Chapter 18- Disputation

This is the final chapter! As you know, with this chapter comes the first chapter to the next story, so I'll have that up in a few minutes or hours, it depends. But it'll still be up sometime today. There's brief OOC-ness in this one, but for somewhat good reason. Anyway, enjoy reading and let me know what you thought.

Warning: This chapter is incredibly long. And that's pretty much it.

When Optimus passed the pyramids and the Sphinx, when he finally smiled and Jetfire's armour fell off of his body, there was deafening applause. I smiled and sniffled a little bit. I won't cry again.

The Prime stopped in front of me, and his holoform appeared a few inches away from me. He looked haggard and there was a wound starting in the center of his chest and spreading out towards his midsection. When his eyes met mine, his smile widened and I pulled him closer, nearly squeezing him to death. I knew that neither he, nor his holoform could be killed that way, but if he was human, he probably would be dead. I buried my face in Optimus' tattered shirt. I turned my head and put my ear over his chest to relish the hum of his false, yet present spark pulse. Suppressing the hiss from pressure put on my minor but open wounds, I spoke lowly so that the shakiness in my voice would go undetected. "I missed you."

Optimus sighed and stroked my hair, his fingers gently running through somewhat tangled, platinum white strands. "I know. I'm sorry," he murmured.

"You can't do that to me again, Optimus. If you die again, I'll kill you, okay?" He laughed and nodded. "I'm serious. I will freaking kill you if you die again. Once is too much, twice is just… wow." As I said this, I smiled and resisted crying again. Suddenly, there was pressure on my lips. When my brain registered what was happening, I closed my eyes and nearly blushed when I heard more than a few cat calls and whistling.

The kiss broke and I mock glared at everyone that whistled or cat called. "Shut up! All of you, shut up!" I hissed. They laughed as I pouted and met eyes with Mikaela. She had a shit-eating grin on her face that made me want to laugh and gag at the same time. I noticed that Sam stood a distance away from her, which I thought was a little weird.

"I think it's time to go home," I murmured, burying my face in Optimus' shirt. "Yeah… it's time to go home."

A few hours ago, we boarded an aircraft carrier and set sail, en route to Diego Garcia. I stood next to Sam as he watched the water. "What's going on between you and Mikaela, Sam?" I asked. My adoptive brother sighed and looked at me.

"I told her that I loved her, but as a sister. Surprisingly, she accepted that."

I looked at him and gasped. "So, you two are done?"

He inhaled and sighed deeply. "Yep."

We were quiet for a while. "I'm a little surprised that she took it so well."

"Well, I think she likes one of the bots. If I'm right, it's Ratchet."

"And if you're wrong?"

"Then, I'm wrong."

I grinned as he snickered. "What about you?"

Sam hummed. "I don't know yet. I'll find someone eventually. You?" he replied. I arched an eyebrow and he shook his head and laughed. "Sorry. I forgot for a second. I'm not used to you being close to any other guy except for the Slenderman."

"Shut up." We laughed and continued to stare out at the ocean. The waves pushing against the boat were soothing. To add to it, a gentle gust of wind made my hair brush against my skin and pushed the scent of saltwater into my nostrils. For once in the past three and a half days, there was tranquility.

When I heard large footsteps, I looked back and saw my favourite bot. I grinned and he smiled gently. "Spade, Sam, thank you, for saving my life," Optimus thanked us. I shook my head as Sam smiled up at the large mech.

"You're welcome, though Spade did all the work this time," he replied.

"Yeah, and it's not like you would let us not bring you back anyway," I smirked at him. His holoform materialized again he was wearing a different shirt this time and a pair of blue jeans… with a belt. I arched an eyebrow. "Orion's Belt? Come on! You were practically haunting me!" I replied.

"I did that because I love you, Spade," he answered with honest sincerity. I crossed my arms and shook my head.

"That's what peeping Toms say." Optimus stopped and his bright blue eyes became distant before he smiled and shook his head.

