Originally posted on 24/01/13
Rating: PG
Warnings: Robots quite possibly suffering from PTSD. Prowl being a bad-ass?
Disclaimer: Transformers are not mine. And will never be mine.

Continuity: post 2007, AU like crazy, whoa! Two-shot.

Characters: Optimus Prime, Prowl, Jazz, Elita-One, Ultra Magnus, Blaster, Starscream, Bumblebee, Ratchet, Ironhide.

Summary: On the contrary, becoming a Decepticon was the most Autobot thing I could have ever done. The war is over but Optimus Prime remains firmly rooted in denial.

Note: I view my robots as genderless and therefore refer to all of them as 'he' to make things simple for me. Including Elita-One. Yes, I know that's weird, but so is the concept of male and female robots.

His Most Loyal Servant

The war is over, he said to the stars. The war is over and we have a new home. Come here to Earth, my Autobots and we will rebuild what remains. We may have lost the Allspark but we still have life and thus we will move forward.

Come to Earth.

The war is over.

"You ever gonna forgive him, Boss Bot?" Jazz wondered as he idled in the doorway.

Optimus Prime turned away from his visitor, ignoring the question. "Hello Jazz," he said instead, waving the silver mech in.

Jazz moved at a lazy pace, a cool swagger full of confidence. "You don't have to stay here, you know," he said, glancing about the empty room. He ran one clawed finger along an abandoned shelf, flicking dust of the surface. "Or you could get some knickknacks if you want to; make it look less like a prison and more like a home."

The Prime set a long considering gaze on his once subordinate. "You say that like you believe I am not an inmate."

An unhappy smile curled the edges of Jazz's faceplates. "You are free to leave whenever you wish. No one will stop you. You just haven't accepted it."

Optimus was unfazed by this declaration. "Free?" he sounded out the word in both the air and his processors as he rounded on his companion. Jazz's ability to adapt to any situation was one of his greatest and most defining of traits but this was going too far. "What the Autobots, the true Autobots have been dealt with is not freedom. It is strange that you cannot see it, my friend. You have always been quick and clever and far too perceptive and yet your wits appear to have deserted you completely to buy this mockery of peace."

Jazz took a step towards the door, hands held up defensively. "I'm looking at this with my optics as wide open as possible, Optimus. I am. But is it really too much to consider that this might be real? That the war is actually over and we're finally at peace with the Decepticons?"

Prime sagged somewhat at this question. "I once thought it so. When the Allspark had been destroyed, I thought finally, finally it is done. That the fighting would end. And yet I was wrong. Our species, teetering on the brink of extinction and yet the Decepticons would rather fight and see us all extinguished."

The silver mech watched the great mech before him with all too knowing eyes. "Optimus, I hate to ask but…you sure that this ain't denial?" he asked gently, reaching forward to place a comforting hand on the Prime's shoulder. "It isn't easy, I get that. You've been betrayed by a few of your closest friends, your most trusted advisers. But what they did, they ended the war for good."

Optimus shuddered slightly and pulled out of his companion's grasp. "I…will consider your words, Jazz. There might be some truth in what you say. For now, however, I am not ready to face…"

"Just about everyone," Jazz filled in. He hummed sympathetically as he gathered himself up to leave. "Tell you what," he paused at the door. "I'll keep an eye on things on the outside. I'll let you know what's really going on."

"Thank you Jazz," Optimus murmured as the other mech left.

News of what was really going happening on Cybertron would be welcome but Jazz…Jazz had adapted to the 'peace' far too easily. Like he'd been expecting it. Waiting for it. Optimus had no idea how his friend had managed that. They had been galaxies away on the search for the Allspark with no communications to the rest of the Autobot forces when it had happened. But then again…reading Prowl and keeping an eye on him had been Jazz's job.

Maybe it was just inevitability. Maybe Optimus didn't know his mechs like he thought he did.

Or maybe Jazz had been the one to plan this. No. No. He couldn't think that. He had precious few people that he trusted left and he could not doubt those who had spent vorns with him on a forsaken mission. Jazz had almost died in Mission City; the least Optimus could do was trust his friend.

With that uneasy resolution in mind, he settled on the berth and waited.

