Disclaimer: I don't own them! Waa! [Otherwise, Optimus and Sam would be canon, not fanon. :) ]
A/N: As promised, here is the beta'd version. Thank you, AngelicCrossplay! Enjoy!
Chapter 10: Reunions
"Mirage! When I find you, I'm going to tear out your spark, traitor!" Thundercracker roared as he tore through the mountainside and destroyed anything in his path. His loud crashing gave the pair efficient warning of his presence and the two slowly hid deeper into the mountain range, fully aware that any sudden movement would bring their pursuers right to their heels. Sam realized how stealthy the mechs could be when he followed behind the bleeding Mirage who, despite his extraordinary size, walked as silently as a ninja. Sparks crackled quietly around his injured form and his escort was leaving a visible trail of energon. It would only be a matter of time before their chasers find the trail and follow it to them.
Fate seemed to have that same idea and appeared in the form of the Seeker who lashed out at the weakened Mirage. Mirage stumbled backwards but managed to grab Thundercracker's arm and pulled him down with him. Both tumbled to the ground, causing a minor earthquake around the area and thus disturbing the peace of the mountain range. Sam scrambled to his feet quickly and sought shelter from the fight as the two Decepticons grappled with each other, trying to find a certain hold that would force the other into submission.
Mirage finally managed to tear off one of the wings and a horrible screech echoed, hurting Sam's ears. Sam unknowingly cheered Mirage on but the victory was short-lived as an energon blast struck him close to the already damaged spark chamber. Mirage instantly fell and in his range of vision the Decepticon could see a leering visage of Thundercracker. His optics offlined in agony and did not see a young man run up to him, waving his hands in the air to get the other mech's attention.
"Hey! I'm over here!"
"You just stay right there, insect! I'm busy with this weakling here!"
"You know, you should pick someone your own size," a different voice shouted out and before Thundercracker could even react, a yellow shape darted at him and the mech felt the full force of a tackle. The yellow color of his tackler was distinguishable and Thundercracker knew that he should have just taken the boy and then fly out of there. With this new mech coming into the fight, he would be hard-pressed to escape by himself.
"Sunstreaker! I knew you were here somewhere on this dirtball!"
"Ditto. Except I knew exactly where you were!" Sunstreaker easily evaded the cannons by somersaulting over him, his ion blasters aiming at the weak spots. Upon landing, he sidekicked the Decepticon and followed through the strike with a well-aimed kick at the head, bringing his enemy to his knees. Thundercracker blocked Sunstreaker's second kick, however, and returned it with a more vicious uppercut, hitting him underneath the chin. Stunned, Sunstreaker couldn't see what the other Seeker was doing until it was too late. A bright blue light was coming at him and he cursed his overconfidence in his battle prowess. Someone pushed him away and the blast decimated the area where he was standing, leaving nothing behind except a mid-size crater.
"Sunny!" A voice squealed and Sunny found himself squeezed by his twin brother.
"Sides! Let…go…of…me!" Sunny said, all the while trying to get his brother off of him. "Hey! You're squeezing me too tightly! Lemme go!"
"I missed you Sunny!" Sideswipe rubbed his face into his brother's chassis and was clearly not aware of an advancing Thundercracker. Sunstreaker threw his brother to the side and ducked underneath another energon blast. Sideswipe's body twisted in such a way it made the advancing Decepticon wince at the distortion of limbs. How could he do that? Disgusting. Thundercracker stopped in his tracks when another figure walked casually towards him, twin cannons aiming right at his side. He looked behind him and discovered with disgust that his own teammates left him to his fate with the Autobots.
"Hmmm. Well, playtime's over," Thundercracker's jets turned on and before anyone could stop him, the Seeker jumped into the air and started flying back to the Decepticons' base.
"Damn it! I wanted to try out that jet maneuver!" Sunny cursed as he watched his enemy fly to the safety of the sky.
"Whatever, Sunny, you just wanted to take your time beating him up. If I hadn't rescued your aft, you'd be in a smoldering chunk of metal!" Sideswipe said, his swords placing themselves within his arms.
"Oh yeah? You're the one who distracted me when I was pummeling him!"
"You couldn't hit the broad side of a barn if you tried!" Sideswipe bantered back, getting in his brother's face.
