Chapter 4: Tired and Distracted on the Battlefield
Could he be himself again?...
His servo trembled slightly as he stood there, pondering the situation. Would it work? What if the matrix only returned him to his old state of mind instead of him as a whole? But then again, what choice does he have? To be himself again and ... to be free?.. His servo inched closer to the armour shielding the matrix from the outside. He was so close, all he would have to do was-
" Uh, Sir! Ratchet found an energon mine signal but there are a few Decepticons near the area and we need you to come with..." Bumblebee buzzed from behind the door. Optimus's servo stayed held above his chassis for a moment longer before he snapped out of hit. He took a deep vent as he straightened himself up, the mask slipping back in place as he turned towards the door. " Very well, thank you for informing me, Bumblebee. I shall meet you at the ground bridge momentarily ", his voice steeled as not to let the scout hear any signs of his distress from a moment ago, the other bots must have gotten back from dropping off the kids already...How long was he in here for? " Thank you, sir, we will be waiting for you... and uh, sir? It might be best to stop by the medbay before we head out...just a thought ". Optimus listened as the young bot walked away down the hall, wondering what had brought on that idea. He thought for a moment before looking down at his servos. Once he was sure that the other bot had left, he opened his door and immediately looked down towards his pedes. Just as he thought... there had been a small trail of energon leading towards his door. His servos had stopped leaking energon at this point but you could still see the tiniest hint of blue as the injury had stained his servos.
' Hopefully, he kept this to himself...' he thought as he closed and locked his door. There was nothing worth hiding nor did he distrust his fellow teammates but it had become a nervous habit of his over the years... He did his best not to remember the day he started locking his door.
Optimus decided not to visit the medbay and instead headed straight to the main control room. His steps were awfully slow as he traveled down the desolate, and dim hallway. In choosing their rooms, he had opted for the one furthest away from the main area, claiming that it would be the best for getting some quiet time after a long day but... Optimus shook his head. He needed to be focused and in control now, he could not afford to get distracted again. He turned down another hallway as he drew closer to the main room.
He saw Bumblebee standing near the ground bridge, looking lost in thought. Bulkhead and Arcee stood a little off to the side, discussing the recent mission that the wrecker and scout had just been on earlier in the day. However, Ratchet immediately met his optics as soon as he walked into the room. Optimus could see his concern, he too wanted to discuss the earlier confrontation but it would simply have to wait until they got back. He looked back at his friend and silently mouthed ' later ' to imply that they would have a chance to talk. Ratchet nodded and turned to the others, calling out their names to gain their attention.
" Now, I know you all have only just returned and the two of you" he pointed at Bulkhead and Bumblebee " have been on a mission all day but, this is the first large energon mine we have discovered in a deca-cycle and we are starting to get into the danger zone on our energon preserves. Now, there are a few Decepticons in the area, not in the mine, but nearby. I suspect they are searching for it as well but we still need to" Optimus listened to his friend give out instructions, glad to have his friend take over while he got his bearings. He silently chuckled as Ratchet held a wrench, threatening them if they got hurt.
The medic turned to Optimus and nodded, signifying that he was done speaking, and headed over to the controls. He nodded back as he turned to his team and started to walk toward the now powered-on ground bridge. " Autobots, we are to remain vigilant and we shall do our best to not alert the Decepticons to our location. That being said, let's roll out!" Optimus said, putting on his 'Prime' voice and transformed. The others nodded as they transformed to follow him.
After a short minute, they reached the other side and were greeted with a dense forest. Optimus scanned the other and found a small group of mountains to the east of them. The sun was starting to set so he urged his team to move quickly as they followed him. What they didn't see, was a small sleek drone flying above the area, having picked up movement through its sensors, it reported its findings to the owner while flying a good distance behind the team.
It was a few earth hours before they reached the mine entrance, the dense forest making it harder for the larger bots to make their way through the foliage. Optimus had to admit, if they were not on a mission at the moment, this would have been a nice area to relax. He left his thoughts and assigned Arcee and Bumblebee to scout out the mine to see if the enemy had reached it while he and Bulkhead stood watch outside. After a while of searching, they had confirmed that it had yet been touched. Optimus was just about to comm Ratchet to request a ground bridge to transport the energon when he heard a noise. The forest had been relatively quiet except for the native animals so the noise caught him off guard.
He quickly and quietly onlined his weapons and scanned the area. Bulkhead, seeing his leader on alert, onlined his weapons as well. Bumblebee and Arcee had come out of the mine, holding a couple of cubes of energon, expecting there to be a ground bridge, and asked what was going on. That's when Optimus had spotted it... Laserbeak was flying closer to them above the trees and started to open fire. They all dove out of the way to dodge and fired their own shots back.
Suddenly Vehicons started to come out of the foliage and attack as well, driving them apart. Optimus smacked himself mentally for not realizing they were being followed and realized that he and his team were being separated. He tried to fight his way back when he heard a sickening familiar laugh. He turned towards the noise as a silver fist came flying at his face plate.
" Well, Optimus! Isn't this a surprise? " Megatron chuckled. " And here I thought you were losing the fight in you, none of my soldiers reported you fighting in a while ". Optimus only steeled himself as he engaged his battle mask. "...Fine then " The warlord smirked as he engaged his blade and swung towards Optimus.
The two began what to others almost looked like a dance. One leader dodging a blow with such grace and the other executing perfectly timed strikes that seemed to flow like the wind around them. This pattern went on continuously, vorns of fighting showed through as they traded offensive blows.
The Autobots were slowly getting rid of some of the Decepticons, struggling a bit with the heavy hitters but continued fighting nonetheless. Each, one by one, would glance at their leader as he fought the violent warlord and wanted badly to run over and help him before getting drawn into another fight.
