It was Annabelle's fifth birthday, William Lennox watched as his daughter ran amongst the other children, acting completely normal and fine, he had spent more time then he'd thought possible trying to breach the subject with his daughter, and on a few occasions when he'd been talking about the death of his friend and guardian he had spotted a small feet running from behind the door way. He ended all conversations quickly and gone in hunt of his daughter, when he found her she was sitting playing on the floor quietly, one hand tightly gripping the neck lace she'd been given on her second birthday, it shone with a bizarre black colour and looked almost alive, the Autobot symbol was a half inch thick and hung on a heavy woven chair of the same black metal.

She never said anything, but he knew, deep down she had heard his words, He pulled himself from the past month and suddenly found he had drifted out for far longer than he first guessed, Annabelle had climbed into his lap and was soundly sleeping. A distant rumble woke the girl, and she sat up, craning her neck to see who was heading towards her. She had grown up with her black mech and the sporadic visit by one or many of his friends.

Will grabbed Annabelle before she could run down towards the approaching mechs "Bell, honey, you need to know" his daughter shocked him all the more by promptly speaking over the top of her dad.

"Daddy…I know Ironhides not coming home" she sniffed loudly tears beginning to form in her sky blue eyes "But Optimus needs this" she held out her necklace " I…I heard you on the phone, you" her voice broke as she tried and failed to hold it together, He held her close, rocking gently, he heard her mumble into his ear "you said that-that Optimus had nothing to bury" she sniffed loudly and pulled back wiping her nose and eyes "cause, cause they need to bury him, He's still here, with me, but Optimus needs to bury him so he can go home more than…than I need him" she started going off on a slight ramble.

She pulled away with sudden force and ran towards the arriving cars, they pulled up in front of the small girl, Optimus and William watched in amazement as the small newly turned five year old approached the large blue and red leader.

She has never gotten too close to any of the others unless she was in Ironhides hands, only trusting the black mech. But with no fear she approached the Prime, Optimus knelt down and offered a hand, with sure hands the still crying child lifted the shimmering black metal from around her neck and placed it into the Primes large hand.

Ratchet's optics flared as his scanners brushed over the metal "Optimus, he submerge that metal in his spark for a year, it still radiates his spark signature" the Medic murmured in Cybertronian to his friend. The significance of the act wasn't missed by any of the mechs present.

The mech nodded gently "Annabelle, I know why you have given me this, but a gift such as this, once given by a mech or a femme is something that I nor any one of my mechs could ever accept" the Prime placed the necklace back around the girls neck with care most wouldn't think possible "Ironhide has given you a symbol from our society that means he is giving you a promise, that his spark will never leave you, even if he must"

The girl wiped her eyes again, sniffling loudly, her parents had moved to stand behind her Optimus moved even closer to the girl, speaking in a tone only her ears would detect "Annabelle, I have known Ironhide my whole life, he only ever cared about two people in his long life enough to give them such a gift, the first was his spark mate, Chromia was a femme he literally shared sparks with, she died in our battle before the last, when you were only two and a half. She wore it to show others they were bonded"

"And the second?" the girl asked timidly.

"I am looking at her, one small girl that eased the pain he felt from her death" Annabelle's eye lit up a little with this "you helped him keep living through something that is known to kill us and not much holds that power over any one of us. Annabelle, you kept him alive for all these years after he lost his mate. No one can take that from you, nor can any of us take the symbol signifying that from you" he said a finger gently caressing the girls cheek and in an all too human gesture brushed the wild hair behind the girls ear.

Annabelle looked down around her neck, the other bots had not, out of respect tuned the gain on their audios to listen and her parents looked confused as to what the Prime had just told the small girl, she lifted it off from her neck and slid back the modern clip. She pulled out the chain and held the 5cm square Autobot symbol, there were glyphs layered over the imprint, Ironhides name on one side and her own translated on the other she had been told.

Gripping the pendant tightly to her chest in her small hands, more years falling she held out the chain, Primes hand dropped down and the woven metal was dropped into his palm "you still need a proper part of him to bury though, he told me…that, that unless a mechs body was buried and blessed by the matrix and the Prime or a high priest they couldn't go to the Well of all sparks in the matrix, he told me that it was your heaven" the little girl cried more freely now gripping tightly her last reminder of her mech "I…I'm not going to be why he can't go to heaven and be happy" she mumbled in the smallest most timid voice she had spoken in so far.

Optimus looked at the chain and slipped it into subspace, Ratchet bent down and handed Annabelle and her parents each a 2cm square data chip and three holoprojectors/dataplayers all the size of Sarah's palm "He left these with me, he felt like the grief had been becoming too much, they may be small but there are small parts of him, within each of those players, programing enhanced with direct spark energy. I am not sure if it will display a hologram or only audio. But what he has recorded and infused with spark energy will respond to your questions and can actively adapt…they are small pieces of him left in this world, they will only respond to your bio signatures…he made sure he wouldn't leave you until you died" the medic had not known his friend cared so very deeply for the small human family. And he was burying his mind into more complex work until he could deal with the pain that assaulted him every time he went to comm his old friend and received nothing but static

Sideswipe once quite at the back had moved quickly to the front of the group, mutterings of annoyance came from all mechs there, he grabbed the medics by the arm and sheared off a small section of metal from him. Optimus saw this, along with Ratchets thump of protest on the silver helm and handed a similar sized metal shard over. The young frontliner moved away, all eyes on him, when he returned he knelt down in front of the humans; on his palm were a chain and two rings.

"there is metal from all of us alive on earth, and even Hide…I found an old wound when I was recovering… he imbedded part of wrist though I'll never know how into my shoulder after one over energetic sparring session, I found it…just before we arrived. I went to each mech, pulling a piece from the same spot and melted them down and formed these" he held the chain out to Annabelle and the rings to her parents.

"Sideswipe, the glyphs?" asked Sarah as she slipped it over her wedding ring, the two melded perfectly and as the metals connected the dark Cybertronian metal seemed to melt and flow around her original ring melding into the metal. The glyphs could now be seen woven around the ring.

"They are each of our names, and a promise to protect you from all we can, and to above else never abandon anyone of you" William watched in awe as his own ring did the same, Sarah threaded Annabelle's pendant back on and as it settled around her neck the metal fused fully, into a solid but liquid state.

"How are they…" she pointed at Belles necklace.

The mech grimly smiled "our nanites in the metal are alive, I gave them basic programing. Stay solid, but liquid enough to move in the case of your daughter, and the programing to form the glyphs in your own" the frontliner dipped his head and moved to the back of the crowd.

Annabelle looked at her pendent and murmured to herself though all could hear "I was gonna ask for you to come home for my birthday Hidey, but now I want you to go to your home" the five year old didn't wipe away the next tears that fell, she just buried her head into her father's shoulder and wept.

Tears were shed by all, tears of pain, of loss, of grief. And tears of joy, from memories shared and moments remembered.