Disclaimer: I don't own Transformers
Time remaining: 8 months
In the past three months, the Decepticons and Autobots have been struggling to gain all four Omega keys to revive their home planet, Cybertron. The Autobots have just lost the three Omega keys they had to Starscream and his tricky red energon, and Starscream has now given the four Omega keys to Megatron.
Bumblebee was currently in the base, watching Optimus use the forge of Solus Prime to turn their ground bridge into a space bridge. The Autobots were preparing for a battle on Cybertron over the Omega lock.
"Hey Bee," Wheeljack came up behind him. "How's it going? You nervous?"
"Fate of…our world…is at…stake…'Course I'm…nervous."
"Can't you just imagine if Cybertron is restored?" Wheeljack sighed. "We would finally have our home back."
"Would be…nice," Bee admitted.
Bulkhead's voice called suddenly, "Jackie! Heads up!" He had just lobbed a metal ball towards him. Wheeljack grinned and snatched it out of the air, but while he did he took a step back, tripped, and crashed on top of one of Ratchet's medical tools.
Ratchet came out of the Medbay to investigate the noise and saw Wheeljack holding the crumpled metal. "Wheeljack!" Ratchet yelled angrily. "I needed that!"
"Sorry, Doc," Wheeljack sheepishly handed him the device. Ratchet stormed away, grumbling, and Wheeljack's shoulders slumped.
"Aw, sorry Jackie," Bulkhead apologized. He knew how much his friend liked Ratchet. "Don't worry about it; Ratchet's always grumpy anyways"
"Yeah…" Wheeljack said half-heartedly.
"When are you…going to…tell him….feelings?" Bee asked.
"Probably never," Wheeljack said glumly. "I'm not even sure he rolls that way." Bee recalled Ratchet's tale about his bonded, who was a femme, and decided mentioning it probably wouldn't cheer Wheeljack up.
"Well, you can't keep going on like this," Bulkhead argued. "You're gonna drive yourself crazy!"
"If you…feel that…strongly…about…someone…you should…tell them," Bee agreed.
"I don't know guys," Wheeljack sighed. Optimus finished the space bridge just then, and called for everyone to gather.
"We must not allow the Decepticons to gain control of the Omega lock," Optimus said in a composed voice. "If they do, they will use it as an excuse to exile the Autobots from the renewed Cybertron, and form their own corrupt system of government. Autobots, roll out!"
All of the bots charged through the space bridge, including Ratchet, who usually stayed behind. He figured he was probably needed more on the battlefield this time than in the Medbay. The Decepticons were waiting on Cybertron by the time the Autobots arrived, and had already located the Omega lock.
"Optimus," Megatron sneered. "We've been waiting." He gestured to all of his amassed soldiers lined up behind him, tensed, with their digits ready on the triggers of their blasters. Bumblebee caught sight of Magnia across the battlefield, and avoided optic contact hurriedly.
"And why would you wait for us, Megatron?" Optimus growled, his servos wrapped around the Star Saber.
"Because I knew you would be idiotic enough to try and stop me," Megatron motioned to Knockout. " Which is why I brought some insurance, if you will."
Knockout, Starscream, and Soundwave produced three small glass containers from their subspaces, and Bumblebee, Bulkhead, and Arcee froze. Jack, Miko, and Raf were trapped, helpless in the glass.
"Now," Megatron commanded, "relinquish the artifacts of Iacon to us and surrender. If you do not comply, we will open these containers, and the lack of oxygen in this air will kill your little human pets."
After looking to Optimus for permission, the three Autobots, one by one, stepped forward, laid down their artifacts, and retrieved their human companions.
Once all of the artifacts were in Decepticon possession, Megatron ordered his troops to insert the keys into the Omega lock. With a loud hum, the lock activated, and Cybertron began restoring itself, the once great buildings spiraling upwards again. Suddenly, a space bridge opened above the Omega lock, and the restoring beam shot through the space bridge as well.
"What are you doing?" Optimus yelled to Megatron.
Megatron laughed, "Why rule just one planet, when you can rule two? The Omega lock can rebuild Earth into a metal planet, killing all of those annoying humans, and leaving it free for me to rule."
Raf glanced, frightened, at Bumblebee, and then back at the Omega lock's beam pummeling through the space bridge to destroy his planet, his home.
Optimus made a split second decision and yelled, "Autobots! We must destroy the Omega lock; it is the only way to save Earth!"
"But it will doom Cybertron!" Ratchet argued.
"Sometimes we must make difficult choices, old friend," Optimus told Ratchet, before sprinting toward the Omega lock, calling over his shoulder. "Get the children to safety."
