Optimus Prime was desperate, trying not to remember previous operations with the same crisis. Some of them complete failures, he regretted not being there in that one he delegated to his best spies. He lost two soldiers that time, It was a trap, a situation too familiar with this rescue. He lost himself in that memory for a second, he waked up from the flashback right before crashing into a rock and calling the enemy's attention. He barely scratched himself, but the rock had a missing chunk and collapsed in a blare of rubble flying everywhere. He stopped and waited for nearby activity, he had a turret already mounted at his hood, ready to shoot at the slightest flash of light or sound. But nothing happened, which made it all more suspicious. The updated signal stopped moving, meaning the hijackers were close or the kid realized something was wrong.
It was noon, and Optimus wasn't anymore surprised by these meetings with his former brothers in arms. Bludgeon and Onslaught were waiting with the undersized yellow scout. They did not raise their weapons when they saw Optimus. Except for Bludgeon, who wielded his short blade to Bumblebee's core as a sign of negotiation and threat. When Optimus saw the scene he transformed into his command mode and looked at the two oversized decepticons at the eyes, readying his arms to draw his rifle as fast as possible, he had nanoseconds for the shot to be precise enough. But Onslaught spoke first: "Nothing will happen to the kid if you stay still, we only want to talk." Optimus was not in the mood for this, and wanted to end it as soon as possible, take the kid alive whatever it takes. "I do not want to kill you, but I will if any of you move the slightest servo, give me a guarantee that the kid is safe and I'll listen. Make any sudden moves and you're dead, drop your weapons or I'll not trust you, and make it worth it, because it's the last time I trust betrayers." His words were empty in the wind, but the two decepticons knew they were no match for the chosen one's prowess, even if they killed the yellow pipsqueak they were short work for him. Bludgeon was violently confident that he could incapacitate him in hand to hand combat, his technique with the blade was almost perfect and could win against a shallow energon axe.
As Bludgeon was thinking how carnage could be let loose if he killed the pipsqueak, Onslaught had already taken his sword and all the blasters they had; he felt betrayed and insulted by Onslaught's sleight of hands. "Drop the short blade or else." Threatened Optimus to Bludgeon. He complied with contained rage as he stabbed the ground with enough force to make a crack in the arid dirt long enough to reach Optimus's feet. "Walk away from the guns, now." They both complied, Bumblebee was frozen by fear and confusion, the three robots walked a few steps backwards as Optimus approached them with confidence. "What is your message, then?"
-We need to negotiate, we developed technology to sustain ourselves but lack resources to fix the ship. Megatron sent us to ask for cooperation in getting out of the planet. He said you can't let us die, the war is over, both of us lost everything. He said he understands now, that he wants peace.
We know that you don't have enough time or resources to completely fix your ship, the offer is to exchange technology to mesh both ships together into a viable escape method.- Said Bludgeon in the most serious tone, without any threat in his words.
Optimus was not impressed at all, nor surprised. He was completely skeptical, he never trusted dealing with these situations, but neither he had other choice. "I will only accept when you release the kid. And tell Megatron to talk to me personally if he wants anything from the autobots. You say the war is over, but you are no more than a cruel deception to freedom. The war will be over when you give up your dark energon." Finally giving in to the enemy's game, there was an honest truce he had to respect.
Onslaught then explained that the only one to consume dark energon in their side was Megatron, who was completely addicted to it and worsening his health because of his abuse during the war. Unable to leave the ship. Optimus did not bought that pathetic excuse, but didn't want to admit it out loud, he only demanded that the deal will be made if Megatron appeared in the intersection of both perimeters by noon. Bludgeon released Bumblebee from his grasp and encouraged him not to mess with them if he wanted to survive. The yellow scout returned to Optimus, hugging him by impulse and thanking him for coming to the rescue, promising he will never mess up again.
