Author's Note
Back one more time. Guys, I have so many feelings for this chapter, I don't even know where to begin. At one point when writing this I even almost made myself cry. I may be a little biased, but I hope that means I did a good job. Cause this is the end, my friends, the end of RotF, and we all know what bad thing happens to Sam during this. But there is one thing to look forward to, and I'm not talking about Optimus's resurrection, even though that's good, too.
It's the moment you've all been waiting for. Some of you are fairly new to this story, you luck aftpipes, so you haven't had to wait that long. But for those of you who have been with me since I first started publishing this story almost a year ago, the wait is over. Time to reap the rewards.
And on that note, go onward and enjoy!
When All of This is Over
With the Matrix dust tied up in Ari's sock they head towards the coordinates Simmons gave the soldiers. They hear their plane as they were leaving the tomb so they know Will and the others are almost there. And it's confirmed when they see a flare explode in the sky when they start to get close. Some of the tension that's been coiling inside Ari's body releases a little bit. Her dad and his men and the Autobots are at that flare. Optimus is at that flare. If they can just get there, then everything will be alright.
But then a jet flies by right over top of them. As it circles back around Ari can see what jet it is. Starscream. He fires at them, missiles exploding on the ground around them as the Autobots dodge and swerve. Ari and Lina share a worried glance as they cling to their seats. Ari can see Lina is trying very hard not to freak out, fear shining in her eyes, but she's staying strong. Ari takes her hand and gives it a squeeze. They both need to stay strong if they're going to survive this. After a few minutes the explosions stop and Starscream moves on, off towards the village in the distance.
"We're not going to make it," Ari says as she watches him fly off, "not if the Decepticons are here. We need a distraction."
They come across a construction site a couple of miles out from the village they're going towards and Ari tells Sideswipe to stop. He does, the others stopping behind him, and Ari and Lina get out, Simmons getting out of Skids.
"That was insane!" Simmons says. "What are we gonna do?"
"We're going to split up," Ari says. "You and Lina go with Skids and Mudflap. I'll go with Sides and Sunny."
Lina shakes her head furiously. "No, I'm going with you! We're roommates. We gotta stick together."
Ari smiles. That's something that a friend would say. "Lina, you can't come with me. The AllSpark made me faster than most people and I need to put that speed to the test now. I'll be in the most danger and I can't be worrying about you."
Lina just stares at her for a minute and then flings herself at Ari in a crushing hug. "Be safe, roomie."
"You, too," Ari says as she hugs her back and then she's pulling away, going over to Sides and Sunny. She nods to Simmons. "You be careful, too, Simmons."
He shrugs one shoulder, smiling confidently. "Ah, don't you worry about me. We'll make a diversion. You just get to those soldiers. I hope that dust works, kid."
"Thank you," Ari says, something she thought she'd never have to say to the agent responsible for Sideswipe getting captured and tortured. But she is grateful to him.
"They'll be alright, Ari," Sides says as Lina and Simmons get into Skid's alt mode. "And we've got your back."
She strokes the hood of his alt mode. "I know you do."
And then she's running towards where she saw the flare, Sides and Sunny speeding ahead of her. It's a long run, she's still several miles away, and it makes her grateful Ironhide and Chromia have put her through such rigorous training. Still, her legs start to ache not long into the run but she pushes herself to keep going. She just has to make it to her dad.
When she reaches the top of a hill she pauses. Down below is a village much smaller than the one they visited the day before, the houses looking like ruins themselves, but these are people's homes down there. Homes that are probably fixing to get destroyed soon. Ari's heart clenches. But there's no other way. On the far side of the village she can see another flare going up, the small figures of soldiers and the Autobots surrounding what must be Optimus's body covered by a tarp. She has to go through the village to get to them. So she keeps going, not slowing down again until she is surrounded by the buildings and pillars. Something roars by overhead and she looks up to see a meteor zoom by to crash down in the middle of the village, followed by several others. But they're not meteors. They're Cybertronians in pod form. Decepticons here to find her and kill anyone who gets in their way.
