Author's Note: I both hate and love this chapter at the same time. Anyway, it is starting to get intense and shit. Hope you guys enjoy.


Chapter 18

Megatron wished that he had been able to convince Optimus to just have all of the Autobots leave Earth back when they had been given the horrid news that they were essentially being evicted. But he had never been very good at persuading Optimus Prime. Orion Pax he had been able to bend to his will for a while, but eventually even he had become able to resist Megatron's attempts at manipulation. He was the first bot that was able to resist the sway of Megatron's words, and he was yet to be the last.

He wished so desperately that Optimus had just listened to him when he had warned him all of those Earth years ago that they should have just left. Alas, it was too late to go change that now. He had been the first to pick up on the whir of copter blades in the background; he had always had better audio receptors than Optimus. "Up," He hissed, tugging Optimus to his feet. He watched Optimus snap out of his almost recharging state, optics shuttering briefly in confusion. His mate stumbled briefly, looking about. There was nothing around them at the moment except for the few buildings they had taken refuge amongst. "Up!" He snapped, both of them picking up on the sound of tires. He shoved Optimus a bit roughly to force him into action as the first helicopter came into view. It quickly honed in on them with its spotlight and they found themselves under immediate turret fire. "Run!" He ordered, firing a shot at the copter and starting to move as well.

The first series of missiles crashed into Megatron's back, one straying to hit the back of Optimus' knee joint. Megatron growled at the heat, feeling his battle protocols kick in. He reached over as the Prime staggered, grabbing him by an arm and hoisting him up. "Must I always look after you?" He grumbled. He watched as Optimus locked his battle mask into place and readied his gun. They rushed through the buildings they had found themselves to be safe in hours ago, Megatron taking the lead and firing at another helicopter that had appeared before them. It did not take much to take it down before it fired those accursed missiles at them again. He heard Optimus moving a bit slower behind him, felt the other's pain from his knee joint over the bond. They needed to get out of here.

The first shot came seemingly out of nowhere. It pierced straight through Megatron's shoulder, shedding some of the armor that had been there. He howled in rage, optics trying to find the sources of the large round. That had been no human weapon. There was no way. He charged through the street, swatting aside the few assault vehicles the humans had brought with ease to clear a path for him and Optimus. Another shot came, and this time he was ready for it. With an odd amount of grace for such a large being, he side stepped it and pulled out his mace. He swung the weapon down, smashing the missile into the ground. He locked onto where it came from, and his spark sank at what he saw.

It had been a very, very long time since Megatron had bothered with bounty hunters. He had wiped most of them out when they had ceased being useful to him. There were a few that had escaped his clutches, but he had assumed they would rot somewhere in space like the scum they were. He hated to find that he was wrong in this case.

"We have company, Prime! We need to get out!" He called, turning back briefly to check on Optimus. The other was staggering a bit, but made his way through the growing wreckage easily.

"Go!" Optimus called to him, waving him away. Ever the selfless mech, Megatron thought with a huff, turning to transform and escape. He hoped Optimus would do the same.

He heard the shot the moment it was fired. Yet, he was too distracted by his thoughts to react quickly enough. The missile pierced through his chest plate, grazing his spark chamber. He toppled onto his knees, a servo hovering over the wound. He was getting soft, he thought distantly as he listened to Optimus yell for him. Once he had fought several bots at one time in stadiums full of cheering fans, and he had come out the victor every single time. But he had been so easily distracted for a brief enough time to get shot. –Run, you fool!- Megatron growled over their bond, urging the other to leave him. –I will be fine. - He listened to the sounds of shouting and gunfire, then the familiar grinding of metal that came from an injured mech transforming. Yes, run. He thought, shutting down the bond quickly to keep the other from feeling the pain in his spark. He turned off his pain receptors, a dangerous thing to do in any case, but especially battle, and forced himself to his feet to watch Optimus speed away.

He charged passed all of the humans, heading to the mech that had fired the shots. The mech retracted his cannon, smirking as Megatron once again brought out his mace. The ex-warlord let out a vicious road as he leaped the remaining several meter between them and brought his mace down to strike the mech. A sword rose up quickly to block it, sending the mace flying back. The mech lashed out with the blade, sending Megatron back a few steps.

"You're getting rusty, Megatron." The other sneered at him as he moved to strike again.

Megatron growled, swinging his mace and listening to the gratifying crunch as it collided with the mech's side. "You wish."

The two mechs clashed again, a violent spray of sparks leaving them as they collided. The other moved quickly, striking with more power than expected. Important energon lines were cut with ease as Megatron struggled to block the strikes. Warnings flashed across his vision, and he pushed each one aside as he fought back with more ferocity than he had been able to muster in quite some time. He would not go down without a fight. This mere bounty hunter, this space barnacle, would not get the better of the great Megatron.

He was brought to his knees by a sudden rush of pain that forced the bond with Optimus open. The bond quivered dangerously, the other end growing weaker with each passing moment. He felt everything over it, unable to close it down and pull his attention from the other: pain/fear/regret/love/pain/PAIN. He clawed at the bond internally as it retracted from him some, keeping it close. He would not lose the other. He forced his strength over it, and in its stead he took more of the pain. The other had to live. He needed Optimus to live.

