Elita One falls.
"ELITA!"
Optimus looks down in horror.
"OPTIMUS!"
Elita's servo is held out for him as she screams his name then he does the unthinkable, he yanks his grappler out, he falls after Elita over the scream of Sentinel watching them fall. He watches Optimus collide against Elita's figure quickly as though he bore no weight. Optimus catches the femme into his grasp, aims his arm at the wall above them. Optimus fires his grapplers at the lower half of the ceiling above them.
They crash together with Optimus absorbing the fall for the downloader damaging pieces of his back panel and a cry. Elita gets up first then helps the cybertronian fire truck up to his feet with her small servo. They look around as the bombs are going off, the ground trembling beneath them, Elita shielding herself with her arm. Optimus looks aside then spots a make shift weapon for Elita then picks it up and hands it to her.
She looks up toward the taller mechbot then nods back at him, defiant.
"Together." Elita said.
All over the scream coming from above them that they can't hear.
"But not together." Optimus said.
Optimus applies a finger to the side of his comn,
"Sentinel, get out of here! Save yourself!" Optimus orders.
"You're not my boss-bot-" Sentinel began to complain.
"Sentinel, that is a order!" Elita taps on the side of her comn as she looks up toward Sentinel's direction. "From me. Elita One out."
Sentinel shook his head then started to protest as Elita ended the comn as she turned away.
"Listen to the real leader of the group. Optimus out."
It's the last call sign in all retrospects for the golden trio of the Academy that was splintering.
"War or no war," Elita said, side by side with Optimus. "This is our war."
"You would have made a great Magnus." Optimus said.
"Magnus?" Elita said then laughed. "That's all you, golden bot."
Optimus looks down toward Elita then smiles, if only briefly, then turned his attention back toward the spiders approaching them. Elita and Optimus are below surrounded by the spiders as the energon explodes, boom, boom, boom, boom. Sounds of war that had once belonged to Cybertron with fallen Autobots, Neutrals, and Decepticons alike with protoforms being made just to fight against the red opticed cybertronians.
Optimus is holding his long axe, Elita is holding a improvised long rock that is pointy and rugged using it as her weapon as she clashes against the spiders as they cut down several of the spider legs. Elita is holding her own well for a downloader against a organic opponent with multiple red eyes taking down several spiders at a time around her and alongside Optimus. The spiders hiss back at Elita and she hisses back at them in such a way that isn't natural for a cybertronian but a part of her defiant spark.
They didn't hear the high pitch shriek from behind them. There is a loud crash behind them as Elita stabs into the heart of a spider that had pinned down Optimus. A familiar cybertronian snowplow came through the spiders then transformed into Sentinel. Elita pales where she stands as the creatures below her then Sentinel slides Optimus out from the empty husk.
"Think I would leave the two of you to the action?"
"Sentinel-"
"Your six!"
Optimus ducks, Sentinel extracts his lance then goes on to stabbing the spider directly into the face.
"Take that, you blimey rotten spider!"
Elita chops off the front legs to the spiders with her weapon then smiles looking off toward Sentinel being brave; he was cowardly when it came to his troubles. He was cowardly. But when it came to his friend's lives on the line, he threw it aside and threw himself into the troubles all in. She fells a sharp feeling into her back and she screams then falls.
"Sentinel, get Elita and get-"
"We go back to the ship, TOGETHER, why don't you stop being a hero for one nanoklik?"
Sentinel departed from Optimus then jabbed his lance into the mouth of the spider, took out his shield, then smashed the spider's face against it as it shrieked leaving Elita behind.
"Because the other option is letting you die with no one covering you!"
Sentinel deactivated the lance, tucking it back where he had it initially, then picked her up slipping Elita's arm along his shoulder.
"Go to Primus and cry about it, wah wah wah. I am not leaving you," Sentinel replied. "You self entitled jerk."
Optimus turns away from the giant spider looking back at Sentinel, incredulously.
"JERK?" Optimus shouts. "CADET SENTINEL, THAT'S YOU!"