The four cybertronians then returned to their respective bases and reunited with their team for a debrief in their operations. In the Ark, the autobots were arguing about the possibilities of dealing with the enemy, to cooperate in escaping from the planet before another apocalyptic event. They all agreed that the deal was the only option of survival and possibly the best one they had. But they had no guarantee of a double-cross or a successful truce, so they were in the edge of complete uncertainty and they had to bluff somehow. How they will pull off the negotiation will depend exclusively in Optimus Prime's encounter with his nemesis, and no one can really tell what Megatron is planning in his mind. Espionage was no longer viable, given the backdoor Wheeljack found in the comms, they were no longer safe as long as Soundwave keeps scanning his perimeter.
Optimus then stood quiet, thinking. Looking every update to the ship in complete shock. "Ratchet, what did you do?" he mustered to himself. Quietly, as to about to loose hope, he walked towards the core engine. He noticed his past, it was all coming back to that one trigger, suddenly he felt a cold shock in his back, going quietly back to heat. He questioned whether he felt angry, sad, hopeless or about to short-circuit in a panic attack; he needed answers, he should've foresee this. Once he stept through the door, he froze for a moment. The truth about his feelings was fear, thing long ago he didn't felt, he saw Ratchet working tirelessly in a bench.
An arm fell to the ground, countless badges of both decepticons and autobots were carved into the walls, six heads connected to the mainframe. Optimus didn't dare say his names, but recognized them at the instant he saw them: Ultra Magnus, Drift, Brawn, Springer, Roadbuster, Blaster and Chromia. They've died of shock while on stasis, and now were torn apart in every corner, scattered as new pieces for the ship. The details were all on the logs, but Optimus had to see for himself, hating himself in silence. He couldn't predict this, he was in denial that something like this could happen. When Ratchet noticed Optimus's presence he turned to look at him, with his cold stare that lost it's shine, a soft twitch moved his fingers, he dropped everything he had in his hands.
It all went downhill with a laugh that softly turned into desperate crying, Ratchet then recognized his insanity, he knelled and dropped his hands to the ground, still crying. Optimus then understood, he couldn't turn back time, Ratchet was now beyond help, yet his intentions were no more than resolute to their success. The hopelessness they both felt at the time was nothing compared to the bet Ratchet was making in order to survive. There was no way of reconstructing new parts of the ship without other parts of the ship, the bodies that died in stasis provided less than enough material to rebuild the entire ship. Ratchet wanted to preserve the bodies, but he also wanted to preserve most of the ship; they needed them in order to reconstruct the engines, their brains were connected to the computer, meaning that he also wanted their memories to be saved somehow. But even he couldn't believe the atrocity he committed, and Optimus could no longer do anything to stop him.
-Why?- Optimus asked.
-We have no other chance, we ran out of options.- Ratchet said while sobbing.- They are doing it too, we are not so different after all, you were right about those monsters, those corrupts, this is beyond good and evil. This is our only hope! It's something I couldn't ever forgive, I became a monster worse than you could ever imagine, but I've finished it, a few more calibrations and we could lift off as soon as we gather enough energon.-
Optimus put his hand on Ratchet's shoulder, but Ratchet hit him apart, he had a pistol in his hand. He aimed it at Optimus, then at his mouth. He couldn't stop crying, but he was too hesitant about shooting. "STOP!" Ironhide screamed, Wheeljack had hacked Optimus's comm in the event of having a private network with him, he alerted everyone on the ship and Ratchet's confession had been streaming as it happened. Ironhide, as soon as he new what his partner had done, sprinted towards the location, in fear of what could happen next. He screamed as loud as possible, when Ratchet heard the alert he fainted, the pistol fell to the ground and Optimus kicked it as far as possible.
-We have to do something, quick, he has to survive.- Ironhide claimed.
-He just passed out, it was too much stress, he couldn't even shot the gun. Who knows how will he react when he wakes. Worry not, we will bind him in order to avoid another incident like this. Take him to the med bay, where he belongs, we'll have to carry that weight, thus he was right about something, it's our only hope. What's done is done, and now it's too late to stop.
End of chapter six.
