For the nanoklick that Optimus allowed Megatron and Airachnid out of his line of sight, furiously hissing to Ratchet down his comm line, they'd both managed to disappear completely. Though disturbed by his frantic plasma volleys, the planet was as dead and barren as it always was, as if the arrival of Megatron was just an illusion. But Airachnid had seen him as well. She wouldn't have looked so terrified otherwise.
"Airachnid, can you hear me?" Optimus' frantic hiss into his commlink was met with nothing but a taut silence. "Airachnid, come in!" Still nothing, even when he tried to force some life into his unit by cracking his palm against it. With a curse boiling under his glossa, Optimus threw it out towards the wasteland that seemed to swallow Megatron up, only to soon spit him back out like poison.
No doubt he'd left to gather the rest of the Decepticons, or just to try and ambush the Prime. In any case, Optimus wouldn't stand down. Airachnid had hopefully hidden herself well, and he wouldn't endanger her by trying to find her. Instead he set himself against the horizon, a statue left standing amongst the ruins as he reached far into his subspace. All the Iacon relics were safe in the base's vaults, except the one only he could wield.
The Star Sabre had accompanied him ever since he first held it, nestled into his subspace as deep as it would go. He didn't draw it just yet. He just made sure it was there, ready for when he needed it. With a tight but waning grip on the handle, he waited for Megatron's return and the arrival of his Autobots.
The familiar hiss of a Bridge opening sounded behind him as he closed his subspace, but he didn't turn to greet the bots that piled out of it. Likewise, they didn't stand down until they were certain there was no one else lying in wait for them.
"Where's Megatron?" Arcee straightened, aiming her blaster upwards for everyone else's safety but still keeping it out for her own.
"He has retreated, but not for long." Even with so many other guns around him, Optimus was reluctant to turn and face his soldiers. Half from fear of Megatron's inevitable return, half from the knowledge that he could have prevented this premature stand-off.
As the other most experienced Autobot present, Bulkhead knew that better than anyone. Optimus could hardly blame him for sounding bitter. "With his whole army following behind, I bet," the Wrecker muttered.
"We still have time to escape, though!" Bumblebee whirred with all the hope he had left. "If we can just find Airachnid, we can- "
"You would abandon our home just to save yourself?" Dreadwing didn't sound surprised, but then again he never did. The scorn in his voice masked anything else that might have been there. "Typical Autobot cowardice."
Bumblebee's fury caught in the broken circuits of his vocaliser, a splutter of beeps that barely cut through the Seeker's scowl before Optimus silenced him. "I am afraid Dreadwing is right, Bumblebee. If we forfeit Cybertron now, we might well never return to it. Megatron is desperate enough now to try anything. We must stand our ground."
The scout's optics still flared, but he bent his helm in understanding. Beside him, Bulkhead slammed his fists together. "Whether it's one Con or a hundred of 'em, I ain't leaving."
Despite her anxious glances towards the horizon, Arcee nodded. "We're yours to command, Optimus." Even Bumblebee quickly disposed of his sulk to blip in agreement. Even amidst the corpse of their planet, surrounded by what they stood to lose, they were still as loyal as ever. Even without Airachnid near, Optimus was grateful.
"Shall I take an aerial scout?" Dreadwing offered, opening the vents of his wings impatiently.
Optimus shook himself, forcing him into the mind of a commander. "Up to the outskirts of Praxus," he ordered, nodding towards the one neon-sprinkled ruins far ahead of them. "Megatron is likely to deploy his army on the Hydrax Plateau, or the Sea of Rust. Anywhere open where he can gather them together."
Dreadwing bowed his head, either in a show of respect or just obedience, before activating his T Cog and leaving the scorched ground behind for the barren slipstreams of a long-dead sky. What little sunlight was left barely illuminated his frame against the dark backdrop of clouds choking out the stars above. Above or below, Primus could not watch over them either way. But as long as Optimus felt the Matrix burning in his chest and the Sabre buried away, he knew he was never truly abandoned.
