Childish Things
By BookwormDragon
Disclaimer: Neither Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen nor any of the Characters in Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen belong to me. No profit is made from this story on my part. No copyright infringement is intended.
Warning: Spoilers for Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen!
When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
I Corinthians 13:11, Holy Bible, King James Version
"You would never stop at just one!"
Optimus Prime's words sent a chill through Sam. Not, No loss of Life is worth it, or Not Sam's life, I've sworn to protect him, he's my friend, but rather an accusation that the enemy lacked restraint.
He should have been afraid of what those words implied, but he wasn't. Rather, he was filled with a bitter disappointment – directed towards himself. What kind of person had he become, that his friends were forced to fall back on a moral principle in order to justify protecting him?
He could be forgiven for not really grasping what the destruction of the AllSpark meant to his Autobot friends, he supposed. After all, he had been so young then, barely more than a child. The extinction of an entire species had simply been too large for him to grasp. But that was no excuse for his current behavior: he was supposed to be an adult now.
While his gentle Autobot friends had been struggling with the knowledge that they were the last of a dying species, risking their lives to protect a generally ungrateful humanity from the Decepticons, what had he been doing?
Whining about how hard his life was, complaining that he only wanted to be normal, taking their sacrifices for granted, that's what. Pitiful. Thinking back on his recent behavior filled him with a deep sense of shame. They had come to him for help and he had refused them, choosing to forget everything they had done for him. How arrogant he had been then, behaving as if the universe somehow owed him something! How self-centered and selfish.
And yet, Optimus Prime was still here, still protecting him, even at the expense of his people's survival as a species. It was…humbling. If he had been in Optimus Prime's position, he knew what choice he would have made, and it wasn't nearly so noble. What was the life of one arrogant, self-centered, and ungrateful human when compared to the continuation of an entire species, after all?
At this realization, peace flowed through him, quieting the selfish, whining voice that seemed to have recently taken up residence in the back of his mind. He would make himself worthy of his friends' sacrifices once more, he promised himself fiercely. He would do everything in his power to earn back their pride and respect. After all, what good was being normal if he had to sell his soul in order to reach that state?
It was time to put away his childish and selfish dreams and finally grow up.