Nothing Else Matters Now

„I never thought it could all come back so soon… I thought the only Decepticons in the universe were the ones we were hunting down at Earth… the refugees… yet we were wrong. Perhaps… perhaps I didn't quite get the message, Optimus", the young yellow leader said as Optimus looked down at him, seeing that Bumblebee was truly sorry for what was going on around them. Optimus put his big, heavy hand on the Bot's shoulder and slightly smiled, so the muscle car smiled back while grabbing the weapon he would usually use only while hunting for Decepticon refugees. As he did that, the rest of the team smiled as well, full of hope, and approached Bumblebee and the arisen Prime. Smokescreen was, of course, the first one to slime himself up to Optimus Prime, just like he wasn't battling a horde of Vehicons a few seconds ago, but with his agility it wasn't a problem to defeat them all at once at all.

They were standing in a corner, so that the Decepticons wouldn't see them as the shadows swallowed their image. It was convenient for them as well that the ship was so huge. The Autobots who were still battling were causing the Vehicons to shoot madly at all directions, leaving the others no room but shadows.

Grimlock ran straight through the two seekers who looked just like Starscream, but with other primal colors, and stopped right in front of the small group, wagging his thick tail.

"All right! Let's punch some bad guys in the face! Aargh! Argh!" he practiced his punches right in front of the group and everyone just watched him for a second.

"Hahah… Sorry", the big green Dinobot said and let himself fall down at his backside to sit down. As he did that, Strongarm came running and hit herself to the wall, earning a few odd looks.

"What…? It's never safe enough", she said and approached Optimus as well, leading Smokescreen to look angrily at her. Strongarm disliked him just as much as she disliked Sideswipe, even though she just met with him a few solar cycles ago.

Ultra Magnus was still in the battlefield and it looked like he'd stay there for a long time. Ratchet and Drift were battling alongside him, trying to reduce the damage coming to him.

Bulkhead was still punching everything that got into his way.

From the deeper shadows, another two figures emerged, carrying something in their servos. Strongarm rolled her optics as she saw another bother coming at her. As they approached the rest of the team, they let their captive fall down at the floor. He yelped and then chuckled a little, trying to hide his despair as he looked upwards seeing a bunch of Autobots angrily looking at him. The only ones whom he recognized were Bumblebee and Optimus.

"Hello… ladies and gentlebots…" he tried yet another time before crashing at the floor again, "nope. I think I'm out o business."

Bumblebee looked at the team of two and proudly smirked at them, leading Sideswipe to straighten. The rebel Bot quickly glanced at Strongarm's jealous face before facing their leader again as Windblade elbowed him.

"Good job on capturing the Decepticon responsible for the force field, you two."

"It wasn't particularly hard. We managed to get him to talk by simply threatening him."

"I'm… not much of a fighter", Swindle said into the ground as he didn't dare to stand up and he heard someone approaching him.

"Oh, same here! We should totally share our stories sometime… Wait! I've got it… We could talk about weaponry! No… Yes! Wait, no… You're more of a practical guy aren't you…?"

Swindle gave no response at Fixit's blabbering.

"No? Oh, well. Ships? Maybe? Like… spacecraft, I mean, not the actual… Or no?"

Swindle still didn't even think of answering the blabbermouth.

"Oh! Colors! Everybody loves colors!"

"Not now, Fixit", Bumblebee said and Fixit frowned and got away from the mercenary.

"I'm sorry we didn't find the location of the head of the group. We thought he knew where the leader of this mess here is… Turns out we were wrong. He led us to nothingness and eventually tried to sell us car paint," she looked at Sideswipe who suspiciously smiled at her, "so we took him instead. He didn't listen to us, so we thought that he might listen to the big guys."

"Heh, big guys…" Bumblebee repeated while chuckling a bit, but coughed for attention as soon as he saw that Optimus was looking weirdly at him.

"It was… quite chic car paint at a low price…" Sideswipe said and Bumblebee just looked at him. He then crouched to face the purple entrepreneur, who didn't even think of opposing to the questions he was about to recieve. He didn't even care anymore. No business, no dignity for him, it seemed.

"…Swindle. Where is she?"

"Who?"

"You know whom I'm talking about, the last team Prime member."

Swindle looked upwards and smiled at the yellow mech whose expression shifted into a confused one.

"Hey, aren't you the guy who was responsible for me getting captured by the Elite Guard stellar cycles ago? Good old times, huh?"

"Don't try to change the subject now, Swindle. I know your… um… swindling."

"Clever wordplay", Sideswipe whispered to Windblade who didn't response in any way.

"It is understandable for us that you want to protect the others by keeping the secret to yourself, Swindle, but as a family fighting for the rights of all Cybertronian beings and fighting for freedom and against slavery, we will stand our ground. There is no time for trying to escape the situation we are in. You have to tell us everything you know right now, or else we will all perish. And you, Swindle, you are under our control right now, so you go whether down with us, or stay with us and fight among us", Optimus gave a speech and Strongarm's optics lit up.

"Wow… Optimus gave one of his famous speeches…"

"Wow, you're even lamer than I thought…" Smokescreen and Sideswipe said at the same time, laughed and fist bumped. The young police cadet frowned at them and punched first Sideswipe's, and then Smokescreen's servo.

"Ouch… Aren't we supposed to be a team?" Smokescreen asked and Sideswipe cockily smiled, half-closing his optics.

"We are, but… she's not very good at it."

Strongarm growled and Bumblebee looked angrily at them.

"Cut it you tw- I mean, three! There's no time for that right now", he scolded the three of them and they all looked away, frowning. Sideswipe then got next to Smokescreen.

