This is my first ever story so please try to be gentle 😅
To most of the sentient life on Earth it was just another normal day. Working, learning in school, sleeping, but a few miles out of Jasper Nevada a quite unnormal event was going on at the Blackrock oil refinery.
Metallic titans up to the size of three story buildings with vehicle parts lodged into their bodies were locked in an intense firefight, careful not to detonate the explosives surrounding them.
During the fight, as per usual, two of them ended up separated from the rest of their armies, fighting alone. A red and blue titan with sky blue eyes and yellow highlights with the front of a truck for a torso clashing against a grey titan with red eyes and red and black highlights and a giant cannon on his arm, glowing orange energon axe forming out of the red and blue one's hand and a glowing purple blade in the grey titan's hand, before the red and blue one was tossed across the battlefield and into a building. The grey bot, Megatron, slowly walked up to the red and blue one, Optimus Prime, putting his blade away on his back before extending a glowing purple mace out of his off hand, chuckling menacingly.
"This is it Optimus. The end of the Autobots is now. And what do you have to show for it? Nothing but spilt energon and scrap metal. You should have joined me when you had the chance Optimus, back when you were Orion, we could have ruled Cybertron together!" He screams the last part "Cybertron would have been just! No bot would have been sparked or forged, only to be tossed in the mines to work and be forgotten till their spark is snuffed ever again!"
"That's a lie and you know it Megatron. They may not have that forced upon that from sparking, but you would put them up against each other in an arena and do the same to the loser. That is not freedom. That is barbarism. But at this point I don't think you could tell the difference, if you ever could." Optimus spoke, noble and wise beyond his (albeit aging) years, and still just as patient as ever despite how long this war had gone on for, and knowing just how the Decepticon leader thought.
Before Megatron could respond, Optimus suddenly pulled himself up and charged at Megatron, grappling against him and sending himself and the startled warlord hurtling through several buildings and then off a cliff.
"As long as any single being in this universe possesses compassion your rule will never be absolute Megatron! If I fall others will rise to take my place in our fight against your tyranny!"
"You fool yourself Optimus! Sentient beings need a strong hand to guide them, otherwise they scuttle in the shadows waiting to overthrow the benevolent! True peace can only ever be achieved through tyranny!" he spat back while they both fell, punching and jumping off the wall of the cliff to get leverage on eachother, Optimus eventually managing to cut Megatron's cannon arm off with his energon axe during the fall, until eventually they landed, with Optimus beneath Megatron, though Megatron was still far from uninjured and was sent tumbling after the impact.
Slowly stalking towards his pray yet again as he gets up, kicking his dismembered arm away, he taunts Optimus "This is it Optimus. How was it you put it? Ah yes, 'One shall stand, one shall fall'?" he chuckles again as he walks closer, Optimus coughing up energon onto the ground.
"I very well may fall eventually, but that day is not today. As long as you still function that day will never come. I will fight to protect my friends and claw my way all the way back up from the bottom of the well of allsparks to defeat you" Optimus slowly started to stand up on one knee as he spoke, his voice and his limbs shaky while he glared at his former friend. Former brother. Before suddenly jumping up with both manipulators balled up together and uppercutted the tyrant, sending him flying several astrometers away and punching him repeatedly while still in the air.
"One of us shall fall this day Megatron! But it shall not be me!" he screamed as he continued to pummel the slightly taller bot until his armour was crushed and falling off in places and his chin was covered in his own lifeblood.
Eventually Optimus stopped and allowed Megatron's wounded form to topple to the ground with a loud thud. Optimus slowly drew his manipulator to behind his back and brought his ion rifle out of his subspace and aimed it directly at Megatron's head.
"Heh. I really do need to remember that uppercut move. That's the second time you've gotten me with it." He chuckled and coughed between words, struggling to move at all.
"Megatron, your reign of tyranny ends here. I know that Starscream will rise up to take your place, and either Soundwave or Shockwave after him, but we will defeat them, as we have defeated you... Goodbye, old friend."
He stayed still for several seconds, slightly squeezing the trigger before letting go of it, over and over again, his servos shaking uncontrollably before Megatron started laughing maniacally.
"You're weak. You're just as weak as when you reached out to me as a librarian. You can't finish what you started... End me Optimus! Or would that be against your so-called morals, to kill an unarmed combatant?! This is why you will lose Prime! You're not made of stern enough stuff to do what needs to be done!" he taunted before cackling again.
After several more moments Megatron pulled himself up and walked back over to his severed arm, Optimus keeping his weapon trained on him the whole time but unable to fire, causing Megatron's smirk to grow wider and wider with every passing nanoclick before slowly walking away. "So long Prime! Maybe next time you will give in to your violent urges! As you are now, it's not even worth it to kill you."
Megatron activates his comlink a nanoclick before activating the thrusters in his feet, still quietly cackling. "Decepticons! Retreat!" he thunderously orders before a shrill voice came through on the other end "But Lord Megatron! We have the Autobots on the run! They're sitting ducks!" "Is that mutiny I hear Starscream? You have your orders!" He barked back, swiftly causing Starscream to signal to his Seekers to follow the other already retreating Decepticons.
As Megatron vanished from sight Optimus Prime dropped his rifle and fell down to his knees, energon leaking out of several cracks in his armour, while some of his closest Autobot friends scaled down the cliff, confused by the sudden retreat.
"Optimus, are you alright?" An old voice called out as he rushed to his old friends help.
"I am fine Ratchet... I... I had him right where I wanted him... But I couldn't finish the job... What kind of leader am I if I cannot finish off a tyrant and war criminal in combat when all I have to do is pull a trigger?" he said, earning a deep sigh and gentle pat on the shoulder from the old medic, while a tall red bot with large cannons on his arms approached, with a near identical body to Ratchet's and placed a hand on the Prime's, crouching down to his level.
"Hey. I would have scrapped the slag-maker, but you're better than that. No matter what the circumstances are, you never waiver in your beliefs or morals. You always stick to the high road and never cower in fear, no matter what you could have accomplished otherwise. That's why we follow you Optimus. That's why so few bots surrendered to the Decepticons when it seemed like Megatron had already won the war. Because you're a true hero that will never bend his morals. That is why you are the leader of the Autobots, and we would follow you to the pit and back."