Endpoint (A TFP Fanfiction)

Chapter 2

The agent glared at him, and Optimus knew what he was saying in his eyes. Nonetheless, he turned and contacted the military telling them to retreat and that the Autobots were on their way.

"Autobots," Optimus said, raising his voice. "We must proceed with caution."

The rest of them all nodded in agreement, save for Arcee. Now that they were about to face action, most of the team seemed to regain focus. Optimus hoped it was a small step towards returning to normal.

"Roll out!" he commanded, changing into his alt. mode. The others followed him into the Groundbridge, hot on his heels. 

When they made it through, they immediately started receiving blast fire. Arcee changed into her biped mode, pure fury splashed across her faceplate. She drew her blasters and charged them, shouting angrily.

"Arcee!" Optimus cried, trying to run after her. The others did as well, but were pinned down by the sudden numbers that had appeared. "Fall back! You cannot attack alone!" he shouted after her.

"Watch me!" she growled as she continued to attack. "These sick bots murdered them!" She ran towards the large government building, retracting her guns and pulling out her arm blades. "I'll destroy them all," she growled darkly, disappearing into the building.

Optimus shouted in worry and rage as he tried to follow, but now Dreadwing himself had arrived. The large Con took Wheeljack by the neck cords and threw him aside, not before nearly crushing the life out of the wrecker.

"Jackie!" Bulkhead yelled, smashing his way towards him.

Optimus charged for the Con, and the two immediately faced off in battle. Bulkhead ran over to his friend as the titans fought, feeling the sparks fly but didn't care. Wheeljack grunted, trying to get up, but his neck cords were crushed. Bulkhead could hear his labored and painful venting as he collapsed back to the ground.

Optimus saw this as well and drew back from his fight with Dreadwing. "Bulkhead, Ultra Magnus, help Wheeljack back to base!" he ordered. "Ratchet, open a Bridge and prepare sick bay! Bumblebee, Smokescreen, do you think you can hold off the rest of them while I retrieve Arcee?"

Bumblebee whirled his approval and gave his leader a thumbs up, while Smokescreen punched another Con with a smirk. Optimus nodded to the young bots and raced towards the building that Arcee had run into. 

He raced past the destruction and prayed silently that Arcee was alright. He should have known she would have been bitter in battle. She wouldn't care if she put herself in harm's way now. She just wanted revenge. He felt shudders rise in his chassis as he passed several dead and destroyed Vehicons. 

Then he heard a scream.

Optics widening in fear, Optimus turned the corner towards the scream.

He met the cold, hard gaze of Megatron himself. His spark twisted horribly as his gaze slowly fell lower and lower, passing the sharp dentas curled into a smirk, and landing slightly below his chest chassis. Arcee hung limply, her optics flickering. Her faceplate was twisted in pain and surprise. Slowly, she looked down to her own chest chassis, where the warlord's blade was stabbed right through her spark. She weakly coughed up Energon, which joined the puddle dripping at her pedes, and looked back up to her leader.

He screamed in rage and rushed forward. Megatron chuckled darkly.

As her optics finally began to go dark, the corners of her mouth twitched up slightly.

"I'm sorry, Optimus," she whispered hoarsely. "That wasn't.. very.. tactical.. was it?"

The Prime slammed into the Decepticon warlord just as her spark finally gave out. 

"Megatron!" he screamed, feeling lubricant rise in his optics, but refusing to let them fall. Megatron thrust the dead Autobot away as he was collided by the Prime. He grunted and rolled away quickly before he could draw another blow from his enemy's fist. Optimus roared with despair and anger, bringing out his giant blaster and sending thousands of blasts at him.

A Groudbridge appeared from behind Megatron. The warlord sneered and jumped away, disappearing in a flash of color. 

Optimus Prime didn't scream again. He slowly turned to his dead friend and gently slid his servos under her chassis, lifting her without a word and exciting the building. He looked over her with sorrow, spark breaking as he saw she was still smiling.

The others had finished the battle outside. The remaining 'Cons must have bridged away, because there were none alive left on the field. The rest of the team turned when they heard him coming. A collective gasp was heard and Bumblebee whirred in terror and despair. Bulkhead, with Wheeljack following, now recovered, ran over to Optimus, optics looking over his dead friend.

"What.. happened?" Smokescreen asked quietly, voice breaking.

Optimus shook his helm. "Megatron," he replied, his voice dark and painful.

Wheeljack sighed, optics sad and regretful, and reached a servo to his audio receptor. "Ratchet.. we need a bridge."

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Poor Arcee. ;-;