By Fang Wolfsbane

"Optimus!"

Sari's scream echoed through Bumblebee's audio receptors at such a high pitch that he felt the fluid forming against his optics faster than he realised. His processor had still been racing to keep up with what was happening around them when a Decepticon appeared out of nowhere and began attacking.

He and Sari had managed to get to the back of the train they were kept hostage in, but when Optimus tried rescuing them, he and the Decepticon that had identified himself as Starscream, had been swinging around, each trying to get the upper hand.

Both of them had desperately been clawing at the Allspark that had been brought in exchange for his and Sari's freedom. Due to stellar cycles of working together, they had been able to keep it out of the Decepticon's servos until he forced it from Prime's servos by force and flew into the sky, using it to blast anything that caught his optic.

None of them had noticed Optimus using one of the buildings to climb to where Starscream hovered to attack him from behind. The next moment the two of them were on a blimp advertising Sumdac Towers with Starscream aiming right for Optimus's faceplate.

A couple of seconds later, the Allspark opened wide and interfered with the blast, sending both mechs flying in opposite directions, shattering the Allspark itself in the process. Smoke rose in the aftermath, hiding the result within, sending fragments shooting off on their own as the Allspark was destroyed.

It wasn't until the thud of Optimus's frame hitting the tarmac that he realised what had happened exactly. He couldn't see the reactions of all the others, but he was pretty sure he knew what they were. Shock. Horror. Fear.

He didn't see when, but at some point Starscream had flown off by himself. When Sari grabbed a hold of him and followed him down to the crash site, he didn't know either. All he saw was a bot that he had been stuck in cryofreeze for over fifty deca-cycles that was now on the ground of a planet other than Cybertron, turning grey as his lifeforce drained from him.

A glance towards Ratchet and Highdrive confirmed that neither of the two medics could do anything in the current situation, except watch. All any of them could do was simply watch as Optimus left them behind.

Unlike them, Sari didn't hesitate. One moment she was on his shoulder, the next she was scrambling over to Optimus, yanking the key from her neck. Ratchet started to protest, but she ignored him as she planted herself on the fire truck's chassis.

"Don't you dare die on me Prime," Sari ordered through her tears. Dimming his optics, Bumblebee didn't have the spark to tell the human girl that once a bot went offline, they rarely, if ever, came back online.

It wasn't until Prowl's voice broke through his audio receptors that he even noticed someone running towards them. Like some kind of maniac, Tyla ran as fast as she could, stopping when she saw why all of them had gathered round whilst the humans kept their distance.

"O-Optimus?" Tyla barely managed to breathe out. Whether it was the shock or realisation from it, Tyla's legs buckled out from underneath her the moment she saw why. At some point Bulkhead had made his way over to the other human girl, catching her in his large servo just as she fell back. She looked to the green coloured mech. "W-What happened?"

Bulkhead only turned his helm away, unable to face her just like how he had been unable to tell Sari the truth.

"Come on, come on," Sari muttered to herself, turning the key repeatedly only to receive a sound he had heard Tyla call a dead engine starter. Apparently once an Earth vehicle had gone into such a state, it usually took a few tries to wake it back up. Sometimes they never woke up though.

Tears began to prick the younger girl's eyes as Tyla made her way over in an attempt to pull the girl away. Even Tyla could see that the situation was hopeless, so why couldn't Sari?

With her arms wrapped firmly around Sari, Tyla tried pulling her away, but Sari continued struggling. Bumblebee was about to snap his frustration at her until a deep light blue glow caught his optic. Whatever the glow was, it caught Sari's eye as well.

The red head pushed herself away from Tyla to look at the source. All of them froze in utter shock. It wasn't until Tyla herself looked that she realised why they were all staring at her in the first place.

Lodged in the middle of her chest sat a small fragment of the Allspark. Staring down at it, Tyla began to tear up, fear over her own safety growing. He didn't know much about humans, but how she hadn't felt that earlier was beyond him, especially considering that this was the same human that had yelped a week ago when she stubbed her toe around a corner.

A red fluid began to form around the shard as the girl looked to all of them for help. Bumblebee knew he wouldn't be able to do anything, even if he ripped the shard from her body. His stingers would only cause more harm. Ratchet seemed to be thinking the same about his modifications.

"G-Guys? What is this?" Tyla asked, her eyes tearing up even further. Just when he thought they were all simply going to pull up their shoulder struts and watch the girl bleed out, Highdrive surprised all of them by stepping up.

"It looks like a piece of the Allspark got lodged in you. We're going to have to remove it. Sari, help her lay down," Highdrive instructed as he kneeled by the girls, his one digit evicting a bigger version of a human-sized tweezer.

Without hesitation, Sari did as Highdrive said, helping the older girl lay down on her back, keeping a hold of her hand the entire time to try and comfort him. After a short inspection, Highdrive didn't wait for Ratchet's authority on the matter as he attached the end of the tweezers to the fragment in the girl's chest.

"I'm going to have to pull it out."

"W-Will it hurt?" Tyla asked, her nerves made clear in that one, single question. Highdrive didn't belittle her by pointing out that she had a literal fragment the size of her own hand lodged partway in her body. From the part sticking out, even he could tell it wasn't in that deep, but still deep enough to cause the girl pain, and possible further injury if it wasn't dealt with soon.

"It will. I'm going to need you to stay calm for me, okay?"

Yeah right. He might as well have asked her to simply stop bleeding. The fear on the girl's face grew before she surprised all of them with a nod.

"Prowl, I'm going to need you to get a couple of medics. I don't know what's going to happen once I pull this out," Highdrive informed the motorcycle bot, who only nodded before he transformed and sped to where a couple of ambulances could be heard in the distance, drawn to the scene from earlier to check for casualties.

With the tweezers gripping onto one end of the shard, Highdrive seemed to hesitate for the first time, almost as if frozen in place. He didn't move, didn't even breathe, not until Tyla placed her hand on top of the surgical tool protruding from his digit.

"Please Highdrive. I trust you."

Those words seemed to make the Autobot freeze even more before he nodded lightly. He let Tyla take a deep breath, holding onto the shard until Prowl returned with an ambulance. Once the paramedics were informed of the situation, they helped Highdrive pry the shard free, with Ratchet's help, the static field that he formed around the shard helping to pry it loose.

Luckily based off Tyla's description, the shard hadn't been in as deep as they originally thought, but the pain from the extraction was made clear on the girl's face. The moment it was dislodged, one of the paramedics injected some kind of foam that would keep the wound semi-shut whilst they transported her to the nearest hospital. Highdrive surprised them all by asking Ratchet's permission to be the one to take Tyla to the hospital. Ratchet only nodded.

With nothing to distract her anymore, Sari turned back to Optimus's lifeless frame. With the shard still in Ratchet's possession, Sari asked to see it. At first Ratchet seemed unsure before he let the girl get a closer look.

At first she did nothing before she suddenly grabbed the bloodied shard from him and rushed over to where Optimus lay. Ratchet barely had enough time to react before Sari plunged both the key and the shard into the Prime's chassis the moment it opened up to allow access for her key once more.

Those of them that remained watched with wide eyes and optics as colour began to return to Optimus's faceplate. For a moment nothing happened until Optimus blinked, looking around in utter confusion.

"Is this… the Well of Allsparks?"

S ari nearly snorted as her eyes teared up once more. "No silly. This is Detroit."

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