Endpoint (A TFP Fanfiction)

Optimus woke up panting again, sitting up almost instantly. The horror of the image was flooding his helm, and he wanted to scream. He wondered if he actually had aloud in his sleep. He brought a servo to his chest chassis, trying to calm his spark and slow his venting. After a few agonizing minutes, he had returned to normal, although the fresh memory remained. He opened his optics and blinked lubricant out of his them, trying not to cry even though he wanted to so badly. He was slowly losing himself to this madness... why was it that the war had to end this way?

He got up off the berth with a sigh, scanning the room for his old friend. He found that he had too fallen into recharge, leaning against the wall with his arms crossed. His faceplate was twisted in his sleep, making Optimus' optic ridge furrow with worry and understanding. He wondered if he should go and wake him, but decided against it. Instead he turned to see how much of the Energon Ratchet had processed while he had been resting. He found that most of it had been converted into cubes, which made the Prime wonder just how long he had been asleep.

Wondering what to do to pass the time, he walked over to the monitor. He found the crackling screen annoying, and imagined that Ratchet felt the same. He brought his servos to the keyboard and began typing, looking to see if Nurse Darby had somehow managed to contact him, though he figured it nearly impossible now. He found in the recent search history a name, one he had recognized.

Taylor.

He remembered that it was the name of the girl that had been with Nurse Darby. Getting curious and confused on why Ratchet would be looking up such a name, he started to dig in to whatever his old friend had been looking into. He found the exact same girl as he had seen before, mostly pictures of herself before Megatron had ruined her planet. Her hair had been shorter, and her face more cheerful. She looked like a happy girl, and there were a lot of pictures with what Optimus would had to guess was her carrier. The girl's 'social media', as the humans called it, was full of pictures, and Ratchet had somehow hacked into the system to get even farther into her phone, showing much of her information. Optimus stopped scrolling when he came across a picture that left him reeling.

Taylor was holding her phone out as far as she could, giving the camera a gentle smile while holding up two fingers in the peace sign. Behind her was what had Optimus stunned and confused. Leaning down so that the camera would catch his faceplate, was Ratchet himself. He was making a shocked face, obviously surprised that she had just taken a picture. Optimus continued scrolling, finding more and more private pictures of Taylor and Ratchet, most of them where she was laughing while he would looked surprised. He stopped again at one that made his spark both sink and lift at the same time. Taylor was sticking her tongue out, making a daring face that seemed unlike her while making another peace sign. It was evident that she was sitting between his helm and shoulder plate, for his helm was right next to her. His faceplate was something Optimus had hardly ever seen on him before. He was grinning widely, his expression cocky. Behind him, he was making the same peace sign that the human was. The picture was taken outside, and as Optimus kept searching, he found that all the others were as well.

He realized slowly that Taylor must have accidently discovered Ratchet and came to know about the Autbots, although it seemed that Ratchet had kept that to himself. Optimus wondered if he should be mad at the medic for not telling him about another human, but since he didn't feel upset, he decided that it wasn't necessary right now. It was apparent that Ratchet had often checked up on her to make sure she was safe without the other Autobots knowing. Taylor seemed to be enjoying his company from the pictures. Optimus cocked his optics ridge in confusion. Hadn't she been terribly frightened of them before? Even Ratchet had had her on edge. Nurse Darby seemed to be the only one she was comfortable with.

"I didn't want her to get caught up in our war," came Ratchet's dry voice behind him, making the Prime jump.

He turned quickly, facing the grumpy medic. Ratchet's faceplate wasn't angry, however, more like.. remorseful. He uncrossed his arms with a sigh, pushing himself off the wall and walking to Optimus' side, gazing at the pictures with his one good optic.