So sometimes I write about giant robots on LJ under the username the_lost_robot. I'm moving some of my one-shots over here though I'm working on an enormous AU on my journal which won't see FF for a very long time (read: quite possibly never). That's because I'm not working on it sequentially and posting it here would be...problematic at best.

Originally posted: 26/05/12 on Livejournal by the_lost_robot

Rating: PG

Genre: Supernatural, horror

Continuity: Post DOTM

Characters: Optimus Prime, Ratchet, Prowl, Barricade, small appearance of Sideswipe

Summary: Optimus never came back to life in Egypt. The Autobots don't discover this until it's too late.

Notes: Based on Zea T's excellent fic 'Tell Me Why' with her permission.
The idea of Barricade taking care of the hatchlings comes from Antepath's fic, 'Chance.'
Also. I wasn't expecting this fic to turn this morbid.

Disclaimer: The giant robots are not mine.

The Dark Does Come

"Data file corruption. That's what it is."

Prowl slowly slid his gaze from Optimus Prime's still form on the med-berth to meet Ratchet's and he inclined his head in acknowledgement. "Can we fix it?"

Ratchet averted his gaze and his optics dimmed. "Maybe. I don't know. I looked at his logs. It started all the way back in Egypt, after the boy brought him back to life. I was meticulous in my care but he hid this from me somehow, perhaps he wasn't even aware of it. If I'd known then…" the medic broke off in self-recrimination, "I could have fixed it."

"And now?"

"It's deeply entrenched in his programming, it's affecting his personality matrix, his memories, his decisions. Everything. I don't know how much of it has been him this last couple of years and how much has been this...mockery."

He placed the cubes of energon on the ground and then rose to leave. Though the hatchlings ran between his feet, familiarity had breed fearlessness; he paid them no heed and ignored Barricade. The ritual has become familiar and there is the silent agreement that no more words need to spoken.

"Prowl?" the once bright optics do not turn on to indicate that Optimus is awake but remained dark and Ratchet wondered if Optimus had ever really come back in Egypt or it was they had all convinced themselves that he had. A lie that they had all clung to desperately, determined not to see the truth, that the boy had only brought back a shadow, a ghost in Prime's shell, bitter and twisted and hateful.

"He isn't here." Since his arrival, Prowl had never spent much time on base. Ratchet didn't want to know where he went or why their energon kept disappearing. He only hoped that the tactician didn't get caught in whatever venture he'd taken up to set things right.

"I need him here; we need to plan our next assault on the Decepticon forces. We must not stop until they have been wiped out completely. Why can't I raise him on the comms?" Optimus struggled to sit up against the many restraints holding him down.

Because there aren't any Decepticon forces left on the planet, Ratchet wanted to say, we've hunted so many of them down and they couldn't keep up the assault. All of them dead, no prisoners taken, not even when they surrendered. Gone, gone, gone, gone, gone, on the orders of a Prime. What need was there for a tactician when there was no one left to fight?

"He's directing a small operation in Australia," Ratchet lied instead. "He'll be back in an orn, now lie down, you're still injured."

"Injured?" Prime optics flickered on weakly; the light was so pale it was white instead of his normal blue.

"There was a battle," Ratchet firmly squashed all feelings of guilt for deceiving his unwell leader; "It's not surprising you scrambled a few memory circuits, you took quite a few blasts to the head."

"Who?"

Ratchet wirelessly re-uploaded a recharge program through the berth. "It's not important, Prime," he said as Optimus began to shut-down. "It's not important."

Once he was certain Optimus was out, he turned to his other patient. Sideswipe said nothing as the medic began to repair his damaged armour, welding new plating to cover wounds caused by an energon axe. Prime's energon axe.

Watching Optimus bear down on the red twin after some harmless banter, intent on dealing grievous harm had been terrifying. He finally had to acknowledge Prowl's insistence that something wasn't right with their Prime. After they had managed to subdue him, Ratchet had deep-scanned Optimus's codes and discovered the subversion of his core programming.

Prowl had left shortly afterwards, to think, the tactician had claimed. Prime had been the undisputed leader of the Autobots for so long, their driving force, an embodiment of their ideals and beliefs. The ramifications of his instability threatened everything. Ratchet could only hope that Prowl found the answers they needed and soon.

He was almost out of the clearing when he stopped and turned. Barricade instantly tensed and growled at him for the deviation but he ignored the Decepticon's warning of violence.

"The Prime is suffering from core code corruption," Prowl stated it so blandly; he could have been observing that planets were round.

Barricade was silent for a few stunned moments, then the Decepticon laughed. There was no joy in the sound, it was dark and bitter and morbid. Barricade's many red optics locked onto the tactician, a hint of cruelty and malice glimmering in them. "And this is news to your faction?" sharp claws, adept at delivering death, casually righted a stumbling hatchling. "That your Prime has succumbed to madness just like the rest of us?"

