A/N: Dark of the Moooonnnnn….the awesome-ness! Still, why did Optimus (*spoilers*) kill Megatronnnn? (Note the random elongation of random consonants and vowels.) So I am going by the novelization which is basically this: Optimus and Megatron agree to a truce. There.

Disclaimer: Don't own!

MAJOR SPOILERS for Dark of the Moon! And also for the first two movies, if you live under a rock and haven't seen them yet. If that were the case, why are you reading this?

No.

Megatron's processor struggled to compute what he saw in the human-sized street. Smoke billowed up from a thousand tiny fires around all of them. Chicago's sky was still infused with the smoke of dozens of battles fought in a day.

No.

The energon in his lines seemed to freeze at the sight of his Second splayed on the asphalt like some creature ready for dissection.

The repeated failure for Starscream to answer his hails had been predictable enough – the Seeker often did so, especially after he fled prematurely from a battle. But for once, Starscream hadn't fled.

Behind him, Optimus had stopped walking.

"Megatron, I…"

"If I find the Autobot who did this-" Megatron snarled, brushing off his counterpart's attempt at consolation. "Send the truce to the Pit, Optimus. I'll rip him apart, blast his head off…"

"I did it."

The voice was too small to come from any Cybertronian. Megatron and Optimus alike turned to face Sam.

"What?" both Cybertronians shouted.

"I did it." Sam repeated.

In a flash, Megatron had seized the young male and held him at optic-level.

"Megatron," Optimus warned. "Put him down."

"Boy, you and your humans and your yellow friend have done more to harm the Decepticon cause than the whole Autobot army combined." Megatron's voice had gone quiet. Deadly quiet. "You've killed my Second, my spymaster, science officer and nearly a third of my army in less than two hours."

Strangely, the events of the past few days seemed to have caught up with the human. Instead of screaming and trying to jump to the safety of Optimus, Sam just sat sprawled in Megatron's palm.

"I would like to kill you now. Very much." Megatron snarled.

Sam nodded blankly.

Optimus tensed, and reloaded the acid blaster.

Almost as an afterthought, Megatron handed Sam to Optimus. The boy seemed not to notice.

Megatron looked into the sky. A small sliver of blue was starting to peek through the oppressive gray.

He heard the distinctive sound of metallic plate shifting and looked back at Optimus. The Prime had the Matrix and held it out to his errant brother.

"He was as good as your son."

"He's dead. Not even the Matrix will repair a severed head." Megatron retorted.

Optimus knelt to deposit Sam to the small group of humans who had the courage to walk with the former enemies. They retreated out of sight, shouting something about shock.

"Shoot me." Megatron said shortly.

Optimus seemed affronted. "You offered a truce. You know I can't do that in good conscience."

"Let me die with my men." Megatron was beginning to remember death. The silence, the seeming eternity of silence until he had been jolted back into this world. He wondered if Starscream and Shockwave and Soundwave and every other Decepticon who had met their end today felt that. Would they even want to return, given the choice?

"You have others to lead. They don't know about the truce. You-" So quickly that Optimus didn't even register it; Megatron had grabbed the gun and pressed it to his helm.

"Don't!" Optimus body-checked the larger Cybertronian, sending him sprawling into the street, nearly on top of the corpse of Starscream. The blaster clattered to the ground among the rubble. The Prime's wings twitched in annoyance. Was his brother becoming, as the humans put it, suicidal?

Megatron lay next to his Second's form, gasping for air to cool his overheated systems.

Suicide-" Optimus wasn't sure if Megatron knew the human term, "Is the cowardly way out."

"Cowards do survive." Megatron snarled averting his optics from the sight that lay to the left of him and wrenching him into a sitting position. "Starscream would know."

"Then let me try." The Matrix hovered obediently at Optimus's chassis level.

"Do you want to force him into this humiliation?" Megatron roared.

"No. But we both knew Starscream." Optimus thought for a moment. "Would you want him to experience what he most feared?"

Megatron heard a crackling sound that came from neither him now Optimus.

It was coming from the Seeker. Megatron finally looked at Starscream. His head was not really blown off – it was connected by a few wires that were incessantly sparking. Finally, the former leader nodded.