He didn't expect responses right away. His Autobots were scattered amongst the stars, searching for the Allspark or stuck on Cybertron, hiding themselves away from Shockwave. The few that trickled in had little news for him, these troops had been without a chain of command or formal intelligence since Optimus had left on his mission.

He had no idea what state his army was in or if he even had one. The bulk of his forces had been left under Prowl's command and the tactician had been diligent in his reports for several vorns after his departure. Then, the flow of intel had slowed as they left communications range until one orn, Jazz had looked at Optimus and said he wasn't receiving anything from Blaster, that they were too far out.

The lack of knowledge was agonizing. Surely his Autobots weren't dead. Slowly familiar faceplates began to appear, Sideswipe, Sunstreaker, Red Alert, Jolt, Skids, Mud Flap, Hound, Arcee, Mirage. But they were few and the ones that he sought the most never showed and not a word was heard….

He had little time to dwell however, Starscream returned to Earth with reinforcements. The destruction of the Allspark had not sated his desire for conquest and instead had turned the Decepticons vengeful for the loss of the sacred relic and for Megatron.

Humans died by the thousands. The wave of attacks on the Earth did not falter and the Autobots were hard-pressed to keep up at first as they adapted their tactics to accommodate their new allies. A stalemate eventually developed, as both sides became evenly matched.

He had hoped the war was over but he was wrong.

So very wrong.

"This place is insane," Ironhide grunted as he shouldered his way into the room, Ratchet a step behind him.

Optimus stood, staring out his window at the cityscape of Iacon. "Security?" he asked coolly.

"Non-existent," his weapon-specialist answered uneasily. "Not that it matters, since they've uninstalled all our weaponry. They'd probably fry a few circuits laughing if we tried anything before killing us." Ironhide glanced around at the room. "They don't even bother bugging anything."

The Prime glanced at his medic. "Ratchet? Anything to report?"

"I left our complex to visit First Aid. He was…happy to see me. He really seemed to be okay with this, had nothing but praise for, for them despite what had happened. It's crazy. He was cautious though, he kept looking at me like I was the unstable one but he did let me take routine diagnostics for a few patients."

Both Ironhide and Optimus looked at him with calculating interest. "Were any of them Autobots?" Optimus asked urgently.

"I got Blaster and Bluestreak. I had a look at their processors." Ratchet exvented uneasily. "Nothing. No reprogramming, not even the smallest hint. Not a code out of place, no hacking, nothing. It really is them."

Ironhide turned away in disgust. "Traitors. I don't believe it. I can't believe them."

The Prime returned to his post at his window. A sentinel watching over his people even after they refused his protection and leadership. "Perhaps…Jazz was right. That this is real and we are just…unable to accept it."

"Jazz said that?" Ironhide demanded sharply. He looked up at their leader. "I'll keep an optic on him. He is not thinking right and he's always been close with Blaster. And, and Prowl, even. If anyone could ever claim friendship with Prowl that is."

Ratchet frowned thoughtfully. "Maybe he's right. Maybe we are in denial. From what I've seen while I've been out there, everything is just as they said it would be."

The weapon specialist turned angrily onto the medic. "You can't seriously be saying-"

"Enough," Optimus rumbled. "We cannot dismiss this possibility out of hand, Ironhide, just because of what happened to make it so."

Ironhide subsided unhappily, taking a step back. "Very well," he growled. "I do have some good news for you though; I've found Ultra Magnus and the Wreckers. I'm sure we might be able to come up with something to turn this around."

"Only if they have not bought into this scheme like the rest of the Autobots," Optimus warned.

"Oh they haven't," Ironhide gave a dark laugh. "They're in the same boat as us, weapons are all uninstalled, alt modes disabled." He smiled bitterly. "Neutered as the Cons would say."

The Prime's optics darkened. "I'll see them. They'll be able to tell me what's really going on here."

When Prowl's ID had pinged against Optimus's datanet, excitement had stirred within the Prime. The end of the war on Earth suddenly seemed very close, so real. Prowl had been the balancing point at the beginning of the war, the Decepticons were militarily superior with their war-frames, programming and technology and the Autobots had only been a match through tactical superiority. It seemed fitting somehow that Prowl would be the weight tipping the balance.

The Autobot tactician had a whole battle-fleet with him, ancient but powerful warships that slowly slid in the solar system. Some of them were clearly captured Decepticon vessels; his SIC had been busy in his absence.

