Chapter 4:
1;
There was a defining moment in a warrior's life, a true warrior's life when they're faced with an opportunity to finally triumph in the ultimate battle, against their greatest rival or the greatest warrior in the eyes of another. Megatron witnessed his own arm cannon blast a hole through Prime's midsection, watched as magenta fluid blew out in all directions, huge pieces of metal scattering out into space with it, and saw the shocked and pained look in Prime's optics.
Optimus collapsed backwards, entirely limp, no longer moving in any regard. Megatron pointed his fusion cannon towards the fallen warrior, sure that he wouldn't last much longer, but pondered the idea of finishing him here and now regardless. He glanced upward into the darkness, not recalling if the Seekers had all gone by now, and saw that they had, leaving the two leaders entirely alone.
It would be so easy to end it all, to shoot one final blast and watch Optimus Prime die forever. The end of the war would follow, Jazz and the rest of the crew dying without their great leader, and shortly after, Elita-1 and Ultra Magnus would follow.
Prime's head slowly began to raise, his faceplate pulled away into his helmet, and he looked as though he were about to speak, to say some set of final words about the cruelty of the Decepticon cause and the willingness of true freedom fighters to keep on fighting, to never give in to tyranny.
Megatron never heard those words though.
Just as Prime's own chest exploded open, Megatron's did as well, albeit a smaller explosion, a more controlled and precise one just off to the side of dead center. Megatron immediately fell to his knees, weakness controlling him. He followed Prime's gaze to his right and saw the bot who had shot him, and seemingly sealed his fate.
Deadlock stood with his sniper rifle held in front of him, its butt pressed against his shoulder and its barrel smoking. The small black bot cast the rifle aside, letting it thud into the ship's hull, slowly drew the sword on a sheath across his back, and stabbed it through the center of his own torso.
2;
Ironhide may as well have been flying through the hallway, wheels spinning faster than almost any other instance in his life. He had no clue how many 'cons he'd taken out that day, but it was a pretty damn high number. He didn't care in the slightest about the kill count, just about getting to the planet below with as few casualties among his own troops as possible, and right now he was awfully desperate to save one more kid in need of saving.
"Ironhide?" he heard Jazz's voice sound over the coms. "Where the hell are you?"
"Heading down to Section C, and quick," he responded quickly, still speeding down the hall. "I can't let Prime get stuck out there fighting Megatron when we cut that section loose. He might need my help fighting the bucket-head off."
"Hold on a minute, I'm on my way to help," Jazz responded, and Ironhide could hear him begin to try and move away from where he was.
"No kid," Ironhide said, seeing Airlock C just ahead of him, "there's no time, and right now Prime needs me, and this ship needs you. I'll bring 'im back in one piece and get him back up front."
There was a brief pause from Jazz's end before he finally agreed with Ironhide and ended the conversation, but regardless of how Jazz might've responded, Ironhide was already getting outside.
Ironhide saw Prime's body almost the second he got outside of the ship, along with Megatron's. The gravity wall was almost entirely gone, both of the bodies beginning to float upward.
"No," Ironhide whispered at the sight, horrified to see Prime with an enormous gap in his torso. All the same, he ran over to his leader, held him in his arms, and made his way back to the ship.
At just about the exact second that Ironhide got back inside the ship, the gravity wall finally gave out from all the damage the ship had taken, and Megatron and Deadlock's bodies floated off into the void of space.
3;
Soundwave, set up with a tracker of Megatron's constant location and a monitor of his vitals built into his own body, was entirely aware of his descent into the vacuum of space and sent a transmission through to Skywarp, fully aware of his fellow Decepticon's own talents and loyalty to the cause.
4;
The Constructicons had retreated, run away through the hallways, leaving the Dynobots to do as they please, and they were heading for the tunnel connecting the two mighty vessels. They were going to the Nemesis to wipe out whatever Decepticons were leftover there. If Prime had any strategic skill whatsoever, he could take care of this situation over here, and Grimlock would do what was really necessary, and finish off the real threat in the giant freaking ship loaded with all kinds of massive turrets which Megatron should've used if he had any sort of strategic intelligence. Of course, Grimlock was unaware that the 'cons had their weapons system almost entirely destroyed by an asteroid field, and they were almost entirely incapable of doing any damage whatsoever to the Ark.
5;
Every Autobot was sent a message through coms from Jazz, informing them to get back to Sections A and B as quickly as possible, and that if they didn't they would be ejected from the ship in no more than five minutes. Ironhide had just gotten Prime inside when that message went through, and he had to have been five minutes away from Section B if he were to travel by alt mode, but that wasn't an option with Prime in his arms. He had to move, and he had to move faster than he ever had before.
He never sprinted so hard in his life, and he was certain that he was going to collapse in a minute as his legs gave out beneath him, but he kept running regardless. A countdown initiated and sounded throughout the hallways, alerting him to every ten seconds that passed. He contacted Jazz when the countdown reached two minutes, and he wasn't at a pace that would get him there in time.
"Jazz!" he called over the intercom, feeling the exhaustion in his aged body. "Jazz, do you read me!?"
"Ironhide," he heard the Autobot second-in-command reply. "I read you, what the hell are you doing?"
"I'm moving as fast as I can here Jazz, I've got Prime, but I'm not gonna make it before the countdown shuts off. I need you to extend it another ninety seconds."
"Hold on," Jazz said after a brief pause.
Ironhide kept running, knowing that Jazz was conferencing with Wheeljack and the brothers, asking if there was any possible way they could stop the ship from entering the atmosphere just a little longer. He also knew that the brothers would say no but that Wheeljack would come up with some extravagant, dangerous plan because unlike the two much younger bots, Wheeljack knew how important Optimus was, and how much trouble they were in if they lost him.