"I am not a peeping Tom," he replied. His holoform disappeared as I grinned and walked to the large mech. He knelt down with his palm flat on the ground.

"By the way, I love you, too." I smiled cheekily as he lifted me up to his shoulder.

When we got back to the base, a lot of the soldiers and a few of the 'Bots went back to their quarters. I was still situated on Optimus' shoulder, speaking quietly with him. His optics dimmed and became distant again before he spoke, "Spade, I believe Major Lennox wants to speak with you and Sam. Ratchet wants to see me," he spoke, his deep baritone sending shivers down my spine.

"Why would Ratchet want to—" I stopped talking and looked down at the Prime's chest plates, seeing that the large, gaping wound was still there. I glared at Optimus and pointed my finger in the direction of the medbay. "Go," I growled. "Why haven't you gotten that checked out yet? I'll find them; just make sure you get that fixed."

I jumped down from his shoulder and landed on the ground gracefully, courtesy of the Allspark. Optimus was looking at me with somewhat wide optics, probably from my jump, my scolding, or both. My glare intensified. "Go."

"But—"

"Go!"

I smiled when Optimus looked defeated and turned to go the medbay. "I'll see you in a few minutes, okay?"

"That's only if Ratchet won't kill him with a wrench," I heard a voice say beside me. I looked over and saw Ironhide walking towards me. I grinned and patted his foot.

"Oh, hey 'Hide! I haven't talked to you in a while."

"And it's a damn shame, too. I thought I was s'posed to be your uncle er whatever it was you called me!" he grumbled. I gave him a puppy dog face.

"I'm sowwe! Can you forgive me, 'Hide?" 'Hide cringed and tried to avoid eye contact, but he gave in and smiled wearily.

"Fine. Oh, and kid? Lennox is looking for you," he groaned. I grinned.

"Oh yeah. You know where they are?"

"Rec room."

"Thanks!" I waved at him and ran off to find the rec room. The base was huge and I still didn't know my way around. Eventually, I gave in and asked a soldier that was walking in the large halls where the rec room was. He pointed to the door that was right next to me, and sure enough, the damn thing said rec room. I frowned and thanked him before going in. Lennox, Epps, Sam, Mikaela, and Bee's holoform were all sitting on the couch, playing a racing game on the large TV that was in the room while Bee's alt sat a few feet away from them. Mikaela sat and watched, but she looked thoroughly amused at the sight of Bee kicking their asses at the racing game they were playing.

"Hey, guys," I said. Someone paused the game and they all looked back at me. Lennox, Epps, and Mikaela smiled.

"Spadey!" Epps exclaimed, his smile turning into a grin. I snorted and walked over to the group, fist bumping the two soldiers. Bee jumped from off of the couch and gave me a bone crushing hug. I gasped and hugged him back, thankful that breathing was no longer a necessity for me.

"Yep! Love you too, Bee!" His radio cut on and he used some song lyrics saying 'I love you, too'. "If you really loved me, you'd let me go because you're about to kill me!"

He let go quickly and looked at me sheepishly. But then, he pouted. Using his real voice, he said, "You don't need to breathe anymore!"

I stared at him for a second and diverted my eyes to Lennox. "You wanted to talk to me?"

It turns out that the president was so proud of Sam and me, what with how we kinda saved the world, that he decided that he was going to give us both a Presidential Medal of Honor. Sam, of course, was thrilled. But I still don't like the government. And in a way, I didn't deserve it. I'd harmed someone from the government in way I didn't think possible, and while he deserved it, he also didn't deserve it. There was no way that I would be able to accept that medal and look the President in the eye at the same time, so I asked Sam if he could get it for me. He denied it and attempted to give me a Judy Witwicky glare for saying that I don't deserve the medal, and even though he failed miserably, he was still able to convince me to go to the White House to get the damn thing.