With the 'Cons starting to comb the village she ducks inside a house, pressing herself against one of the clay brick walls as the sound of Cybertronian feet get closer and a large shadow passes over the house. Ari picks up a fire poker, uses it to poke a hole in a weak part of the clay, and then peaks out. Her breath shudders as it leaves her lungs. There are so many Decepticons out there.
A bug flies through the hole and she leans back, picking the bug up to get it out of the hole. But when she feels metal between her thumb and forefinger she holds it closer to her face to get a better look. Oh, frag, it's an insecticon. She quickly squishes the bug but it's too late. They know where she is. The roof is torn off of the house and Starscream reaches in trying to grab her. Ari runs out the door, down a narrow alley, and up some stairs leading to the rooftops. Starscream fires at her and she jumps onto the next roof, explosions right behind her. When she hits the roof she goes into a tumble to ease the fall and ends up sliding off the slanted roof into the alley below. Deciding down here is a whole lot better than up there she gets up and runs. After a couple of turns she stops for a moment and looks back. Looks like she lost time for now, probably lured away by Sides and Sunny.
Gunfire causes Ari to turn back around and she can see the soldiers and Autobots fighting even more Decepticons but they have no idea where she is. Figuring she has nothing else left to lose, she pushes the red button on her pendant. Maybe Soundwave will be able to trace the signal and tell the Decepticons where she is, maybe not. Either way, she's not making it without a little help.
It's not long until she finds out. She's sliding down a dune when Ravage speeds towards her out of nowhere from the left. She pushes herself to run faster, Ravage hot on her heels. Right towards an awaiting bulldozer that transforms in front of her into a 'Con with a serpent-like tail instead of legs and the tread bands of his wheels hang like whips from his hands. He fires a warning shot at her feet and she skids to a stop, hands raised.
What do I do? What do I do?
The 'Con flings one of his whips at her and she flinches as it hits the building behind her. Slowly she pulls the sock filled with the Matrix dust out of her pocket but she doesn't let it go. She can't. She can't.
A whistle sounds from her right and she looks over to see Sideswipe peeking out from behind a building. She quickly faces the 'Con again, heart racing, as she holds the sock out in front of her.
"This is what you want, isn't it?' she says, keeping attention on her. Sunstreaker climbs on top of the building behind the 'Con. "I've got what you want right here."
Sunny launches himself onto the back of the Decepticon and Ari quickly backs away into the doorway of one of the surrounding buildings. The two bots fight, Sunny clearly having the advantage, when Ravage pounces out of nowhere. Sideswipe grabs the feline bot out of midair and together the twins quickly dispatch the two 'Cons. Ari has to admit, as she approaches Ravage's decimated body, that it feels good to see that bot's optics offlined.
"You alright, Ari?" Sideswipe asks as his blades retract.
"Yeah," she says, "just don't cut it so close next time."
"Sorry, we got a little tied up back there. You ready for the final sprint?"
"Yeah. Let's go for it." She takes off running, the twins skating at her sides reminding her so much of Mission City as they fire on any 'Cons who see them.
"Ari!" a voice calls out and Ironhide rounds a corner followed by the triplets.
She grins. "Ironhide!"
Chromia wheels up to her. "Follow us, Ari. We'll take you to Optimus."
Suddenly there are more explosions as Decepticons fall upon them once more and Ari runs with Ironhide's words to run towards the pillars following behind her and five Autobots guarding her back. She dodges debris, she dodges 'Cons, she dodges gun blasts, until finally, finally, she spots the soldiers and remaining Autobots, including a familiar face she's been missing since she left home.
"Dad!"
Will is crouched behind a corner of broken building, Rob right next to him, and he orders everyone to lay down cover fire for her. Ari's feet fly across the sand until she is grabbing Will's outstretched hand, pulling her behind the broken wall with him and into a hug. Ari clings to his embrace as she gulps down air, her head pressed to his shoulder.
