Destinies (Transformers Prime)

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Cliffjumper guarded them as Arcee watched the leader sadly. Orion was still trying to save the bot, but he had long since left to the AllSpark. He choked back a sob as he shakily tried to fix him. Arcee gently set her servo over his to stop him.

"Hey... that's not going to help." She whispered quietly. He looked at her with confusion and sadness.

"Why... why did he run to me?" He asked quietly. "He acted like... a... a sparkling when they see their sir." He whispered. She didn't respond and looked at Bumblebee. She shuddered then remembered the relic.

"Orion listen to me." She said seriously and he looked at her with grief. "We can fix this. I can go back and make it so this never happens, make sure he doesn't die... make sure none of them do..." she whispered. Cliffjumper furrowed his optic ridges and looked at her.

"How can you do that?" He asked and she stood up slowly. She hesitated then showed him the relic she had brought.

"I already told you, tampering with time is a bad idea." He said seriously.

"I know... but I already did... and this was the outcome..." she whispered and fought back tears. "I should have listened to Ratchet..." she muttered.

"How unfortunate for the doctor." Someone said and they looked over to see Megatron down the hall. "Orion, I see that you stopped one of them. Well done." He sneered. The archivist shook his helm slowly and looked at him.

"I didn't mean to kill..." he whispered in a heartbroken voice. "He wouldn't stop... I was afraid he would hurt me." He muttered.

"You did the right thing Orion." Megatron said gently and the other bot nodded slowly.

"Don't lie to him!" Arcee yelled angrily and clenched her servos tightly. "And it's Optimus Prime." She growled. The Autobot leader blinked in surprise and looked at her. He wasn't a Prime. Was he?

"We can fix this Optimus." She said seriously and held out the relic. "Please..." she whispered. He hesitated then reached out and gently gripped it. The relic glowed brightly and Megatron narrowed his optics.

"What's... what's happening?" Orion asked quietly as he stared at her. She smiled a little and looked at him.

"Hope... to change this horrible incident." She whispered and glared at the warlord as she gripped the relic.

"It's over Megatron. You've lost." She said seriously and he glanced behind her.

"Is it?" He sneered and she furrowed her optic ridges in confusion.

She suddenly heard metal slicing through metal followed by a surprised gasp. She looked at Orion who's optics were wide with fear and surprise. He slowly looked to his spark chamber and saw long sharp digits poking through. She glared darkly and clenched her servos tightly as Hardshell chuckled wickedly. The Insecticon slowly pulled out his energon covered servo and stepped back. Orions optics flickered and he grunted as he fell forward.

"No... no no no no no..." Arcee said as she caught him and carefully lowered him to the ground beside the scout. "Optimus? Optimus!" She screamed as he faded. Cliffjumper yelled angrily and ran at the Insecticon then started fighting him. She failed. She had failed her simple task to save Optimus. She failed everyone.

She slowly stood up and stepped back from the others. She shook her helm and looked at Megatron as he attacked Cliffjumper. She had unintentionally doomed the Autobots and gotten them all killed. Just because she stopped one event. She couldn't believe this and felt the sparkling happily moving around. It was oblivious to her distress.

She watched in horror as Megatron fired on her sweet spark then turned to her. She yelled angrily as tears filled her optics and she smacked the relic to activate it. She felt the uncomfortable pull and twist as she was taken somewhere else. Soon it stopped and everything fell silent.

She panted heavily and looked around as she realized she was in the middle of a dirt road. She felt she was reliving an event but couldn't focus on which one. She furrowed her optic ridges as she lay there.

"-and bang!" A voice yelled in her audio making her jump in surprise. But this time she found herself saying the same things she had before. She let her tears fall as she heard him ask if he ever needed back up. He ended the transmission and she sobbed uncontrollably as she laid in the sand. She had to let him go.

After a few minutes she slowly stood up and looked around. She knew what would happen next and didn't want to relive that. She looked at her midsection and gently set a servo over it. She couldn't feel anything. She broke down again and covered her mouth. She had lived her dream, if only for a moment. Once she calmed down again she picked up the relic and glared at it.

"Take me home, to my real time line you piece of-" She was cut off as she got sucked into the void again. She cried out in pain then everything stopped. She felt solid ground and fell to her knee plates as she panted quietly.

"-ee tampering with..." Optimus trailed off as they stared at her. To them it had looked as though she simply transported a few feet away.

The base fell silent as they stared at her blankly. She panted quietly as she stared at the floor with wide optics. The Autobot leader slowly walked over and got on one knee plate as he set a servo on her shoulder plate. He didn't say anything and she looked up at him. The others slowly gathered and she stared at each of them. They were alive. Bulkhead, Wheeljack, Bumblebee, Smokescreen, Ratchet and Optimus. They were all still here.

"Sooo.... did you travel back in time?" She blinked in surprise at the voice and looked at the human area. The children.

She sighed shakily and got up but didn't say anything. She stared at Jack for a long time and he swore he saw a ghost of a smile. She silently walked out of the room without saying a word. Miko huffed angrily and folded her arms as she pouted.

"Rude..." she muttered and stomped off. She had wanted to here about what happened. Optimus slowly stood and went to talk to the femme about what happened. Ratchet took the relic and put it with the others. The bots looked at each other with confusion.

"Anyone else want to know what happened?" Wheeljack asked as he shrugged a little.

"Probably something awesome." Smokescreen muttered and walked off to do something else. Bumblebee looked at Bulkhead and shrugged slightly. They probably wouldn't ever find out what happened.