Prompt: 81-How?
Rating: PG/K+
Characters: Sideswipe, William Lennox, Robert Epps
Word Count: 1,636
Universe: 2011 Movie
Warnings: TF3 Spoilers, Mentions of Character Death
Disclaimer: Transformers is not mine.
Author's Note: Look! Two updates in a month! This one actually didn't take as long as I thought it would. I was afraid that it just wouldn't work out. So I gave it a start and left it alone for a week and finished it today. It might not be exactly what I had in mind, but I'm happy with it. Thanks to Lambor Terror Lep, Starfire201, Yami Dragoness of Dark, MoonWallker, and yoong for the reviews and faves! I really appreciate it! And hey! I'm 10% done with this!

Robert Epps let out a low whistle as he came to a stop beside William Lennox. The two men just stood silently for a while, ignoring the bustle of the base around them, each lost in their own thoughts as they gazed at the rust colored spot on the asphalt. Epps leaned back against a nearby crate of supplies and crossed his arms.

"He went down with only two hits from that guy?"

"Yeah," Will sighed and hopped up to sit on the crate next to his friend. "That spot is all that's left. I think Ratchet took a moment to pick up what he could but…"

"You saw what happened?"

"He just crumbled, Rob! He went down with the first shot and the second just turned him into a pile of dust! What kinda weapon can do that to them? To Ironhide?" Will burst out, disbelief on his face.

"Cosmic rust cannon."

"Pardon?" Epps asked, looking up at the sleek bot that had silently joined them.

"Sentinel's gun. It's a cosmic rust cannon. It only takes a single hit to down a mech, no matter how big he is," Sideswipe explained as he crouched to be more on the human's eye level.

"What's cosmic rust?" Will wondered.

"It's a microorganism that devours Cybertronian metals. It's usually a slow process so there's time to treat it, but with a certain type of radiation it speeds up a lot. Sentinel's cannon provided that radiation," the silver mech answered. "One of our science bots, Perceptor, created the only known cure for it."

"So there was a chance that Ironhide could have been saved?" Epps questioned before Will could get upset any more than he already was. He knew his friend had gotten pretty close with the Top Kick over the years they had worked with the Autobots. If there was a cure, Will was bound to get his hopes up at the thought of possibly restoring Ironhide. Or his hopes would go down even further at the thought that he could have been saved and just wasn't.

Sideswipe shrugged, settling down against a boxcar. "Maybe. As fast as it happened though, I doubt it. Ratchet probably had some of the corrostop somewhere in his supplies, but it was accelerated by the radiation and just spread too quickly. Especially since it was a shot directly to the spark chamber. There just wasn't time." He turned his gaze to the place where the mech had finally fallen.

"You seem to be taking this rather well," Lennox glared at the Stingray.

Slowly, the blue optics turned and focused on the much smaller human. "It's death. After several millennia of fighting it is nothing new to me," he replied, tone indifferent.

Epps gently smacked Will on the leg. They shared a glance and returned their focus on the bot. "How do you cope?" Epps asked. Maybe the bot would have an idea that could help Will get over the event.

Sideswipe gave a slow blink of his optics and sighed. "We don't. We just keep living, hoping to honor the fallen's sacrifice by continuing on to the next battle."

"So you don't do anything when someone dies? Like a ceremony or something?" Lennox asked.

"We used to, at the beginning. Then the death toll started to reach the hundreds and more and we just couldn't keep up. I know Prime keeps a list of the names of every mech and femme that dies, but we usually just can't spare the time to do anything," Sideswipe said.

Will nodded. "But how do you cope? You personally."

"Me?" Sideswipe shrugged. "Usually I'd go find Sunny and we'd do something."

"Sunny?" Epps repeated.

"Sunstreaker, my twin."

"What would you do?"

"We tried to keep our distance, but the smaller our units got the harder it was to do that. Usually we got totally smashed on high grade and forgot about everything for awhile. Though more often than not we were in the medbay for our injuries and were so out of it we didn't really process what had happened."

"So you just shrug it off and move on?" Epps asked.

Sideswipe frowned. "That's about all we could do. If we stopped to think about it too much we'd be overwhelmed and be useless in the next battle."

