An; Wolfette does not own this image! It belongs to NightLokison on Deviant.com. I just couldnt think of a good chapter pic so... CUTENESS! owo

So, Ironhide thought to himself, these were the squishy sparklings. He narrowed his optics as he took them in. Yes, they were Chromia's sparklings alright. He could feel a bit of her spark signature within them, being that she was his mate he was able to tell her signature anywhere.

The longer haired femme had seemed to taking a liking to the color purple, while the pigtail poof hair took a liking to pink. They were so small and fragile looking, how could they possibly be her sparklings? They should be full blown cybertronian! Yet here they were, as organic looking as any other fleshy of this planet. But, he could sense the cybertronian forms within them under lock and not sure if permanent or not.

His thoughts went back to her and his last promise.

Watch over them... Promise me...

He frowned, they were not his.

He felt his spark thrum in anger and denial, they were NOT his! He narrowed his optics down at the staring children. His spark was denying them as his sparklings, though he knew their Sire was alive still.

But, Chromia was his and these two sparkling a were a part of her.

Also part con.

He mentally sneered in disgust at the idea. How his Chromia could have ever had... Interfaced with that con was beyond him and the thought of taking on sparklings of a con, being half or not, made him cringe.

He felt no connection, they were not... his...

Maybe not, he thought, but he had made a promise to protect them. After all, they were all he had left of his Mia....

"Your HUGE!" Miko gushed, causing him to look at her and turn his thoughts away from the track that they were on. "Nice cannon's! How many cons have you thrashed? I bet you could give Megajerk a run for his money! What do you transform into? You ever blow a con up? How old are you? Have you ev-"

"Miko." The other girl, Mika, started. She hadn't taken her eye's off of him.

Miko paused, looking over to her sister with furrowed eyes.

"Your Ironhide..." Mika confirmed. He was everything Chromia told her. Intimidating, strong looking, cold, rude so far, with a hidden softness only meant for those close to him to ever get the chance to see. His aura was gruff on the outer most part and deeply within soft. "Where is Mia?"

Ironhide narrowed his optics again. That was his nickname for her, and only his. He felt a zap of possessive emotions rear forward. "Only I call her Mia, Kid."

He was the only one to call her Mia, it was his nickname for her.

"She's MY carrier." Mika spat, eyes narrowed in a challenging way, causing the mech to bristle.

Was this little... Punk, challenging him?

"She let me call her that and I'll continue to do so. Where is she?" Mika continued, not knowing how to feel about seeing him after her mother abandoned her to look for him. She knew Chromia needed Ironhide, but to be tossed aside like she had been...

Ironhide went to growl at her tone only for a wrench to wack his helm. "OUCH." He turned to see a glaring Ratchet and Sunstreaker. Sideswipe and Bulkhead were watching intently too, but the only ones seeming somewhat hostile towards him was the medic and previous twin. He narrowed his eyes at them before grunting.

"You seriously pouting because the little femme sassed you back and used your mates nickname?" A snicker came from Wheeljack.

"I'm not pouting." He venomously denied.

"Ironhide, this is Rafael; Charge of Bumblebee." Optimus started.

"Hello." Raf greeted with a small smile.

"Jack, Charge of Arcee."

"Hey." Jack waved from his leaning position, the same position his guardian was in.

"Miko, Charge of Bulkhead and when Bulkhead is needed, she is watched over by Sideswipe."

"Nice to meet you." Miko gave a large grin as she folded her arms, same position as Bulkhead who gave a little wave. Sideswipe had his arms folded with a grin on his face.

"Mika, Miko's twin, now the charge of Ratchet, and when he is busy she is watched over by Sunstreaker."

"..." Mika was ignoring them now, tinkering with something in her bag and a small scowl set upon her lips.

"..." Ratchet was ignoring everyone as he tinkered with something in the medbay and Sunstreaker seemed bored, scowling at Sideswipe.

"Primus, they all act the same." Ironhide muttered. "Your telling me old doc bot here has a charge? That's hard to believe."

"What's so hard to believe about that?!"

"Nothin," He started before smirking. "Just hard to believe an old cranky rust bucket has the time to baby sit."

"I'm NOT a baby." Mika glared before picking up a few tools. "Here Ratchet, I'm going to my room."

Ratchet grumbled as he took the tools before looking at Ironhide with a dirty look as if to say, now look what you did?

"What?"

"I think you two have much to talk about." Optimus sighs.

"What about her?" Ironhide looked to Miko.

"I just don't care." Miko replied simply. "I already HAVE a family. My human ones, and the Autobots are all the family I need or want. There's no point talking to me. Mika, however, really loved Chromia until she up and left her. For YOU. I don't' really get how your guys relationships work but Mika was practically thrown out like last weeks trash and fed to the dogs."

Ironhide didn't bother looking up her human references, but instead followed Mika's path and soon found himself in front of a door with the name 'Chromia' Written on it. He easily opened the cybertronian door, peering inside.

