"We need to leave, now!" Optimus roared, running over to the Ground Bridge control and typing in a set of coordinates that were as far away from the Autobot base as Optimus could remember, and immediately opened the bridge. "Autobots, transform and roll out!" he ordered as Ratchet, Bulkhead, Bumblebee and Arcee transformed. Jack hopped onto Arcee while the other three nestled in the cabs of their respective guardians, with June going with Ratchet in order to monitor Alice's ankle, and then the four rapidly departed. Ultra Magnus and Wheeljack transformed as well, then drove off. That left only Optimus and Vesper. Being unable to even stand, Vesper couldn't really transform or even attempt escape, and Optimus knew that her condition posed a huge problem. "Vesper—"

"Just leave me, Optimus," the femme begged, and Optimus' eyes widened. "I will not be able to escape the Decepticons."

The Prime shook his head, then flinched as another explosion wracked the base. "No. I will not leave you." He refused to leave her behind; he didn't want her to die. He would have gladly died alongside her, but he wouldn't leave her to die alone. "If you die here, then I do as well."

Vesper's eyes widened. "N-No! I… You need to leave! You cannot die, not while—"

Optimus cut her off. "I cannot carry the hope of the others on my shoulders if I do not have you." He walked over to her and put his servos on his shoulders. "I may have been able to carry that weight before, but now that I have met you…" He shook his head. "I simply cannot."

Vesper would have teared up if she was capable of shedding tears. "Optimus…," she breathed, then whimpered and squeezed her eyes shut as yet another explosion shook the base. Rocks started to fall from the roof, and as Optimus looked up he knew that there was very little time left. The other members of Team Prime were probably all wondering why Vesper and he hadn't come through the open bridge yet. He looked back at Vesper to see that she was looking straight at him, her eyes filled with fear. "Please tell me that what you said… was not a figment of my imagination."

Optimus frowned. "I… do not understand."

"The dream, Optimus. Right as I was woken, I… I swear I heard you say something," she breathed, feeling like a fool. Of course it had been her imagination. She looked down at her feet, but in doing that she didn't see the small, loving smile that appeared on Optimus' face.

"I did say that," he breathed, and Vesper's eyes widened before she slowly looked back up at her sparkmate. "I did say that, and I will say it again right now: I love you." He pulled her into a hug, stroking the back of her head. "I love you, and even when I become one with the Allspark, I will never stop."

Vesper was stunned silent as Optimus stepped away and regarded her lovingly. Then he frowned and looked back up at the roof as more rocks started to fall, one hitting one of his shoulders. Without a second regard he suddenly scooped his sparkmate up bridal-style (which alarmed her) and ran towards the Ground Bridge. He jumped through, and just as he did, he asked Vesper to shoot the Ground Bridge control mechanism, which she did, damaging it to the point of causing it to explode. However, that screwed up the Ground Bridge, and Optimus didn't even realise this… until he and his crippled sparkmate ended up in the middle of the ocean.

"Eyaah!" Vesper cried as she found herself immersed in salty water. Optimus had released her when he'd plunged into the waves, and Vesper was finding herself unable to keep afloat, due to her bung leg. "H-Help!" she cried, then felt something wrap around her torso just underneath her arms, and she felt immediately safer. She looked over to see Optimus, faceplate up, optics blazing with determination as he started to swim towards land. He said nothing to her except that he wanted her to trust him, that he wouldn't release her, and that she would be alright.

After about two hours of non-stop swimming, Optimus finally dragged himself and his sparkmate onto shore, and he laid on the sand, exhausted, Vesper close to his body. She didn't feel like moving either; the water lapping at her pedes was warm, although she understood that if she and Optimus didn't get dry soon, they would develop a nasty case of rust. She gently told him this, and the Prime nodded before removing his arm from around her, standing, then scooping her up again and heading away from the water. The two didn't leave the beach; it was warm there, and the sun was shining. The sun aided them in drying off, and eventually they just sat under the shade of a tree, gazing at the sunbeams sparkling off of the ocean waves.

