Sparks
Official Disclaimer: The Transformers ain't mine.
Author's Note: Yes, I'm evil. But don't worry, I also hate tragedies, so there's always a light at the end of the tunnel somewhere. But yeah. I better say this here as well as at the end of the chapter - THIS STORY IS NOT OVER. I've got another few chapters to go, and an epilogue. Oh, and while in my mind, Optimus and Alex aren't in love romantically...well, the way things have been turning out, what their relationship actually is has been left vague enough that those of you who want it to be romantic can think of it that way if you want...just don't read the epilogue. Heh. Also, apologies if the end of this chapter seems a bit hokey or forced - I've already rewritten it about four times, but I just can't seem to get it right. The gist of what I wanted to say is there, hopefully...sigh It was really very difficult to write. Anyways. Back to my bunker-style fortress basement I go...
EDIT: Special thanks to Mika, who is hereby dubbed 'the Mouth of Jorge' for helping provide actual Spanish translations for this chapter...instead of babelfish weirdness. Cyber-cake and lots of cyber-presents for you, Mika!
- Chapter Sixteen: Not The End -
Going at the speeds they were, Sideswipe and the Allspark reached Montana by the end of the day, and that was when Sideswipe realized, to his eternal horror, that the co-ordinates the Allspark was heading for were off road. In the mountains.
"Oh no, oh nononono!" Sideswipe said as they sped into Glacier National Park. "I can't go off-road! Not in the mountains! I mean that literally, too - I'd get hung up faster than you can say 'ouch'!"
"I know." the Allspark said.
"So how do you plan to get there? Hike?" Sideswipe asked irritably. There was a suspicious silence from the Allspark, and Sideswipe turned his attention to it to find it smirking. "Oh Primus." he groaned, realizing that the Allspark indeed was going to hike - or rather, he was going to hike, carrying the Allspark. "You're lucky I'm not my brother."
"Indeed." the Allspark said calmly, and Sideswipe suddenly had a sinking suspicion that the Allspark had picked a specific twin, and not just whichever had wandered outside the dam first. He sulked as they made their way along Montana's highways, blowing by the entrance to Glacier National Park, until at last, inside the park, the Allspark stopped and stepped out, then looked over expectantly. Seeing that there was no one around to give him even the tiniest excuse, Sideswipe sighed and transformed, then picked up the Allspark and headed for the co-ordinates it had given him. He took the opportunity to scan Alex's body, and was alarmed by what he saw.
From what Sideswipe could tell, Alex's body had deteriorated badly since he'd had Ratchet scan it. There were tumors everywhere - he was surprised none of them were showing - and several organs had apparently shut down, though so far as he could tell, the heart and lungs were still operational. He doubted they would be for long. Sideswipe considered first turning around and taking the Allspark back, or transmitting his meager scans to Ratchet, but he doubted anything could be done at this point - a quick search of the web revealed that failing organs were bad, and ones that had stopped working all together were usually fatal if not replaced immediately. Multiple organ failure was usually just plain fatal, no exceptions.
"I hope you know what you're doing." Sideswipe murmured to the Allspark. "Because if Alexandra dies, Optimus is going to kill me."
"He would not...harm you." the Allspark said, and Sideswipe glanced down worriedly at the odd hitch in its voice. He noticed now the strain on Alex's face, as if the Allspark was concentrating intently - probably on keeping the body alive, he realized, and sped up his pace. He didn't exactly want to spend a lot of time walking about in a publicly accessible park anyways.
Walking quickly, it took him no more than an hour to reach their destination, which turned out to be the edge of a lake hidden in a valley of sorts. Sideswipe carefully set the Allspark down, and it collapsed to its knees before waving him off.
"Are you sure...?" he asked uncertainly, but it glared up at him.
"Go." the voice was weak, but the message was clear. Sideswipe turned and headed off down the valley. He kept glancing over his shoulder as he went, and he kept his sensors attuned so he could make sure the Allspark was still alive, but so far as he saw, it did nothing. Eventually, when it was out of his sight, and only at the edge of his sensors, barely detectable - it exploded. Sideswipe didn't know how else to describe it - he'd just glanced back when suddenly there was a brilliant flare of energy from the edge of the lake, expanding to cover the entire valley, right up to a few meters from where Sideswipe stood. He had to turn off his optics and sensors or have them burned out by the energy, and he stood there, completely blind, until he decided to risk turning everything on again - and gaped at what he saw.