"Autobots, I know the odds are against us. They always have been." He turned to face each one of them, the tiny army he'd managed to gather and protect all these years. "But all is not lost. Megatron may have numbers on his side, but his army of mindless drones lacks that which makes us Autobots. We have our honour, our resilience. And we have the knowledge that we have survived worse than this."
He had much more to say, but Arcee spoke up before he could go on. "You don't need to do the whole inspirational speech thing, Optimus." Though there was a smile in her voice, her expression was set in stone like a commander's. "We knew what we were getting into when we followed you to Earth. Sooner or later, we would have all ended up back here." She kicked the silent dust at her peds in emphasis as Bumblebee somehow compressed his beeps into a harsh growl.
"But this time, we're not leaving without a fight."
"And if any of us end up in the Allspark after this, we'll be taking some Cons to the Pit on the way there." Bulkhead sealed his vow with the crash of his wrecking balls slamming together. Each Autobot stood shoulder to shoulder before him, a wall of bristling armour and bright optics. Though his battlemask hid his faceplate, Optimus felt a proud smile thriving behind it. Despite what was to come and what had been, he knew he was one of very few fortunate mechs in the universe.
"Prime." From his comm link, Dreadwing's voice echoed amid the whistle of air flying past him. "The Nemesis is arriving from the east, though it seems Megatron is flying ahead of it. I will stay near the ship to take out any aerial reinforcements."
"Understood, Dreadwing." Optimus considered asking the Seeker to search for Airachnid as well, but closed the link before he'd be tempted. Best not to have their only aerial advantage be distracted.
Beside him, Arcee managed to keep a brave face even as she watched the horizon for Megatron. "What should we do?"
Optimus tensed his T Cog, silent until he saw the faintest shadow against the sky. "What we do best," he answered. "Transform, and roll out." He shifted into his alt mode, with his Autobots just a nanoklick behind him, and pushed onwards towards the empty battlefield. He heard their engines above his own, a trio of thunderous iron-clad resolve behind steel hearts. The more he rattled over the rocks and ruin of his home, the more certain he was that the growing fury in his spark was relative to his approach to Megatron. And sure enough, as the Autobots came upon the edge of the Sea of Rust, unchanged even in the wake of war, he knew that the dark cloud ahead of them was the Nemesis. Closer still was the faint shape ahead of it, so much smaller yet so much more threatening. Even from this distance, with his helm tucked away behind his alt-mode's armour, Optimus could feel the warlord's glare burning through his own.
As the dusty miles between the two mechs fell away, Megatron tilted towards the ground in a beeline to Optimus, tumbling through the air rather than flying. Whether or not he was planning to crash into him, Optimus didn't slow down. His tires trembled as a hidden fist gripped itself tightly, waiting for Megatron to be just low enough, just close enough, to send it slamming through his chest.
But Megatron had other ideas. His descent revealed a squad of drones trailing behind him, six of them splitting off into three on either side of their leader. Just as Optimus registered their shapes against the dark sky, they let loose a volley of lasers that kicked up the dirt in front of him and sent him skidding into the cloud. The other Autobots were faster to react, skirting around the scorched ground and driving under the drones to get out of range of their guns. While they went on ahead, Optimus circled and acted like he was planning to retreat, drawing the lasers towards him to give the others a chance at reaching the other side of the flat plain. Angling his mirrors, he saw Arcee speed ahead as Dreadwing came in above her, shooting down the drones while they were distracted. Now Optimus had to focus on avoiding the flaming frames falling as he wrenched on his brakes, almost toppling over from how quickly he stopped. Once the centuries of dust cleared, he found the skies empty. Megatron had disappeared, as if the sea's ruins somehow screened him. Wherever he was, Optimus knew it wasn't far away. He throttled forwards again to join up with the Autobots, while his radio suddenly jumped to life.
