They were on the move again, climbing onto floes of ice and clinging to them when Optimus' greater weight threatened a capsize. Sideswipe and Drift used their swords like the tusks of the watching walruses, shoving the blades through the ice and using them to move across the slick surface. Windblade clung to Sideswipe like a regular tick. Optimus couldn't help but remember his own tick...
"I'm cold," she had gasped and Optimus had tucked her closer to his side, protecting her from the invading storm.
At least this day was warmer.
"Hey, Prime." Sideswipe stabbed another ice floe and drug it closer. "Got anymore stories for us while you were in the Realm?"
Optimus stepped across the floes, making it threaten to capsize. Drift growled and stabbed the ice with his own sword, hissing a threat at the ice in Cybertronian. Optimus chuckled lightly.
"As a matter of fact..."
"Pick one, Prime." Micronus watched the Prime look between the two prizes.
Arcee was tied up and dangled over a tank of acid that bubbled and hissed as her pedes touched the acid. She gave a scream of pain and struggled, her optics wide and pleading at Optimus.
On the other side of the Realm, there was a human child no older than Raf floating on a mattress in the middle of a pool of sharks that circled it and crept closer in on it, interest sparking off them like electricity. The infant wailed.
He wasn't fast enough to save both. He would never be fast enough to save both. But one was fast enough to save the other.
Micronus watched as Optimus took his alt form and drove at Arcee directly. He cut her down and set her onto the ground. He pointed at the pool and she tore off in her own alt mode. She covered more distance than anyone, and before Optimus could even cycle an intake, the infant was safe and the shark that had tried to take a bite out of Arcee's leg was sorry.
Arcee walked back to her Prime, cradling the infant. "She is safe," she informed him and she set the baby in Optimus' servos. He rubbed the little head with a digit before both it and Arcee faded.
Micronus watched him with narrowed optics. "The right answer was to save the infant."
"I could save both, and I will continue to save both."
"Even at the cost of making a mistake? Even at the cost of someone's life?"
Optimus regarded him silently for a moment. "It was either neither or both. Saving one would have left me with guilt and regret. I completed your task."
"You completed it wrongly," Micronus snapped and he stormed away. "You will never leave this Realm!"
Sideswipe huffed as he drug a large floe towards him. Windblade whimpered and he immediately adjusted himself to best suit her. Optimus chuckled. "Sounds like Micronus thought you were stupid."
"Or stubborn," the Prime laughed. He shifted Polar Claw's weight, stepping onto the floe. It made no threats and Drift gave a grunt of success as if his cursing finally made it through. He shook out his aching arms, sighing lightly.
"Prime. Our current course of action is...slow, painful, and exhausting."
"Perhaps a short break is in order," Optimus said and he set Polar Claw down on the edge of the floe to begin the process of evening out the weight, but the shouts of the others came too late.
The floe capsized and dumped its cargo into the water.
Optimus laid on his back on the bottom of the ocean, chuckling lightly. "Well. Now we cannot worry about exhausting our energy on floes."
Groans filled the ocean.
This chapter is for Lily002. Enjoy, darling~