Prowl levelled a hard stare at the Decepticon, the one he used to make even the most hardened criminals talk when he was an Enforcer. "Explain."

Barricade gave a dismissive shrug. "What else would you call it?" he growled, "A race of billions and we turned upon each other so easily, killing and murdering for millions of vorns. It takes two sides to fight a war and the Autobots were just as eager to commit genocide as we were. Corruption pervades all of our codes, Prowl and it took any form of sanity or self-preservation with it."

"And that is what you believe? The Autobots fought for freedom and justice, not because of battle-lust. Do not think our motivations were ever the same."

"That is what I know and what I can see," the Decepticon gestured to the two of them and the hatchlings at their feet, "This is all that remains of a once great race. It could have ended before we reached this point, one faction only needed to surrender and yet both would rather fight to the very last mech. To extinction. If Optimus Prime stood here in this clearing, he would kill the hatchlings here because they could one day develop in Decepticon soldiers. He sacrificed the Allspark, our future and our species for the fleshies. How is that not madness? Your Prime was insane long before he died. His resurrection has merely shown him for what he is."

Prowl shook his head in denial and stepped away to leave the clearing. "Where are Decepticons, Prowl?" Barricade demanded from the tactician's fading form, "Why are there no more Decepticons on Earth? How come the Autobots did not question their orders from their mad Prime and slaughtered them all without a second thought? Where was their justice?"

He did not receive an answer.

"Wake him up."

"Wait, you want to do what, Prowl?"

"Wake him up. He needs to know about the code corruption. Not to mention, he is guilty of attacking a subordinate unprovoked and must face the consequences."

"This sounds like a terrible idea. You realise he's a Prime. He's the highest authority we have."

"Justice is blind to rank and faction. It's time we remember the oaths we took as Autobots."

They didn't dare take off the restraints. It had taken the combined might of Sunstreaker, Prowl, Bumblebee and Trailbreaker to pull Optimus off Sideswipe and restrain him long enough for Ratchet to offline him.

"Ratchet, what-?"

"How are you feeling?"

White optics flickered on weakly and focused blankly on nothing. "Fine. Ratchet, why have I been restrained?"

"How much do you remember, Prime?" Prowl asked.

"There was a battle," Optimus answered. "Red paint. Strange, is there a new Decepticon on Earth? I was so certain that we had driven them off the planet."

"We did," Ratchet had once thought the first time he violated his medic oath and taken a Decepticon's life in a war zone had been the worst moment of his life. He was wrong. "I've had a look at your core codes Optimus. About 75% is corrupted."

He wanted to demand furiously why Optimus hadn't come to see him, why hadn't he been trusted; it was his job for frag's sake.

Those eerie white optics rolled up to focus on him. "I know."

"And you did not bring this up with me, why?" Ratchet's voice was dangerously calm. "The instability in your core programming caused you to attack Sideswipe unprovoked for slag's sake!"

"Because I couldn't bring myself to care. We fight and we murder our own brethren and it never ends. But I know how to stop this. I know how to end this. The war won't continue if there is no one left to fight it."

"You can't be serious," Ratchet exclaimed in horror. "That's the code corruption making you think that!"

Optimus smiled pleasantly. His calm demeanour was terrifying. "There are no more Decepticons here on Earth. Now all we need to do is kill all the Autobots."

"Leave."

"I think not."

"You've dropped off the energon," Barricade calmly raised his laser cannon and pointed it directly at Prowl's spark. "I have nothing to say to you."

"He knew about the code corruption." There was that look again, the one that made a mech want to confess every last secret.

Barricade scoffed and turned his attention back to the hatchlings, recognising that Prowl was not about to budge until he had the Con's input. "Of course he did. The most brilliant medic Cybertron has ever seen just failed to notice that the almighty Prime was suffering from code corruption? Now. Slag off. Please. I even asked nicely. It may surprise you to hear this, but I don't want to hear about your problems."

"He didn't care either."

"He's been dead," Barricade grunted, unhappy that he was engaging in conversation with the Autobot. "You don't come back with a capacity to give a slag. Megatron sure didn't. Why should the Prime be any different?"

"Megatron never cared in the first place," Prowl pointed out coolly, optics flashing at the comparison between the two leaders.

"Nobody comes back from the dead anyway in the first place. The Megatron that returned was nothing more than the Fallen's lackey. It wasn't our leader, every Decepticon could see it. The human insect never gave you back Prime. You all just fooled yourselves into thinking he did."

Prowl cycled his hands into fists uselessly. "Optimus tried to kill Sideswipe and has declared that all Autobots must be killed. Megatron was cruel but he never descended to such insanity."

"Good on him," Barricade grunted, "But Megatron has always been mad. We all have been. We were just more honest about it."

"Honesty, from a Decepticon?"