As a battle between the Autobots and Decepticons over control of the Omega lock ensued, Ratchet began quickly carrying the children through their own space bridge to safety. Unfortunately the containers they were in were heavy and he could only carry one at a time.
Ratchet had gotten Miko and Jack through and was about to carry Raf when Starscream realized what he was doing and fired a shot directly at him.
Ratchet squeezed his optics shut, praying for it to be quick, but he never felt the shot impact him. He opened his optics to find Wheeljack on the ground in front of him. He had dived in front of Ratchet at the last second and taken the shot in his chassis.
Ratchet stood frozen in shock until Starscream angrily fired another shot, cracking Raf's container. "Hold your breath Rafael!" Ratchet shouted, and half dragged half supported Wheeljack to the space bridge, while carrying Raf's cracked container under one arm. Starscream fired one last shot, narrowly missing the three, and then they were through the bridge and into the safety of the base.
Hurriedly, Ratchet transferred Wheeljack to a medical berth and began attempting to stabilize him. "What in Primus were you thinking?!" Ratchet swore, trying to stop the all the bleeding. "Do you have no concern for your own safety?"
"Apparently not, Doc," Wheeljack smiled painfully.
Ratchet laughed sadly, "Wheeljack, how many times have I told you not to call me Doc?"
"A lot," Wheeljack chuckled, watching Ratchet frantically trying to do something. "Would you quit fussing?" he asked Ratchet. "I'm not gonna make it out of this anyways, and you know it."
"But," Ratchet said helplessly, "there has to be something I can do; I can't just let you die!"
"Forget about it," Wheeljack weakly waved a servo. "You did everything you could." His optics grew serious and he sighed hesitantly, "Ratch, I have to tell you something."
Ratchet emerged from the Medbay half an hour later, pale and shaken, to find all the Autobots awaiting his diagnosis of Wheeljack. The battle was over, the Omega lock destroyed, and someone had released the children from the containers.
Everyone stopped as soon as Ratchet came out and paused, waiting to hear what he would say.
"How is he?" Bulkhead asked anxiously.
Ratchet breathed deeply and tried unsuccessfully to speak in an even voice, "Wheeljack is….Wheeljack has…joined with the Allspark."
A shocked silence stunned the room and Bulkhead's optics began to fill with energon tears, "No, not Jackie! He-He can't be!"
"Bulk…" Miko started forward to comfort him, but Bulkhead walked away sadly, trying not to cry.
Ratchet collapsed in a chair and buried his faceplates in his servos, as all of the Autobots slowly wandered away to grieve, occasionally offering a comforting word to Ratchet before leaving. Soon only Bumblebee, Optimus, and Ratchet remained.
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Ratchet," Optimus said softly. "You did everything you could."
"Well obviously it wasn't enough!" Ratchet said shakily. "No one has ever died on my med table before Optimus. I've always been able to save them. That was always my greatest fear that someday I would fail and someone, one of us, would offline because of it."
"Not your…fault….Ratchet," Bee said sadly. "Can't…save…everyone." The two of them sat beside Ratchet, comfortingly silent for a while. Eventually Ratchet excused himself, saying he had some work to do, but Bee and Optimus could tell he just needed to be alone.
Bee called after him, "You know…he admired…you very…much right?"
Ratchet nodded, optics cast downwards, "He told me before he…" he trailed off and shook his helm numbly. "I think I always kind of knew anyways." He wandered dazedly into his Medbay, and Optimus and Bee went their separate ways as well.
They had lost so much today, Bee thought achingly. A dear companion was offline, and Cybertron's future was lost with the destruction of the Omega lock. Bee thought about Wheeljack, how the base would be so empty without the rough and tough wrecker. What was the last thing he had said to him? "If you feel that strongly about someone, you should tell them".
Bee could almost picture the wrecker saying haughtily, "Well, I did it, now you have to too". Bee decided to follow his last words to Wheeljack, and tell Magnia how he felt; even if she completely rejected him at least she would know. One last thing he could do for Wheeljack's memory.
Agent Fowler burst into the base just then and yelled, "Prime! You have to see this!"
Optimus, Bee, and Arcee confusedly followed Fowler up to the landing pad on top of the base and stared in awe at the sight before them.
An atrocious Cybertronian tower spiraled twistedly up into the skies, in the midst of the desert. The Autobots realized that the Omega lock's beam must have been activated long enough to travel through the space bridge and construct this monstrous Decepticon tower.
A group of Seekers dispatched from the tower at that moment, and headed straight for the Autobot base.
The seriousness of the situation dawned on them as Optimus said grimly, "It would appear they have finally found our base."