"We'll totally wrap her in toilet paper when she'll be asleep tonight."

Smokescreen smirked: "Totally."

Swindle finally decided to get up, stretching and loudly yawning, like he tried to mock them. After a few seconds, he leaned his elbow at the red and blue Prime and smugly looked up to meet his optics.

"Yeah, and what's in it for me, huh? It's always… quid pro quo with me, don't you know? I'm quite sure you do."

Optimus frowned and the small mech got scared, so he backed off a little. As he did, someone jumped at him from behind, holding a blade in front of his neck, smugly smiling.

"How about… we let you live?" Windblade silently asked and the mech's optics narrowed as he struggled to get free from her for a second. As she released him, he stumbled into the center of the small group and looked at every single one before frowning and crossing his servos at his chest, heavily sighing.

"Fine, fine. As long as it keeps my business alive."

He didn't say anything, so Sideswipe asked: "So?"

Swindle hesitated for another few seconds before reopening his purple optics and looking straight upwards to meet the big Prime's optics. Up to that point, he never really thought about how small he actually was.

"Frankly, I don't care for my 'teammates' as they don't give a frag about me, it's like that here. They are all after one thing: power. All of them are actually tryin' to get to the top; every single member. The leader is, for now, Starscream, whom you already know, I guess, then there's Shockwave, the scientist who planned all of this coming, then there's Airachnid, who just came back to get rid of every single Autobot… Thundercracker and Skywarp, Starscream's… whatever they are, the only thing I know is that I keep mixing their names up… There's Knock Out, the medic of the group, Vehicons obsessing with the leader, Soundwave whose information I'm sharing right now… I got it by hacking into his system using my special devices, which are on a low price today, by the way… and more, I don't know. What I know is that the femme you're looking for is seriously sick and everybody, and by everybody I mean Starscream, who told us to call him like this to emphasize everyone's 'unity', is going nuts and bolts about it."

As Bumblebee wanted to say something, the mercenary took air in and continued the story, despite no one actually asking him to: "But the real boss here is Shockwave. He's the guy with the puppets, pulling the strings, or what not… I have no idea how this saying goes. Anyhow, the scientist keeps everything under control by manipulating our real leader, so he could collect enough energon to start the machine they are working at."

Bumblebee wanted to ask, but Swindle continued on his own: "The machine extracts a Cybertronian's life energy, and combined with Soundwave's ground breaking Ground Bridging ability, it creates a time machine which enables the user to travel through time… But it functions only once as it requires hundreds of victims for the normal energon to be extracted from, people who consumed red energon at at least one point in their lives, um… synthetic energon is needed and they had the formula from before and… yeah, a person who contains dark energon."

"Dark energon?" Bumblebee worryingly asked and looked at Smokescreen who narrowed his optics.

"Wait… so… they recaptured Megatron?" he asked while looking at Sideswipe who suddenly seemed scared.

"That would not be plausible… Megatron has ultimately left this planet and is not planning on coming back. In his alt mode, he can reach maximal speed in no time and can withstand even the hardest of hits… It would take a huge amount of speed to catch up to him after such a long time, even with red energon…" Optimus said and Swindle put his servos at his back.

"Oh, no, that's not it, actually."

The leader looked back down at him.

"You see… there were quite some complications with the dark energon, since for it to work perfectly, it needs some kind of… vessel? I guess?" Swindle continued.

"So?" Sideswipe asked again and Swindle looked back at him.

"Sorry, time's up. You need to find that last puzzle tile by yourself. Slag this scrap, I'm out", he said and tried to walk away, but Grimlock stepped right in front of him and growled. Then, he hugged him and pulled him up, so that he couldn't do anything anymore. The green Dinobot then widely smiled, showing his sharp teeth.

"Got you, Minicon."

"Minicon?!" Swindle exclaimed and started to flail around, even though he knew it was useless. Fixit's optics sparkled.

"If you tell us the last part, you are free. Free as in selling your products", Bumblebee stated and Strongarm looked at him with widened optics.

"But, sir! He's a widely searched black marketer! Protocol A paragraph 46 clearly stated that-"

"Strongarm, just this once", Bumblebee said, clearly forgetting that Grimlock was a criminal once as well, and she had to scrap the idea of getting him into jail as well. She listened to him anyways as she saw that he really cared about whom the saying was about, so she just withdrew and let Grimlock put the entrepreneur's small body down.

A smug smile appeared on Swindle's gray faceplates.

"The vessel, huh? Starscream, he was the first one our scientist thought about sacrificing. But upon being captured and saved by the gray seeker, he decided to scheme another plan, knowing all about Starscream's feelings."

"The high-heeled freak has feelings?" Smokescreen asked and everyone just looked at him, so he shut his mouth.

"I don't know. But he obviously has for her."

"Is anybody else confused and doesn't understand a word he said? Me either", Sideswipe stated and crossed his servos, looking into the distance.

"Her?" Bumblebee asked in a scared and sad way.

"The femme you're looking for. The blue, feisty one."

Everyone stopped and stared into the Con's direction and he smiled as he thought they stared because of his statement. He kept thinking that as long as a sinister chuckle didn't come from right behind him. The salesman flinched before slowly turning around, facing a silver mech with a long chin and blood red optics which almost didn't shine at all. His claws were already close to grasping his throat, but it looked like he was holding back, for some reason. The winged mech was bended, and his creepy grin looked like it had no intention to fade away. There he was, the leader of the newly formed Decepticons, in all of his miserable glory.

