No One Saves Their Savior
They'd always told him to be a hero, to give everything he could, and he obeyed. Really, when it came down to it, obedience made him a hero in the end. It was peer pressure that forced his hand. He could feel their optics on him--afraid, angry, hopeful, hateful, doubting, daring--pulling him out in front to take whatever was thrown at him. It was the opponent who needed someone to make the fight epic; it was the victim who needed someone to be a savior. It was never HIS will that made him the one on the battlefield, sacrificing himself for the betterment of the team or whatever slag was needed right then and there.
He couldn't stand to disappoint them, any of them. He wasn't a hero because he wanted to be. He wasn't even a hero because he could be, possessing abilities or something special that somehow made him more suited to save the day. He was a hero because when the first 'bot looked to him for help, he had too much pride to look around in turn for the hero to take over and make it alright. He couldn't stand making himself look that weak.
After that, they kept looking to him, and he could only obey their will. They wanted a hero, and he gave them everything. He gave it all, and after it was gone, when even his pride was gone and he wished for someone to save HIM, he found that they were all he had left. When he would have fallen, a hero broken and victimized by his heroism, they gave something back. It was a sick and twisted gift that propped him up for the next blow, but it was the only time they'd given instead of taken. They gave him that pressure of their optics, that belief that he would protect them against all odds, and it was the only thing keeping him going.
Because he was hollow, a shell of a 'bot whose desires and will were dictated by those who cast him as a hero. He'd known it all along, but when they pressed him into that stasis pod converted into a weapon to literally save the world...he found himself without watching eyes, and it all fell apart. He didn't want to be the hero, he didn't want to be here now, knowing that he could die if everything didn't work out just right. He didn't want to be the one doing the saving!
In a way, he was grateful when Megatron's face filled the clear shell in front of him. The Predacon's optics immediately exerted their horribly welcome pressure and filled him with their expectation so he didn't have to be himself any longer. He could be the hero going to his death, and he could act the part because that's what that's what he was told to do. He didn't have to wonder if the people he protected had even tried their hardest, or if their misplaced confidence in his heroism had doomed him even as he saved them. He didn't have to be afraid of what was coming. He could put up a brave front for Megatron because that's what Megatron wanted to see, not because he really felt it.
He could die because that was what everyone--including him, but he was only a reflection of them, anyway--expected, knowing there were no heroes for heroes.
They lived for others. They died for others. Nobody did slag all for them.
End of story.
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This is Optimus Primal when he died the first time before Rhinox revived him. It makes me wonder how his opinion changed when he was returned to life, or if it was only confirmed when Rhinox immediately expected him to save the day. Poor guy. I don't really write anything with him because I have such a hard time getting into his head, but this was a look at him I really didn't anticipate at all.