Their tranquillity, however, was not shared by the others. Ratchet, upon seeing the Ground Bridge close without seeing Vesper and Optimus emerge, had begun to panic. The others had tried to calm him, but it hadn't worked. At least the medic hadn't been driving insanely around in circles; that would have gotten him a harsh reprimand from June or something for endangering his charge and her patient.

Ratchet sighed. They'd all driven to a secluded, hidden place, under cover of the darkness they'd been bridged into, and – once the humans were safely in the middle of the unknown clearing – the Autobots had transformed into their robot modes, and were now sitting around. The only ones that weren't with them were Wheeljack, June and Alice; June had explained that Alice needed to go to the hospital, and while Ratchet had still be averse to letting his human charge go, Wheeljack had convinced him. Ratchet had, however, only let the two of them go with Wheeljack, and those terms had been accepted. It had been half an hour since they'd left, and the medic was nervous.

"There is no point worrying," Ultra Magnus said, attempting to soothe the frayed nerves of the medic, but his calming words had little effect. "I am sure they're fine."

Bumblebee beeped something lightly, and Raf looked up at him and nodded. Then the human boy looked back at the others and said, "Bee thinks that the others got warped to another set of coordinates."

Ratchet was about to exclaim something about how silly that sounded, but something stopped him, and he frowned. Perhaps the coordinates had been corrupted somehow, sending Vesper and Optimus to another place… or perhaps they'd never even entered the bridge. Perhaps they'd been caught by the Decepticons… or perhaps they'd been killed by them. That thought was one that Ratchet tried his hardest to eliminate, but that was an impossibility in itself.

Wheeljack suddenly pulled up, and everyone looked over at him as June got out of his driver's side door, then closed it and walked around to the passenger side. Then she opened the door and helped Alice out. Ratchet's optics widened as he noticed the plaster surrounding her ankle, and the stick thing that she was using to support herself. At least it was her right ankle that had been broken, which allowed her to use her new thing to support herself.

"Alice, what is that?" Ratchet found himself asking, striding over as Wheeljack transformed back into robot mode.

The white haired human frowned. "What's what?" she asked. Ratchet, in response, mutely gestured at the stick, and she looked at it before grinning. "It's called a crutch. It'll help me walk until my ankle heals." She gave the medic a one-armed shrug, then looked around. "Still no Vesper and Optimus?"

It was Ultra Magnus who answered. "Unfortunately, no," he said. "They haven't even tried to communicate." He shook his head. "If they're out of contact range, then that is acceptable, but…"

"Don't say it," Arcee suddenly said, her voice strained. "We're all thinking the same thing, so it doesn't need to be said." She looked down at Jack and June, who were now sitting together and talking quietly amongst themselves. Suddenly Jack's phone chimed, and everyone stiffened as he slowly pulled it out and checked who it was from. Then he frowned, which made alarm bells ring in everyone's head. Those alarm bells died out when Jack said that it was a message from his school, saying something about upcoming exams.

"Well, it could have been worse," June said with a heaving sigh, and everyone nodded in agreement. Nobody said that it could have also been better – a communication from Optimus or Vesper would have been much appreciated – but nobody really needed to. They were all on the same train of thought.

They were not the only ones who wanted some form of communication. Optimus, still sitting in the shade of the tree, had tried three times to get in contact with the other members of Team Prime, with no success at all. He was getting worried and frustrated, and he could tell that Vesper was getting worried as well. He looked over at her to see that she too was trying to communicate with the others, but like Optimus, she was having no success.

"Optimus, perhaps the others are outside of our communication range," Vesper suggested as her hand fell away from her audio processors. "I mean, it is not out of the realm of possibilities." She put her hand on Optimus' as he nodded.

"Indeed," he said, smiling sadly down at her. "But getting back into the range of communications is not something easily done." He gestured at the ocean before them. "We are stranded on an island."

"You could swim," Vesper said, then realised how silly that sounded. The look she got from her sparkmate reinforced her realisation, and she blushed before looking away. "Or not."

"Getting back into the range of communications would mean leaving you," Optimus said, his voice neutral, "So no." He leaned back against the tree. "I will not leave you alone, not while you are in a less-than-fit condition." He put his arm around his sparkmate and pulled her close to him. She smiled as she snuggled next to him and closed her eyes, drifting off into sleep. Optimus remained awake and alert, but he couldn't help but continually look down at her and smile at her sleeping form. At one point, when he remembered that she was supposed to try and regain use of her leg, he considered waking her, but couldn't bring himself too and just let her sleep.