Optimus on the other hand, had started to tire. His stress from earlier in the day had drained a bit of energy and with the lack of energon, he hadn't had a chance to fuel that day. Either way, he would keep fighting, he had been through much worse and had survived longer without energon. However, Megatron had noticed and decided to start provoking him, hoping to distract Optimus enough to gain the upper hand.
" What's wrong Optimus? Worn out already? It's a surprise that you and your Autobots haven't lost yet, considering how weak you are" Megatron looked at him, smirking as Optimus only rolled his optics. They continued to go back and forth for a little longer before both were blade to blade, the other trying to push the other down. Megatron knew that it was obvious that Optimus wouldn't break with petty insults... so he decided to go for a low blow.
" You know, if you had simply given me the matrix, you would have made a perfect little assistant, after all... It's in your programming "
Optimus stood there in stunned silence as the offending warlord's toothy grin grew wider, knowing that he struck a nerve. Optimus could feel the rage bubbling in him, he knew this was exactly what Megatron wanted, for him to lose control. He held himself back but realized too late that Megatron had backed off and swung at him again.
The Autobot team had quickly recovered from their own fights and tried to make their way towards Optimus. They drew in closer before a few more Decepticon soldiers got in their way. They couldn't quite reach their leader but... they knew something was off.
Meanwhile, Optimus, now on the ground, was using his blade to hold off Megatron from striking him. He pushed his anger down as much as he could while focusing on the fight. Optimus proceeded to through the warlord off of him and tried to get up.
" Come now, I think you secretly enjoyed it " " Megatron... stop " " You know, being under control and all, it makes me wonder why you wanted me to remove the code for you" " Megatron knock it off" " After all- " " Stop" " You made the perfect pet " " STOP IT! " This was it, Optimus had snapped. He threw himself at Megatron, blade drawn back as he glared daggers at the offending warlord and yelled out a war cry. Punches were thrown, both sides leaking energon from numerous cuts but neither was relenting as the fighting became more erratic.
The rest of the bots watched, the remaining Decepticons were defeated but they knew not to intervene... they had never seen Optimus this angry.
" There it is! There's the fight that's been lacking for vorns! " Megatron laughed as he fended off a blow from the Prime. Optimus didn't realize that his erratic fighting was swiftly depleting his energy reserves and felt himself start to falter. However, he did not pay attention to it, all he saw was red. ' How dare he bring that up!? He knows how painful it was being under control like that! He knows how miserable I was, how-' He continued to swing at his enemy. Rage-driven, he had managed to strike Megatron near his left shoulder joint which was now leaking a great deal of energon.
Megatron now sobered up from his over-confidence, not expecting the Prime to be this angry. The fighting slowed back down slightly, both leaders losing energy from the extensive fight. Optimus, now back in his thoughts, painful memories digging into his processor as he tried but failed to focus on the fight. He also failed to notice the silver fist flying at his face plate again, but this time it hit its mark and shattered his battle mask. Optimus had to blink a few times to regain focus. His mask, now broken in half with the base still holding on, couldn't do much to disguise his wince of pain as the adrenaline died down.
" Ha Ha! Seems you've lost your touch old friend " the warlord laughed as he drove the emotional wounds further. Optimus, as his anger died down, looked up at Megatron, trying as always to see any glimpse of the inspirational mech who had saved him that day... only to be met with hateful red optics that wanted him dead. His anger died down now, the panic from this morning, the stress of eons worth of war, and his low energy had finally caught up to him as he stared at his friend turned enemy.
Arcee had made a move to step in as Megatron stepped closer to the fallen Prime but could barely move as she was trying to process what had just been said and the anger that had poured out of the Prime. The other bots, who were not at the silo to see the conflict this morning, were frozen as they had never seen their leader this angry.
Megatron chuckled as he approached the fallen Prime, he had expected a little more fight out of him, it was honestly a bit disappointing but it was satisfying to see the shock on the puny Autobot soldier's faces as the Prime fought with such malice. He had to admit, the insults he made towards the Prime were a very sensitive subject and he had not expected himself to use them against his oldest enemy, it wasn't his fault after all but it had won him the upper hand. He stared down, grinning widely at his enemy as he put away his blade and aimed his fusion cannon at the Prime.
" What? No comeback? No speech? I- " he froze as he looked at his enemy's expression. Optimus had always been a steel trap, never angry, never outright happy, he just was stoic and had that blasted wall built around him at all times. He looked tired...
Megatron didn't understand why, but he hated the empty look in Optimus' optics. " Well? Anything to say? Go on! Say something! " he pushed his cannon closer to the Prime's face plate and powered it up. " Say something slag it! " he shouted, but Optimus never faltered. Megatron grew frustrated, ' This isn't how it works! He's supposed to fight me until the end! '.
The warlord continued to glare at his enemy, growling slowly louder by the minute as his weapon gained more power and its whirring grew louder. After a while, Megatron faltered and drew his weapon away. He sneered as he looked down at his enemy " A pity, I came here expecting a glorious battle but... I see now that there is nothing worth fighting for ". He gave one last hard look at his enemy, something else on his mind as he shook his helm. Megatron turned away, transformed, and flew away, planning something in the back of his processor.
Optimus sat up and stared at where his enemy had just stood, looking down in embarrassment. The other Autobots looked on in both astonishment and embarrassment at how their leader had just given up like that. Strangely enough, the Decepticon leader had let them keep the mine but that wasn't where their concerns lay.
Arcee continued to stare at Optimus for a while before getting ready to comm Ratchet for a ground bridge. " Ratchet, we're ready, we got a bit of trouble but we secured the mine and are ready for for transport..."
" And... get the medbay ready, there's something we need to talk about..."