Contact with the Autobt fleet had gotten him a communication feed with Elita One. It had been so long since he'd seen his counter-part that at first he could not believe it. Elita One. Here, alive?

The war really was ending.

They had talked so much though he could not recall any of the details. He had been a daze of relief that he was perhaps, not as alert as he should have been. Not as suspicious as he should have been. Jazz had been tense since they'd got the first hint of the fleet and then he'd exchanged some private communication with Prowl that had left him giving Prime sombre looks.

But NEST, the Autobots, Earth? They were too overjoyed at the reinforcements to look at them as closely as they should have.

"Optimus?" Bumblebee stood hesitantly at the door.

"Report," the Prime said as he waved his scout in.

Bee flinched both at the command and what news he had brought. "There's not much really to say. I've been to Praxus, to Vos, to Kaon. It's all the same. The Decepticons are…rebuilding. There are former Autobots –Autobot traitors," he corrected himself, "Working with them. They aren't hostile to each other. It's…strange. Everyone is just so calm and even though," he gestured to the sigil on his chest. "It's like all the fight has left them. They just want to get back on with their lives and forget about the war. Pit, I even seen the Dinobots be civil to Combaticons."

Optimus frowned thoughtfully. "Indeed. I had hoped Grimlock would be amenable to join us, there was a day once when I could never imagine him betraying the cause."

Bumblebee squirmed uncomfortably. "Optimus?" he said softly. "I'm-I'm leaving."

The Prime went still. "What do you mean?"

"They-they said that I didn't need to stay here, if I didn't want to. They wouldn't hold mechs here against their will if there was a better place for them and I could go back to Earth if I wished. They've even agreed that I can have my weapons reinstalled. I can't come to terms with everything here, in my faceplates like this. So, I'm going back."

It seemed like Optimus had frozen for an indeterminable amount of time. It stretched on forever. Until eventually, he brought himself to shift slightly and it was as though reality had restarted. "Is that so?" he asked in his eon's old voice. There was no anger in it, there was nothing at all in it. "You would abandon your comrades here and take their offer instead?"

Under his direct scrutiny, Bumblebee shifted one last time then stood firm. "I'm going to find out the truth," he said stiffly. "Not your truth or their truth but one that I can be proud to call my own. Maybe…maybe you should do the same…sir."

They had been so excited when the shuttle had descended to the NEST base. Elita, Prowl, Blaster and several other mechs were on-board. The whole base was out in full numbers, waiting on the airstrip as the Cybertronian craft had slowly lowered itself to the ground.

Then the door to the ship opened.

Then Prowl descended.

There was no warmth in his optics.

And the Decepticon sigil flashed at them from his shoulder plate.

"He defected soon after you left," Ultra Magnus said, perched stiffly on the couch Jazz had dragged in one orn.

Optimus didn't look away from the cityscape. "Does anyone know why?"

"Our chances…were never looking good after you left," Magnus said slowly. He did not look at Optimus, unwilling to cast blame. "Even though they were nearly leaderless with Soundwave and Starscream gone, they had us outgunned and pinned and would have eventually wiped us out. Everyone knew that. Prowl probably knew it the most."

"He wouldn't have defected because of certain defeat. He's always thrived best when facing an uphill challenge."

"He just vanished one orn," Ultra Magnus stared at his pedes as he recounted the story. "No one knew where he went. There was a panic, nothing on the cameras, no trace of a struggle. Just, gone. Morale dropped completely but we didn't hear anything from him or the Decepticons for vorns. We assumed he'd been captured though, changed all our codes and protocols…for all the good it did us when Prowl finally made a move."

"Fatalities?" Optimus asked bleakly.

"Not as many as you suspect considering how much they outnumbered us by. The Cons-no, Prowl wasn't aiming to wipe us out. They brought us before him, all the remaining Autobots commanders while they disarmed and imprisoned most of the army. And he just looked at us. Stared at us for a slagging long time with that fragging Decepticon emblem sitting on his shoulder while Skywarp poked at us and giggled." Suddenly, Magnus looked up at Optimus. "Why didn't you know?" he demanded. "We sent messages, warnings, during the battle. Blaster was certain they would get to you before Prowl ever did. He swore that they would."