And it was then that he felt a horrific fear pulse into his spark.

He immediately realised that something was happening, and he tried to wake his sparkmate, but to no avail. Her face was contorted in fear and hurt, and Optimus hated seeing that. "Vesper?" he breathed, tried to rouse her again. "Vesper, wake up," he whispered, feeling his own fear beginning to take root. When she didn't wake, Optimus realised that he had no choice but to see what was happening and see if he could draw her out of it, for that was the safest option. He leaned against the tree and closed his eyes, then soon enough he was pulled into whatever terror Vesper was experiencing.

He found himself in a dark room. He could hear screams of pain, as well as choking sobs, and he instantly recognised his sparkmate's voice. He immediately ran out of the room, through the corridors of the Nemesis – which made him wonder if Vesper was reliving a memory – until he got to the room where the screams were the loudest. Immediately he opened the door, and what he saw was enough to make him want to kill, which wasn't something he felt often.

Vesper was lying on her berth, Starscream forcing himself upon her. Her cyan optics were wide with terror and pain, and she appeared to be struggling. She cried out as Starscream forced her valve open, but the Seeker didn't get to do much more than that. Optimus walked over and grabbed Starscream's wing, then yanked him off of his femme and threw the Seeker into a nearby wall.

Vesper gasped and scrambled back, coyly covering herself before realising that her saviour was Optimus. Her eyes widened as the Prime – ignoring Starscream, although it was difficult – walked over to her and pulled her into a hug. "O-Optimus…?" she breathed, and he nodded as he stroked the back of her head.

"It is alright, Vesper," he said. "I am here for you."

"B-But… this was when I—"

"It is a dream, my dear. Think of something other than this," he breathed as she looked up at him, her eyes quivering. "It is alright," he said, and Vesper shakily nodded. Then the femme sucked in air, squeezing her eyes shut and pressing her head against Optimus' chest, and right before Optimus' optics the scenery changed… to the balcony at Iacon, the one where Optimus and Vesper had shared their first dream. The Prime felt the femme relax in his arms, and he breathed a sigh of relief. "You are safe now," he whispered.

"Optimus, I… I keep reliving those moments," she sobbed. "I hate it, I hate it, I hate it!" she cried, Optimus was taken aback by his sparkmate's exclamation. He had no idea what to say to that, but Vesper wouldn't even let him get a word in. "I feel dirty, like it is all my fault he took advantage of me like that, and—"

That was where Optimus cut her off. "NO!" he furiously exclaimed, and Vesper's eyes widened as she looked up at him. He was looking down at her, anger in his eyes, although she could tell that that anger was in no way directed towards her. "It is never your fault for being subjected to that sort of… despicable action! That is a crime against you; you are a victim! You are not at fault here!" he exclaimed, before sadly frowning at his femme. "Please, please, do not believe that it is your fault."

Vesper smiled sadly before sobbing again and burying her face in her sparkmate's chest. Optimus said nothing more; instead, he comfortingly rubbed her back, and just let her cry. He understood what it was like to keep his emotions bottled away, to have them weighing on his spark. He also didn't want to wish it on anybody else, especially not his sparkmate.

Suddenly he realised that Vesper was fading, and he looked down at his arm to realise that he was fading as well. When he informed her of that, she was a bit surprised, but then she accepted it. As the world around them went dark yet again, they remained in an embrace…

And woke up in one.

The sunlight had long since disappeared, and now, stars twinkled about them. Vesper and Optimus both looked up at them, and Optimus smiled as he felt how at peace his sparkmate was. But he also could feel some worry in her spark, and he looked down at her to see that she was gazing at the waves. "Vesper?" he asked, gaining her attention. She looked up at him as he asked, "What is it that troubles you?"

"Truthfully, I am exceptionally worried about the others…" She looked away, biting her lip, the moon illuminating her and Optimus. And Vesper had every right to be worried about the others…

Because, as it were, they were in a lot of strife.