His reply causes a few of the spiders to flee from the scene as the explosions rang out.
"NAH AH UH!" Sentinel replies.
"I will be right behind you!" Optimus adds.
"MY OPTICS ARE ON YOU AND YOU'RE NOT MOVING." Sentinel screams as the explosions cloud and he can't see Optimus. "Optimus!"
Sentinel screams as he sees more rock fall then is crashed upon by mentioned rock. He is out like a rock laid on his chest as Optimus fends himself off against the tall spiders as everything around him is falling, being willfully destroyed, as his world is falling apart. Optimus turns around once slaying the spider that was in front of him as he spots Sentinel's form fallen on the ground. His optics widen as he watches a spider loomed over Sentinel's figure then bites into the side of his neck.
Optimus charges on with a war cry, and all he sees is red, crashing upon the beast tearing into the beast with his axe until all that is left of the organic being is exposed guts then the roof collapses above him. Optimus is crashed to the ground by a sharp piece of the wall that tore into his chest and he is out. Optimus is out on the ground alongside Elita's fallen form. Elita is in pain and tired as she comes to feeling every joint in her frame is aching and her circuits feel as though they are eroding. Her spark is fading.
"Optimus. . ."
Elita looks toward Sentinel.
"Sentinel. . ."
Sentinel groans as his optics power to the life at the mention of his name.
"Is. . . are. . are. . . we okay?"
Elita is unable to see the red optics of the spiders.
"We're good." Elita lies. "We got a . . we . . got a coast."
"Can we go back to the academy, now?"
"Sure."
Sentinel is out cold and it takes everything in Elita's being to lift him up, drag Sentinel out of the nest of the spiders, come back for Optimus, carefully lift the cybertronian truck to the ship, drop Optimus alongside his seat. Sentinel has came back to, sending a emergency beacon, the emergency beacon jettisoning out of the ship into the sky then into space, slinking in his seat then slides out and heads toward Elita and Optimus left on the floor.
"Did. . . Did. . . did we make it to the ship?" Optimus asks.
Elita is holding Optimus's larger servo as she sobs, slipped beside the chair, as Sentinel joins the mechbot's side and takes his other servo.
"We-w-w-w-we made it." Sentinel said.
Optimus smiles, his cracked optics glowing a bright blue than how his pupil glowed on most days, his cracked face helm fading with life.
"We made it." Optimus said, smiling.
"We made it." Elita repeated.
"All in one piece." Sentinel said.
Optimus smiles as his grip on Sentinel's servo tightened then loosening as his blue arm turned to gray. Sentinel can't see, his optics are too badly shattered from the fall, his servo trembling, holding on to Optimus's empty hands. He can't see Optimus's shell but he can feel that he is gone from the room as he slides himself to the side on the floor. He's so tired. Elita One is sobbing as she holds the servo from the shell of her late best friend. She watches with intact optics as Sentinel fades away a few cycles later.
Elita has her back against the chair; sobbing, no leaks, just disgruntled noises. Her small servo holds on to Optimus's servo as she cradles the center of her forehelm. It was a simple mistake, agreeing with Sentinel, egging on Optimus, getting themselves a ship to go there and be well known for their exploit. Her servo fell as she ceased to weep then looked toward them spotting Sentinel's darkened optics aimed toward Optimus. She lets out a stifled sob. Her mechs were gone and she was going to join them sooner rather than later.
Elita recognized that she were fading. It wasn't useful to be sad when Primus would coordinate for their swift reunion. There was so much possible futures they could have held in the elite guard or as minors for Autobot Boot Camp. Drifted apart, become a union again, become stronger, wiser, and aged together magnificently as their mentors had. And now, they would never grow old. The universe would continue to operate, grind against other bots and cons alike, just as it had before their arrival.
Elita became gray and the poison drained the soft glow of life out of her optics.
Rescuers would later find Elita One's shell looking upon sorrowfully upon the smiling shell of Optimus and the regretful look on Sentinel.
And Megatron's foe was that of Rodimus Prime.