Prowl rolled his optics and he sighed in exasperation. The twins were back and they're still the same as before. Hopefully they won't teach any idiotic ideals to Mudflap and Skids.
A soft moan broke the amusing scene and everyone's thoughts turned to the messenger who lied unmoving on the ground. His spark chamber was in pieces and the door wings were a mess; energon bled out of wires and his optics were dulled in pain. What captured their attention more was the tiny figure touching the hurt mech and sparks leapt from the human's hands to travel throughout the former Decepticon's form. The spark had turned dark red in imminent deactivation but instead of going into a mini supernova, the spark changed both in color and size. The blue hues overwhelmed the red tinges and the spark increased in size exponentially.
Mirage's form jerked as energon levels raced from low levels to higher ones and the mech screamed as if he was in pain. His door wings miraculously welded themselves together as did other wounds. His faction symbol also faded from existence, replaced by the Autobot symbol. Then as quickly as it started, the miracle was over and the human panted heavily, sweat beads rolling off his face and back. Mirage was still offline but his body was fixed and stable.
"Wow," the twins said at the same time. They had never seen such a thing before and they were curious as to who this human was.
Optimus Prime knew who it was and his spark rejoiced at finding his lost sparkmate. His name rolled off his glossa and the human, hearing his name, turned to him. Two pairs of eyes latched onto each other and the connection that was cut severely with Sam's death strengthened. Suddenly, nothing else existed in the world but for those two...
"Samuel..."
The world around them whitened and sounds muted as everything slowly disappeared into the background of their unique place. "I found you."
"Optimus Prime, Last Descendant of the Primes, beloved of the Chosen One," a voice spoke out into the empty void. "He will be the Great Shield of He who is the Spear that will thrust through the impending darkness of the universe."
Optimus' optics onlined and he found himself again in Praxus. This time he wasn't alone and Sam stood across from him, holding out his hand to the Autobot Leader. The human smiled lovingly at him and Optimus' spark yearned to join with him. He extended his and noticed that it wasn't his servo that reached out to Sam. It was a human hand, calloused and used.
"Sam? What is this? My hand is human."
"Yes it is. It has always been your hand that will protect me, then and now, regardless of its shape."
Confused by Sam's cryptic answer, Optimus touched Sam's hand and memories flowed through him. Memories that weren't his but at the same time were. He saw images of a planet in an enlightened period that had finally plunged into darkness. Suddenly, he felt a heavy presence and it wasn't foreboding or evil. It was just there, existing in the universe. He couldn't place the presence and he was for the first time, a little bit apprehensive of the unknown. Sam's smile chased away his fears and more pleasant memories cycled through his processors.
"I missed you, Sam Witwicky,"
"Same here. I was getting kinda lonely. Heaven's certainly not all bright lights and the Pearl Gate, that's for sure. "
Optimus chuckled and he felt lightened in Sam's presence. The burden of the Great War was momentarily lifted off his shoulder stacks and he brought Sam closer to him. Ignoring the fact that the arms wrapped around him were also those of a human, he laid his head on top of his sparkmate and breathed in his lover. For the second time in all of his lifespan, he felt something burst from his spark and he recognized it as contentment, fulfillment, as love for the human who held his spark within his own heart.
Like puppets with strings cut, both Sam and Optimus collapsed, the re-strengthening of the bond proving to be too overwhelming for them with their already exhausted states. All the Autobots stared at each other with blank expressions and were waiting for one of them to explain how this happened. Finally, it was Prowl who organized his thoughts together in a cohesive manner. He contacted Ratchet over the comm link and waited for the CMO to answer the call. At the same time, though, Prowl did not want to tell him about his three new patients. During the waiting period, he glared at Ironhide and mouthed if he wanted to take the call. The Weapon Specialist kindly declined of course and before Prowl could order him to do it, the CMO answered the line in a sharp tone.
::Something happened to Prime. Bring him as soon as possible.::
::Ermm... it's not just Prime..."
::Who else is slagging injured!::
::Sam Witwicky and a former Decepticon.::
The comm link went dead. Oh yeah. Ratchet's going to be real happy with this. Prowl was not one to prolong the inevitable and so he called the Autobots HQ to get picked up by the big birds that would aide them in bringing their injured friends in, along with a Decepticon they're not too proud of capturing.
