Thank you, CyberKia and Wolf Prime for the reviews, and to everyone who has shown interest in this fic.

What would it have been like had the Autobots met Orion Pax? This was the question that prompted me to write this. And coincidentally, as I was writing this fic, I believe I spotted the constellation Orion whilst looking up one night.

Orion - Part 2

Optimus Prime watched a star-filled night sky. He sat on the roof of the Autobot base, leaning back onto one arm, his other resting on top of an upright knee. The night was quiet, save for the sounds of gentle breezes blowing over the Nevada desert beneath him. Optimus Prime was alone with his thoughts. Then his solitude was broken by soft footsteps from behind.

"Star-gazing?"

The Autobot leader turned to the source of the voice from behind and saw Arcee walking toward him.

"Mind if I join you?" she asked.

Optimus nodded to the empty space beside him. Arcee sat down, mirroring Optimus' sitting position but turning her body to face his. Optimus' gaze rose to the night sky again.

"What are you looking at?" Arcee asked, focusing on the direction that her leader was looking in.

"Orion." He pointed to a cluster of stars in a rough hourglass shape. "A constellation known to the humans as 'Orion'."

Arcee glanced at Optimus then brought her gaze back up to the stars.

"So the name exists in this world too," she remarked.

"In their ancient Greek mythology, Orion was a hunter," Optimus informed.

The two Autobots studied Orion for a while.

"Kinda strange that you should be looking at him now," Arcee remarked, "after everything that's just happened."

Optimus' gaze lowered slightly.

"Perhaps it is not coincidence."

There was a pause.

"I wouldn't have minded meeting him," Arcee said wistfully. "Kind of a shame we didn't get the chance."

Optimus looked down at Arcee and regarded her with curiosity.

"Orion Pax." Arcee looked up at Optimus with a faint smile. "Ratchet compared him to Jack, y'know. Sounds like someone I could have got to like."

They looked at one another for some moments before Optimus returned his gaze upwards.

"He was a data clerk that spent most of his time sorting historical files within the Iacon Hall of Records," he said plainly. "I doubt you would have found him of great interest. He was nothing special."

Arcee returned her gaze skyward as well.

"I didn't think much of Jack either when I first met him," she said casually. "But I see something in him now. And you've seen it in him too."

Optimus cast a glance at Arcee.

"Why else entrust him with the key to Vector Sigma?" she continued. "He's young and inexperienced, but he has potential, to become something more, something great in time..." She looked at Optimus again. "Like you."

Optimus brought his gaze upwards again.

"The potential to grow and learn is within us all," he said as he studied the stars. "But in some of us, there is potential for greatness, there is potential to be chosen by destiny. We do not choose to be chosen, but we must answer the call when it comes." He looked down at Arcee. "We all must become more than what we were in time."

Arcee's eyes moved down to the moonlit horizon of the Nevada desert.

"Jack told me when he approached you with the reloaded key to Vector Sigma, you were unsure about receiving it," she said thoughtfully. "It must have been quite a shock for Orion Pax, being given the Matrix of Leadership."

Optimus looked away solemnly.

"He was unworthy," he uttered almost inaudibly.

Arcee looked at Optimus with a little surprise.

"You believe that?" she probed gently.

Optimus said nothing more. The pair fell into a calm silence.

"Y'know, from the beginning, I think we've all been underestimating Orion Pax," Arcee said calmly, breaking the silence. "When you were gone, we were all afraid for you, of what had happened to you, of what might happen to you. I...we were afraid that we may have lost you, the Optimus we knew, forever." Arcee brought both her legs up and hugged them. "The scariest thing was knowing that you couldn't remember us," she recalled aloud.

Optimus' head bowed subtly. Arcee paused then continued:

"Megatron taking you away from us made things worse. We were scared, angry, in disarray, desperate. We'd lost you both mentally and physically. We didn't know what Megatron would do to you, if he would harm you or turn you against us. We were afraid of what would become of you and of us without you."

She looked back to Optimus and smiled. He returned her gaze.

"But against the odds, even with your mind gone and Megatron no doubt keeping you in the dark, you still found your way back to us in the end. Orion Pax broke away from Megatron, someone he had trusted, and chose to come to us instead, bots that he knew nothing about. He followed his spark. As Ratchet said, your spark never stopped being that of an Autobot."

Arcee looked up into the bright blue light of Optimus' eyes.

"You say Orion Pax was nothing special. But I think maybe there was more to him than meets the eye. I think he may have had a penchant for seeking the truth and pursuing it. I think he knew how to distinguish between right and wrong, and when confronted with the two, he would always do what was right, even when it put him in danger. Orion Pax might not have known how to be a leader or how to hold a gun, but he had potential for greatness, and given time, even without the Matrix, he would have surprised us all."

End.