The valley had been forested, right up to the tree line on the mountains - but now it was smooth. There was no evidence that anything organic had ever been there - not ash, not residue, nothing. There wasn't even any rock. In its place was a valley made of metal - smooth, dull grey...and looking very much like Cybertron. The creek leading out of the valley no longer flowed, but the lake was still there - but it no longer held water. He suspected, but couldn't quite bring himself to confirm, that it was one of what Cybertron had once had many of - a lake of energon.
Sideswipe found himself having to sit down as he stared at what might as well have been Cybertron, millions of years ago before the wars began. He sat there, unable to comprehend as his fellow Autobots - who had undoubtedly picked up the energy signature of what had just happened - yelled at him over the communications network, wanting to know what was going on, and if he was alright. It was Sunstreaker's panicked questions that finally brought him out of his shock.
"I'm fine...but you guys...you have to get up here and see this." Sideswipe said weakly.
"See what? What's happened?" Optimus demanded. "Is Alexandra alright?" Sideswipe blinked. Uh-oh. He climbed to his feet and headed for the smooth metal of the valley, then transformed and took off, straight to the edge of the lake - but nothing was there, not even bones, not even a bump.
"Um, just get up here." Sideswipe said, then turned off his communications system, save for a beacon transmitting his location. It was unsecure, so the Decepticons would have been able to pick it up easily, but somehow he had a feeling that would be fine. He knew in his spark that this was meant for all Cybertronians, not just Autobots. But for now, he needed to find out if a human had given their life to make this place possible. He headed for the edge of the valley, intending to search and see if Alex had somehow been thrown clear - and hopefully healed, since otherwise she'd be just as dead as if she'd been incinerated. He'd just reached the edge of the metal part of the valley when two hikers appeared above one of the ridges forming the edge of the valley. Cybertronian and humans stared at each other for a moment, until Sideswipe realized he should probably say something.
"Boo." he couldn't resist, and snickered as the two hikers screamed and went running off back the way they'd come. He did follow and peer over the ridge, scanning to make sure they made it down safely. "Hey, call the army willya? And ask for Captain William Lennox!" he called after them. He doubted they even realized he was speaking English, as terrified as they were. Snickering to himself again, he began his search of the forest surrounding the valley, but besides another group of hikers - who didn't even give him a chance to say anything before they ran away (which was a shame, because he was going to try the 'I come in pieces, take me to your leader' line on them) - he found no human. Sighing, he returned to the edge of the lake, experimentally sticking a finger in it, only to jerk back at the jolt it gave him.
"Oooh, tingly." he said with a smirk, then sat down to wait. Surprisingly, it was the army that arrived first, and while Lennox wasn't with them, Jorge was. Sideswipe grinned down at the human his brother had adopted as he, being the only one brave enough to do so, wandered down into the valley. The rest of the army was warily skirting the metal ground, setting up a perimeter.
"¿Qué Fue lo que pasó Aquí?" Jorge demanded, looking around in clear astonishment. Sideswipe translated mentally before replying.
"The Allspark." he said. "The others are on the way, I'll explain more then. In the mean time, just keep people out of the valley - and especially away from the lake. It's energon, which...well, it tends to burns organics even as it electrocutes them." Jorge blinked, then edged away from the lake.
"Sí," he said. "I'll go...tell them that." he headed off, and Sideswipe grinned before leaning back and watching the clouds while he waited. It wasn't much longer before Sideswipe sensed the approach of the other Autobots, and with another grin, he jumped to his feet and turned off the location beacon before heading in the direction they were coming from. He stood on the ridge, grinning broadly, as they approached, and snickered as, one by one, they got close enough to see into the valley and stopped short, staring in shock.
"Isn't it nifty?" Sideswipe said with a smirk after a moment.
"What happened?" Optimus asked, his voice barely audible.
"It was the Allspark." Sideswipe replied with a shrug.
"Is that -"
"Energon." Sideswipe finished Ratchet's sentence with a nod. The medic looked wistful.
"What about Alexandra?" Optimus asked after a moment, tearing his gaze away from the valley to look at Sideswipe. The red bot slowly shook his head.
