So, in "Beast Saga", generally I focus on what happens on the Maximal side of the portal, making only slight reference to what goes on in the world of the Autobots and Decepticons unless main characters have crossed the barriers of the rift and are actually in that universe. As a bit of a change from that, I thought I might give a small glimpse into what happened after Optimus and his team returned from the Maximal universe.
On any other occasion, he would have known that it was a trap.
Optimus had noted the unusual spike of energon activity in the canyon—the very fact that it was the canyon where he had confronted the avatar of Unicron ought to have sent off alarms in his processor—and quietly volunteered to investigate, alone. No one argued with him. It was fairly obvious that he was trying to privately deal with the discouragement of having failed to find the children yet again, but that he did not wish to burden anyone with his thoughts. Since finding the children's messages to the Autobots, he had barely spoken three words. Rafael had spoken so bravely, promising that he would find them one way or another. It seemed that his time with the Maximals truly had benefited him. Miko had been curiously subdued as she assured her guardian of her loyalty and affection, and Optimus had seen a fear behind her eyes that felt like a blade in his spark. She was afraid, and she was trying not to show it. Worn, scarred servos ached to hold the child close, to promise her that all would be well. He wondered if perhaps he should have foreseen this long ago, when he made the decision to bring the trio to the base for the first time.
And then there was Jack, expressing a vulnerability he never dared to show anyone else. The boy had a long way to go, but Optimus could not help but feel that he would be an excellent leader in his own right, one day. In his own message, in the other world, the Prime had counseled him not to doubt himself, had told him that he was a leader. Remembering those words only made the rest of the message more painful to hear. "Are leaders supposed to be this afraid?" the recording had asked, "Because I am terrified right now. I'm afraid I'll lose you guys, or else lose the Maximals, and I don't know if I could handle either one." The crushing sense that he had failed had once again overcome the regal mech, and Optimus had seized the chance to investigate the power spike without much thought. He almost hoped that it would be a false alarm, giving him an excuse to sit and meditate and calm his spark once more.
When he'd stepped through the portal and found a single crystal of energon sitting on the canyon floor, the Prime knew he'd made a terrible mistake. Optimus had 2.76 seconds to brace himself as something akin to a silver hurricane slammed into him at high speed. He skidded backwards several feet, keeping his arms up as a guard as Megatron rained down blows upon him. "Where were you, Optimus?" the Decepticon snarled, "What have you done?"
He swung too quickly and the Prime dodged, using the larger mech's momentum against him and landing a solid punch to his faceplate. "I could ask the same of you, Megatron," he replied stoically, drawing the Star Saber. The gladiator seemed enraged by the answer. "You were dead for four days!" he shouted, "Your spark literally did not exist in this world!" From his own back, Megatron took a blade equal in size and strength to the Star Saber, but as twisted in shape as the nature of the energon from which it had been formed. At any other time, Megatron would have proudly introduced the Dark Star Saber and boasted of its powers. Now, with a frustrated roar, her simply charged forward. The mighty blades clashed again and again, but the older warrior had more experience in swordplay and soon knocked the Star Saber from his brother's servos. Razor sharp talons seized Optimus by the throat, slamming him against the canyon wall. "Disappear like that again," the tyrant hissed, "and I will kill you."
"You always intended to kill me," Optimus remarked dryly. The grip around his neck cables constricted, beginning to hamper energon flow and bending tiny surface sensors out of shape. "Do you think this is a game?" Megatron snapped, throttling the smaller mech, "Of course I mean to kill you. In combat! An honorable death!" He leaned closer, agitation clear in his optics, and punctuated each word by shaking Optimus hard enough to disorient him. "But if you ever pull a stunt like that again, I swear I will murder you!" He let go abruptly, allowing the Prime to drop to the ground in a slightly undignified heap. Megatron sheathed the Dark Star Saber and turned to go. Suddenly, he stopped and turned halfway towards the Autobot leader. For a moment, Optimus thought he was about to make good on his threat and murder him right there in the canyon. Instead, so quickly that he nearly missed it, the warlord gruffly muttered, "Et quando nata es in memoria." Then, without another word, he transformed and rocketed away, leaving a battered and confused Prime in his wake.
Optimus stood slowly, massaging his throat, and blinked. He mulled over the words—part of a greeting not heard since the days before the War, back on Cybertron. Even his own people had foregone the traditional phrase in favor of the simpler translation the humans used. But why had Megatron used it? Voice coming out a little raspier than intended, Optimus wondered aloud, "Was it today?" How odd that, of all mechs, Megatron would remember the precise day when Orion Pax's spark had first emerged from the Well! But then, perhaps there was still a part of his brother left in the old warlord. "I think," he mused to the canyon walls, "that I have probably had worse "birthdays" as the humans call them. But this is certainly one of the stranger ones." Shaking his helm, Optimus stifled a smile and called for a Ground Bridge.