Charoite paced back and forth across her room. First, she weighed different pros and cons of giving information to Megatron, then she mentally played out different scenarios of what would happen to Iacon City should he take over. The only good thing Charoite was able to come up with was that he would make sure there would be no more deceitful leaders.

However, Sentinel was gone. The truth was known. Was this all just to get back at Optimus? Although the Decepticons saved her life and took her in, she noticed they placed an alarming amount of value over who was stronger or more powerful. Also, how would they treat her if she changed her mind about helping them? What would they do?

What would Megatron do?

Charoite needed to clear her conscience. This was too much to bear. She walked out the door in hopes of catching Optimus alone to hear his side of the story.

She was relieved to see Optimus was in fact, by himself, in his room. He was reading the same book he had when she first saw him.

"Optimus! Hey!" Charoite tried to sound casual but knew her fear made its way into her tone.

"Hey, Charoite! Optimus closed the book and stood up from the couch. "What's up?"

"Just, well, there's something I wanted to know, since things changed so much when I was gone."

"What did you want to know?" Optimus' eyes glanced at where the Sentinel decal used to be.

"Well…uh, I wanted to know what the…deal is between you and Megatron. B mentioned him a few times but he doesn't seem to like thinking about him."

Optimus' expression became more serious, then a little sad.

Charoite regretted bringing it up, but she had to if she was going to have any hope of figuring out the truth. Maybe she could have asked B, but she didn't know how much he'd be able to tell her, given he wasn't supposedly as close with Megatron.

Optimus took a few steps toward the window and stared out of it. "Megatron…wasn't always Megatron. He leads an army called, the 'Decepticons,' now, but before, he was my best friend. We mined together. His name was, 'D-16.'"

"Really? No way!" Charoite wanted to throw in a little fake surprise in case she looked suspicious.

Optimus gave a small, sad chuckle. "Yes. He was D-16. I was Orion Pax. I used to sneak around, trying to get information about where the Matrix was so energon could flow again. I would always get chased down by guards, and D would always be there to help hide me if I needed it." Optimus gave a more light-hearted laugh. "He always thought I was an idiot for trying to find out, being so reckless. Last time I did it, he said if he could transform, he'd turn into a shovel and beat me. Anyway, I had this idea to sneak into the Iacon 5000, to show that us miners have potential. That we could do more than just mine. D wasn't crazy about the idea, but I got us to watch the racers from the starting lineup, inside the 'go' light. I put jet packs on us and dropped us into the race as soon as Sentinel shot up in the air!"

Charoite burst out laughing. "Seriously? Wow! I'm even more sorry I missed the Iacon 5000, now!"

Optimus laughed. "Well, I admit it was inconsiderate of me to force D into it, but it was sure exciting, and it led to…a lot! Sentinel personally told us how much he loved the stunt I pulled, though I realize now it was just because he wanted the miners to keep working harder and not see their full potential. Darkwing…didn't see it in any positive way, though. As soon as Sentinel left, he threw us down to a room where garbage burned, and that's where we met B-127, or 'B,' as we all know him. We ended up finding out a map to where the Matrix of Leadership likely was, and we snuck up to the surface on one of the automatic trains. Elita-1 got stuck with us, which she was thrilled about, and we all found the fallen Primes. We found out Alpha Trion was still alive, but unconscious. After he was fed an energon cube, he told us the story of Sentinel's betrayal. We ended up also seeing Sentinel pay off the Quintessons with our energon."

Charoite remembered when she saw him do just that. She hated remembering the pain.

"Afterwards, something started changing in D. He became focused on wanting to kill Sentinel. Not enough of his desire was about fixing our society. D's hero turned out to be an evil liar. I definitely understand why he was angry, but his focus on revenge and on himself is what destroyed the bot he used to be. I'll never forget how he beat up Starscream, the leader of the High Guard. How he choked him and damaged his vocal component. How he so quickly took over the High Guard. Well, Sentinel's guards and Airachnid found us and the High Guard, then a lot of the High Guard, along with D and B were captured. I almost gave up. With the proof Alpha Trion gave us damaged, I started to think I should have stayed on protocol like D always told me I should. After…what was clearly Elita's first time giving a pep talk, I realized that if I hadn't broken protocol, I wouldn't have learned the truth, and I would never have had a chance to fix our broken society. The rest of us rescued all the prisoners and exposed Sentinel using Airachnid's memory. However, it wasn't enough for D. He still wanted revenge. He wanted Sentinel to suffer and die. D tackled Sentinel off the balcony and beat him up. When they reached the ground, Sentinel wasn't able to do much to defend himself, given the damage D caused."

