Chapter 4: Calm

Optimus looked down at Zagreus and made himself stand before offering her his hand for her to stand. Energon and sparks were coming off the pair's bodies. Zagreus smacked his hand away before forcing herself to stand before extending her blade once again. "Zagreus, we do not need to fight," Optimus said calmly as he extended his blade as well to protect himself from getting any more wounds.

"It is our destiny to fight and rip out the other's spark. I will not let my sire down," she growled before she charged at the Prime. "I will do what he could never!" Optimus dodged and parried her strikes before kicking her to the ground. Zagreus groaned and got to her hands and knees and coughed up some energon. Zagreus forced herself to stand before charging at the Prime once again only to be struck down over and over again.

"Zagreus, please, I do not want to rip your spark or anyone's spark out," Optimus pleaded since he did not want to kill anymore Cybertronians. Optimus knelt down and helped her up a little and had her look into his blue optics. "Zagreus, you do not have to follow your sire's path," he whispered before standing up and turning away before saying " Surrender and call for backup to come and assist you," Optimus said as he retracted his blade before he began walking with the other Autobots towards the groundbridge.

Zagreus looked up and was panting and tried to stand but was unable to. "Next time I will rip that matrix out of your chest," she screams as she glares at the Prime.

Optimus heard her scream as they all went through the groundbridge. All bleeding and hurt but alive. Bumblebee takes Arcee over towards the medical berth and helps her sit down. "What happened to all of you? Why didn't you just groundbridge back?" Ratchet said irritated as he had them all go to separate medical berths before beginning repairs on them and giving them more energon to keep their systems going. Ratchet started on patching the bleeding wounds first before starting on the other more severe ones.

"Zagreus was there, she took us all on at once," Bulkhead said as he wiped some energon off of his lip. "She is a lot faster than I remember her being," he said with a faint chuckle.

"She has dark energon in her system that amplifies her abilities due to her being so used to it." Optimus explained as he glanced over towards the green mech. "Zagreus was also trained by Megatron to not feel any pain during a battle. She was trained to ensure that she wouldn't stop fighting until her last breath." Optimus glanced down at the energon cube in his hands.

"You beat her though, you managed to get her to a point that she was unable to fight," Arcee said as Ratchet welded her wings back to normal. "You could have easily killed the heir of the Decepticons but chose not to. You easily could have taken one of the most powerful Decepticons.."

Optimus sat silent for a few moments before taking a sip from his energon cube. "I have killed too many during this war, and killing Megatron's daughter would just cause us more pain. Megatron would want to get more revenge than what he wants to get. Kronos would have also come to this planet and gotten his revenge for his sister's death. I also choose not to because I know that anyone on the other side is subject to change if they want it, just like those on our side that went to the Decepticons," Optimus said as he looked over at Arcee. Optimus thought about seeing the fear and pain deep in her optics. Was she more afraid to die? Or to face a disappointed Megatron?

"Besides we wouldn't have had the damn fight if you didn't strike first," Bulkhead said as he handed Bumblebee his energon cube. "She was going to let us go."

"How do we know she was telling the damn truth? She could have just said that then Megatron would have come down and murdered us anyways. She also deserved it after all of those she has killed through the eons. She is the one that ordered Arachnid to capture me and Tailgate to get Autobot secrets" Arcee grumbled. The group sat in silence as they got repaired. After that most went to recharge after the long battle. Optimus still sat on the medical berth as Ratchet came and sat beside him before placing a hand on his shoulder as the Prime's helm dropped slightly as he released a sigh.

"She is Megatron's child, she will follow his path much like her older brother is. You cannot try to change everyone on the other side, Optimus," Ratchet said as he moved and sat down in front of the Prime.

"I am aware of that Ratchet, but I still want to help her in some way. Megatron's grasp can be rather strong, I was swayed by his ideals until his own intentions showed through but I managed to break free," Optimus said with a sigh as he ran his hand over his face plates.

On the Nemesis

Zagreus groaned as a couple of the vehicon troops managed to help her towards the medical bay. Knockout helped her in further before having her sit down on the medical bay. "I take it you didn't win?" Knockout taunted. Zagreus groaned and climbed off of the medical berth and grabbed the medic by his throat and pushed him against the wall. Knockout's optics widened. Her optics went from a bright purple back to red and the mixture of dark energon and blue energon on her wounds slowly began to heal them.

"Watch your tone with me, medic, I am usually in the mood for our banter but not today," she said as she tightened her grip. "I do not wish to deal with your opinion on how I should have fought the Prime, you wouldn't have even been able to go ped to ped with him," Zagreus said before releasing her grip and allowing him to fall to the ground. Her wounds healed and she turned and walked out of the medical bay. Just around the corner was Megatron. "I know I have failed you, I will ensure to rip his spark out the next time I see him," Zagreus said before she lowered her helm.

Megatron walked forward and lifted her chin up to have her look into his optics. "You did fine Zagreus, you wounded their entire team, go rest," Megatron said in a soft tone. It was rare to see him being so gentle and being more of a sire. "Go rest sweet spark," he whispered and pulled his hand away and allowed Zagreus to go towards her quarters.

Along the halls she saw Soundwave standing next to her room. Zagreus stopped in front of him and frowned. Soundwave shook his helm and raised his visor to show his red optics and small smile along with a scar going across his face. Soundwave walked forward and placed a small kiss on the top of her helm. "Go rest, I told your sire not to argue too much," he struggled to say through his broken voice box. He lowered his visor and Zagreus walked in before glancing over her shoulder and smiling before going into her room and laying on her berth.

Soundwave had the door closed and walked towards the main area of the Nemesis and saw Megatron standing there. He had allowed the vehicons to go recharge as he looked over the controls of the shift. "Has she gone to recharge?" Megatron asked and Soundwave nodded his helm. "We should tell her soon that the one she thinks is her carrier isn't her carrier. She was just my partner in the pits and a close friend. She should know that you are the carrier to my offspring," Megatron said with ease.

"I am aware we should but the ranks must not know either," Soundwave said through their bond before going over and typing on the controls.