"I knew you would betray me sooner or later. JUST LIKE EVERYONE ELSE!" the seeker exclaimed and tried to hit the small Con who already bended to protect himself from the upcoming hit, but he just heard a clang above him, so he reopened his big optics. Optimus was looking right into his optics as he was blocking the seeker's deadly hit with his servo, as he was unable to turn it into a sword on time. He still didn't recover from coming back to life.

"Bumblebee, take the team away from here!"

"But, Optimus… You can't-"

"I already did, Bumblebee! Leave as quickly as possible!" he yelled and tried to hit the silver mech who didn't seem very stable at mind at that point, but the seeker quickly dodged his attack and fired a missile right at him. Bumblebee called out his name, but knew Optimus was going to be fine, so he did as he told him to. They all started running in order to avoid conflict. Grimlock picked Swindle up and threw him over his shoulder while in Dino form, so Swindle started flailing again.

"Hey! But I'm one of the bad guys!" he said as he was dragged away.

The team almost reached the escape pods, but they got blocked by a huge amount of highly trained Vehicons ready for combat. To avoid them, they split into small groups, but ended up being circled anyways. Sideswipe was sticking close to the femme he admired, Strongarm ended up with Bumblebee and the blue mech she disliked and Grimlock followed the Minicon who didn't know what he was doing at that point.

"Ah, look. The ones who Starscream hates. But I hate you more, for I am far better than Starscream, so you should fear me. Anyways, pleasure to get rid of you two", Thundercracker said as soon as he pushed himself through the crowd to reach Windblade and the young mech hiding behind her. After a few seconds, another seeker got to them, but this one had a darker silver and purple color scheme. He firstly looked cowardly, but then he teleported right behind the red, punky mech and kicked him so that he fell right on top of the jet.

"Sorry…" he silently said as Windblade pushed him off of herself. She soon stood up and started the fight with the self-obsessed mech in front of her. He was, however, swiftly dodging her attacks without any difficulties.

"So… I remember hearing about you from Starscream… Were you really that annoying?" he asked while dodging, but the femme didn't stop pulling her punches.

"Seems like you still are", he said and tried to punch her as well, but she caught his hand and smugly smiled as his smirk vanished.

"Annoying? I wouldn't say annoying. I'd say determined", she said and punched the center of his face, leading him to squeal.

The team now led by Grimlock didn't have problems at all. As the Dinobot was running, all the Vehicons just kept flying though the air as they couldn't even land a single hit on him. As for Swindle, he was hit every time a Vehicon would bounce off the bulky gentle giant.

"Why… was I… pulled into this…?!" he asked at one point and Fixit thought of it as his duty to answer his question. He was calmly rolling after the giant metal tyrannosaurus rex, not paying any attention to the Vehicons in pain.

"It takes suffering to get into an Autobot team. Take me for example. My ship suddenly crash-landed on Earth and I had to contact the Autobot base… but I couldn't, so I kept contacting no one and nothing, hoping someone would come… oh, wait! That's the wrong story… I already was an Autobot back then! Whoops. No, no, the story begins on a far of planet named Cybertron… Oh, wait. I'm such a dummy. We ARE on the far planet of Cybertron! So it's not even far… It's birr… um, fir… I mean… HERE!"

"Oh, Primus have mercy… kill me now…" Swindle whispered to himself while clenching his hands.

"Bumblebee, long time no see… I've been looking forward to race someone… no one's as good as me. Not that I'm saying you're as good as me. Though… you are close", Knock Out said while holding his infamous weapon. Bumblebee narrowed his optics as he firstly looked at him, then at the black spider next to him. She was looking at the yellow Bot like she wanted to cut him in half, so he looked back at Knock Out, who suddenly jumped at him and made them roll aside, leaving Strongarm and Smokescreen to deal with Airachnid by their own.

After a few cycles of rolling and strangling each other, Bumblebee took the lead and pinned the red mech to the ground. He then smirked and narrowed his optics, grabbing his servos in a considerable fashion. He clenched them just enough for Bumblebee's energon to show up before he decided to talk to the new leader of the Autobots.

"Don't you realize? I made you win so you could listen out."

Bumblebee remained silent, watching every move of the red Aston Martin.

"Arcee is not going to survive the night, for Starscream's fragging dark energon got into her spark and tainted her whole system! She can barely stand up, you hear?! All I wanna do is make it up somehow… so I'll extract the child from her spark as she told me to and you, my friend, are going to take care of it, understood?!"

As Knock Out said that, Bumblebee's optics widened.

"Wait, child?! No one said anything about a…"

"Cause nobody knows. I know it. She knows it. Starscream knows it. You know it. That's it."

Bumblebee kept staring into his optics, so he suddenly grabbed him by his shoulders and threw him over himself, jumping up at his feet.

"Now, where were we? Oh, yes. I remember," he said as he approached the yellow muscle car who couldn't find the strength to stand up, "I was winning. Sorry, Bee. I got a direct order from the leader, saying I should… you know, win. And I don't wanna lose my precious looks… Or my head."

He was standing on top of the Nemesis, looking down at the Cybertronians brutally fighting till death. Although Autobots were clearly outnumbered, they weren't giving up. Instead, they were tossing the Vehicons around like they weren't even fit for fighting.

The scene looked desperate as everyone was fighting over something they couldn't even understand, and the fight was going on for megacycles. Energon was all over the place, being either from Vehicons, Decepticons or Autobots. Even the seeker's hands were holding a quantity of heroic energon, spilled because of Starscream himself. Yet something was preventing him from feeling anything for the merciful Autobot who could have gotten rid of him, but instead insisted they choose peace instead of war.

"Such dumb excuse for knowing he'll lose…" Starscream said as his spark was heating up. Deep down, he knew the only reason the Prime didn't end his life was because he had known that the seeker wasn't completely gone yet. There was still a flash of hope in him, a hope of returning to the light side and leaving the Decepticons to rest. But he didn't want to give up now that he was so close. He wanted the plan to work. He wanted the femme to stay alive.