"Blaster is a traitor," the Prime reminded his friend tightly.

Ultra Magnus shook his head. "Not then. That came later. Blaster was one of us back then. Rewind was offlined during the battle. He was furious, desperate to get through to you and let you know what Prowl had done."

Optimus narrowed his optics in disbelief. "And he still saw fit to join them?"

Ultra Magnus gave a shaky laugh. "It all came back to Prowl and what he did. When he stopped staring, he said to us, 'The war is over now. The Allspark has left Cybertron and there is a definite possibility that it is gone forever. If we continue to fight, we will drive ourselves to extinction. Megatron is gone, the Decepticon cause with him. Optimus is gone, the Autobot cause with him. We are all Cybertronians now and it is time that we preserve what we can. To continue this war will achieve nothing. You are all free to join us if you will.' The Cons stripped us of our weapons and then kept us in prison complexes but they weren't…cruel. They were busy with other things, rebuilding what they could. And then one day, Elita looked up and just asked if we could leave."

"And they let you?"

"They did. No one believed them of course. But Elita went to walk in the city and wasn't stopped. We couldn't believe it. It had to be a trap, we thought. Then Elita tracked Prowl down to talk. No one knows what they talked about but after that...Prowl stopped leading the Decepticon forces. He just wanted the war over, nothing more."

Optimus's optics had slid shut in denial. "And so Elita betrayed the Autobots, just as Prowl did."

"Elita wasn't the only one. Others slowly began to leave as well and eventually we realised, they had just accepted it. The Cons had murdered and killed all so many innocent sparks and so many of our friends and they would just let them get away with it."

"I find it hard to believe Prowl would just release the Autobots without some way of keeping them inline," Optimus observed neutrally.

"Anything that could do real damage was kept under close guard. The building sites, the Cons patrolled but there wasn't much point destroying them, it would only waste resources. Attacking a Decepticon got you tossed back into a cell for anything up to a vorn. Then they would just let you go again. And so we've been here, stuck under Decepticon rule, unable to do anything."

It seemed unreal. It seemed unbelievable that their once violent enemies would be so peaceful and tolerant to them. How had Prowl managed to bring them so firmly under his sway, both Decepticon and Autobot alike? And Elita….Elita was in charge now and believing they were at peace.

Why had there been no sign of this coming? There should have been a hint, a warning, especially if Blaster had managed to get a dataline out…

"Jazz," Optimus realised unhappily. "Blaster sent his encryptions to Jazz, didn't he?"

Ultra Magnus stirred as he followed Optimus's thought processes. "Jazz, I've seen him out there. Talking with Prowl and Elita and some of the Decepticons. But, how could he have been on this-unless Prowl's been planning this for a long time."

It was a frightening thought.

There had only been time to stall uselessly at the sight of Prowl's sigil before the squad behind Prowl had burst out of the shuttle and surrounded them. They were outnumbered and not a single Autobot moved with all the guns levelled at their sparks.

"Optimus Prime?" Prowl spoke as coldly as the coolant that professed to run through his energon lines. "You will surrender and return to Cybertron immediately."

All Optimus could do was stare helplessly up the cannon Elita had levelled at his processor.

"Good job Prime," Starscream sneered. The former Decepticon Air Commander stood haughtily at the door and glared across at the Autobot leader. "All these years of fighting Megatron and then your Second in Command stabs you in the back. Who saw that one coming?"

"Why didn't you?" Optimus retorted calmly. "You should have recognised the signs vorns before anyone else.'

Starscream huffed but stomped away, cursing Thundercracker and Skywarp's name to the Pit and back. To his utter bewilderment, he had been unable to sway them to his cause when they had arrived on the Earth to arrest all remaining Cybertronian forces. Now he had been placed with Optimus and the other Autobots in this particular housing complex; null rays uninstalled.

All would surrender to the Decepticons, even those that were Decepticons themselves.

The war is over, Prowl had said. The Autobots have lost. Megatron once dreamed that he would eradicate weakness from the Cybertronian race. He accomplished this goal. Every mech that lives is a survivor now. And that is what we will do now, survive.

Why? Why have you done this?

I don't know how you never saw it. Or maybe…you just couldn't see it. Everyone was tired of war. Even the Decepticons. But we were all fanatics, driven to extremes in our loyalty to you or Megatron.

