Chapter 4

"I wasn't actually expecting either of you to turn up." Megatron was saying. "Ravage was telling me that you were both injured. I was expecting the two of you to chicken out. That's all you Rogues ever seem to be good at." He surveyed me curiously. "Starscream's told me all about you, Clara, though I don't have a clue how he knows so much about you. Are you sure you're making the right decision, siding with the Autobots?"
I glared at him. He shook his head sadly and turned to Optimus.
"Well, it's been a while, cousin. How are you?" Megatron took a step back and looked him up and down. "You don't look so good. That mangled leg hurts, huh?" his tone changed and suddenly he was shouting at us. "You have a lot of nerve coming here! I could kill you both easily! How long do you expect to last against me, weak as you are?"
"Actually we've already lasted longer than we really needed to." Optimus replied innocently.
Megatron stared at us.
"What are you talking about?"
"You always were blind to the painstakingly obvious. You see, brother, we were just the distraction."
Megatron stared at him for a minute, as if trying to figure out what he'd just said. Then his eyes widened.
"Have any of you idiots actually thought to check on the Autobot prisoners since these two came in?" he asked the Decepticons, his voice low, angry, dangerous. The Decepticons around fidgeted nervously and went to look.
"They're gone!" one yelled suddenly.
Megatron took a deep breath and headed round the back of the pillar. While there weren't any Decepticons paying attention to Optimus and me, I quickly broke open Roxy's cage. She ran across the room and got out, just as Megatron came back around the pillar, looking furious. He saw Roxy's empty cage and his anger grew until it was surrounding him like an aura.
"You two have just signed your own death warrant." He growled.
Optimus took his weight off of me, so he could shift it to his left leg and pull me into his arms, whispering apologies in my ear.
I don't know why he was apologising. We'd both known this was coming. With Optimus' injuries, there was no way we could get out of that room before they killed us. Optimus hadn't wanted me to come in with him at all, but there was no way in hell I was gonna let him go in there alone. We'd given Jazz the teleport remote and sent him to get the others and get out of there, with strict orders that none of them were to come back for us.

We were both going to die here.

I was fine with it so long as it wasn't Starscream who killed me.
I'd survived for almost 9 million years; I was NOT going to be killed now, after all this time, by that COWARD.
Optimus was holding me tightly against him. Megatron was looking at us with a confused expression on his face.
"You knew you were never going to get out of here alive. It would've been a lot easier to just let your 'comrades' die. Why did you even bother coming for them?"
Optimus stared at him.
"Are you gonna kill us, or are you just gonna keep asking questions?" he asked, bored.
Megatron glared at him irritably.
"Oh, I'm not going to kill you." he laughed, a deep guttural sound, like he couldn't believe we were stupid enough to assume something like that. "To be honest, I really can't be bothered to kill either of you. Barricade will kill you." he nodded to Barricade, who immediately pulled out his gun excitedly. "Just make sure you clean up after yourself this time."
"Who should I kill first?" Barricade mused, barely giving his leader an irritated look at the comment.
"Just kill them both together!" Megatron yelled, having clearly lost any and all patience he had ever had.
Barricade grinned and went to pull the trigger on us. Immediately he was blasted back into Megatron by something so powerful it threw them both into the wall at the far end of the room. Everyone turned in the direction the bolt that had hit him had come from.
There, just inside the main entrance to the room, was Ironhide. One of his cannons was drawn and pointed at the space where Barricade had just been. Jazz was at his side, a little behind him, watching nervously.
"JAZZ!" Optimus yelled angrily, "I told you to get everyone out!"
"They wouldn't listen." Jazz said sheepishly.
"What do you mean 'they'?" Optimus growled, a slight warning tone to his deep voice.
"Er…" Jazz tailed off, noting the threat in his leader's voice.
He didn't actually need to say anything, however, as the other Autobots appeared in various places around the room.
Optimus groaned in frustration. If his leg wasn't so badly injured I swear he would've stamped it in annoyance.
"What part of 'get the fuck out of here' don't you guys understand?" he demanded.
That's how I knew he was pissed. See, Optimus never swears. Why should he, when most of the time I swear enough for both of us?
The other Autobots must've picked up on his anger. They looked a little guilty, but also fierce and determined.
Megatron had managed to get to his feet, though Barricade was still on the floor. He was looking around in astonishment.
"I'll never understand Autobots." He declared weakly. "You guys are suicidal."
I winced at his choice of words. The other Autobots didn't seem to be too pleased by the statement either.
"Says the one that actively encourages his men to kill themselves when they fail a mission." Optimus muttered, rolling his eyes.
He squeezed my shoulder gently. Comfortingly. I was grateful.
"You've already lost this fight, Megatron."
"I don't see how, brother." Megatron sneered mockingly. "Because as it stands, neither of us has found the crystal."
He looked around the room, as if weighing his chances against the Autobots. All of us were injured in some way.
For once I had an idea.
I looked at Roxy, praying that she would understand what I wanted of her. She gave me a nod and ran over to Arcee.
"What would you do with these crystals if you got all of them?" I asked. It was an obvious question, I know, but I was trying to stall for time. Optimus gave me a questioning look, but there was a clear warning in his eyes.
Megatron was looking at me like I was stupid.
"To take over the world…no, the universe!"
He started ranting and raving on about how brilliantly he could run the universe, and how great it would be, and I risked a look around the room. Ironhide had come over to us and was taking half of Optimus' weight, hissing something in the leader's ear.
I took his other side, keeping my eyes on Megatron as I helped them back away from him a little bit. The Decepticons weren't paying us any attention. Megatron was too busy ranting and raving away, and the other Decepticons were watching him in awe and respect and even fear at the things he was saying, getting louder and louder all the time until he was actually shouting about all the bad things there currently were in the universe, and how great it would be when he was in charge.
This guy was a lunatic.
He was raving so much that we were actually able to get out of the room without anybody noticing us.
"That was way too easy. Something really bad is gonna happen." I muttered as Jazz looked at the remote to the teleport, as if trying to figure out which button he had to press. He gave me a 'don't be ridiculous' look. Suddenly the teleport opened up beneath us and we were gone.
Thank Primus.

I think.