Thinking of her, he suddenly realized that a weak, bended frame was coming out of her shelter, heading towards the machine that they needed to bend the quality of space and time. As he realized that it was in fact Arcee who was slowly limping towards their creation which was supposed to save her.

"Could it be that she is trying to… no. NO!" he thought and quickly leaped off the top, barely managing to land on his feet. As she was getting closer to the machine, he realized that Arcee was almost gray. There was no beautiful dark blue on her anymore, and her optics' light was slowly fading. As he saw that, he felt his light fading as well. Rushing through the crowd and pushing Vehicons away from his path, he completely forgot to watch out for any incoming attack. The only thing he cared about now was his Spark Mate who was trying to sacrifice herself… until he felt a terrible pain at his side. He quickly glanced aside, seeing Smokescreen literally putting hands over his mouth as he saw what he did, before he fell to the ground. Everything soon went black as he felt his body getting paralyzed.

"You… You look just like me… but… maler…" she said as she was looking at the sinister figure in front of her, his face still leaking blue energon. He quietly chuckled as the slim silver femme didn't know how to respond. She looked full of fear as he pulled her up. Seeing how small she was reminded him of someone he used to know…

"I'm not helping anyone. I never was, I never will. Everything's falling apart for a reason. Everything happens for a reason…", he said and quickly pulled his servos back to himself, slowly backing off into the shadows. As he was leaving her, he felt something striking his spark. Did he… feel something again…? Or was it just his imagination?

"Wait, don't leave…" she suddenly said as she fell to her knees again, "my family needs you."

He sinisterly chuckled.

"WHY would they need ME? I caused the entire 'family' to break apart. It was ME who ordered Shockwave to keep on doing what he started to do, it was ME who wanted the old, evil Megatron to come back. I didn't know it would all end like this… but… Frankly, dear, I don't give a frag about others anymore. This is my mistake and my win. I… I am the true villain of this story. And you know it, so who told you to come here?!"

She didn't respond.

"Was it your wish to see the person who let your mother pass away…?" he said as his voice quivered, "Was it a mistake? Guess I'll never know."

As he said that, he started going towards the void, but was stopped by the young femme who suddenly grabbed his hand as he tried to leave forever. He turned back to see her wide, wet optics that were looking at him in despair, trying to get him to help her. Her small, narrow lips were quivering from sadness and something stroke his spark again.

"Memories. Oh, how they pain me…" he stated as he pushed her away to let her fall to the ground. She yelped and her quiet, yet clear voice beard striking resemblance to the femme he loved before. She suddenly started to cry and his grin disappeared.

"Please… if you don't help now, everyone will be dead… within a few megacycles… I'm not able… to…"

"Do I look like I care?" he asked and put his thin servos at his hips, "there's no way you could convince me to go help some random Cybertronians who tried to murder me before! Don't you know that it is their fault I am like this now?! Don't you know they gave me everything, and then took everything from me, just to make me feel loved just before… it all went to…" he said and fell to his knees just like her, his blazing optics filling with hot, steaming tears.

"I gave it my all… and they still made me kill her! I killed my own Spark Mate!" he cried out and covered his face, "I was once a being of feeling as well, but they… they…"

He suddenly stopped as she got closer to him.

"No… I…" he said as she tightly hugged him, crying as well. He, to her surprise, hugged her back.

"It wasn't your fault… father… It was just a game of inconvenient coincidences…"

After such a long time, he smiled. He smiled and hugged her even tighter.

"I never thought I'd see you… Not in my lifetime, at least… And look at you, how you've grown!" he proudly said as his spark started beating at a normal pace again. He pushed her off a little, just to see her wet, smiling face.

"You remind me so much of…" he said as she sweetly smiled, but stopped before saying her name as he knew he'd cry like a little sparkling if he'd speak her name.

She was quiet.

"What idiot told you I was still alive…? Wait, was it that red, self-absorbed guy?"

She smiled and simply nodded, so he smiled even wider.

"And you said that they… they…" he stuttered as he realized that he still felt something for them. It wasn't love, it wasn't friendship, but it was something strong enough to make him believe that there was still hope. He then smiled again and kissed his daughter's forehead, making her flinch.

"Thank you for reviving me", he said and she widely smiled before he embraced her again.

"I… thought you were gone… dead… and I… I…"

"Wake up", she suddenly said and he widely opened his optics as he heard that. Scared for everything he held dear, he pushed her away again to see her smile slowly disappearing, while her faceplates were getting wet from tears again, "Wake up, dad."

"…Wake up…? Wh-What do you mean…?"

"I'm… I'm not real dad. You're going crazy…"

In a split second, everything was torn away from him again, and the lights of his optics faded. The room they were in suddenly got darker and he finally realized it wasn't a room they were in. It was simple void. The void which was located in his spark.

"I am just your perception of what I might look like when I grow up…", she weakly smiled, "…but I'm not growing up. Ever."

He didn't respond, his hands just started clutching her servos tighter.

"I am an illusion created by your spark, as it is connected to yours… I am real for you, but for no one else", she said and smiled as she lowered her head, "all the things I said before, it wasn't for the sake of my friends. It was for the sake of your friends. THEY are the only ones keeping you alive at this point. Don't you see?" she raised her head and widely smiled, "I am you and mom combined, but am speaking as a combination of all your friends!"

"But I don't have any…"

"I'm a real crybaby, scared for my life… it is just like Skywarp, ain't it?"

"How do you… Why do you?!"