"The Allspark, and Alex, were on the edge of the lake when this happened. I looked, but I couldn't find any trace of her." he said softly. "I'm sorry." Optimus shook his head.
"It's not your fault." he said sadly.
"So...are we going to stand here like idiots all day, or do we get to go down there and look around?" Sunstreaker finally asked, and several of the Autobots shot him amused looks before they all headed down into the valley. Well, almost all of them...not a few humans and Autobots took note of the fact that Optimus remained outside the valley for some time, simply staring down into it, his expression unreadable, before finally joining the others.
---
"Well, they're pissed." Jorge said several hours later as he walked up to the Autobots. He was still the only human to enter the metallic valley - even the higher-ranking army officers present begged off, using the excuse that Jorge knew the Autobots already, anyways.
"Who, exactly?" Sunstreaker asked dryly.
"Hm." Jorge thought about it for a moment. "Everyone." A few of the Autobots gave him incredulous looks.
"Could you perhaps be a bit more specific?" Optimus asked flatly. It was the first time he'd spoken since Sideswipe had told him that there was no sign of Alexandra, and the other Autobots started slightly at his emotionless voice.
"The army, the government, any country with a satellite in orbit, all the campers that have been evacuated from the park..." Jorge replied with a shrug. "The President is the angriest. Apparently no one in the 'house can come up with a way to explain a valley in a national park suddenly turning to metal without explaining about you guys." The Autobots exchanged looks.
"Hound, could you...?" Optimus started, and the green Autobot nodded, then his optics dimmed, and a moment later, a shimmering dome seemed to form over the valley. Jorge let out a startled oath, and yells of surprise and confusion could be heard from the men stationed outside the valley.
"¿Qué, en el nombre de Dios, Acabas de Hacer?" Jorge snapped up at the Autobots.
"Hound has the ability to create advanced holograms." Optimus said, nodding towards the green mech. "This is a bit large for him, but with concentration, he can keep it up until Wheeljack can build a more permanent solution."
"Hologram?" Jorge asked with a frown, and Optimus nodded.
"It will hide the valley from all biological and mechanical eyes." he said.
"Oh." Jorge said. "Debo decirle esto al Presidente."
"Yeah, and tell those guys up there to stop panicking while you're at it." Sunstreaker said with a nod towards the men surrounding the valley, who were still yelling in confusion, especially as a few of the soldiers had now stepped past the hologram barrier, only to emerge again.
"Sí...sí..." Jorge murmured, and headed out of the valley again.
"Wheeljack -" Optimus started, but when he turned, he found the engineer already deep in thought, murmuring to himself about generators and feedbacks. The Autobot leader paused for only a moment before sending the engineer a message to make sure he added a force field, too, so that people didn't accidentally stumble on the valley. Wheeljack only jerked slightly to indicate that he'd received the message, and his mumbling started to include electrical charges and magnetic fields.
"This may stop the public from knowin', Optimus, but we're still gonna have problems." Jazz said. "Primarily how we're gonna keep our hands on this valley when I guarantee th'government is gonna wanna look at it."
"I know." Optimus said.
"Perhaps we can get the American government to declare this as our embassy?" Ratchet suggested musingly. "It is, almost literally, Cybertronian soil, after all."
"Yeah. Cybertronian. Not Autobot." Sideswipe said, and the others looked at him oddly. "Look, we aren't gonna be able to keep the Decepticons out of here, even with a force field and a hologram. In fact, they'll probably just break both in order to get in here, which would be bad. Plus it would result in this place turning into a war zone, and I'm sure the humans wouldn't be too appreciative of us tearing up one of their national parks with canon fire and missiles. So why not just let the Decepticons in from the beginning?"
"What, you mean like, declare it a war-free zone and hope they comply?" Cliffjumper asked doubtfully. "I doubt they'll agree."
"Actually, they might." Jazz said slowly. "Soundwave is sensible, for all that he's a cold-hearted bastard. An' I heard that back on Cybertron, he or one'a his pets would sneak behind our lines once a vorn t'visit the town he lived in before th'war started, like he got homesick or somethin'. I think he'd be up t'sharin' this place."
"Uh, but isn't Starscream in charge of the Decepticons now?" Bluestreak piped up. "How is Soundwave being sensible going to help?" A few of the Autobots chuckled lightly, and Prowl placed a friendly hand on the young gunner's shoulder.