"I got yah, kid," Will says, squeezing her tight. "I got yah."
"What?" Rob says. "When did we progress to hugging? I want a hug!"
Ari laughs but, since Rob is like family to her, she gives him a hug as well. "It's so good to see you guys," she says as she pulls away. "Where's Optimus?"
Will points to his right. "He's right over there, across the courtyard."
Ari looks to where he's pointing, seeing that she still has a little ways to go, then looks back out at the Decepticons. That's when she sees the biggest bot she's ever seen hanging on top of the pyramid and sucking the stone away with its gigantic mouth, revealing a machine underneath. The sun harvester. When that's uncovered, all the Fallen will need is the Matrix. And the Fallen is close. She can feel it. "I need to get to Optimus right now."
Will gives her a stern look. "Not with an air strike coming, you're not."
"No, you don't understand. I have to get to him before the Fallen gets here and finds me."
Will motions for everyone to be quiet and they press themselves to the broken wall as a Decepticon approaches right on the other side, transforming into a massive cannon to shoot at the soldiers' tanks. They can't move without the 'Con noticing them.
"Behold the glory of Jetfire!" Jetfire comes running up the the 'Con, knocking him away from them and then looking down at them. "Now let me show you how we brought the pain in my day!"
Jetfire makes quick work of the Con, using his cane as a weapon, but then Scorponok jumps out of the sand and into Jetfire's stomach, burrowing a good ways inside before Jetfire manages to yank him out. He falls to the ground, energon spilling from his mouth. Ari wants to run to help him but there's not time. There's not time. Will and Rob are already pulling her to stand and they run to get out of the blast radius of the air strike. Missiles rain down as the jet flies by overhead. Ari sees Optimus and she makes a break for it before Will and Rob can stop her.
"Girl," a voice says behind her, Megatron's voice, "die!"
Ari's eyes widen. She hears Megatron fire. Feels the burning pain as she flies through the air. She crashes to the ground and then there's nothing but darkness.
Sideswipe is running from the air strike with his brother, running towards Ari, when he sees it. Megatron shoots at her. She falls. Doesn't get back up. Doesn't even move. His spark fills with so much emotion, the foremost being a searing white pain, and without even thinking he and Sunny are firing on Megatron, pushing him back, both roaring with the pain they both feel because of the bond. Sideswipe rushes to Ari, dropping to his knees next to her and gingerly picking her up in his hands. Her eyes are closed. Her chest unmoving. He may not be a med bot, but even Sideswipe's scanners are enough to tell him she's offlined. She's dead. His Ari, his beautiful, smart, kind, loving Ari, is gone. Something breaks inside him and he carefully places her back on the ground before his despair causes him to lose control and he accidentally breaks her.
But he can't break her any more because she's dead.
Sideswipe sits completely unmoving as Will and some human medics try to revive her but it's too late.
It's too late to take her to see the ocean for the first time. It's too late to stargaze with her, too late to pull another prank with her. It's too late to see her smile just one more time.
It's too late to tell her how he feels, but he has to. He has to. Because if he doesn't he may just die with her, even though he always knew this day would come. He just didn't think it'd be because he failed her.
When the humans finally give up Sideswipe reaches out to stroke the side of her face, from her temple to her jaw. "I love you," he whispers, all of the pain he's feeling now and everything he's ever felt for her pulled into those three simple words. "I love you."
The sun beats down on Ari, piercing through her eyelids, and she opens them to see a desert she's seen before and very familiar to the one she just left. If this is heaven it definitely isn't what she was expecting. She gets up and walks towards the mountains, just like she always does, and, just like they always do, the Primes step forward.
"What happened?" she asks them. "Am I dead?"
The Prime at the head of the group chuckles. "No, Ari, you are not. At least, not completely."
Well, that's comforting. Sort of. Cause she certainly remembers getting shot at. "Then why am I here?"