"Raised by Ratchet, by Knock Out and Bumblebee, the three Autobots who always tried to understand you! Subconsciously, you always knew Ratchet was fond of you."

"I-I…"

"Young and playful… But also a bit nosy, isn't that Smokescreen?"

"STOP BOMBARDING ME WITH STUFF I DON'T GET!" he yelled as her figure was getting less and less vivid.

"Maler? Is that even a word, Bulkhead?" she sweetly smiled and tilted her head as she asked that, making the seeker frown.

"Everything else? Your Spark Mate, dad."

Starscream's stare intensified.

"Are you implying this is all just a dream?"

"No", she said, "it is your view of life. I am… your consciousness right now. It's fading away, but… as soon as you wake up; everything's going to be ok. I am a representation of what you wanted me to be when I grow up… But I don't exist. I never will. You might don't want to realize this… but you already did, didn't you? That's why I'm telling you this. You KNOW I'm just a fiction of your imagination."

"I don't know anything, young lady, and if you're going to disappear forever when I wake up, I'm not waking up, by all means necessary", he tried to act like a father figure.

She giggled.

"I don't exist. I never will, because everything is going to start anew. The bloom of love shall disappear soon, but perhaps not forever. I don't know what's going to happen… You are not certain yet, but you know you'll see her again, don't you?"

"I…"

"And even if she sacrifices herself right now, you can still save her, can't you?"

"But I can't save YOU", he said and grabbed her servos a tiny moment before she turned into dust.

"You already did."

The mech felt pain in his spark again, but immediately widely opened his optics to look over to the time machine which was being constructed, only to realize Arcee was limping straight towards him. The scared and scarred seeker swiftly stood up and started limping towards the hurt and ill femme whose optics were filling up with tears as she was getting closer to him. Even though he knew she was scared for him, he also knew the tears were because of the fact that every part of her body hurt as she was forcing herself to get to him. He couldn't hear anything except his own fast spark beat which was slowly getting more and more silent. Starscream saw everything that was going on around him: from the fighting to the blasting, but he didn't care for any of that. Vehicons were pushing his weak, hurt body aside as he was slowly trying to reach the blue Autobot. His face looked like all life energy was sucked out of him, but he refused to let his optics lose their color in front of Arcee. She suddenly smiled as she finally realized that it was him who fell down before, and she soon started to rush towards him while limping. Vehicons were hitting her from all sides as well, but she could only see one path in front of her: the path leading towards him. As soon as they got close enough to each other, Arcee's optics wet up and she started to fall down, but the mech fell to his knees to catch her right at time. He tightly hugged her as he feared it was really the last time, that time. He knew what he had to do, his consciousness told him. He felt her weak servos wrapping around his neck.

As they were hugging, they completely failed to realize that the shooting stopped as everyone looked at them. Neither the Autobots nor the Decepticons could believe that the leader of the Decepticons would actually care that much about a proud member of the Autobots, that much in fact that they'd stop their long-lasting, strict war just to greet each other. Knock Out and Bumblebee stopped fighting as well a few feet away from them. They both smiled at the pair for a second before continuing their fist fight, rolling around the ship's floor.

"I know you don't want me to do this, but… we have no choice", she said and he softly and carefully pushed her away to see her wonderful blue optics looking straight into his blood red ones, "all the pain we suffered… all the things I had to get through just to find out that even the sparkling was not safe… I can't let my state now go to waste…"

"Do you consider you last living moments a waste, dear Arcee?" he suddenly asked and her soft smile disappeared as his expression was saddening.

"We would be better off if none of this would ever have happened…"

"But if you get into that machine and we managed to succeed by traveling through time… What will happen then? Won't it all be the same? Won't I make the same, stupid mistakes yet again? Do you want me to suffer all my life, knowing I had killed you…?"

Arcee sweetly smiled again and meekly touched his scar with her index finger, sliding the finger down it. He frowned and narrowed his optics from sadness, looking down to hide his fear of what might happen. She then softly giggled.

"And what if everything went wrong? And what if I don't return? Come on, Starscream. It's better for me to die than for everyone else…" as she said that, Starscream looked around himself, "they are gonna fight till death anyways. Countless of lives taken away just like that… there's nothing worse. My death won't be so tragic. Do you understand?" she asked and his gaze fell at her again.

"Why are you always so reasonable?" he said and he felt a hot tear sliding down his faceplate. She hugged him one last time before she slowly closed her optics. He soon couldn't hear her spark beat anymore. Meekly smiling, he gently laid her on the floor and stood up at his weak legs, looking around himself. Every face was looking at him, expecting some kind of order. He then grinned, knowing everything was going to disappear in a split second.

"STOP FIGHTING!" he suddenly said and every last Vehicon stopped, "Don't you realize?! Everything's falling apart? And why?! Just because I was actually so dumb to reassemble the Decepticons?! NO! It's because we all don't know how to resolve our issues… I… I know that now", he said and sweetly smiled at Smokescreen who was just in his sight. He looked away.

"I just wanted freedom… I wanted my dreams to come true… But didn't get that I already had everything… And I didn't lose anything," he proudly said, "losing her, I gained knowledge of understanding the word 'love'… And it's… a beautiful word."

"Wow. Plot twist", Sideswipe said as Starscream started approaching the huge crowd, his servos wide open.

"We are all here… just to exist. And it's a gift!" Starscream yelled as he happily looked around, gazing into Autobot's optics, "I'll… I'll go back… go to a time when not everybody's devoid of hope… I'll make sure this scenery never happens again by restraining myself… And my idiotic intentions… I might have caused a war to start, but, oh, I'll end it as well!"