The room was exactly like he'd expect it to be for Chromia. Small section for her weapons, her berth with- was that a latter? He looked at it, human sized and spotted a corner of the room that held a human berth with fluffy bed coverings and human trinkets. A stuffed animal sat in place, a large growly looking bear, and a humans computer and school bag filled with odd junk here and there. Along the wall was tons of pictures, both sketched and taken by a camera.

Ironhide found himself gazing at the pictures in curiosity; There was one sketch of Chromia in a battle stance, another of her giving her sarcastic smirk, one of Mika on Chromia's alt with a taunting grin, One of them training, a funky sketch that made Chromia look very weird looking, one professional one of Chromia gazing at the stars with a look of longing.

He felt a pain deep within him rear forth as he read the title, "Love lives even over distances." He read it out loud. He knew Chromia was looking at the stars and thinking of him as he did every pit spawned day.

"She talked about you a lot."

He turned to see Mika on another side of the room, in her lap were Lockjaw and Riptide.

"She di- What are those?"

"Scraplets."

"... alright then."

...

...

...

Mika and Ironhide, though having an awkward and tense start, ended up talking for a long time. He told her about his journey through space and she told him about hers on earth with Chromia and then after Chromia left them. She told him of her and Miko's abilities, and how she had been a captive on the Decepticon ship before Starscream of all people saved her from the creepy spider femme Arachnid.

Soon they left Chromia's room before rejoining the Autobots to recount some of their missions and things going on that they had needed to know about the Decepticons. Ironhide was more then eager to get in on the con action and decided to go with Optimus, Bulkhead, and Wheeljack to hunt down the con they had been battling when they arrived. A seeker called Dreadwing.

When all that drama was finished, Mika had one question for Ironhide that she had not been able to ask before.

...

...

...

Ironhide strolled into the base, finishing up scolding Wheeljack who just continuously grumbled and rolled his optics at the old weapons specialists nagging. Optimus was speaking with Prowl, Ratchet was yelling profanity's at the Lambo twins, Bulkhead was chuckling at Miko who was having a deep and heated debate with Jack, Bumblebee was recharging with Rafael sleeping curled up on his chassis, and Arcee was in the training room.

Mika watched them amused for a second before thinking back to the question she'd been wanting to ask Ironhide.

"-ow many times do I have to tell you not to use-"

"Ironhide?"

Said mech paused in his ranting to glare over at her. "What?" he asked gruffly.

"I've been thinking." Mika started, the rest of the bots pausing to glance over at them.

"What?" she didn't speak for a moment. "Spit it out squishy, I have this to deal with." Ironhide grunted as he glared at the almost pouting Wheeljack. "Don't pout."

"I don't pout." Wheeljack growled in denial.

"Chromia left us to find you..."

Ironhide froze.

"Did she ever find you?"

"I-" He frowned, unsure what to say. He didn't really plan on telling her... hoping to just leave it like it was but what would he say?

"I would like to know as well." Optimus spoke up. He had been wondering what happened to the femme that was with them for so long, hoping she had reunited. Though he thought not when Ironhide returned without her.

"She..." Ironhide clenched his fists. "Chromia didn't make it."

"What?" Mika felt her world freeze.

"What happened?" Optimus demanded.

"She was terminated..."

"No... N-no! Your lying!" Mika trembled. Despite being so hurt, she still wished her Mia had found her happiness. Even if she had taken hers. "Your lying!"

"Mika! Come back!" Miko called.

"I'll get her." Sunstreaker grunted before following after his favorite squishy.

"Tell me all about it." Optimus spoke gently.

Ironhide sighed, his spark thrumming painfully at the memories before he spilled the horrible memory of the battle between them, the cons, and the insecticons.

"Why couldn't you just stay away?" Miko spoke after a while when he finished his tale.

"Miko." Bulkhead scolded.

"All Chromia has done is hurt my twin! I'm tired of it. It would have been better if she didn't know."

"..." Ironhide cast a glance in the direction Mika had gone before glaring at the ground.

If only he had been quick enough to save her... Then he wouldn't feel like he did. He hid it from the others well, but deep down he felt like he was dying away.

Fading.

He hadn't really thought of the children's reaction to the news. Let alone Mika...

And now more then one were suffering the loss of a greatly loved one...

Ironhide growled, punching the wall in his anger before storming out of the Autobot base to go shoot something far away.

He shouldn't have come.

...

...

...

WELP! Here you are! Brought to you by Wolfette! She hopes you liked this chapter and apologizes for her taking so long in the chapters updates. She really is trying to update her stories more often. Its just hard to really GET into her writing with all the noise in her house right now. She's more the type who has to have quiet in around her so she can concentrate on her writings and not mess to much up. She also hopes this doesn't seem rushed as she tried her hardest to take her time before the noise started. She just had her sibling and her siblings 2 year old move in so its noisy a lot and there's not really a private place for silence she can get to. ANYWAY I'm blabbing now.

THANK YOU FOR READING; Transformers Prime- The Unwanted.

Tune in Next time!