A dark chuckle over him pulled his attention from his constant consoling the other over the bond. "Well, well, well. Bonded to the enemy leader? How pathetic." There were heavy amounts of disdain in the other's voice, a servo gripping his chin tightly and forcing him to look into sinister green optics. "Autobots or Decepticons, you all just make such a mess. Look at what you did here!" He was forced to look at the buildings and streets, many now in ruins. He could not focus on it though, his sparkmates pain pulling him back to the steadily fading bond. "You all ruin everything you touch. So I am here to get rid of you for the better of the universe. I will fix what you could not." He was pushed to the ground, watching the bounty hunter's servo shift.

-Optimus, go into stasis! Get somewhere safe and go into stasis!- He urged, hoping the other was far enough away from him to be able to escape the humans and bounty hunter. –Now- His command was cut short, claw delving straight through his spark casing. The bounty hunter glare down at him as he pulled up swiftly, disconnecting Megatron's spark. He watched the other's optics flicker briefly before crushing the spark.

"Pathetic." He hissed, shaking the remnants of the spark off of his servo as he returned it to its natural shape.

. . .

Sam was forced awake by a sudden spasm from Bee. He fell off of the other's chest plate, hitting the floor sharply as Bee keened. "Bee?" Sam asked hurriedly, standing and moving to help the mech sit up properly. Bee let out another distressing whir, pawing at his chest plate desperately. "Bee, what is it?"

:Attention all Autobots! This is Optimus Prime. The humans are hunting us. Stay in hiding. Do not-: The transmission that had startled them both faded into static before starting to repeat itself. Bee let out another pained whir, lurching to a stand. Sam watched warily as Bee made to leave the abandoned warehouse they were hiding out in, running after him.

"Bee, no! Stay! Optimus said to stay in hiding! You can't just go running out there!" Sam yelled at his partner, slipping quickly passed him to the entrance and standing between him and the closed doorway. There was honestly little he could do to stop the other. He may have gained a couple inches by the end of his transformation process, but Sam was still only six feet tall. If Bee wanted to, he could easily pick Sam up and set him aside.

"He's dying!" Bee cried out, "Th-they are both-" The yellow mech cut himself off with a painful burst of static. "-dying! We need to help them! Sam, we need to get to them! They can't-" He fell forward, crying out at the sharp cutting of his bond to Megatron. His spark clawed for the bond, but found no remains of it. Instead it latched desperately onto his bond to his guardian. He whined loudly as he felt it weaken, clinging desperately to it as Sam tried to talk to him. He felt it sink away slowly, flickering dangerously. "No!" Bee screamed, vocoder cracking under the volume of his outburst.

The internal game of tug-o-war went on for a few more long moments before he finally felt it start to settle and go dormant. Stasis. Not death, not like in the woods all those years ago, but stasis. Stasis meant his guardian could be saved. Yes, he just needed to get Ratchet to him. He needed to find Ratchet. He needed Ratchet to save Optimus. He could not stand the silence in his spark again, the emptiness that consumed him so easily last time. They needed to find Ratchet.

When Bee tried to say this to Sam, all that came out was garbled static. It was something that happened occasionally; Bee would go a while without talking, or talk very quickly and loud, and would often get cut off mid-sentence by static. He flinched this time though, servo rubbing lightly at his throat. He gave Sam a pleading look, moving to step around the other. Sam would understand. He opened a comm. link with the other, waiting moments for the other to accept it before shoving everything at him. He started with that day years ago, when Sam was just starting college. He shared the pain, the hopelessness he had not been able to properly communicate at the time. Then he sent him the pain of the bond to Megatron snapping, of Optimus' pain, and of the barely there presence of his guardian. :We need Ratchet!:

Sam was floored by the sudden rush of pain, both physical and emotional. He had not quite known the extent of his partner's connection to Prime. Long ago, when he had spent what seemed like an eternity of his time listening to a god ramble at him about eons of history, there was a brief mention of one final sparkling being taken into the care of Optimus Prime. It had never clicked in his mind that the same scout he had come to know so well could have been this last sparkling. It made sense to him, though; he had often watched the other bots treat Bee differently. He had thought of it as just friendly teasing, and sometimes a bit of over protectiveness that came with being the last of your kind. But, he saw now how that was not it. Bumblebee was the last of their race to come into existence, it was only natural that they all seemed to baby him at times.

"Oh, Bee," Sam spoke gently, moving to climb up the other easily. He frowned at the lost look in those baby blue optics, something that he had found there more often than not recently. "We… We'll find Ratchet, Bee. And Optimus." He stroked his fingers lightly over Bee's face plate, trailing them lower to rub gently at his throat. His hand strayed over Bee's vocoder briefly. There was a brief shock that passed between them, like a charge of static electricity one got from dragging their feet along the carpet, before there was a brilliant flash of light. Sam gave a shocked yelp, grip slipping and falling back on his behind while Bumblebee whirred loudly. The whir quickly became something more, the other's voice coming back to him as the light subsided. "What…?" Sam's vision flickered for a moment before focusing back on where Bumblebee stood above him, looking extremely frightened.

"We need to find Ratchet." The scout said, voice filled with a sense of dread. "Now."