"No. You will not", he heard a deep voice coming from behind him, so he turned around to face a single glowing red eye's look piercing right through his spark. It was the big purple scientist, pointing his gun at him. Starscream knew that even one hit would finish everybody off. His smile vanished as his knees shook from fear.

"Wh-What are you planning to do with that thing…? I'll… I'll stop this once and for all… W-We won't lose, we'll just…"

At this point, the scientist had already fired the gun and Starscream just stopped talking, knowing his plan was over, and in fear, he didn't even close his optics, enabling him to see when the blast was coming closer, it wasn't actually going to hit him. It was going to hit the person in front of the blast.

For some unknown reason, the person wanted to block Shockwave's hit by absorbing the full force of the blast. He jumped right in front of Starscream, so that the blast would never hit him. The rather small figure's chest suddenly got blasted and parts flew from it, eventually revealing a hole in the mech's chest. Starscream's optics widened as he saw what just happened, not knowing what purpose that had and why a person like him would do that at the first place. As the entrepreneur's body reached the ground, crashing his remaining healthy systems, Starscream widened his optics and approached the deadly hurt Decepticon who still had a smug smile on his faceplates, just like he was about to make the deal of his life.

Grimlock and Fixit just stood there aside, unable to get what just happened. In a flash, he disappeared from them, without giving them any sign. The Minicon covered his optics. Bumblebee and Knock Out stopped fighting again and Bumblebee used that moment to push him off, so that he could stare at the marketer's sacrificed body. Windblade widened her optics and got closer to Sideswipe, whose sword fell out of his hand. Seeing that, the two seekers fighting them turned around as well, looking at Starscream.

As the silver mech approached him, the seeker grabbed the mech's shoulders and leaned them at his knees to speak to the mercenary. Swindle's smile intensified.

"Oh, look at that. Isn't that one of my favorite customers…?" he silently asked and coughed.

"Wh… What are you doing? What was the point of that?!"

Swindle showed his bright, uneven dental plates and answered: "Someone had to keep you alive, aren't I right?"

Starscream shook his head: "Why?"

"Heh. You're our future, as it seems… And I'm not letting my business stop just like that. Everyone's got their goals, so… Why not fight for the 'good side', for once…?"

"B-But… Swindle, you don't even really know anyone here and… From all of the Autobots and Decepticons… you?"

"Listen, Screamer. I'm not doing this just for you", he said as his smile started fading, "if I die now, it won't matter, 'cause I know you'll succeed in returning to the past. And then I'll be able to sell my garbage again. And you'll finally pay on time as you'll feel guilty, get it? As for the rest… don't leave 'em behind. They all seem to adore you. Especially that femme of yours", he said and passed out, leaving Starscream confused. Confused, but determined to end this by returning to the time when everything was still simple and deprived from his help.

He stood up again, leaving Swindle's body behind him. The seeker started walking towards Shockwave.

"I am not letting you use the portal. It is to return Megatron to his state of glory! You are not interfering with my plan!"

He fired another shot, but this time, two Cybertronians jumped in front of the slim mech, accidentally bumping into themselves and getting blown away by the blast together. Starscream took a quick glance at them and widened his optics in dread, seeing Thundercracker and Skywarp lying on the floor, steam coming out from the part they were shot in, which was their side.

"Haha… looks like he got there before me…" Thundercracker stated and smiled before passing out.

"Starscream… Save us all, get it…?" Skywarp said and Starscream bit his lip as he didn't have the time to praise his closest fellows for doing something completely off their character. He was extremely proud.

Another shot came towards him, but Smokescreen blocked it by sacrificing himself.

"…I owed you one, right…?"

Another blast came, which Windblade absorbed, much to Sideswipe's terror.

"Make sure to bring us back, hear me, Screamer?"

Starscream suddenly smiled at the femme and continued walking towards the purple mech who was slowly getting scared as the seeker wasn't looking like he was about to stop. He still didn't stop shooting, though.

As another shot came flying towards the silver Decepticon leader whose optics were glowing brightly as he was pacing forward, Sideswipe wanted to leap in front of it, but Bumblebee pushed him aside and let himself absorb the hit, much to Sideswipes dread. The young rebel 'Bot's optics suddenly started to get wet, making him turn away.

"For the greater good", Bumblebee said as he looked up at the seeker, widely smiling before his systems shut down.

After that, Starscream finally got to Shockwave and the scientist wanted to fire one last shot to end the seeker's life, but the seeker suddenly leaped at him and punched him right in the single optic he had. Shockwave put a hand over his optic as it got cracked, and the seeker fired a missile at him.

There was only silence for a moment as everything was full of dust which was slowly spreading across the atmosphere. When the dust parted enough, so that Starscream could clearly see Shockwave's image, he pointed his last missile at him and smugly smiled, waiting from a response from Shockwave. He was expecting some kind of threat or explanation, but nothing came from the lying scientist. He was still just covering his hurt optic.

"Go on. Do it", he suddenly said and Starscream's smile twitched for a second.

"Aren't you going to explain to me why all of this is wrong, or say that I'm making a huge mistake and whatnot? Where is your dignity now, Shockwave…?" he asked as he widely grinned, expecting some kind of response from the weakened purple scientist. But he refused to answer, so Starscream pointed his missile at his chest. Shockwave removed his hand from his optic and looked into the seeker's optics, seeking riddance in them.