In addition to that, Lennox and Epps mentioned with the biggest grins on their faces that they had done what I "kindly" asked them to do. Yes, they pushed Galloway out of a plane.

"We didn't push him. The stupid son of bitch pulled his own bridle while he was still on the plane," Lennox snorted.

"Close enough," I retorted with my hands on my hips. They both knew that I was thoroughly amused, but I didn't expect them to actually risk their jobs over a silly quarrel. But the fact that they did flattered me and I was proud to say that I considered them both brothers. "You convinced him to pull the damn thing."

"Well, he's an idiot. It wasn't too hard to do."

I bit back a laugh when I thought of his condition before he got on the plane. "Jesus, some of his ribs were broken! Among other things!" I sighed. Lennox and Epps looked at each other and back at me.

"We know. Hopefully, this'll convince him to quit," Epps said. They both grinned with their hands behind their backs. I gaped and facepalmed.

"That's cold." They broke into laughter and I had to join them. "This is horrible," I groaned, a smile still clear on my face. I put my hands on my hips and shook my head. "I'm gonna go find Optimus. I need to talk to someone with a soul."

They laughed as I left and told me goodbye. When I thought of Optimus, I thought of recent events.

After suffering for an entire three days without him, my best friend, my boyfriend… It was one of the hardest things that I'd ever been through and it was one of the reasons as to why I never allowed myself to get this close to any male, be him human or alien. But I was glad I did this time around.

Now, I can sit on his shoulder and enjoy his presence, enjoy being able to talk to him and have him talk back. To listen to his deep, calming, baritone as it shook my bones and brought me my serenity. He was currently in Ratchet's medbay, but I didn't know how to get there. I was sure that once we had our moment alone, he would begin to apologize eight million times again. Yeah, I missed that, too.

Ratchet had long since told me that all Optimus ever did was take responsibility for the worst things that happened to the Autobots and Cybertron during and before the war, even though there was nothing he could have done to prevent it from happening.

My phone vibrated in my back pocket. I took it out and checked to see who it was. It was a text from Ratchet, telling me that he wanted to see me in the medbay. Lucky for me, I was already on my way there. But then I realized that I have absolutely no idea as to how to get to the medbay.

By now, I was hopelessly lost again. Finding the medbay was not as easy as I hoped it would be. When I heard large footsteps getting closer to me, I knew it was an Autobot, but I didn't count on it to be the pink femme that hated me almost as much as Megatron hates Optimus. Elita-1 strolled down the hallway and looked down for a brief second. When she saw me, she glared at me immediately. I said nothing and tried my best to ignore her, but looked me in the eye with a hard, cold stare. "Elita," I said calmly. She snorted in response.

"You saved him," she replied simply. I nodded absently as memories came back to mind. "Spade, the hero, Spade, the victor. Spade, the one who saved the mech that she got killed in the first place."

My heart sank at that. I knew that it was partially my fault that Optimus was killed, but I tried not to think about it. Instead of letting my distress show, I played it cool. "I haven't heard that one," was my even response. Again, she snorted and her glare harshened.

"You know just as well as Optimus does that you could have done something to prevent his death."

"Shut up," I growled lowly, but she ignored it. I knew she was mindfucking me just to spite me, throwing the obvious in my face.

"What you did to Galloway— why didn't you do it to Megatron? Why didn't you fight for him then?"

"Shut up," I growled again, louder this time. And just like before, she ignored me. I was trying not to break again. While I really hated Elita, I couldn't kill her. I didn't want to. What would that make me? A murderer that killed or attacked anyone that pissed me off? A human Megatron? The 'Cons I killed in Egypt didn't count. That was in self-defense.

"Face it, fleshling. It's your entire fault. Had it been me, I would have stayed by his side. I wouldn't have let him fight three 'Cons by himself, but you? You ran!"

"I'm just a human!" I shouted back. "He told me to run!"

"It doesn't matter! You let him die!" she hissed.