The war could only end once you were gone. That's why we never came, not until we were sure Megatron was dead. And even then, we waited and watched, waiting for you and Starscream to figure it out. But you never did. So we had to intervene.

"You don't look happy to see me," Jazz observed as he lounged on Optimus's couch.

"How long have you been in on this?" the Prime demanded.

Jazz frowned. "Wanna run that by me again?"

"Blaster sent you a transmission about Prowl's defection and you never passed it on," Optimus stared down at his former saboteur.

"That was a long time ago, Boss Bot," Jazz murmured softly. "We were busy looking for the Allspark, couldn't afford to get distracted with the fact we didn't have an army to get back to. Besides," one silver helm tilted towards the Prime, "I trusted Prowl. You did too once."

"You knew he was planning this," Optimus accused.

"I thought it a distinct possibility that Prowl would take, if you left. The most logical course of action to him. We've been stalemated with the Cons despite their strength because of our tactics. Unfortunately, most of our tactics lay in the servos of one mech. Prowl has always known he could break the stalemate simply by removing himself from the equation. One Cop-Bot gone rogue-poof. Autobots all gone. Cept, Prowl doesn't work like that. If he's gonna do something, he's going to do something big. Everyone was starting to get sick of the war and without the Allspark, mechs were going to get real worried about extinction. With most of the Decepticon leadership gone, it would be easy for Prowl to get to the top. No Con likes Shockwave after all."

"I trusted you."

Jazz's vocaliser fell silent and his optics went dim. It was a long time before he spoke. "You left a Bot with an impossible task and now he's gone and done it and what more do you want? I didn't say a word because I wanted to see whether Prowl's experiment would pay off, whether it was possible. There is peace on Cybertron but you don't want to see it so you can't."

He climbed to his feet to leave. Then Jazz paused for one last word. "The door is open to this room and no one is stopping you from taking a step outside but yourself."

Then he was gone.

You betrayed me! Betrayed us! Your oath, the Autobots and their cause. Everything.

I did not. I have you done everything you asked me. You left me to stop a war that would continue forever. No one would surrender to the other, it was incomprehensible. The Autobots could never conquer the Decepticons and would eventually be wiped out by the Decepticons. Unless I tipped the balance. I became a Decepticon, lived amongst them and learnt how they thought. It wasn't easy, oh, it was not easy.

But I made it work. There was no other option.

He stood at the doorway to his empty room and watched as life moved past him. Mechs came and went, arguing back and forth, trying to convince him to rebel. Trying to convince him to give in.

Eventually he stirred.

"Blaster?"

One orange mech swiveled round in surprise. "Boss Bot, what's the haps?" Blaster shone him a broad smile.

There was only one question he needed to ask. "Why?"

The mech's smile dimmed. "Why not? When does it end Optimus? They killed Rewind, so what- I'll kill someone else in revenge. And then they'll kill me in revenge and another Autobot comes along and kills someone else and it won't ever stop. Unless I make the choice to stop. So I did. Just like Elita. Just like Prowl. Just like everyone else. It's just the Autobots that are keeping the hate going. Ain't ever gonna achieve anything if we continue like that."

It seemed so simple when Blaster said it. So logical. Optimus sighed unsteadily then steeled himself and raised his gaze.

"Where is Elita?"

The grin he was rewarded with was blinding.

He felt disjointed. He felt like he was going to purge his tanks.

You were never an Autobot. And his voice was cold, colder than he had ever felt before. What had Prowl done?

On the contrary, becoming a Decepticon was the most Autobot thing I could have ever done. I have preserved the highest numbers of lives that I could and I brought us all together. Is it not our rallying cry, Till all are one?

It was the first time he had dared to walk in the city; vorns after Prowl had brought him back to Cybertron. Iacon looked alive again, subdued but alive. He did not stop to take in the sights though; there was someone he needed to see.

Eventually, he found the room Blaster had directed him to. He paused on the threshold, watching its single occupant work.

"Elita," Optimus Prime sighed at last.

The ruler of Cybertron straightened and then turned towards him, the Decepticon sigil emblazoned on Elita's chest plate. "Optimus," Elita One smiled at him, gesturing into the room. "Welcome home."

END