"Alright, old timer," Jazz said, his voice tired and worried, "we're adding thirty seconds to the timer, so you better haul ass. Good luck, soldier."
If Jazz hadn't cut transmission immediately, Ironhide would've. He wasn't sure that was enough time, but he did know that if he didn't make it, him and Prime would be dead in about two minutes when the third subsection of the Ark blew off and exploded on contact with the Nemesis.
6;
Grimlock got the message from Jazz, and ignored it, as did the rest of the Dynobots. They were more than capable of getting to the Nemesis first, and were strong enough to fight their way out if need be. They didn't need the rest of the crew to get something done.
7;
Bluestreak had moments of consciousness coming and going, moments when he would look up and see Ratchet, or Red Alert, or even Jazz looking down at him, but those moments were always brief and dominated by a pain in his lower torso by his waist. He didn't know why he was feeling that pain or how he had screwed up to get hurt that way. As soon as he began to theorize, he would fall back in stasis.
To Ratchet, whether or not he would make it was still greatly in question.
8;
"Subsection C shall be ejected in T-minus 40 seconds. All troops remaining in Subsection C please report to Subsection B immediately."
Ironhide kept running, his legs now filling with pain from how strenuous the speed was for him. He kept glancing down at Prime in his arms, seeing that enormous gaping hole in his chest, and couldn't help but wonder if what he was doing didn't really matter. It was a distinct possibility, even to Ironhide, that Prime was already dead.
"Subsection C shall be ejected in T-minus 30 seconds. 29…28…27…"
Ironhide rounded a corner in the Ark's hallways, and up ahead saw the cutoff of Sections B and C. It was crawling with Decepticons, and as his feet continued banging down into the paneling below, they turned, each one of them recognizing him immediately, and they raised their blasters.
"23…22…21…20…"
Shots began flying past Ironhide in all different directions, a few hitting him and nearly knocking him over, but by some means he managed to keep on running, to keep going despite having rounds blasting into his torso. One hit his leg and he was almost sure he would finally fall, but he didn't, only slowed a bit.
"15…14…13…12…"
Ironhide recognized Blitzwing, had fought him a few times before throughout all the years they'd been at war, and watched in horror as the Decepticon slowly transformed, the barrel of his tank mode pointed directly towards him and his leader. A bolt blasted out from it, and struck Ironhide's waist. He finally collapsed.
"10…9…8…7…"
For a few moments he just layed there, feeling the horrible ache in just about everything below the waist. Prime was in front of him, also lying still, face down on the ground. The Decepticons were still shooting, but big tanker bots like Blitzwing tend to need a few seconds to recharge below firing again. Regardless, Ironhide was certain that he couldn't make it in time.
"6…5…4…3…"
It was a combination of the timer, and the idea of Optimus Prime dying so unceremoniously in the wreck of an exploding section of the Ark that gave him the will to get back up, get his leader back into his arms and run.
"2…1… Section C is now being ejected."
As Teletran 1 finished speaking, Ironhide felt his arms push out and throw Prime forward, into the Decepticons. He himself leaped forward, and barely made it through to his enemies before the bulkhead door slammed shut behind him. He'd made it. Now time for these goons.
9;
Skyquake hit the ground hard. Grimlock stood over him, double-barreled photon blaster aimed at his head, a pale orange light beginning to grow inside as the energy within loaded up. He wasn't afraid, but he also wasn't stupid enough to think that he could win this fight. Even if he was a bit faster, Grimlock had gotten the drop on him without a weapon, and the size difference was enough to make even his skills as a warrior irrelevant.
"Are you afraid to die, Decepticon?" Grimlock asked in his deep, growling voice.
"I do not fear a brute such as you," Skyquake replied, trying to keep any form of weakness out of his voice. "It is savages like yourself that have brought disgrace to all of our kind. Your uncivilized nature disgusts me to no end."
The other four Dynobots walked up to stand on each side of Grimlock, Skyquake noticing drops of purple covering their torsos and limbs as they did, a few of them with smoking barrels on the ends of their blasters. Grimlock's head turned to glance at each of them.
"It seems you might not have to be disgusted for long then," Grimlock replied, Skyquake noting just a hint of humor in his otherwise stern voice.
"You're a psychopa-" was all that Skyquake could get out before an enormous explosion tore through the front of the ship, and they were all forced into a chaotic spiral in which survival was the only remaining priority.
10;
A small compartment opened in the side of Ironhide's right leg, and he pulled the knife from that very sheath, in less than a second throwing it into an Insecticon's torso. The knife managed to pick up so much speed that it actually pushed the bug back, and the blade reached into the Insecticon behind the first's chest as well. Having thrown Prime meant that most of the 'cons were on the ground, with the exception of Blitzwing, still in his tank mode, and a few others that Ironhide didn't personally recognize.
He drew a smaller blaster in his left hand from where it sat on his waist while a huge cannon converted from the side of his right arm. Simultaneously he shot another Insecticon in the face with the pistol, and blew off the barrel of Blitzwing's tank with his cannon.
In no more than a minute, each and every Decepticon that had been waiting to meet him was lying on the ground, either dead or stuck in stasis until they made it to Earth. He had Prime back in his arms quickly, and was moving through the hallway towards the bridge as fast as possible, hoping that's where Ratchet would be. Ironhide, caught up in all of the fighting and stress, hadn't noticed that the tips of Prime's fingers and the bottom of his feet had begun to turn from their typical blue to a dark gray….