"This war has been going between us for far too long… I was the one keeping the hate the Decepticons felt towards the Autobots in their sparks… You are not the faulty Cybertronian… it is my fault completely. I used Soundwave to spy on you, to spy on every last Decepticon so I could bring us all back together, to avenge lord Megatron by annihilating every last Autobot… But I came up with another plan. I came up with the solution to all the struggles the Decepticons were facing. We were lonely, hungry, deprived from freedom and any kind of hope. We were lying in agony, trying to reach out for help. Nobody cared, though. We have been put in stasis cells and were treated like utter trash, as the Autobots took over the planet that was once ours… My only wish was to bring Cybertron back to its former glory… just like it was your wish too, Starscream. I thought we could join our forces and with our combined knowledge and sources, we could bring back what was once ours, but is now lost. Megatron would rule over the planet once again, and we wouldn't have to struggle no more… But I forgot. I forgot that Decepticons aren't the only Cybertronians alive… Please, Starscream, just end it now. I cannot bare those circumstances any longer."

Starscream just stared at him for a while and didn't respond in any way, so Shockwave lowered his head again.

"We are definitely not the ones to rule the planet… This is clear to me now, seeing that my forceful strategy brought only death upon us… I am sorry. Sorry for everything I am done."

Starscream slowly blinked.

"But… if you choose to return to the past now… I will not change. I will forget everything that has happened here, and only you, who will enter the portal, will remember what we all have done here, in the future which, if you choose another way, will completely disappear. All the allies you made, all the changes to the Autobots you made. Everything will be forgotten. So I will not remember my wrongdoings. Only… if you kill me now, and drag me into the past world with yourself. Then, my form will not be able to maintain itself and my physical form will split, and my dead body will absorb the spark of the past. But I will not wake. Do you see where I am going with this?" he looked up at Starscream who was questioning his choices.

"If you do not act now, nothing will change. Everything will turn back just the way it was before."

Starscream suddenly raised his servo and shot the missile upwards, letting it explode in the air. Everyone stared up as he did that, seeing that the missile's power parted the smoke raising, enabling them to actually see the two Decepticons, not just hear. Starscream then looked down at him and smiled.

"If there's one thing I learned, it's that I can change my path. And you… you can go another path it as well", as he said that, he turned away and started walking towards the portal that would lead him back. Soundwave was already standing there, a Ground Bridge appearing next to him as he triggered it. Arcee was already gone, so everything was ready, and Starscream knew just the time he wanted to visit again. As he was walking, he could hear voices cheering on him, wishing him luck. Just before he entered the portal, he looked back at the crowd to look at the Autobots and their state one last time before getting out of their lives.

Strongarm was standing right in the middle of Bumblebee, Windblade and Smokescreen. She looked hopeful. In the back, Starscream realized that the tall young red mech was turned away from his friends, trying to hide his sadness by covering his whole face with his palm. He didn't succeed and Grimlock got next to him, sweeping him up while whining. Fixit was smiling at Swindle and poking his head.

"Let's meet up in the past, ok? Call me!" he cheerfully said.

Starscream sweetly smiled and felt his body vaporizing as he entered the realm of the past. Everything around him suddenly disappeared as well.

As soon as he came back to his senses, he opened his optics and widely smiled as he realized it functioned. He found himself back there. As he saw her sassily standing there in front of him again, full of fear and hate, he cutely smiled. The memories started flooding back.

She slowly and carefully approached him, and as she did, she knelt down. She slowly raised her trembling hand and lowered her optic ridges as she was about to touch his shoulder plate.

Starscream shook his head left and right and then got closer to his lying body, smugly smiling as he saw that the body wanted to absorb him as he was standing close to it.

Then, she touched his shoulder plate, and as soon she did, she removed her servo from him. She braced, but he didn't respond in any way. Then she lowered an optic ridge and tried again. She put her servo at the exact same position of his shoulder as before, but this time, she didn't remove it. She soon calmed down and took a deep breath again. A second later, she put her other hand at his shoulder plate and tried to turn him around so his head would face the ceiling, not the floor.

"Ugh… He's… He'swayheavier than he looks like", she complained as she was turning him.

Starscream chuckled.

When she finally succeeded after a few unsuccessful tries, she heavily gasped and looked at his scarred face. His optics were tightly closed and his mouth half-opened, showing his, somehow, still bright dental plates. The mech's face didn't look evil, in fact, it looked innocent that way. He had a plain scar under his right optic. His lower lip was cut and hardened energon was on the right part of his faceplate, coming from the top of his helm. She lowered her optic ridges and slowly neared her head to his chest to hear if his spark was still beating. Then, all of a sudden, his claws moved, scratching the floor and his spark began to race. She quickly backed off of him, but stayed kneeling to see if he's going to come to his senses. She was looking at his claws which were slowly clenching into fists, but suddenly, they stopped and completely relaxed. She raised her optic ridges and blinked twice. Then, there was nothing for a cycle. As time passed, she sighed and wanted to check his pulse once again by checking his carotid artery, but as soon she got closer to him, he suddenly widely opened his bright red optics and his pupils shrank. She quickly jumped at her feet in fear of getting hurt. He coughed, closing his optics and then he put his weight at his trembling servos which were full of claw marks and scratches. He firstly didn't seem to notice her, but as she stepped a step closer, he widely opened his optics again and turned his head into her direction, slightly tilting it. He widely opened his mouth and fell to the ground to bow.

"Oh, praise the AllSpark, someone came to check on me!" he cutely narrowed his optics from the smile on his faceplate which was addressed to her.

She looked left-right to check if it was really meant for her, and as it turned out, it was.

"I", she started.

"Oh, I simply knew someone would care!" he kept on and compressed his hands, "Though I did not expect you,Arcee", his optics met hers and she widened her bright blue optics as they met his red ones.

"Stop it, Starscream; I'm not falling for this", she said and his smile vanished from his faceplates.