"Because you have passed Primus's test. You have fought for Optimus, our last descendant, with courage and with sacrifice, the virtues of a leader. A leader worthy of our secret: The Matrix of Leadership is not found, it is earned. The Matrix is more than just a power source, just as you suspected. It is a connection to the Well of Sparks, where all Cybertronian sparks that ever were, are, and will be come from and one day return to. Combine the Matrix with the AllSpark inside of you to save Optimus. It will grant you the power to grant him his life back. And to grant new life as well."
"Wait, does that mean I-I can make new sparklings? I can help continue the Cybertronian race?"
"Yes, but Primus has one condition for giving you this power: Do not make new life until after the war is over." He shakes he head sadly. "No sparkliing should be brought into the world when it is filled with such destruction as this."
"But one day I will be able to?" Ari asks hopefully. "One day this war will be over?"
He smiles a knowing smile. "Only time will tell. Now go, back to Optimus."
"Wait, just one more moment," the femme Prime says quickly, kneeling down in front of Ari. "There is something Primus wishes for you to see." She activates a hologram that shines out from her optics, depicting a scene that makes Ari's face drain of a little color. She can see herself, looking very dead despite the Prime's reassurances, and Sideswipe is kneeling beside her. Everyone, her dad, Rob, the other soldiers, the Autobots, even Sunny standing behind his brother, look distraught with her apparent death. Especially Sideswipe. She's never seen him look so broken, net even when he was literally so broken he almost offlined. He reaches out to her, stroking the side of her face in a familiar trail that she can almost actually feel.
And then he whispers, "I love you…I love you."
Ari gasps, covering her mouth with her hand as her tear-rimmed eyes dart to the femme, wanting to ask her if this is real but unable to find her voice.
The femme just smiles softly. "Go to him."
Ari awakes with a huge gasp as her lungs start working again and her eyes fly open. Quickly sitting up, she is instantly surrounded by Will and Rob, tear stains on their faces, making sure she is, indeed, alive, but then she's snatched away from them by Sideswipe. He lifts her up and she wraps her arms around his neck as he presses his faceplates to the top of her head. She almost died. She almost left him and he almost left her a couple of weeks ago and she almost let that all that happen without her feelings being out in the open. And his feelings. He has feelings for her as well. She was always so scared of telling him how she feels because of all the reasons they can't be together but she's fragging tired of it. She can't go through all this again. Especially now that she knows the truth.
"I love you," she whispers.
Sideswipe holds her away from him a little bit, just far enough so he can see her face. His optics search her eyes hopefully. "Say it again."
She lifts a hand to cup the side of his face. "I love you, Sideswipe."
The brightest grin she has ever seen spreads across his face. "I love you too, Ari."
With a deep, happy sigh she presses her forehead to his. "When all of this is over you're going to take me on that trip you promised me, just the two of us, and we'll have a chance to dive right into this. But right now there is a world o save."
"Yeah," Sideswipe says softly. "Sounds like a plan."
"And I know just where to start." She holds up her hand between them, the one clutching the newly-reformed Matrix.
Sideswipe moves to place Ari on Optimus's chassis and she sits down on her knees with the Matrix held in front of her. Then she touches one of the metal tips to her AllSpark mark. A sharp pain shoots through her as all of her limbs lock up and the mark glows blindingly bright. The Matrix dissolves again, this time into her skin, and a new mark begins to grow beneath her knowledge mark, the Cybertronian symbol for life.
When the process is complete Ari leans forward with a gasp, breathing hard. Her heart is pounding, like she just got shot with adrenalin. So much more energy is coursing through her veins now. She can feel it, all those sparks in the Well of Sparks, they're right at the edge of her consciousness to where she can almost hear them whispering to her.
And there is one voice louder than all the rest.