"Genocide, by the order of the Prime? Get out of here; I don't have the answers you seek."

Prowl had reached the clearing's edge when Barricade added, "The only advice I can give you is to kill him. Before he kills the rest of us."

"Prowl?"

"Have you made any progress with the code corruption?"

"No," Ratchet seemed to fold in on himself at that confession. "There's far too much of it, it's taken over his systems. There isn't a lot of Optimus left."

"I need to speak to him."

Ratchet scoffed and turned to the giant form on the med-berth. "I'm not sure if that will accomplish anything. But don't expect me to stick around when he's online. I don't want to listen to that…thing."

Pale white optics flickered on and focused on Prowl's form in confusion. "When did you arrive on Earth? There were no transmissions."

Prowl's hope plummeted even lower as he levelled a worried glance at his fallen leader. Memory damage on top of instability in his ethics coding. "I've been here for a full earth cycle," he said softly.

Optimus shook his head slowly. "I don't remember," he said and something in that admission felt like a death knell for the Autobots.

"What's the last thing you do remember?" Prowl asked, taking a step closer to the med-berth.

"Battle. So much fighting. I was trying to kill Sideswipe?"

Prowl did not allow himself to flinch. "Yes."

Optimus settled himself back. "A pity I didn't accomplish it. Our race cannot be allowed to continue. Everyone must die. We will all be free then."

"Do you truly believe that, Optimus?"

"I know this. I've been in death's embrace. I know what it holds and all it offers. The only way for us to find true peace is through death."

Prowl didn't return to Barricade's hidden sanctuary. He stood outside the Autobot base and stared at the constellations, all of his comm lines turned off. Prime had gently rebuffed all their insistences that it was the corruption talking, that he was damaged and out of his mind.

"I know what I am," the Prime had said firmly, "And I know what I must do."

Ratchet quietly mentioned that the speed of code degradation had increased every time they brought him online. There was nothing more they could do for Optimus and Ratchet had initiated a medical override that would keep him down until they could make a decision.

The sound of laser fire and shouting brought him out of his musings. Prowl turned and raced back into the base, turning on his comm lines to confused transmissions, Autobots demanding to know what was going on, other calling for assistance. Somehow, he managed to catch the location of the fight.

It was coming from the med-bay.

"I'm not Prime."

It was several long moments before Prowl gave any form of acknowledgement. "I know," he said distantly, "You haven't been Prime for a long time."

"I haven't been Prime ever. Death is absolute. The boy brought back a shadow, a memory but he never brought back Optimus."

Prowl finally averted his gaze from the steady white optics staring at him. "Do you remember what happened ten joors ago?"

The Prime smiled at him. "I got free from the med-bay. I tried to kill Jolt and Sunstreaker," his expression went sour, "I failed."

"We convened to decide your fate, Optimus," the tactician said tiredly, staring at the white ceiling of the med-bay. "We're going to remove your spark from your frame and put it into stasis, while Ratchet tries to fix the code corruption. It could be millennia before you come back online."

"There is nothing to fix. Pry open my spark chamber and you will find nothing, no spark, no life. Just an old relic animating a frame through the fragments of memory files left in Optimus's memory core and a sliver of his spark. Optimus never wielded the Matrix, never imprinted his life on it but the Matrix is meant for a Prime and did what it could. Only…there is only so many times memory files can be played back until they degrade."

"You have a spark," Prowl turned his back to his Prime, unwilling to believe, "You wouldn't be alive if you didn't. We, Ratchet at the very least, would have noticed if you didn't have a spark."

"Not unless you don't want to acknowledge it. For how long have the Autobots relied on Optimus to lead and guide them? He was infallible to you and you blinded themselves willingly."

The tactician stood to leave. "I've heard enough," he said quietly.

"Prowl?" in that moment, the tactician heard Optimus, the real Optimus, for the first time since the Prime had left Cybertron.

"Take the Matrix from my frame. Make sure I'm offlined properly. Please."

There were no hatchlings in the clearing when Prowl arrived. Barricade sat alone, waiting for him. There was silence as the two mechs sized each other up.

"There wasn't a spark inside in his spark chamber."

"Of course not," Barricade grunted. "Can't believe the Autobots never noticed Prime didn't have a spark signature."

"I don't know how the Matrix did it. It gave a semblance of life to his frame by using his memory files but it wasn't enough in the end."

"What did you do to him?"

"He was permanently offlined an orn ago."

"Good," Barricade rose to leave, "What are the Autobots going to do now?" he asked over his shoulder.

"What are you going to do with the hatchlings?" Prowl asked neutrally.

The Decepticon gave him an unamused look. "I'm not about to tell you. But do not expect to find me here ever again."

"Then you have your answer."

Barricade snorted, "Of course."

"And Barricade? I hope that the Autobots never face the hatchlings in battle."

"You won't."

End