"Starscream may think he's in charge, Bluestreak, but Soundwave only ever took orders from one mech - and Megatron is quite dead." Prowl explained. "So with Soundwave's telepathic powers, I have no doubt Starscream is already under his control and doesn't even know it."
"Oh." Bluestreak said, shrinking in on himself a bit as he realized he'd asked a stupid question. Prowl gave him a reassuring pat on the shoulder - it took experience in dealing with Soundwave to realize that he'd only ever listen to Megatron. Bluestreak had, thankfully, never had the experience of having to deal with Soundwave and some Decepticon lackies that decided to try and order him around when Megatron wasn't there. Prowl remembered having a rather civil chat with Soundwave about the stupidity of some Decepticons after that incident. Then Soundwave had had to get on with torturing him, and that hadn't been so civil. Prowl shook his head and returned his attention to the others just as Optimus spoke.
"I would prefer not having to fight over this valley, and Sideswipe is correct that it will come to that if we just leave things as they are." the Autobot leader said, his voice all business. "I doubt the American government will be very open to the idea of the Decepticons having a safe haven in their country, but if we could do as Ratchet suggests and have this valley declared the Cybertronian embassy on Earth, they might accept it more willingly. It's certainly worth trying."
"If you say so." Prowl said, remembering all the run-ins he alone had had with the various Decepticons - the others had their own incidents and grudges, too, he knew. "Personally, I think it's a recipe for trouble."
"We have to try anyways." Sideswipe insisted. "The Allspark had no side in our war, and I doubt when it made this valley that it was intending for only one side to have it." Everyone was silent for a moment at Sideswipe's insistence, and the red Lamborghini shuffled his feet a bit in embarrassment. "Well, look at it this way - Sunny and I can torment the Decepticons for once, instead of you, Prowl." Sideswipe finally covered with a grin, and several Autobots chuckled.
"There's another thing we shouldn't forget about." Prowl interrupted seriously, and Optimus nodded, though the others looked curious. "I believe Jorge mentioned something about other countries' satellites?"
"I'll speak to the President about how to approach that." Optimus replied calmly. "Depending on how things turn out, we may be able to continue to hide our existence from other countries, but I doubt it. I only hope they understand our need for secrecy as much as the American government does. Either way, I have a suspicion having this valley declared as an embassy ahead of talking to other countries might go a long way towards helping out." Prowl nodded - that was the best they could do for now.
Talk continued for awhile, until Optimus decided it was time to actually try and settle some things, and he left the valley with Prowl, Sideswipe, and Sunstreaker. Prowl objected to bringing the twins, wanting Mirage and Jazz to come along instead, but as Optimus pointed out, the President was going to want to know how the valley came to be in the first place, and Sideswipe was the only first-hand witness. Sunstreaker had to come with him because the yellow Lamborghini was being a bit clingy after the scare his brother had given him - they wouldn't have been able to separate him from Sideswipe with a fusion bomb right now. So the four bots headed for Camp David to chat with the President in relative privacy, while Wheeljack, Ratchet, and Mirage returned to the Hoover Dam to start work on holographic and force field generators for the valley. The remaining five Autobots stayed in the valley with Hound, keeping watch over it and their temporarily incapacitated companion.
Ratchet, having watched Optimus closely since their arrival at the valley, considered going with the group to Camp David, but from the way Optimus was shutting his emotions down to deal with the situation at hand, the medic doubted he'd be able to get through to his commander right now. He just had to hope that Optimus was strong enough to keep it together until he decided he was free to break down, because otherwise things could get messy. Either way, Ratchet would be there to help put his commander back together...because there was only so much loss even the leader of the Autobots could take. So Ratchet let himself be dragged off to the dam after giving some quiet, hurried instructions to Sideswipe to watch Optimus like an Earth hawk.
The other bots had only been gone from the valley for two days when the Decepticons finally showed up. Skywarp and Thundercracker buzzed the area a few times in confusion, until they finally flew low enough to pass inside Hound's hologram. Then they simply hovered in the air, half transformed and gaping, until they realized that five Autobots had weapons trained on them. Thundercracker yelled out an insult, then fired off a missile and began evasive manoeuvres - only to stop again in shock as his missile exploded in mid-air, well away from its intended target.