She grabs onto it, to Optimus's voice, and the life mark begins to glow, her arms spark, just like they do when she's healing someone, but there's so much more power behind it now. Pressing her hands to Optimus's chassis, she pushes the power down her arms and into him, his spark flowing with it to return to its rightful place. When it is done his spark chamber glows anew, his body humming with new life, and Ari clambers down as Optimus's optics come back online. He coughs, sitting up, weakly but blessedly alive. She grins at him and starts to say something, but then she's whisked off the ground and flying through the air. She screams as the wind whips by and she watches the others get smaller and smaller, Sideswipe's optics filled with fear. It's not until she's on top of the pyramid next to the sun harvester that she's able to see that it's the Fallen's hand gripping her tightly to the point of pain, Megatron standing next to him.
"My Matrix!" the Fallen growls at her. "You've taken it from me. But I can still sense its power inside of you. Perhaps you can still be useful."
He holds her close to the center of the machine and her body begins sparking again, energy flowing out of her and into the sun harvester just like what happened when Starscream used her to power an AllSpark shard. She rapidly starts to feel drained, her muscles losing strength and turning limp. But the machine powers to life. When it is finished the Fallen tosses her aside and she lands on the pyramid a couple of steps below them, probably the only way she doesn't end up with something broken being because the AllSpark made her stronger.
"Why just throw the insect away?" Megatron asks. "The human holds the power of the AllSpark and now the Matrix."
"All humans are about to be exterminated," the Fallen replies. "She will die along with the rest of them and will be unable to survive in space. Her fleshy human body makes her useless to me."
Since they seem no longer interested in her Ari concentrates on getting her body moving again. This drain isn't quite as bad as last time. She's still got some of that adrenalin rush in her from absorbing the Matrix. Still, it's a chore just to sit up, let alone make it all the way down the pyramid before Megatron decides to kill her himself like he promised to do a few days ago. But she gets herself moving, one slow step at a time. Going down the pyramid isn't as hard as she thought it would be but that may just be because she's basically falling down each step.
When she's just reaching the bottom a bot flies by overhead. Optimus, she realizes with a start, flying with wings that she recognizes. Jetfire's wings. As Optimus flies by he takes out the top of the machine, effectively destroying it for good. The Fallen and Megatron then attack Optimus, the battle falling into the village where she can't see. But when she hears a familiar engine she doesn't care anymore. She knows Optimus will be okay.
Sideswipe's alt mode speeds towards her across the sand, not even slowing down as he transforms and he's picking her up into his arms, holding her as tightly as he dares to his chassis.
Ari presses herself to his shoulder with a contented sigh. "Is everyone alright? Do I need to heal anyone?
"I think everyone is mostly okay," Sides says, "except for me. You're going to give me a spark attack if you keep doing stuff like this, especially twice in the same hour."
Ari lets out a weak chuckle. "Sorry. I don't do it on purpose, I swear. "But, seriously, is everyone okay?"
"Yeah, except for Jetfire," Sideswipe says somberly. "He gave his life so Optimus could have his parts and the power to stop the Fallen."
Ari instantly thinks about what she needs to do in order to fix the older bot and then revive him, despite her weariness, but a voice whispers out of one of her doors, a new door connecting her to the Well of Sparks, telling her that it's better this way. She sighs sadly but lets it be. From what she can feel, he's finally at peace.
"It's over," Sideswipe says after a few moments and they start heading back towards the others. "Optimus offlined the Fallen. Megatron and Starscream got away though."
"Another problem for another day," she mumbles tiredly as she closes her eyes. "Now that the excitement is over, do you think it's safe for me to take a nap?"
Sideswipe strokes her head gently. "Go right ahead, sweetspark."
"You won't let me go, right?"
"Never."
"Promise?"
"Promise."
"'Kay." Ari snuggles closer as her mind starts to slip into unconsciousness. "Love you, Sides."
"Love you too, Ari."
Author's Note
Words cannot begin to express everything I am feeling right now. Do you have any idea how long I've been wanting to write that scene? I hope you guys liked it and it was worth the wait.
Alright, you won't be hearing from me for a while now, but if you have anything to say that you want me to respond to, write a review for this chapter cause these are the ones I'll be responding to when I post next.
Hope you enjoyed, PLEASE REVIEW, and see you all next time!