"We've seen you guys upset over the years at losing friends and have a general idea about what happens, but how will you deal with this? With Ironhide's death?" Will asked. "It just seems different with him, from what I've seen of the others."

For a long moment it seemed like the silver warrior wouldn't answer. He finally let out a sigh and shook his head. "I don't know. Ironhide's always been there. To know, to have proof that he's really gone for good this time…It hurts."

"How will of the others cope with this?" Epps questioned.

Sideswipe gave an empty, cruel looking smile. "It might be best to get all of you humans out of here for a few days."

"Why?"

"Mirage will simply disappear for a while. Bumblebee will be a miserable wreck. Ironhide practically raised him from a sparkling. The Wreckers will be loud and obnoxious. They'll probably want to set up something like your twenty-one gun salute to Jack and Hide. And because both of them were known for their ability to create explosions, they'll want to use the big guns. Ratchet will get plastered into stasis. He lost two of his closest friends this time and it hits him hard every time he loses a patient. Prime…he'll need some stress relief but won't say or do anything until he's sure everyone else is…stable enough to handle it. Even then he won't be able to let go and show us just how upset he is. Just like with Bee, Ironhide played a large part in Optimus' life as well."

"What will you do?" Will asked.

Sideswipe looked up at the sky, then turned his gaze to the place the older fighter had finally lost a battle. "Me? I've been of two processors about how I'll deal with it. I'll either join Ratchet or goad Optimus until he beats me into a pile of scrap, which would lead me to join Ratchet anyway."

Epps raised an eyebrow. "How would letting Prime beat you up help anything?"

"If I push him hard enough, he'll break down. While it's detrimental to my health, the release of his emotions and energy will help him get over it. He'll be miserable about hurting me, but he knows I'm only helping him in the long run. He'll make it up to me later. It's just one of the ways we've found to help him cope that actually works. Not everyone can make him lose his cool, but there's a couple of us who know what buttons to push and can withstand the beating that follows."

The three were quiet for a while, not knowing what else could be said on the topic. Finally Will broke the silence. "How will you tell other arrivals?"

Sideswipe let out another long sigh of air through his intakes. "How we tell them depends on who they are. Some bots need to be told flat out, others we need to be a bit more…gentle when it comes to news like this. But because this is Ironhide, no one knows how to tell anyone yet."

"Who was Ironhide to you?" Will inquired.

Sideswipe gave him a lopsided, sad little grin. "That's a question for another time, perhaps. None of us will be ready to talk about who he was until we learn how to deal without him."

The two humans looked at each other for a minute. Epps gave a nod and both turned back to the silver bot. Will hopped down from his perch on top of the crate. "You guys would do better if the base was empty for a while?"

Sideswipe gave a slow nod. "That might be the best option."

Will gave him a sharper nod. "We'll talk to the higher ups, clear it with Prime…"

"No, don't tell him. He'll insist it isn't necessary and bring up a thousand and one reasons why you should stay. No one else will bring it up either because he won't. Best to just keep this to ourselves."

"We'll get started on it," Epps said, pushing away from the crate and beginning to walk away with Lennox in tow.

Will stopped and turned back to the mech who had returned his optics to the spot on the ground. He gave him a hard, calculating look, then softened his gaze. "This is how you cope, isn't it? You take care of everyone else." Rob paused to hear the reply.

Sideswipe glanced over at the smaller beings. He gave a faint smile as he answered. "Sometimes, seeing others move on is the best way. If they can continue to live with the knowledge of death, so can I. It doesn't really matter how we cope, does it? What matters is how we remember those who have fallen."

Lennox sighed. "We'll let you know how things go in a day or two. We'll try to get you guys a few days to be alone."

"It will be much appreciated, Colonel Lennox," Sideswipe gave a sort of half bow from his sitting position. Will and Rob returned the gesture with a salute of their own, then turned to leave and get their plans into motion.

Maybe he's right, Will reflected as he walked away, thinking of his own pain at losing Ironhide after all these years. It doesn't matter how they deal with it, as long as they can. What matters is how they remember. It may be a physical death, but they'll still live on in our memories.

A/N: I really hope you liked this one. Please let me know and thanks for reading!

Edit: Fixed Major Lennox-changed to Colonel Lennox. Thanks Tiamat1972!