Optimus maneuvered the Matrix until it was just above the Seeker's spark chamber. Then, almost of its own accord, it thrust itself in to the empty chamber.

Both mechs watched the wires slowly reconnect themselves until Starscream's helm was where it should be. Then with another jolt, his optics flared to life. Unfortunately, the first thing he noticed was Optimus standing above him.

The Seeker gave an undignified shriek and tried to ignite his thrusters. On the second try, ignoring Optimus's attempts at calming him down, Starscream shot into the air, still shrieking.

Megatron ignored the pain in his legs from the fight with Sentinel and jumped, grabbing the ascending Seeker and dragging him back down to the street.

"No no no no no no!" they both crashed into a half-destroyed building. Optimus hoped the Matrix hadn't been broken again.

"Starscream!" Megatron and Optimus shouted at the same time. The Seeker paused for a second at the tone of their voices. Then slowly, he turned to face Megatron, who had him in a headlock.

"Yes Master?"

His commander's optics narrowed. "Don't do that again."

"Yes Master. Don't do what?"

"That,"

Starscream debated for a second whether to ask again, but decided he had another question. "My lord, what is Optimus Prime doing here?"

Megatron let the Seeker go. He promptly attempted to hide behind the bigger mech.

"The war is over, Starscream."

"What?" he shrieked. "How many years have I been in stasis? And why didn't you revive me earlier? Am I-"

"Starscream."

The seeker peeked his head out to look at Optimus. "Yes?"

"You've been offline for at least three human hours. We discovered your body about five megacycles ago." Optimus said calmly, bracing himself for another Seeker panic attack. Almost as an afterthought, he pulled the Matrix from Starscream's spark.

"I never—" Starscream stopped moving. His wings went slack.

"What's happening?" Megatron grunted.

"He's remembering the last moments of his life." Optimus recalled what Sentinel had done – had that just been two days ago? Three?

Almost as soon as it had started, Starscream started talking again. "Where is everyone?"

"We're not sure." Megatron tossed Optimus the blaster, who subspaced it appreciatively. "That's why we're out here."

"We'd best continue on," Optimus said. "We have the rest of the city to cover."

Nearly an hour later, after a near run-in with a condemned building, they came upon the corpse of Shockwave. He was so completely disassembled even the ever-optimistic Optimus knew there was no hope for him.

Which was a big surprise for all three of them when the charred remains began twitching. Starscream knelt to pry away something that might have been an arm when a small helm poked its way into the open air. It chattered for a brief moment before recognizing them.

"Rumble?" Megatron said incredulously.

The smaller bot wriggled out of the remains of the Decepticon and saluted.

"Megatron sir, I've been stuck under tha' thing for hours and I think somethin's happened to Soundwave 'cause he hasn't been answering my hails at all and Laserbeak's not answerin' too." Rumble seemed to notice Optimus for the first time. "Sir?"

"We're having a truce, Rumble."

"I know."

"How did you know we were having a truce?"

"'Cause Soundwave knew it was going to happen." Rumble said. "He's a telepath, remember? If it crossed either of your minds he picked up on it."

Optimus had a feeling. It was not one he had often, but he every now or then. The last one had been right before he had encountered Shockwave in Chernobyl and found the part for Sentinel's ship. What was it now?

"Where is he?" after all this time, Optimus had learned to trust his instincts. And this feeling was telling him Soundwave knew something.

"I don't know, didn't I tell you?" Rumble queried. "I can't find him because he's still in battle mode. Our bond is shielded jus' in case one of us dies."

"Ping him again." Megatron ordered. Starscream straightened to stand beside him. Both Decepticon and Autobot noticed the deafening silence of thousands of humans in hiding. Soundwave's communicator should, Primus willing, be operating in a frequency they could all hear.

There. All four helms turned in the same direction. The river.

"Come on." Megatron picked up Rumble and tossed him at Starscream. The Seeker cursed his leader and ignited his turbines, lifting both of them into the sky. With a rather confused glance at his brother, Megatron took flight, followed closely by Optimus.

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