Mikaela was present in the room when the call came through from Prowl and Ratchet's overreaction had always been a source of amusement for her. Despite his temper and zealously in demanding his Autobot friends to not injure themselves, she could see that he was truly worried about them, especially with Prime. She didn't know the exact relationship between the Autobot Commander and his CMO but there was a sense of old history behind the two. Older than Ironhide's and, Mikaela surmised, he was a lot older than Prime. Actually, if she remembered correctly, most of the Autobots were older than Optimus Prime, which makes him almost three millenias old. The number of years the Prime lived and still is living was too immense for her to acknowledge as normal or rational. Humans were both gifted and cursed for their short longevity. Considering how many horrible things can occur within a human lifespan, Mikaela was glad that she didn't have to live enough for her grandkids to pass away in front of her, killed in battle over the AllSpark. She had eavesdropped on the few conversations the Autobots would have amongst themselves. Most of the private conversations were spoken in an alien language that reminded her of computers "talking" to her whenever they would shutdown, whether voluntarily or not. A familiar name broke her thoughts and she couldn't believe what Prowl had said over the comm link. Sam? Sam's alive. She hastily walked to the CMO who was just about to leave for the med bay for preparations of receiving patients and called out his name loudly to catch his attention. Ratchet's head turned to the side, and upon noticing that the human wanted to talk with him, he turned around completely.
"Ratchet! Is it true? Is Sam really alive?"
"I'm not sure, Mikaela. But I do know that I have two patients to take care of. Whether Sam will be the third patient, I don't know. However, I will prepare a bed suitable for your race so that I can scan him and ensure it truly is Sam and not some imposter."
Ratchet didn't say anything more and he left the hanger for his work, leaving Mikaela behind to her own thoughts. She wasn't alone though as Lennox accosted her, putting a hand on her shoulder. He knew about the two's break-up two to three years ago and that Mikaela was still bearing a slight grudge against Sam, at least until he passed. Then, she was even more remorseful at the nasty words she spat at him right before that battle. With that, if it really was Sam, she wanted to make it up to him, not because she thought she could be with him again, but she didn't want any lingering feelings or the feelings of unfinished business between them. Lennox served as the mediator between the two and at times even he had to remain neutral, especially when the topic was about falling in love with another species. He had no say in that situation, that's for certain.
"It may not be Sam," Lennox said, and his hand squeezed her shoulder in support. "But then again, it could be. I mean, Optimus Prime was resurrected and so was Sam. We have to wait and see what happens when they get here."
"Yeah," Mikaela replied somberly, "I guess that's all we ever can do. Just wait."
Luckily they didn't have to wait long for the "big birds." They arrived, prompting all available workers to follow through the proceedings. As Ratchet predicted, he had two patients being wheeled to his med bay on flat beds. Lennox let out a sigh of relief when Ironhide wasn't one of them while Mikaela gasped at seeing the person who was lying on a smaller bed. The major ran to Mikaela, wanting to find out why she reacted that way and his eyes widened at the familiar figure. It was Sam Witwicky.
"Sam?! How? Ironhide! You had better have some explanation for this!" Lennox exclaimed to the mech who just got off the plane and was heading towards the pair. Lennox gave a cursory glance over Ironhide and once satisfied with his findings, he let out another sigh of relief. Ironhide was rather perplexed at his human partner's concern but at the same time, he was honored to be at the centre of the major's attention.
"Will, I am happy that you worry about me, but don't assume that I know everything whenever something abnormal occurs," Ironhide grumbled as he strolled past the two to follow the new patients.
Lennox, shocked by his grumpy attitude, couldn't say anything or do anything except watch his friend walk away from him. He felt angry at Ironhide's rude but accurate statement, and he too headed forward to where Ironhide was heading with Mikaela following suit.
Prowl's predicament of Ratchet's unhappiness was a terrible understatement. At first, he calmly began his work on both patients, including the Decepticon. The others were forced to wait outside the Welding Room for they were "taking up too much space," in Ratchet's words. When he finished, he walked out of the surgery room holding his infamous wrench in his hand. He stood in front of Prowl and struck him across the head with his favored tool.
"What in the fraggin' slag is going on? Huh?! First Prime had go get himself shocked, blasted by Starscream, discovered he has a lost brother, and then Sam is here?!! And why the frag am I repairing this Mirage when he almost killed most of you in Tyger Pax!!!"