"Optimus?"
"Ratchet." The one voice he hadn't expected to hear, especially for the nanoklick that he'd hoped it would be Airachnid's. But despite that disappointment, a medic was always useful. "Are you still being detained?"
"I managed to bluff my way out, said I needed some fresh air and they actually bought it." Ratchet scoffed a bitter laugh at the humans' expense. "But I don't have long until they order me back. Have you found Airachnid?"
"No, and she refuses to answer her comm link." Optimus swerved to avoid a smouldering impact crater with two Vehicons melted together. "Either it is malfunctioning, or she is purposefully ignoring it."
Ratchet sighed with such force that it was almost as if he was driving right beside him. "Typical Elita behaviour… she doesn't want to retreat, Optimus. If this is truly our last stand against Megatron, she would rather die than miss it."
Optimus almost lost his grip on the ground as his brakes jammed; he knew Elita better than any bot in the galaxy, yet he hadn't thought that she'd be so intent on getting her revenge against Megatron. "For once, I dread to think that you are correct… but she has Scorpia with her. She wouldn't put her daughter in such danger-"
"As far as Airachnid is concerned, Scorpia was in danger from the nanoklick she was conceived." Ratchet paused, a sharp intake of air following his memory of Airachnid's fury at him. "Whether by dark energon or by her sire, she knows that her daughter will die one day. Taking down Megatron is the only hope she has left."
Ratchet was sombre enough for both of them, yet Optimus still struggled to stop his spark running heavy from sorrow. His engine stalled and then slowed, though he was only halfway to the Autobots as they fended off a squad of ground troops.
"…Is there no way to Bridge her back to safety?" he asked through a clogged vocaliser.
"Not when the controls are still out of my reach," Ratchet answered. "Even then, I doubt she'd even use it. However…"
"What is it, Ratchet?" By the time the medic spoke again, Optimus had reached the rest of his team.
"Hold out for a little longer, Optimus. I'll see what I can do." Behind Ratchet's request there was a faint voice that must have been human, just before the link closed.
"Dammit…" Optimus pushed his engine to its limit and activated his T Cog as it hit its max speed, flying forwards to send a fist cracking through an unsuspecting Vehicon's faceplate. He wiped the energon off his knuckle, holding the drone down and shifting his gun out to fire a round through its chest. But just as he finished that one off, a duo started closing in on him with laser shots peppering his armour. He grabbed the barrel on one, ignoring the heat searing against his palm as he lined it up with its friend's spark chamber. And dumb as only a drone could be, it kept mindlessly firing until its partner fell to the floor. Optimus then crushed the gun in his hand and sent its wielder soaring towards another group of Vehicons approaching.
Now that he had time to assess the field, he saw Bumblebee running and firing shots at drones chasing after him while Arcee took a close-combat stance. For every soldier they took out, another three seemed to replace them. Bulkhead seemed to be having more success by clearing a path towards them with his wrecking balls, but his back was left open for attack.
"Arcee, Bumblebee! Flank around Bulkhead!" Despite the dissonance of metallic crunching, plasma fire and heavy vents, they managed to hear Optimus' command. Abandoning their own targets, both bots headed to the Wrecker with Arcee vaulting over the shoulders of drones in her way. In the time it took to reach Bulkhead, there were more than enough drones behind him for them to take out.
Now it was up to Optimus to take out the leftovers, with his sword in his servo and his shotgun in another. The Star Sabre was tempting, but not worth using on drones. Only a true Decepticon would do to be felled by its blade.
Besides, he didn't need a Prime's weapon to be a Prime. The recoil of his gun helped to drive his sword through armour and protoform alike, leaving the Vehicons too cautious to come in range of his melee attacks. Though more lasers hit him than he managed to dodge, his sword also helped deflect some shots as he decimated their ranks. The last drone went down with a blade through his abdomen, leaving Optimus to shake the energon off while his team stepped over the carpet of fresh corpses towards him.
