Chapter 16: Loss
Bumblebee sat off to the side of the hangar, not even noticing the silence around them.
He looked at the dried energon on his hand. He hadn't even noticed the rest.
Jazz patted him on the shoulder as he walked by.
Arcee walked past with Sideswipe, the jagged stump where her doorwing had been ripped off immediately caught Bumblebee's optic.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"What?" Arcee turned to look at it. "Oh, yeah. It happens. Where's your friend?" She asked.
Bumblebee sighed, as he leaned against the bulkhead.
He opened his mouth to answer but his vocalizer couldn't fire up.
Arcee's optics turned sympathetic, and she leaned down and embraced the small mech.
"I'm sorry Bee." She said, noticing the dried energon on his frame.
There were small bits of blue and yellow debris as well. It stuck against his yellow frame. She shuddered at the thought of Seaspray's fate.
"It was quick." Bumblebee replied, staring at the wall. "That's what they keep telling me. It was quick. Like that's supposed to make it okay."
Sunstreaker ran up to Sideswipe, immediately checking his neck, as Arcee turned to help the wounded red twin to the medibay.
"What happened?"
"I'm fine." Sideswipe replied.
"Sides, what did that to you?" Sunstreaker demanded angrily.
"I said I'm fine!" Sideswipe shouted back.
"Guys...just...shut up." Arcee pleaded, her optics sunken, as she looked from one twin to the other. "This isn't the time for you two to fall apart."
Sideswipe and Sunstreaker exchanged a look.
"Why not?" Sunstreaker asked, his voice cracking. "Everything else has."
Jazz walked over to Ironhide, as he stood over Warpath's grey corpse.
His hand on the mech's faceplate, his head bowed.
He walked behind the mech, and saw that Brawn and Bluestreak, the two rookies were standing on either side of their fallen comrade.
"I'm sorry big red." Jazz muttered, patting him on the back.
Ironhide turned to him and nodded.
Coolant ran down his face.
"He was an idiot." He muttered angrily. "Always runnin around tryin to prove somethin. Damn chip on his shoulder's what got him killed in the end." He let out a painful sounding vent. "If I hadn't attacked Megatron head on, I'd have been able to reach him before...before..." he trailed off, and sank to one knee. Jazz sank down beside him.
Ratchet tended to the injured, as he looked out across the sea of forlorn, broken spirited faces.
"Where's Mirage?" He asked aloud, optics scanning the crowd.
"Nobody's seen him." Bluestreak replied. "He got here before the rest of us. Fell back the second Optimus gave the order."
Mild Trigger warning
Several hallways away, deep within Metroplex.
The only place he couldn't see the flames. His flames.
He had been given one mission. To ensure that Trypticon would never be able to rise. And he had failed. Directly.
He extended his wrist blade, and stared at it.
He knew what he wanted to do. The only way he could remain functioning, get past this.
He leaned his head against the wall, thinking of Trailbreaker.
He would've tried to stop this if he were here.
But he wasn't.
Mirage took the blade, and ran it along his paint, wincing as he felt the pain sensors activate.
He knew it was wrong. He knew what any autobot would say if they saw him do it.
He knew they wouldn't understand. But in his spark, he truly believed it. Fully. He needed to pay. For Cybertron.
He scraped the blade against his arm again, causing jagged cuts in the paint, causing him to grimace.
Not enough. Not nearly enough for the amount of lives his failure had caused. He needed more.
But as he prepared to run the blade along his frame a third time, he paused.
He closed his optics.
And then, as he tried to do it again, a hand reached out and grabbed his arm.
He looked up, and his optics began to water as he saw a ghost.
Trailbreaker stood before him. Watching with a forlorn look from under his visor.
"Please don't."
Mirage shook his head.
"I have to..."
"You promised you wouldn't." Trailbreaker said firmly. "You promised me. Long ago."
Mirage stared back at him and shook his head slowly.
"I really wish you were here..."
"I always will be." Trailbreaker replied, with a pat on the shoulder.
Mirage closed his eyes. When he opened them, the forcefield specialist was gone.
The blue and white mech looked down at his blade. And his arm, which was now trickling energon slowly.