"What the slag?!" Thundercracker's confused exclamation was heard throughout the suddenly very silent valley. Bumblebee frowned, then took aim and fired his canon...except all that came out was a small 'POP', and then his canon shut down and reformed into his hand without him telling it to. Autobots and Decepticons stared at the offending hand.
"Well, there's still the old-fashioned way." Thundercracker mused, then dive-bombed Ironhide, slamming into the bigger mech. They wrestled on the ground for awhile, until Ironhide got ahold of one of Thundercracker's major coolant lines. Both mechs slumped into a deep recharge before Ironhide could even tighten his grip. Cautiously, Skywarp came to land beside the two unconscious mechs as the Autobots approached from the other side.
"Um, so, what is this place?" Skywarp finally asked, looking away from his fallen fellow Decepticon to the Autobots. They glanced at each other.
"The Allspark made it." Bumblebee finally supplied with a shrug.
"An' apparently added some defenses so that we can't attack each other here." Jazz drawled. Skywarp frowned.
"That makes sense. It was all confused about why we were fighting when it was at our base." the Decepticon said, then seemed to realize he shouldn't be talking, and shut up.
"Yeah, Optimus said he had t'explain the war to it a few days before y'slaggers kidnapped it." Jazz said with a lazy grin, ignoring Skywarp's scowl at the name-calling.
"I guess it decided it didn't want us fighting over this valley." Bluestreak concluded, and Jazz nodded.
"Prob'ly th'case." he said, then turned back to Skywarp. "An' it makes things a lot easier. When Thundercracker wakes up, you and he can go tell Soundwave that Optimus wants to talk about a truce a'sorts over this valley."
"What sort of truce?" Skywarp asked warily.
"Nothing much, just doesn't want us fightin' over it. Details can be sorted out by the two of 'em when they talk, but this is probably th'closest any of us are ever gonna get to Cybertron again. It would be a shame t'fight over it." Jazz said with a shrug.
"Yeah." Skywarp said after a moment, then glanced down at the two unconscious mechs between him and the Autobots. "We should..." he made some sort of motion with his hands, and Jazz chuckled.
"Pull 'em apart so they don't start killin' each other again as soon as they wake up, yeah. You grab yours, we'll grab ours." he said, and they proceeded to pull Ironhide and Thundercracker apart. Skywarp dragged Thundercracker to the other side of the energon lake, and the Autobots let him go. The conversation had been surprisingly civil so far, but that was probably mostly because Skywarp wasn't all that bright.
It was hours before Ironhide and Thundercracker woke up again, both ready to continue the fight, but Jazz talked Ironhide down, explaining the situation. The Autobots weren't quite sure how Skywarp got Thundercracker to agree to leave, but he did, talking off ahead of Skywarp, who looked irritated before following. They didn't even bother to try and hide their course now - just headed straight for their base in Alaska. Once they were gone, Jazz contacted Optimus and told him of the encounter, and the message he'd asked Skywarp to pass on to Soundwave. Because of the Seeker's relatively low intelligence, there was actually a fairly good chance it would get delivered, too. They could only wait and see, however.
Wheeljack and the others returned from the dam a few days later with the needed equipment, and Hound could finally give his poor hologram generator a rest. Wheeljack's hologram generators were placed around the valley at intervals, and welded onto the ground securely. A central computer system was installed on the northeast side of the lake, where the mountains sloped down to meet it, and the force field generator was installed there, as well. Wheeljack had actually outdone himself on the force field - after hearing about how the valley didn't allow violence between Cybertronians in it, he'd configured the field so that, unless you were Cybertronian or had a specific device that he'd also designed, you'd just bounce off the field, with no more harm done than if you'd walked into a wall.
Ironhide was somewhat disappointed that he wouldn't get to see the Seekers bounce off the field, but he was consoled when he got to use Jazz as target-practice (albeit with his canons at about one thousandth of their normal power, making a hit from them feel like no more than a tickle) as they tried to determine just how the 'non-Cybertronian-aggression' protection of the valley worked. It was surprisingly effectively - as long as a Cybertronian was standing in the valley, they could neither use their weapons nor have weapons used on them, either by humans or other Cybertronians. Physical violence was still possible, but only so long as it didn't cause serious injury, as Thundercracker and Ironhide had discovered. The American government was both placated and disturbed by the report passed on to them by Optimus about this.