"Ariel!" a strong, angry, baritone voice called out. I jumped and looked behind her to see Optimus glaring harshly, very unlike himself. Elita whipped around when someone called her by her old name. She bristled when the saw the pure ire in the Prime's optics.

"O-Optimus, I was just—" she stuttered. Optimus cut her off briskly.

"I don't want to hear it. I told you once and I don't want to have to tell you again. Stay away from Spade. You have harassed her ever since you got to his planet and you tried to kill her. Now, you're accusing her of my death?" he growled.

"Prime, I—"

"If you can't accept the fact that I've moved on, then leave." His tone was dark as he said this, shocking both of us to the core. "You're lucky I let you stay here, even after you tried to kill her. Aside from the fact that she's human, she's also our friend, one of our comrades. If we have this problem again, you're out of here."

I looked at her expectantly, waiting for an argument that eventually came. Right now, this wasn't my argument, so I chose to stay out of it. "So, just like that, I don't matter to you anymore? You'd take a fleshy's side over mine?"

"If you keep attacking Spade verbally and physically over something she had no control over, then yes." Hard, sapphire eyes continued to glare at the pink femme, any gentleness in them lost. I knew that he referred to 'something' as more than just his death. He also meant his falling in love with me.

"She changed you, Orion," Elita snarled. "You left me for a human!" She virtually spat the word human.

"I thought you were dead, Elita. You didn't expect me to let go after all that time?" Not once did Optimus raise his voice, but his frustration was evident in his features. His normally gentle optics were filled with anger that was intensifying with each word Elita spoke and his body was tense. He took two brief steps over to me and lowered his hand. I instantly scrambled up into it. His hand was my protection, regardless of the Allspark's power. If I did use it on her, it might kill her.

She huffed and stomped away from the two of us, taking most of the tension that was in the air with her. I looked up at Optimus and saw that most of the anger had disappeared when he looked down at me and it was replaced with regret and concern. I knew what she did to him, even though it wasn't intentional. His optics were distant for a second, but they refocused back on me.

"I'm fine," I assured him. He didn't look convinced, so I stroked his face gently before kissing his cheek. "Don't blame yourself for this."

"She left."

"What?" I gasped.

"Ironhide commed me and said she drove off. She's concealing her Energon signature, so we don't know where she is anymore," he said regretfully and paused. "I was hoping she would take this a lot better than she did. But, I drove her away."

I sighed and looked him in the optics. "It's not. Your. Fault. She wants you to feel guilty. If she cared about you, if she still even considered you as a friend, she would have been happy that you moved on and found someone else that made you happy. Well, I do make you happy, right?" I asked him. He smiled lightly and nodded. I was relieved when the mood lightened and Optimus seemed to cheer up.

"More than you'll know," he murmured. I wrapped my arms around his face and let go after a few seconds. Suddenly, the medbay door swooshed open revealing Ratchet. He saw me on Optimus' shoulder and glared.

"Where have you been? You should have been in the medbay over ten minutes ago!" he growled. I jumped back held on to the Prime's smokestack.

"I got lost. Then, I ran into someone and—"

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. You ran into Elita-1, had an argument, and blah, blah, blah. In the medbay!" Ratchet cut me off.

I shut my mouth and avoided all eye contact with Ratchet. I was afraid that if I looked into his optics, I would be turned to stone. Optimus walked into the medbay and lowered his hand on one of the berths. I walked down his arm and sat on the berth as Ratchet neared me. A blue beam went across my body six times as the medic muttered to himself. "By the Allspark," he breathed. 'Literally,' I thought. "The Allspark has changed your body more than I expected. You are becoming Cybertronian!"

My jaw dropped and I swore I heard it hit the floor. "It explains everything!" Ratchet continued, pacing as he rambled. "The height change, the color of your irises, the metal replacing your lungs and the spark replacing your heart…"

"Well, after Megatron shot me and I started rolling," I started. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Optimus cringe. "I swore I heard something crack."