He coughed again and touched the floor with his claws as he couldn't stay in the position anymore; the energon loss was killing him, slowly, yet painfully.

"Arcee… I've been here for a long time… I haven't eaten anything; I have lost more energon than ever before… Couldn't you just look over the fact that I killed Cliffjumper this time?" he asked when he looked into her optics, but soon widened them when he realized that he was talking about itonce again.He clearly couldn't forget the way she beat him up back then… and if it wasn't for her generosity, he wouldn't be alive right now.

„Wow. I was such an idiot…" Starscream stated as he shook his head again.

She showed her dental plates in anger and narrowed her optics.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry", he silently said and crashed at the floor, closing his optics tightly in pain, his voice getting even lower than it was before, "but can't you see that I'm dying…?"

She just continued looking at him, watching his trembling body as he was trying to get up, but he immediately fell at his arms again.

"You have to help me! PLEASE!" he shouted and narrowed his optics at her. Then he looked up, his optics widening in a cute way, saying: "You don't not know what the Predacons did to me."

"Wait… Predacons?" she asked and his optic ridges rose as he saw she was getting interested into what happened.

"Yes", he heavily gasped and lowered his head again, closing his optics, "they did this… I was defenseless… There was no possible way to dodge the attacks which were coming with brutal force."

She lowered her optic ridges for a second.

Just as she meant to call for a Ground Bridge, his claws wrapped around her forearm while he was still kneeling. His optics were widely open and he reminded her at the event again as he said: "You wouldn't leave me here dying… would you?"

She narrowed her optics and forcefully pushed him away, so that he crashed at the floor, loudly yelping. He started to gasp to intake air, groveling back to face her. He couldn't keep his optics open anymore and he knew that if he doesn't get help in a matter of megacycles, he'd pass away in this state. His optic ridges lowered and she could see that his optics' red light was slowly fading. Once again, he raised his head to search for her optics, softly chuckling.

Her optics widened and her optic ridges lowered as soon as she saw that his cut lip leaked energon again. He looked down at the floor as he saw that she wasn't going to do anything against his fate.

"If this is the fate which was chasing me for such a long time… If this is how my light has to go out… I'm at peace with that", he silently said and his optics glowed brightly as they met hers again, and after that he crashed at the floor, raising the dust off of it. His systems soon shut down. She widened her optics and kneeled down to look at his scarred face once again.

"Ultra Magnus", she silently said, and with difficulty in her spark continued, "I need a Ground Bridge and some assistance. Quickly."

He quickly approached the scratched version of his body and everything went white for a second. He suddenly woke up lying on the floor in pain, loudly coughing. The wonderful blue femme looked at him in fear as she realized that he was still conscious, removing her fingers from her comm. link.

Starscream's optics met hers and he just stared for a moment, having mixed feelings in his spark. As he was looking at her id an odd way, the two-wheeler lowered her optic ridges, but smirked as she saw that Starscream was looking at her in an adorable fashion.

"Is... something the matter…?" she asked and Starscream dumbly smiled as he remembered that she didn't know anything about their affair. He just shook his head and managed to stand up at his trembling legs. he then hit himself to the wall, trying to bend his wings in the right way.

"What are you doing? I thought you were hurt!" the blue femme loudly asked and spread her servos like she wanted to stop him from doing any more damage to his body. Starscream couldn't keep a straight face as he saw that she cared anyways.

"Oh… I am," he said and slowly got closer to her, making her flinch, "but… I'm not in need of any assistance. So call your team and tell them I said hi."

As he said that, she half-opened her mouth. He just started walking towards the big hole in the wall, looking down.

"What do you mean…? You were just lying there unconscious a few cycles ago!" Arcee kept questioning and he chuckled.

"Oh, dearest Arcee… If you only knew what I know…" he said and sweetly smiled while looking down the huge building. He didn't want her to see the sadness in his optics though, as he felt terrible for not being so close to her anymore. It was for the best to stay away from her, though.

"…Did you have some enlightenment while being unconscious for ten seconds, or something?" she asked and he smiled and turned back to see her worried expression. Seeing his smile in an innocent way at her made her look away as she felt awkward.

"I wouldn't rule it out", he said and the small femme approached him, much to his surprise. She stepped right next to him, looking down the hole as well. After a few seconds, she raised her head to look at him.

"Are you sure you're fine? I think you might have hit your head, or…"

"I'm fine… But you make sure you are, ok?" he asked of her and she suddenly blushed, hearing such a sentence from her enemy was beyond her understanding. He smiled and grabbed her tiny servo, gently. She stared right into his optics.

"See you again, one day…" he said, bended to reach her height and gently kissed her hand. After that, he looked up at her surprised face and beautiful optics. He felt his optics wet up as he remembered the time they were still Spark Mates, but he was happy enough that she was alive and well. He'd give his life so that she'd be alive and well, after all.

"I promise", he added while gaping into her optics, trying to find his way back.

"I…" she tried to say something, but the mech suddenly released her, transformed and flew away right at her sight. The femme stared for a few seconds at his leaving figure before smugly smiling and leaning at the wall. The sky was dark and full of stars, like it always was. She then reached her comm. link.

"Arcee to base."

"Base here. What is it, Arcee?"

"The assistance won't be necessary…"

"Why not…?"

"Well… he just took off, on his own."

There was silence for a few seconds.

"Oh, but don't worry…" she added and looked at her hand her kissed before. She was still a little baffled because of back, "He'll return."

As she said that, she turned the link off and stayed there for another megacycle, gazing up at the stars and wondering why the mech kissed her hand. She was certain she'd find out one day. But till then, she'd just have to stare up at the stars and hope he'd return to tell her.

~The End...?~

Heh. Not yet...?