Of course, there came the inevitable day when Soundwave replied to the message that Jazz had sent Skywarp back with. It came in the form of Ravage, who blithely wandered into the valley and plunked himself down by the energon lake before transmitting telepathically that Soundwave would be there in two days to discuss things. The Autobots had to put up with the robotic panther for the entire two days. Sideswipe and Sunstreaker, once they got back from Camp David with Optimus and Prowl, spent their time harassing Ravage, but the robo-panther proved able to give as good as he got, and even Ironhide found himself grinning at the antics of the two Autobots and one mini-Decepticon by the time Soundwave got there. The placid Decepticon said nothing about his pet playing hop-scotch across the roofs of two racing Lamborghinis (and very carefully making sure to scratch the paint of the yellow one), going immediately to converse with Optimus and the President about a treaty concerning the valley.
It took weeks to come up with an 'acceptable' treaty, during which the various Autobots in the valley had to put up with all of Soundwave's pets, who he let have free reign to run around, so long as they stayed in the valley. Oddly enough, the three robotic animals almost seemed to be having fun, tripping the bots and dive bombing them, or stealing things out of their hands. There wasn't any real aggression in their actions, they were just bored, and found irritating the Autobots entertaining. The Autobots didn't know quite what to think, so they sicced the twins on the animals.
Which was how Cybertron Valley (as it had been renamed) gained its first ever mud-puddle...right on top of where an invisible Mirage had been sitting and trying to avoid all contact with Decepticons. The twins denied all knowledge of the mud attack, but everyone knew there was no way Laserbeak and Buzzsaw could have loaded up the pails of mud by themselves, or with Ravage's help, let alone found out where Mirage was sitting. Prowl ordered the twins back to the dam after that, along with all Autobots not essential to the meeting. Which left in the valley only Prowl, Optimus, Jazz, Ironhide, and Ratchet with Soundwave, Laserbeak, Buzzsaw, Ravage, and the President of the United States, the Secretaries of Defense and State, and several of their underlings. Things quieted down after that, and finally a treaty was hammered out
The gist of the treaty was that Cybertron Valley was declared officially to no longer be a part of the United States, but a part of Cybertron, instead, under the jurisdiction of Optimus Prime and the Autobots. However, the Decepticons were granted access to the valley at any time, so long as they did not use it to launch an attack against either the Autobots or the United States, and vice verse for the Autobots. Neither side could use the valley as a refuge when being chased, neither side could stake it out and wait from someone from the other side to emerge. The President expressed some disbelief that the terms would be followed, especially by the Decepticons, but Soundwave assured him at great length - and entirely mentally - that no Decepticon would cross his orders that the treaty be honored. In fact, he claimed he'd be all but hard-coding it into their programming, and Optimus didn't doubt it. Soundwave seemed taken with the valley, and stayed a few days after the talks were over, sitting by the side of the lake or walking about, his robotic animals around him. The Autobots nervously gave him a wide berth.
"Well. That's over." Prowl said with a sigh as they watched the President go, ignoring Soundwave off on the other side of the valley. "How long did he say he could keep putting off the other governments for?"
"A week, at most." Optimus said.
"We'd better get prepared, then." Prowl said, his voice brisk, but Optimus stopped him with a hand on the smaller bot's shoulder.
"We have a more important matter to deal with right now." he said quietly, and Prowl looked at him curiously. "One we've put off for far too long already."
"Alexandra's memorial." Ratchet said, glad that the Autobot leader had finally brought it up himself, and Optimus nodded. Cliffjumper had been the one to inform Beth of her sister's death, and the Autobots knew the humans had had a memorial, but they'd been unable to attend. It hadn't been just because of everything they had to deal with, but also because they wouldn't have been able to transform due to their need for secrecy. Now, however, they made the time, and made a memorial on the shore of the energon lake - on the spot Alexandra had last stood, according to Sideswipe - to the woman who had, perhaps unknowingly, given her life to give them back a piece of their home. Beth came, but she only spoke to Cliffjumper, and left immediately afterward without acknowledging any of the others. Optimus tried to speak to her, but all he got was a rather rude gesture before Beth slipped into Cliffjumper's driver's side and took off down the newly-made road leading from the valley. Optimus disappeared somewhere for the rest of the day, much as Soundwave and his pets had thankfully disappeared for the ceremony.
