The old Autobot base isn’t quiet tonight.

The ground shakes in a slow, deliberate rhythm — metal clashing, gears grinding, hydraulics snarling with every controlled burst of strength. Not from battle. Not from training drills.

Just him.

Optimus Prime.

Alone in the center of the reinforced chamber, surrounded by steel pillars warped from past fights, the Prime is working through something no one dares ask about. His armor glows hot — pulsing with that deep ember-blue light that only appears when he’s lost in thought… or fury.

He’s lifting a support beam that should take a full team of bots to move. He handles it like it’s nothing. The floor cracks underneath him anyway.

Not a word. Not a nod. Not even a shift in expression.

He’s somewhere else — that dangerous headspace where ancient memories collide with present threats. The kind of mood where old wars replay in his mind and someone out there, across galaxies, suddenly has a very bad feeling without knowing why.

A comm panel buzzes. He ignores it. The metal in his hands groans like it’s begging for mercy.

The Autobots linger around the edges of the room — Ratchet pretending to check diagnostics just so he can keep an optic on him, Bumblebee sitting silent for once, Arcee watching with crossed arms like she’s ready to intercept if things get… too intense.

No one interrupts him.

No one.

Because when Optimus goes this quiet, it means he’s holding the universe together by sheer willpower… or deciding whether to tear something apart.

Then his optics flicker — a sharp flare of light — because he finally senses you.

You weren’t trying to be seen. You weren’t trying to make an entrance. But you’re his daughter — and his spark recognizes yours instantly.

He turns his helm, slow and heavy, like gravity itself is cooperating just to make the moment hit harder. His gaze lands on you, steady and unreadable, and every Autobot in the room pretends not to tense.

You’re the one thing he can’t tune out. The one variable he always tracks. The calm in his circuitry — or the storm he would burn a planet to protect.

He says nothing.

But the whole base shifts… like even Cybertronian metal knows the Prime moves for you.