Changing of the Guard - Coda

I thought, I was done with the first part, but then Judy insisted to have her say, and you can try to shut her up if she's in that mood ...

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The first lights of the morning dawn began to crawl over the horizon, illuminating the bow of the USS John Stennis as the Nimitz-class supercarrier plowed its way through the Red Sea onward to the Gulf of Aden. At the end of the deck, next to a row of F/A-18 Hornets, parked a large Peterbuilt truck painted in blue and red. The paint job had seen better days, a multitude of scratches and dents visible over most of the truck's body, almost as if it had gone through a gigantic demolition derby and had not come out on top.

Nothing could be further from the truth, though, for, to begin with, the truck wasn't really a truck but a sentient, giant robot, the demolition derby had been an all out battle to the death between him and an ancient enemy, and, in the end, Optimus Prime had come out on top. Or, rather, he was still alive, which was more than could be said about the fate of his opponent.

Optimus was in a light recharge, a part of him working on fixing a million little problems that were too minor for their resident medic to concern himself with. If somebody had watched, he would have seen how some of the scratches and dents in the metal body were swarmed with silvery nano bots, and when they moved on to the next scratch or dent a minute or two later, the damage was gone and the paint gleamed like new. Similar activities were going on all over Optimus' body, most of them not visible to the human eye. They didn't require any of the giant robot's attention, but they did need time and quiet and that was why he had parked himself far out of the way of the humans.

He did pay attention, however, to the sky above, scanning and searching for any sign of Decepticon activities. Megatron and Starscream had both fled the battle, both of them badly wounded, but Optimus had no illusions that one day they would be back, possibly with more of their minions. It wasn't very likely that this day would be today, or even any time in the near future, but with Decepticons one never knew, and so he kept his sensors open as he watched over the humans on board – and on this planet. Soundwave was also very likely somewhere out there, as their analysis of the battle in Egypt had proven. Only the communications specialist would have been capable to interrupt the humans' satellite system like it had been, and there was, of course, the presence of Ravage, who had been a known drone of Soundwave. Well, at least Ravage wouldn't bother them any more, thanks to Bumblebee, who had shown once again how capable a warrior he was.

Optimus was relieved beyond words that all of his fighters, who after all were also all his friends, had survived the last battle. Arcee had taken serious damage to her Moonracer body, but Ratchet had said that he would be able to save her. Ironhide had practically lost one of his arms, though he seemed to be more concerned about the damage to the cannon in that arm than to the arm itself. The others were no worse off than he himself. Though, considering that he basically had come back from the dead, thanks to Sam Witwicky's actions, this wasn't really saying much.

As his thoughts turned to the human who had saved his life twice already, he recalled the conversation he had had with the young man's father only a few hours ago. Unlike Cypertronian relationships, human attachments rested to a large part on links formed thanks to a biological connection where the offspring of a pair of humans was educated and protected by the parents until the offspring was old enough to find his own way into the world. This made sense in a world where the raising and education of a youngling took up a large percentage of a human's natural life span, and it also made for strong bonds between the parent and the child. Ronald Witwicky had made it clear that even though Sam was by law considered old enough to take care of himself, his father wouldn't easily give up the responsibility he had taken on when Sam had been born into this world.

But in the end he had passed on this responsibility to Optimus, and the reason he had done so was because the dangers Sam was facing due to his friendship with the Autobots wasn't something a normal human would be able to handle. Sam was possibly the most endangered human on this planet as he was in the centre of a war that had not started on this planet and most likely wouldn't end on this planet and that had gone on for longer than human civilisation as such existed. Optimus wished this was not the case, wished he would be able to keep Sam out of the maelstrom that centred around the young human, but the things that had happened two years ago and now again, showed that come what may the human's fate was by some strange way now bound irrevocably to the Autobot cause.

In the graveyard Sam had told him that all he wanted was to have a normal life, do the normal things that a human of his age did. Optimus had understood this – hadn't he himself once wished to remain a simple worker and not to become a leader? Fate had seen to it that his wish had not been granted, and he feared Sam's wish for a normal life wouldn't be granted either. The AllSpark and the Matrix of Leadership had seen to it.

Even after their first encounter, Optimus had already observed that Sam had a great capacity for compassion, as was evidenced in his pain and fury over Bumblebee's capture. But when the boy had managed to use the AllSpark to destroy Megatron, Optimus had been as surprised as everybody else. Already back then he had suspected that Sam's actions would have repercussions, though he had had no idea what form they would take. Now Ratchet believed that Sam somehow had retained the knowledge of the AllSpark, and Optimus was half afraid his old friend may be right. What the AllSpark's knowledge would do to Sam, nobody could say. For now, at least, the symbols Sam had seen were gone, but nobody could say for how long.

Adding to that the fact that the Matrix of Leadership had spoken to Sam, that it had brought him into contact with the lost Dynasty of Primes, it seemed impossible that the young man would ever have something like a 'normal' life.

Sam was still young, though, even for his own race, and though he had shown so much potential, it might be years before he would need to come fully into that potential. For now, the Matrix was back with Optimus after he had retrieved it from the ruins of the Energon machine. If the time came, he could hope that Sam would make his peace with his fate, as he himself had made his peace a long time ago.

And until then he had promised Ron Witwicky that he had would look out for Sam, and whatever their future would bring he had the full intention to do just that.

A smallish, human figure came into his sensor range and it took Optimus only a moment to identify her as Judy Witwicky, Sam's mother. The woman was walking with large strides towards where he was parked, her hair in a sleep-tangled disarray, the clothing the supply master of the carrier had provided her with not quite fitting. Her body language spoke of anger and a deep set purpose. It was obvious he was the target of this anger.

She stopped a few feet away from his front bumper, placed her fists on her hips and fixed her gaze at Optimus.

"Listen to me, you big heap of junk. If you ever, EVER, allow any harm to come to my Sam again, I'm going to find you and I'll take the biggest blow torch I can get my hands on and will cut you up in itty bitty tiny pieces! Is that clear?"

Before he could respond, Judy had turned on her heels and walked back to the entrance to the lower decks.

Bemused, Optimus watched her go. Even though it was very unlikely that Judy Witwicky would be able to cause any real damage to him and Optimus was sure she knew that as well, he had no doubt that she had still meant every word she had just said. He had read before that the females on this planet could be quite fierce when it came to the defence of their offspring and as he looked after Judy he began to believe it.

He had sworn to Ron Witwicky that he would do anything in his power to prevent any harm to come to Sam ever again. Still he made a note to himself that if the unthinkable should come to pass, to stay as far away from Sam's mother as possible.

the end