Ratchet went looking for the Autobot leader later that night, and found Optimus just outside the boundaries of Glacier National Park, blowing every rock he could find to smithereens. Ratchet watched, waiting, knowing that Optimus knew he was there.
"It was always supposed to end this way, you know." Optimus said conversationally after a time, then took aim and blew up another rock.
"Wasn't supposed to end so soon, though." Ratchet grunted, and Optimus acknowledged the comment with a nod.
"Sixty years doesn't mean much more than three, considering how long I've already lived." he said, lowering his canon and looking out at the destruction he'd caused.
"It means twenty times the memories." Ratchet replied. "It means seeing her grow old, live her life, and take you along for the ride." Optimus actually smiled a bit at that, and Ratchet smiled in return and made the joke he knew had popped into Optimus' head. "Despite the fact that you'd technically be the one giving her a ride." An honest-to-Primus chuckle came from Optimus, but was gone almost immediately.
"It's strange how quickly we can get attached to these humans. Millions of worlds across millions of galaxies, and yet within days of meeting Sam, Bumblebee was as close to the boy as he was to us. And it's been the same way for everyone, myself included. It takes us days to form bonds that would normally take centuries." Optimus said sadly. "Yet their species has a finite life span, so short it's barely a blink in time to us. It's an unfortunate combination, and I have to wonder if it won't inevitably cause us more pain than if we'd just remained out in the universe, wandering." Ratchet thought for a moment, then couldn't help but give an ironic smile as he quoted a human saying:
"'It's better to have loved and lost than never to have loved at all.'" he said. "Sarah Lennox told Ironhide that one night. And while lacking the experience myself, I know that many others have taken the saying to heart, loving these humans like the family they never had. Well, except in Sideswipe and Sunstreaker's case, but they're just as taken with their human friends as everyone else - perhaps more so, because they already have the experience. Despite the humans short life spans, and the surprisingly closeness of the bonds we form with them so quickly, I don't doubt that not a single Autobot regrets coming here."
"Of course." Optimus said softly, sighing, then looked over the destroyed landscape again. "Do you think the President will believe me if I say Soundwave did this?" Ratchet laughed long and hard, even as Optimus, irritated, waved his cannon in the medic's face threateningly.
---
Prowl and Optimus left the next morning for an extremely secret meeting of the ambassadors for the countries whose satellites had picked up the energy flare of Cybertron Valley being created. Soundwave had apparently overheard where they were going and why, and with Optimus' permission, Laserbeak accompanied the two Autobots to pass on the message that the Decepticons were on no human government's side, and wouldn't hesitate to kill, destroy, or generally do whatever they wanted. It was an unpleasant message, but the ambassadors needed to hear it, to understand the severity of the difference between the two sides, and that there was nothing they could do to help. Even with that, the meeting went surprisingly well, all of the governments agreeing to keep the existence of the Cybertronians a secret until such time as they determined the public was ready for the knowledge of their existence. How exactly they'd know that, no one knew, but they all knew it wasn't now.
After that, things calmed down for the Autobots, relatively speaking. They still had skirmishes with the Decepticons, but they were kept out of sight, and after the events of the past little while, they were considered to be rather normal. Everyone was relaxing again - even Optimus, to some extent, though Ratchet especially could see the deep grief the Autobot leader still held. He'd lost his spark-mate on Cybertron, and here on earth, he'd lost the closest friend he'd ever had, and it tore at him, no matter how many late-night talks he and Ratchet had. Optimus took to spending time alone at Cybertron Valley, standing just outside the perimeter and gazing up at the sky, and the others let him be, unable to face the idea that one day, their own human friends would die, as well.
And throughout it all, no one dared ask the question that they'd all been desperately ignoring - because after having fought numerous battles over it, and suffering heavy losses in the last two, no one wanted to know where the indestructible Allspark had gone to now.
---
Jorge's Spanish Translations, now correct due to Mika!:
"¿Qué Fue lo que pasó Aquí?" "What the hell happened?"
"¿Qué, en el nombre de Dios, Acabas de Hacer?" "What in the name of god did you just do?"
"Debo decirle esto al Presidente." "I should go tell the President."
"Sí," ...I will be extremely saddened if those reading this don't already know the translation for this one.
- THIS IS NOT THE END! -