The will to lead on

Chapter 4: Cry havoc! And let slip the dogs of war

I came out of stasis early. Around five in the morning, I smiled my hologram had stayed on during my stasis. I would never tell Ratchet, he would probably give me a chat at length about the power reserves and how much I deplete them with such tasks.

She lay asleep in the bed next to me. I reached over pulling stray hairs from her face and leaned down over her giving her a kiss. She was so beautiful to me, a human; it makes it difficult for me sometimes. I'm starting to believe Ratchet. She will be the end of me. I smiled and pulled myself up from out from under the covers. I walked around the bed, clothing materializing around me and pulled the covers over her giving her one last kiss.

I smiled and pat Alex too. He was awake and following me around the bed. I pet the small cat gently and smiled down to him. "Whatch over her." I said. He moved back to her side and sat down. Ever the guard cat. I turned to her small desk and grabbed my satchel out of the chair and made my way back outside. I had business to attend to, Jo would have to wait.

I opened my door for my hologram and placed it in the driver seat. I had it place my bag down on the floor boards. "This is Optimus Prime." I had opened the radio channel. "Incoming to Autobot base."

"What is your ETA?" Ratchet asked over the radio.

"15 earth minutes." I replied and turned the radio off. We had a kitten to release back into the wild.

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Ravage was walking around the command center quietly his mechanical tail swishing behind him. I stood watching him. "Ratchet are you sure this is safe?" I asked quietly.

"The collar will work." Ratchet had retrofitted Ravage with a compliance collar. If we needed to we could disable him. "after he gets a good enough distance away for the signal …the collar will fall off and he can go back to where he came from. "

"Good." I nodded and looked down at the Decepticon. His eyes were a grey pink, the glow was dim. The reflection of sun off of snow had blinded him good. "Ravage." He turned to me. "Activate your eye shields." The cat lifted its head and lowered his head quickly forcing the lenses down over its eyes. "good."

I transformed and opened my passenger door. Ratchet gave Ravage a nudge with his foot. The Decepticon took slow careful steps to me. "Go on!" Ratchet gave him another kick. Ravage leapt into my cab and squeezed into the back laying down quietly.

"Now just relax and you'll be on your way soon." I told the decepticon. "Keep your eye shields down." I said. "Do you understand?" He let out a roar "good I said. Ratchet." Ratchet pressed a button on his control pad. The cat looked up and roared as the Collar shocked him good. Ravage fell into stasis.

"Now lets hope he stays that way." Ratchet said quietly looking into my cab at the fallen cat.

"He will." I said "Let's roll out!" I said to Ironhide beside me.

"I'll follow your lead." He said pulling up behind me. The drive would be a long one; we would take him 100 miles from our base. I felt that it would be a safe distance. I was not about to take chances with the base.

"Prime…" Ironhide pulled up to my left side.

"What is it Ironhide?" I asked.

"We've got company I believe." He said. I scanned forward, he was right. Decepticon readings. Very close. I pulled to a stop. Ironhide transformed moving to my right side. I opened my passenger door and he pulled the stasis locked Ravage from my Cab. I transformed and stood tall taking the Decepticon from him and holding him by the neck.

"He should have been back by now." Starscream was yelling at another decepticon. "Where is he?"

"Ravage will return, when finished." Soundwave.

"If he's not dead already." Starscream turned and saw Ironhide and myself standing holding the small Decepticon in one hand. "Prime!" He yelled pulling his auto cannon. I held up my hand. "Release him!" Ironhide held up his left side arm cannon.

"That's what I planned to do." I said pulling the collar off of Ravage and setting him down. His systems came back on line and he staggered to his feet. He knocked down his lenses over his eyes and walked over to Soundwave and stood in front of him.

"Ravage unharmed." Soundwave turned to Starscream. "Autobots, no worth trouble."

"Fine." Starscream lowered his cannon. Ironhide did the same."Don't expect any Thank yous."

"I don't" I said coldly. "I'm not a Decepticon…I don't take prisoners who are prone to attack."

"We will meet again Optimus Prime." He transformed and hovered in the air a bit. "The next time we do, we will see where your loyalties lie." Soundwave and Ravage vanished into the brush. Starscream turned and flew off in the southern direction.

"What did he mean by that Prime?" Ironhide walked up to my side.

"I'm not sure Ironhide, but I want security on all the humans..Jo included."