"I...can...explain!!" Prowl cried out desperately. "Owww! Stop hitting me!!!"
Ratchet was about to stop until his optics landed on pair of twins who were trying to sneak during the commotion.
"By Primus! Sunny's here too?!!!" Ratchet's temper fell through the roof at the sight of the troublesome pair and the twins ran in the opposite direction of the wrathful CMO. They almost reached the perimeter of the base when Sunny yelped in pain and fell behind his brother, a huge dent in his head.
"Sides! Wait for me!" Sunny yelled, his hand reaching out to the fleeing brother, who waved casually at him and abandoned him to Ratchet's tender mercies. Unfortunately for Sideswipe, Ironhide bumped into him and then grabbed him by the neck; he hauled the flailing mech back to Ratchet and flicked a finger at a snickering Sunstreaker.
"Enough of this," Ratchet said somberly as he retrieved his thrown wrench and placed it on top of a side tray with his other necessary tools. "Now, tell me why Mirage is here. More importantly, how did Sam come to be with us?"
Two hours later
"So that's what happened?" Ratchet asked, leaning against a table, his arms across his chassis.
"Yes," Prowl answered. "While I am ecstatic with Sam's return, this turn of events are rather concerning. Before we arrived there, I managed to intercept a message from Starscream. He and the Decepticons appear to be abducting the Hexarians already. The question is where are they getting the information from?"
"We have all sorts of questions that need to be answered, Prowl but it's getting late and-" a yawn interrupted them and everyone noticed that one of the patients was waking up. "It appears that one of the patients is waking up."
Sam heard hushed voices and he woke up slowly to a high ceiling that greeted him. His eyes blinked and he wondered where he was. Footsteps padded softly in his direction and he tried to turn his head to the side, only to find the room spinning slightly. A head peered over him and Sam recognized it as
"Ratchet?"
"So you still remember us?"
"Well, yeah. It's kind of hard to forget that intro sentence you gave us when you first got here."
"Still has that flippant attitude. I was hoping you being dead would mature you a bit," Sideswipe mumbled underneath his breath. He gulped when Ratchet glared at him and his brother roughly elbowed him in the side to shut him up.
"Who's that? I've never seen him before." Sam asked as he tried to get up, despite Ratchet's urgings not to.
"You didn't tell him about us! Ratchet!" Both of the twins shouted at the CMO, who just ignored them. He knew that Sam was quite stubborn in his ways and so used his finger to prop him up. The boy leaned against the supportive pillar and closed his eyes to avoid seeing the room spinning around him. He felt oddly tired and something else took up space in his mind. He found the presence comforting and then suddenly events unfolded before him. The Primes, Mirage, and then Optimus.
"Optimus! Is he ok? Is he all right?"
Ratchet's head pointed behind him and Sam's eyes lay on the still body of the Autobot Commander. He got off the bed so quickly that his legs couldn't keep up with him and he fell to the ground, panting heavily. Damn, I guess that weird stunt pulled a lot out of me. It didn't strain me until just now.
"Sam, go back to your berth. I will place it closer to Optimus so you don't have to crawl on your knees to get to him," Ratchet ordered and Sam reluctantly did as he was told, his eyes still lingering on his sparkmate. I'm back, Optimus. And I won't leave you again, I promise on Primus' name. As if Optimus heard him, the presence inside his mind warmed and Sam's body relaxed. He needed to sleep, really sleep.
Lennox and Mikaela arrived just in time to see Sam fall to sleep. She started to run to him but a servo got in her way. Ratchet shook his head, letting her know that she couldn't go to him. Not yet. Lennox was very confused and, despite his earlier admonition by Ironhide, he looked to him anyways for some answers to his questions that kept picking at him throughout the evening. Apparently, though, Ironhide was just as clueless and a silence blanketed the hangar momentarily. Then Prowl asked his CMO if he could ask the Decepticon some basic questions when he came back online and though Ratchet disagrees with patient interrogation, the CMO complied without protest. He kicked everybody out, saying that all they need to rest for tomorrow. It would be a very long day, and it left him and Prowl as the only mechs with the offline Decepticon, now an Autobot.
Voices whispered around him, the words garbled together and not making any sense to the recovering Mirage. The former Decepticon slowly onlined and he was surprised to find himself on one of the medic beds. He was more surprised about his healed injuries and attempted to get up. A hand pushed him back down gently but firmly and Mirage gave up, finding the hand persistent and irritating.