And he folded the blade away.
Megatron stared, optics wide at the trail of destruction Trypticon left in his wake.
Rage and regret all hidden behind his usual red, angry optics.
"Megatron..." Shockwave called, walking up behind him. The other decepticons gathered around, next to the ruins of the mountains. "What is the logic to this? The cities it destroys are neutral..."
"He doesn't control it." Starscream replied, landing next to them. "Because he can't. He unleashed a beast that we can't kill, and can't control. And now it's killing the wrong people!"
His red optics turned with intensity toward the seeker.
Starscream's optics widened, but before he could react, Megatron punched him across the face, sending him stumbling to the ground.
"Silence!" He shouted, looking and seeing Soundwave standing behind the mech.
"What are our orders?" The mech droned.
Megatron looked at him, and then at his other battered soldiers.
"We should try to find a way to destroy it." Shockwave stated. "It's only a matter of time before it turns to Kaon."
"Yes." Megatron agreed. "But first...we make sure it goes to Iacon."
"You are suggesting we take advantage of this?!" Thundercracker demanded, stepping in front of the others. "This is genocide, Megatron! Against us!"
Megatron turned and glared at him.
"Do you presume to debate my intentions, Thundercracker?" He asked, waving his fusion gun toward the mech. "Do I have your loyalty or not?"
Thundercracker narrowed his optics, and clenched his fists.
"Of course you do, Megatron." He replied after a hesitation.
"Good." Megatron replied. "We will wait for Trypticon to destroy Iacon. Then we will ensure the autobots have not survived." He declared. "And then, once that is done, once this war is officially done...then we will wrangle the beast. This planet can still be saved, my brothers. Nothing has been broken than cannot be repaired."
Shockwave stared at Megatron, skepticism wracking his frame, and he had to stop himself from objecting.
But he nodded.
"As you command, lord Megatron."
Megatron turned his gaze back to the devastation.
And privately, his spark burned. He felt a wave of despair come over him. Threatening to bury him. Threatening to make him regret his actions.
But he buried it with rage.
"Optimus Prime will pay for bringing it to this." He hissed.
Optimus walked into the hangar, and the autobots forlorn optics turned to him.
"What's the play?" Jazz asked, walking up to him. "We're ridin back out there right?"
Optimus nodded, then turned to the others.
"My autobots...I am sorry for what has transpired today. For all of the failures I have allowed. And for all of the loss we have experienced, both of our own brothers, and the tremendous loss outside these walls, that continues right now." He looked at Bumblebee, Arcee, and Ironhide, as they stood up to watch him speak.
"But we have no time to mourn. Not now. Trypticon is still out there. He's heading our way. And with us out of the way...Cybertron will be truly lost." He stepped forward and looked at the crowd again.
"I want you all to look at the person next to you." He commanded.
The autobots exchanged confused looks, but obliged him.
Sideswipe turned to Sunstreaker, Arcee to Bumblebee, Brawn to Ironhide.
"Every one of you is looking at someone who has lost someone today." Optimus stated. "The death toll is...unparalleled in all of Cybertron's history. But you have the person next to you. Every one of you has every other living soul in this room. And you must look to them for strength now. We are going to bring this monster down. Together." He declared.
"I will lead a team in Sky Lynx to try and attack the surface of Trypticon. A ground team will try and divert energon to Metroplex. The rest of you...find some way to slow him down, and get him unfocused. This isn't over yet."
The group of autobots nodded in approval.
"We will fight this monster until our sparks fade. We will avenge our home, and we will not yield!" He shouted.
The autobots roared in agreement, as they grabbed weapons from the racks.
"Optimus!" Sunstreaker called, running up to him.
"Please. I need to be a part of this. I can't watch Cybertron burn from the sidelines."
"I agree." Optimus replied. "That's why you're going to lead a team to our old bunker, to divert energon into Metroplex."
Sunstreaker blinked a few times, his optics widening.
"I...I am?"
"Yes. This is your chance, Sunstreaker. Show me why we put that badge on you."
Sunstreaker saluted.
"I won't let you down sir. I swear it."