"That's wise." Ironhide turned to me looking back down the way we came. "Ravage heard a lot down there in that holding cell."

"He heard all he needed to hear. I was careless." I turned on my radio. "Optimus Prime to Ratchet."

"Ratchet here." The radio was clear.

"I want you to round up all the humans. Secretary Keller, Sam, Jo, Mikeala, and Captain Lennox's family." I sighed "and anyone else you would consider a high risk." I looked to Ironhide with worry. "I think we may need to double our security."

"Very well, I'm assuming you ran into a bit of trouble?"

"Starscream and Soundwave." Ironhide broke in. "Soundwave spoke as though he's started something aready, we just need to be sure we're a step ahead of him."

"Very well I'll get right on it. Ratchet Out."

I pointed down the road "Let's get back to base."

"I'm following you Prime."

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She pushed past the guard sternly. "You will stand down soldier I out rank you." I laughed walking up to the guards. "Optimus." She smiled up at me.

"Let her through." I said lowering my hand. Jo climbed up into my palm and I raised her up to meet my Optics. "I have been away, I should have contacted you. My apologies." I said turning and taking her with me to the main control center.

"May I stay?" She asked quietly. I nodded and lifted my hand to my shoulder. She reached for the exhaust pipe over my shoulder and pulled herself up. "Thank you."

"Prime." I turned to Bumblebee. "I think it's stopped."

"What do you mean?" I made my way over to the screen. "They've removed the lenses."

"yes…"Bumblebee tapped into the satellite feed. "he wore them for four days before they discovered the tracker. "

"Anything we can get from the info?"

"I would say they have him scouting. He made large circles around this sector." Bumblebee pointed to an area on the screen. "He always retuned to this central location." I nodded.

"You think this is where there base is?" I said.

"It's my best educated guess Prime." Bumblebee shook his head. "It doesn't make any sense, that is like two miles from a large human population. Why would they camp so close to humans?"

"So we wouldn't bring the fight to them Bumblbee, they are using the human populace as a shield." I shook my head. "Starscream…he's the one leading them, with Megatron gone." I shook my head. "But he didn't act like he was in charge."

"Who do you think it is Optimus?" Jo leaned in over my shoulder.

"I'm not sure…but I intend to find out." I turned and looked at Ratchet. "Check everyone out. I need everyone of us in top condition just in case. If Ironhide gives you problems call me."

"I intend to." Ratchet scoffed.

"Good." I said. "I will be in my quarters." I heard bumblebee play some disco music and I shook my head. "That's enough Bumblebee." The music stopped and I stepped out of the command center.

"You've got a lot on your plate." Jo said leaning up against my neck.

"Yes I know." I said with a sigh looking to her and moving down to my room. "Everything will be fine."

"I wish I could believe you when you say that." She looked down. "I know you, I don't care what you say. I can read you like Sunday's paper."

I shook my head. "It's nothing."

"You only wish it was nothing." She pressed, it was starting to irritate me.

"I am not talking about this." I said to her and reached up grabbing her off my shoulder and setting her down on the ground.

"I wish you would." She followed me into my quarters. "It would make me feel better if you would."

"I understand." I said and took a seat on my recharge bay. I grabbed my small bag from on top of my storage shelves and held it down activating my hologram who took it. I laid back on the recharge bay and my eyes faded out to black.

"I wish you would talk to me about these things." She looked my hologram in the eye.

"I understand that…I expressed that to you a moment ago. I am a soldier it is much different for me." I said slinging the bag over my shoulder.

"I'm a soldier too if you recall." She said hands on her hips now. I hate it when she does this. Human women put their hands on their hips, it does not look threatening at all.

"Yes I am aware." I reached over and took her arm and lead her to the door. "Come on we've got a meeting to attend." I said and tried to get her out of my room and off the topic.

She stopped me in the hall. "I'm sorry."

"For what?" I raised a brow.

"For being pushy, I just want to know what's going on…I'm worried about you, you've been in there for days…" I suddenly understood.

"My apologies, I do not mean to neglect you." I said taking her hand in mine.

"It's fine, let's just not make a habit of it." She smiled at me.

I nodded and reached in my bag feeling around for the small box. It was there and I smiled at her. "Never…" I said and removed my hand from the bag, confident my small treasure was safe. "Let us hurry I do not wish to be late for this meeting."