. I-I don't mean to be disrespectful, but...um...could you explain it to me? I really don't want to sound stupid."

"It is not a stupid question at all, Jack. Your species is very different from that of Cybertronians. Earth creatures seemed to have a separation between male and female, and which one is biologically able to carry offspring. Cybertronians do not fall into the same laws of nature of this world." Jack was completely intrigued as he listened to Optimus patiently. "I know this will be something I have to tell Miko and Raf as well, but I do not mind explaining at all. Mechs and femmes are both capable of carrying sparklings. While majority of femmes do possess gestation chambers, it is not uncommon for mechs to also possess such chambers. However, my circumstance was different. I do not have a gestation chamber, but once you learn how Azura came to be, you will understand why. And unfortunately..." Optimus glanced down as Azura whimpered softly. "It does have to do with one of many evil schemes from Megatron."

The boy widened his eyes and looked at Azura in shock. Hearing that she was a product of evil was a surprise to him. He saw tears falling from her optics as she listened. He could tell this bothered her deeply. But Jack didn't think she was evil. He didn't believe evil was born anyway, so she couldn't be evil like Megatron. But he wondered if Cybertronians still required two to produce a sparkling. After all, that is the biology he knew logically from school. But he knew this was alien stuff, so it was new to him.