"From your alliance symbol, I'm assuming I managed to take that fleshling to the Autobots' base."
"You should be grateful to that human, Sam. He saved you."
"I didn't want to be saved. Just to bring the boy here and leave this fragging planet," Mirage growled and he struggled even harder to resist the insistent hands that tried to push him back down. Then the CMO did something he never imagined: a gun was in his face and he understood the language instantly. The Decepticon lied back down and another visage crept into his field of vision. Prowl. Great. I actually do something good for once and I'm going to be interrogated for it.
"Hello, Mirage. I have some questions for you to answer. Please answer them as best as you can."
Mirage didn't say anything and thus Prowl started the usual proceedings of a 'light' interrogation, a type reserved for those committed minor offenses against his own kin.
"How did you find Sam?"
"The Primes told me."
"The Primes? Why should I believe that?"
"You shouldn't. Any logical mech would think I'm lying."
Prowl couldn't really contradict Mirage's statement and inferred that he was telling the truth. He moved on to the next question.
"Why is Sam back? Someone who has passed usually does not return."
"Now that bit of information, the Primes did not disclose to me. Apparently even they don't trust me and so they shouldn't. I just wanted to deliver their precious human and get out of this war."
Prowl felt a glitch coming on and he cursed its perfect timing. His logistics had started to go awry when he first saw Sam and it worsened even more upon seeing the Autobot symbol on Megatron's fourth in command. He tried to a temporary override code and failed. As if in response to his predicament, a door opened and Jazz walked in. He laid a hand on Prowl's shoulder and whispered something in his audios. The Communications Officer gave a subtle nod and returned his attention to Mirage.
"That will be all. Recharge while you can. Do not attempt to escape."
"Yeah, whatever."
Prowl truly wanted to beat the crap out of his prisoner but Jazz's insistent hands pushed him towards the door. As soon as the door closed them, his processors shut down and his body went into stasis lock. Jazz was used to seeing his sparkmate in situations like this and he gently carried him to their berth down the hallway.
In another berth, an arm moved slightly and blue optics came online. Optimus knew he was in the med bay; he could tell by listening to the steady beats of his systems and the wirings that snaked their way from a console to his body. Another set of steady beats caught his attention and he found out its source. A smile formed and Optimus Prime collected the still sleeping Sam in his servo and gathered him to his spark chamber; the warmth and humming sound of the spark chamber eased the human's discomfort at having be moved and Sam cuddled closer to Prime's spark, sighing contently.
That was how Ratchet saw them and he didn't want to disturb the couple's rest. The message from Secretary Keller could wait a few more joors.
After long hours of travel, The Hexarian captive was finally told to get out of the cockpit and he all too happily complied. Little did he know that he was jumping from the fire into the frying pan. He was told to follow the hulking form and he was led through a dark tunnel which eventually opened into a wide room. He was astonished to find how such a room could be made underground. Other people were there also, but in cages and kept under heavy guard. As he got closer to them, he noticed that as prisoners, they were fed well and in shape. All shared the reddish brown hair with blonde highlights that framed round faces. They were attired in simple clothes that allowed body movement and for the body to breathe as well. As he stared at them, they also returned that gaze with scared looks. One small child crawled towards the cage and his hand reached out to him, silently asking him if he was here to save them. A guard savagely hit the cage with his rifle and the loud noise forced the child to scramble back in the cage, held frantically by a female. Her despondent expression made him avert his gaze, which then landed on what was in front of him. Standing in the middle of it was a figure, clad in ecclesiastical robes of woven-spun heavy cotton. His hair had the colors of autumn in its prime and his body was slender with a slightly effeminate face. He would have been quite beautiful were not for his cold green eyes that met his and the scar that ran across his left temple to his right jaw line.
"Leader, we have the Hexarian," Starscream said to the robed person and the Leader accosted his capture. He took in his features and examined the body carefully for any extinguishing marks that would give him away as either a hologram or a saboteur. His captive looked human enough except for the unusual birth marks that mottled his hand and arm. It seems that Primus has marked everybody that away. What a distrusting god! He stepped away from the shaking person and gave him a smile that was not a smile at all, but rather a predatory grin of a rapacious animal.
"Hello, cousin."