Charoite felt like the traitor many thought she was for the sparkbreak she felt at what Sentinel went through. The fear he must have had. Despite him leaving her to die, part of her wished she could have been there for him.

"I wasn't however focused on saving Sentinel. I wanted…" Optimus choked up as his voice became higher. "…I wanted so badly to save D from himself. I jumped in the way when D tried to shoot Sentinel, but I got shot instead. D grabbed me before I fell off a cliff. The sadness and remorse in his face slowly disappeared. He looked me straight in the eye and said he was done saving me. He…let me go."

Charoite suddenly felt like a monster for working for Megatron. She tried to think of a reason to still be on his side, but she couldn't.

"While my dead body was falling, the spirits of the Primes caught me, and Alpha Trion, who was now dead, told me my sacrifice made me worthy to carry the Matrix of Leadership. I became Optimus Prime. I was restored to life, I shot up from underground, and I got into my first battle with who was now Megatron, along with the High Guard. A lot of Iacon City was destroyed, and bots were put in danger because of it. I had to make the sparkbreaking decision to banish my former best friend from Iacon City. He took the High Guard and left."

"I…I'm so sorry." Charoite took a step forward.

"Thank you, Charoite. It didn't completely end sadly, though. The energon came flowing back, along with cogs for the bots who had them stolen. I also have two new best friends who stayed by my side as we rebuilt Iacon. We still have some work to do, but we've made a lot of progress. Elita is a very smart, worthy commander, and B would do anything for Iacon."

Charoite couldn't take it anymore. She fell to the floor and cried.

Optimus gently picked her up and gave her a hug.

"I'm sorry! I'm so sorry!" Charoite exclaimed, reluctant to accept the hug. "I'm sorry for what happened between you and Megatron! I'm sorry I was with Sentinel!" Charoite nearly apologized for working with Megatron, but she wasn't sure if she should ever reveal it, even if she now didn't want anything to do with him.

"Shhh…it's okay. You're allowed to grieve for Sentinel. Although he did many horrible things, I can assume he was good to you. You can grieve for him and know what he did was wrong."

Charoite wrapped her arms around him and leaned into the hug. "Thank you."

"I think I know something that would be good for you."

"What?"

"While Sentinel didn't have a funeral service, I arranged for him to be buried. I hate to bring this up, but we still have yet to find where he hid Alpha Trion's body. Anyway, at the Iacon Burial Site, his body capsule is hard to miss. It's a bright blue, and its one of the ones on the far right, though I don't remember which one. Not to mention his name is on it, though he isn't labeled as a Prime. Just 'Sentinel: Ruler of Iacon City for 50 Cycles.' I think visiting his body capsule would provide some closure."

Charoite immediately knew how right Optimus was. She didn't think Sentinel was buried at all. She assumed Megatron disintegrated him somehow or took his body to the surface and threw it, or the halves of it, somewhere.

Without a word, Charoite ran down the stairs, took the exiting stairs instead of waiting for the elevator, and sped off in her plane mode.

Charoite transformed back upon her arrival at the Iacon Burial Site. Hundreds of pods were halfway underground, half over, and were all transparent, but had different colors. She caught sight of a bright blue one, flew over, and fell to the ground upon seeing both halves of Sentinel inside. A small part of her didn't want to believe he was really dead, but there he was. Through the blue tint, she could tell all traces of his effervescent gold and blue colors had disappeared. His top half was separated from his bottom half, wires between them. His eyes and mouth were closed, but she thought it was likely done by the burial company. She tortured herself with the thought of how he must have looked when Megatron ripped him in half, how he must have screamed. She looked over at the square plate welded onto the end of the capsule. It indeed read, "Sentinel: Ruler of Iacon City for 50 Cycles." She looked back up at Sentinel's resting face. She could have loved him. Maybe she did love him. She threw herself on top of the capsule, and sobbed, no qualms about her grief. She was allowed to grieve, and she was never going to forget that.

After what felt like an hour, Charoite gave the capsule a kiss and flew away. She felt relief she never felt before.

As she neared the Autobot Base, she remembered Megatron. She didn't know when or if she would feel any relief from the power he had over her. She resolved to, for now, come up with the best lies she could to keep him away from the Autobots. Hopefully he would just think her an incompetent fool and leave her alone, not wanting anything to do with her.

Hopefully.