"Where'd Megatron go?" Arcee asked, retracting her servo blade.
"I lost sight of him during the diversion," Optimus answered, vents left wide open to cool his exerted systems. "If he'd returned to the Nemesis, Dreadwing would have seen him." He glanced up at the sky, only able to see shadowy outlines of flying mechs with no hint of which one was their own Seeker.
"So he's hiding." Arcee made her contempt at Megatron's cowardice well known as she spat. "Probably planning to ambush us."
"Where's the rest of his army, though?" Bee asked, following Optimus' gaze before but now casting nervous looks around his frame. "I'd have thought Starscream would be out by now."
"Or Breakdown," Bulkhead added. "I was looking forward to rattling his helm, see if there really is anything in there."
Just as he clanked his wrecking balls together, Dreadwing swooped low and landed on his peds beside him, sporting scorched metal across his wings as he kicked a drone carcass aside. "All aerial units terminated," he reported. " Though I suspect reinforcements will be imminent."
"Was there any sign of the other officers?" Optimus asked without turning to face him.
"Negative. Megatron has also disappeared."
"Maybe he's trying to wear us down with Vehicons first, then he'll send in his heavies to finish us off," Arcee suggested behind lagging vents, already burning through her energon reserves. If she was tired already, the mechs wouldn't be far behind her.
Optimus heard each soldier through half-tuned audios as he studied the Nemesis looming above them, waiting for any hint of reinforcements or Megatron himself. For every inch of the warship, a hundred more drones could be waiting for their time to attack. And that was assuming the ship's own cannons didn't just simply blast them away.
"Whatever the case, I fear that we have barely put a dent into his forces." Optimus tried not to sound as sure about that as he really was.
Despite his efforts, Bee let out a downtrodden buzz. "Even with all the dents they've given us already…" He turned to check how battered his servo was, but he froze as soon as he raised his optics. "Uh… looks like we're in for a few more."
Optimus had already seen the rising tide of Vehicons on the Nemesis' prow, a uniform line of drones waiting to fall upon them. And right in the center stood a figurehead standing tall over the planet. In a sea of purple, Megatron's diseased optics shone both the brightest and the darkest.
"Speak of Unicron, and he shall show," Dreadwing recited, reaching for his thermal cannon wherever he kept it tucked in his subspace.
"Somehow he followed us all the way from Earth... " Bee's voice was hushed to hide the tremor running thick through his voice. But his was nothing to the quake of the ground as Megatron leapt down and slammed into it with a fist towards Cybertron, Vehicons trickling down after him like they were tethered to his very frame.
Optimus managed to keep his balance in the wake of the warlord's arrival, optics locked onto him with nowhere to escape unseen. The only path available was right towards the Autobots, who were still left reeling by the force of his peds.
Only Bulkhead seemed undisturbed, rolling his neck with a growl. "Ready for round 2?"
"Always." Surprisingly, Dreadwing was the one to answer for the Autobots. And most surprisingly of all, the Wrecker and his enemy nodded in agreement. Megatron's threat was so great that even hunter and prey joined together against him.
Optimus wondered how well that applied to Airachnid, only briefly as he waited for Megatron's charge. His servo reached for his subspace again, closing instinctively around the Star Sabre's handle. As he heaved the blade out it seemed to cut right through the pocket dimension, slicing through the thick air as a beacon of light as bright as Cybertron's core once was.
If Megatron was phased by the Sabre's glow, he took great care to not show it. Those purple optics seemed to absorb the light completely above a cluster of sharp denta pushed towards a smile.
"I'll be honest, Optimus, I did not expect to find you here," the warlord confessed like he'd just bumped into an old friend he didn't recognise. "You and your new pet spider. Did she die already? I'm disappointed. I hope your survivors will prove more entertaining."
