Circle Backwards: Part 3

Getting out of there was simple enough; for the most part all of Shockwave's stooges went running to see what had happened to their boss. So that left the two of us a pretty much open escape route. We got out and into the surrounding city quickly enough and then started looking for some where to go and hide until we could find a way to contact earth.
In the mean time I was getting my first real look at the place my man came from. Honestly? I don't know what I had been expecting, but I have to admit it was some what stranger than I had thought. The fact that everything was built for some one Prime's size or bigger didn't bother me that much, I was used to that from the ark. No what I have to admit got to me more than any thing else was the condition of the planet. I had hoped it would be like earth in one respect. That it would be alive some how, but from what I could see out of Optimus' windows as we drove away from the city, it wasn't. I hated to think this way but there wasn't any thing there that I thought would be worth fighting for. The world my little human eyes could see was something close to devastated.

We finally got far enough away from Shockwave's tower and found a place to hide for the time being. It looked like it might have been some kind of storehouse at some point. But now it was nothing more than a burned out hulk with a rather large hole in its dome shaped roof. Still it was a good place to hide; I would have to admit that I would never have bothered to look there. So I made the best of it.

Optimus let me out of his cab and transformed to go and take a look around to make sure that there was no one following us. While I started rummaging around in my bags looking for something a bit warmer to wear, besides being almost completely desiccated. The planet Cybertron was actually pretty darned cold.

I was in long pants by the time Prime came back, and I got a good look at him. The look on his face told me that while we weren't being followed something was bothering him. So I decided to stick my foot in my mouth like always and ask.

"Okay so what's up with the long face?" I demanded.

"Wha?" He looked down at me and blinked, "Oh sorry I was just…"

"JUST What?" I prompted as he trailed off.

"Just thinking about what's become of this planet," He lowered his eye some, "It's not like I remember it."

"No I don't suppose so," I found a smooth spot on the floor and then looked up at him as I settled down, "Come on Optimus, tell me what's the matter with you. I don't think I've ever seen that expression on your face before."

"Strange that you put it like that Angel," He eased down next to me making me grateful for some warmth.

"Your one of the few people in the universe that can read me through this thing," He continued as he tapped his mask with on finger.

"Oh," I settled down and thought for a second then shrugged. My curiosity was getting the better of me and I had to know even if he got mad at me for asking.

"So why do you…" I stopped suddenly feeling stupid.

"Wear the mask?" He finished for me, "It wasn't my idea love."

Now I blinked up at him, "You didn't always wear it?"

"No," He replied softly, "There was a time, a very long time ago, that I didn't have to wear it."

I noticed the look on his face had gone from one of slightly thoughtful, to downright up set. So I was planning on dropping the subject and told him so.

"I can see it's something you don't like to talk about babe," I sighed, "I guess I shouldn't have asked."

Prime smiled slightly and then looked back down at me, "No if any one has a right to know it's you I suppose." He reached up and disconnected it from his face. "In a way I guess you could say this thing is the cause of the whole war."

"What?" Now I was completely confused.

"If I hadn't been so stupid and naive then it never would have happened." He stopped for a second, "My getting the mask I mean. If that had never happened, maybe some how this war would never had occurred. Or at least my self and every one I love wouldn't be caught up in it."

"Optimus, you don't have to tell me!" I stated to him fiercely.

"Yes I do," He shook his head, "you're a part of this war and you have a right to know how it got started."

"If it's going to make you…"

He held up a hand for me to stop, "I'm not sad Angel, I don't think that's possible when you're around me. But I do have regrets that stem back to this thing. I want you to know what they are."

I nodded solemnly and looked back up at him, "Alright then, tell me."

So he did. He told me the whole story of how it happened and how a simple archivist in training, working at the docks to make ends meet, had stumbled onto a conspiracy bigger than him self or his whole safe little world. Then how that whole world had come crashing down around him as he realized what those he had once thought were good people had turned out to be monsters. Friends, lovers, family, everything had suddenly been consumed in that incident. Most of all he had woken up on that table with his face hidden from the whole universe.

The one who had repaired him and told him that this was to help make him more authorities, it would give him a way to hide his emotions and seem more like the commander he had now been forced to become. To him it was a mark of the mistake he had made, a symbol of the shame he felt at having trusted this vile person, at having been so stupidly open minded and not taken into account what had to be the signs of their evil.

That was probably why, he told me, that very few people out there, until recently, had known that it came off. He wanted them to think he had no emotions, because until the two of us met and fell in love, he hadn't thought he was worthy of having them.

All I could do at this revelation was sit there and stare at him in complete and utter shock. I would never have ever guessed that under the stoic commander there was a very sad young man who had been forced to leave his whole life behind him, all because he made one mistake, and that mistake had pushed his destiny into the forefront.

"You mean he shot you? Just because…" I stared up at him in shock , "Oh God Optimus. No wonder you keep fighting him."

"I wish I never had," He told me softly, "All I've succeeded in doing is making things worse." He looked out the crack in the wall, "I knew it was bad, I'd seen it before. For some reason though I just never let it register."

"I'm sorry Optimus. I really am" I snuggled up against him.

He was about to say something else when we heard them coming. Some of Shocks' goons must have picked up on our trail. So that meant it was time to hit the road and find another hiding spot.

Optimus stood up from me and snapped his mask back into place then transformed. "Come on, let's go. No reason to stay here any more," He stopped and then half heartedly finished. "It's not safe I mean."

I pulled my self up and got into his cab. The two of us pulled off about five minutes before the goons made it there. They were going one way and we were heading some where else, hoping that there would be some where safe there.

"Where are we going now?" I asked.

"Iacon," He replied, "If there's any thing left."