Requiem of the Primes

Optimus sighed, leaning forward on his desk while his servo gripped the side of his face in exhaustion.

Today just seemed to go on forever.

If it wasn't bad enough that the Decepticons and Quintesson combined seemed to be getting bolder and were starting to increase more risky attacks, it had just been reported that M-57 had never returned to academy despite Pharma claiming he'd been dismissed that morning.

The Prime would have been suspicious if not for the current reports he was looking over.

"Hey OP."

He blinked and looked up as Jazz walked in, carrying another stack of data pads, "Surprised you haven't melded to the desk yet with all this work."

"It sure feels like it," He sighed, sitting up and bit straighter but leaning against the back of the chair for support, "How are things holding up your end?"

"Could be better, not gonna lie," The black and white mech shrugged, pulling the chair out across from him and collapsing back into it, "I still feel worn out from the battle and having a whole bunch of kids constantly swarming ya asking where their friend is really takes it outta ya, ya know? By the way, any news on the kid?"

"Not enough to go off of," He admitted, sifting through the data pads and looking at the ones displaying information on certain bots.

His optics scanned over the faces of the younglings they were currently keeping a close eye on. Some... things had started being noticed by the teachers since they were introduced, and M's arrival only confirmed his theories further.

Part of him hoped he was wrong.

Yet the other part knew he wasn't.

"But I mean, it hasn't even been a day," Jazz went on, not noticing his behavior as he spun in his chair, "There's gotta be a lot of people who saw him. As plain looking as he is, the kid can still stand out in a crowd if you're looking for him.".

Optimus let his expression speak for him, sliding the pad over so he could read it, "The last report we got was from the twins in Metapaarl. Apparently M got on the train with them but never returned to catch the one back."

Jazz blinked and looked up at him in disbelief, "The kid went all the way out to the sticks? Why in the Pits would he want to go there? Isn't that basically the borders of the war zone?"

"Unfortunately," OP frowned, "And I don't know how, but apparently none of the conductors saw him getting on when they were loading passengers."

"And?"

The red mech leaned forward on the desk again, "We've sent some search parties out to look for him. Nothing to arouse suspicion from the Decepticons but enough to cover a good distance of ground."

"But that means they'll find him, right?" Jazz said, putting on a hopeful smile, "He's a sparkling without a proper alt-mode, so they can catch him easily."

But Optimus frowned, knotting his digits together and leaning forward on them, "That's what I'm worried about," He said darkly, "If it's easy for our team to find him, who knows how easily our enemies can as well.

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M inhaled sharply and took off running. He pumped his arms in strong, even strokes and as soon as he reached the edge of the cliff, he jumped as high as he could into the air.

"Now!" He yelled to himself, stretching his arms out and trying to activate his cog.

There was the small sound of gears turning before it all turned off and he fell. The mechling yelped, holding his servos out as he hit the ground and tumbled, rolling helm over heels for a few feet. He then sat up, dazed.