I Am Guilty

Hi, Transformers fans, especially those of you who grew up with G1! This is my first Transformers story and I hope you like it! I've written other stories and only one other with the Transformers as heroes in a trading card game. To write that one story required going back and watching many clips and episodes of the G1 series as well as the most awesome animated movie. Doing that research inspired me to write something for the Transformers genre. Specifically, I decided to write a monologue from the point of view of Rodimus Prime, better known as Hot Rod. He became leader of the Autobots, in the shadow of perhaps the greatest leader they had ever known, Optimus Prime. What were the new leader's thoughts after all that happened just before and in the 1986 movie? Here is this fan's attempt to get in his head.

Disclaimer: Peach Wookiee doesn't own the Transformers franchise. All she owns is a VHS cassette and a DVD and her memories.

My name is Rodimus Prime. I was once known as Hot Rod, a young punk who drove the old timers in the group of Autobots crazy. I came from Cybertron with my mentor, Kup, to help with the fight on Earth against the Decepticons. And it was there on Earth that I got to know Optimus Prime, perhaps the best leader of the Autobots that has ever functioned. Every one of us Autobots looked up to him. To Autobots like Kup who had been around for at least a million years longer than Optimus, he was a young leader who had proven himself. To those of us who were younger, Optimus was an older brother or a father figure who seemed almost faultless. I, for one, was honored to come to Earth and fight with him to stop the Decepticons, particularly after Megatron and his minions forced us off of Cybertron.

It was after I came to Earth that I met the Witwicky family. Sparkplug and Spike Witwicky were the first humans that Optimus and the others had befriended when they woke up after four million years of slumber. And the other Autobots watched as Spike grew, married and had a family. When I came to Earth, Sparkplug was too old to fight with the Autobots and Spike had a ten-year-old son named Daniel. I call him Dan-o sometimes and he looks up to me. He says I'm like a big brother and I'm glad he thinks of me that way. He still thinks of me as his hero even after…that horrible day Optimus died.

On that day, so many of our friends died. Megatron somehow knew a shuttle of ours was coming from Cybertron to Earth and attacked it. Brawn, Prowl, Ratchet and Ironhide…they were all cut down. We found out later that Ironhide held on the longest and tried to fight Megatron, but it didn't work. And then almost everyone else we knew died in the fighting to protect Autobot City and Earth except most of us who'd come from Cybertron recently or who'd been built on Earth. And then Optimus went and fought Megatron…

Why didn't I listen to Kup! WHY! He told me, "Stay away, lad; that's Prime's fight." But no, I just had to go and help. My "help" got Prime killed. I had raced up to where they were fighting and I could hear Kup yelling for Prime to finish Megatron off once and for all. Then I

saw Megatron crawling close to his fallen weapon. Optimus couldn't see it, so I jumped in to get the gun away from Megatron. Instead, the monster got me in a chokehold, grabbed his gun and started shooting. All I could do was watch as that thing…Oh, Primus, why was I such an idiot! Optimus went down and Megatron let me go. He was standing over Optimus, taunting him.

"I would have waited an eternity for this…It's over, Prime," Megatron said.

And then Optimus somehow summoned the strength to whack Megatron off the edge of Autobot City onto the ground below shouting, "NEVER!" And then Optimus collapsed. The other Autobots chased off the Decepticons, but…Optimus Prime was dying. There was nothing anyone could do. And…it was my fault. If I hadn't been such a fool, Prime might still be here. We had no time to really grieve because the next thing we knew, we were being attacked by a new breed of Decepticons and we had to run for our lives. They were pursuing us to get the Autobot Matrix of Leadership and to kill Ultra Magnus who was our new leader. And then we had to fight Unicron, a giant planet-eating robot bent on eating the entire universe.

To make a long story short, I ended up with the Matrix and defeated the new Decepticon leader, Galvatron and used the Matrix's power to destroy Unicron. I was hailed as a hero and everyone welcomed me as the new leader of the Autobots. I never heard anybody blame me for Optimus's death and never even heard whispers behind my back. Why don't they blame me? I don't know, but Primus knows I blame myself. If I hadn't been such a young hothead, Optimus Prime might still be alive. Primus knows…My name is Rodimus Prime, and I am guilty.

And that concludes the monologue. The quotes are from the 1986 movie. And I'd also like to thank the good people at Wikipedia for helping me to fill in the blanks that I needed to. I hope you all enjoyed my story and I hope you'll all read and review. Thank you!