Optimus kept his growl low in his vocaliser, refusing to be baited. "This ends here, Megatron. Before, I showed you mercy because I'd hoped, however unlikely it was, that you would see the error of your ways. But now I see that that is an impossible hope. So I will give you one last chance; hand over the Omega Keys and surrender, or be sent to the Pit for your crimes against our kind."
Megatron's laughter seemed to echo across the entire planet, like the groan of the Nemesis' mighty metal chassis. "And why would I take that offer when I could just wrench that Sabre from your servo and strike it against your spark?" He gestured with his stolen servo, so dull and dead. "Why would I want to save Cybertron, when it has done nothing for me in turn? Our planet was doomed from the start, Optimus. I was glad to see it go up in flames, the corpses of Autobots lining every street. Which is why I had the Omega Keys destroyed."
Optimus almost lost his grip on the Star Sabre, rapid blinking optics as he prayed he'd just misheard. But the warlord's shark grin told him otherwise.
"Liar." Optimus could think of no mech he trusted less than Megatron, especially with bluffs. "No Iacon relic can be destroyed."
Megatron's pride didn't even falter. "You doubt the powers of Dark Energon. Why else would I come here, other than to bury their remains?" Whether or not it was true, his confidence was smothering every single hope the Autobots had left. His fusion cannon was set towards Optimus' helm, but even the glow of its barrel couldn't compete with the toxic glare of his optics. It was impossible to tell where Megatron ended and Unicron's possession began.
"So I'm afraid that if you want my surrender, Optimus Prime you must take it from my dying vents."
The distance between the two armies was less than half now, and the ground seemed to simmer despite the sun being long gone from the impending massacre. Mist rose up like smoke, or like the dusty remnants of lost sparks trying to claw their way out of the poisoned atmosphere. Even when facing death, it was hard for Optimus not to be poetic about it.
But warlords had no use for poetry. Warlords looked at a battlefield and thought of only whether they won or lost. And it had been so long that Optimus doubted either of them could remember which field was a victory and which a failure, not when they all looked the same, blended into the same wasteland of grey dust and battered rust.
Optimus looked at his old friend with his defiled spark, his warped mind and brimming optics, and saw only hatred reflected. Whether it was his own or Unicron's, he didn't want to know because he knew it made no difference. One way or another, he'd soon never have to see it again.
"As you wish, Megatron." The snarl behind his battlemask seemed to echo from the Matrix, with the voices of a hundred more fallen Primes joining his own. Time seemed to slow, with a giant mass of plasma heading right towards him. He pulled the Sabre up to block it, letting the ancient blade take the searing fire as more shots followed after. And now time sped up, every nanoklick like a rapid pulse in a processor that could barely keep up with what was happening. Optimus deflected every bolt of plasma as he pressed on, not even realising that he was running until he lowered the Sabre and watched the Decepticons charging.
This time there was no click of T Cogs, only the furious strike of peds on dirt and the hum of blasters charging, just before the lightning crash of plasma volleys turned the Sea into a blind tide of smoke and charred rock. Neither army knew when they'd meet each other, not until they collided into energon stains and mangled metal.
But a Bridge showed up before that could happen; a spear of light that came down to split the field in half and force back every bot charging towards it. Servos shot up to shield squinting optics, even as they tried to look closer at the mysterious portal.
"What the Pit-?"
"More reinforcements?"
"Whose Bridge is that?"
Optimus had no answer to any of the confusion, still covering his optics with a hand as they tried to look through the light, as bright as the Star Sabre itself. But the Bridge was so huge that he couldn't see the plain beyond it, still blind despite the new source of swirling light. Over the hum of the portal all he could hear were stray laser blasts, so meager compared to the orchestra that fired just nanoklicks before even with his audios tuned to their maximum.
He never saw what emerged from the Bridge, because for the first time, the Autobots were on the wrong side. He heard it in his boosted audios over his roaring spark, a voice he never thought he'd be so grateful to hear.
"ME GRIMLOCK KING OF CYBERTRON!"