Ratchet hummed and took a picture of me. I frowned at this; I hated taking pictures. The medic must have noticed my frown because he rolled his optics. "Relax youngling. It was just an x-ray. Primus…" he muttered. He projected a holographic picture of the x-ray and revealed that from my head and to the first half of my rib cage and my legs were… metal. There was a white, spherical glow where my heart used to be. "The transformation is happening slowly and randomly. Your arms would have broken after you had been shot, but they are taking a lot more time to fully change. They have already started. And as for the crack you heard? Four of your ribs are broken."

I gaped and pressed the area gently, wincing when I felt one of the broken ribs. "How did I not feel it before?"

"Humans normally feel if a rib is broken by breathing or laughing too hard. You don't need to breathe and I haven't seen you laughing hard enough for pain to be felt."

"It hurt when I hugged Optimus while we were still in Egypt."

"There you go. At this rate, you'll be a full Cybertronian in 1-2 months."

"Allspark's doing this on purpose," I said quietly. "Because I'm the vessel."

Ratchet finally stopped pacing and looked at me intently. "You speak of the Allspark as if it is a person or sentient being."

"That's the way it acts. I don't know the gender, if Allspark has one."

Optimus hummed. I looked at him and practically saw the gears turning in his head. "How does the Allspark act?"

"Well, it's— I'm sorry, but I can't keep calling Allspark 'it'. I'm gonna settle with he/she."

The Autobot leader chuckled as Ratchet snorted and said, "How does he/she act?"

"He/she does all these things to me on purpose. If he/she put up protection forces that I didn't even know I could use because he/she sensed danger, then he/she must be a he/she… having a personality and all…" The two Autobots remained silent, so I continued. "There's a hum, this incessant yet serene hum whenever he/she is active. I can't begin to imagine how it's both serene and incessant, but… I was awake during one change. It hurt like hell. I didn't tell you because I figured it was Allspark."

"I'm guessing the change was… this." Ratchet pointed at all of the metal that was now a part of my body.

"Where was I?" Optimus responded.

"Oh… doing leader stuff. Hopefully, you were discussing the discharge of the asshole we've come to know and hate with General Morshower and the president. I'm sure you know who I'm talking about." I wasn't lying. Optimus had a meeting while we were still on the aircraft carrier. I was in a bathroom, freshening up a little bit when my body and eyes started to glow and this agonizing pain shot through me, setting my sensitive nerves on fire.

His holoform materialized on the berth next to me. He chuckled as he took my hands into his own. "It's still undecided. I chose to leave out the part about… you know. They would probably be more sympathetic to him. But then again, it wasn't an Autobot that did something."

"Yeah… Well, see ya Ratchet," I said. The medic growled at me.

"And where do you think you're going? I have to fix those ribs!" he yelled. I waved him off and stepped onto Optimus' hand.

"Look, don't worry about that, okay? Allspark will handle everything. Besides, it's not like the ribs can puncture anything. I bet that this time tomorrow, all four ribs will either be metal or fixed."

"But—!"

"Bye, Ratchet!" I closed my eyes and smiled sweetly at him while waving. Optimus left the medbay and went to his quarters. They weren't too far from medbay, so we got there pretty fast.

When we entered his quarters, he sat me down on the berth. I looked up at him and saw that he was still frowning, probably thinking about what happened over the past three days. Or the past few million years that the war has lasted for. I sat down on the edge of berth and began to swing my legs. "Optimus don't worry. Megatron will get what's coming to him, I'm sure." His holoform appeared again as he walked over to me. He put his chin on my head and sighed as I wrapped my arms around his waist.

"Any hope for him is lost."

I looked up at the holoform. "Hope? What do you mean?"

"I was hoping that Megatron would have a change of spark, that he would come back to us. He's my enemy, but he's still my brother… he was." I held on to him tighter to comfort him. "But, he's gone mad. Especially now with his processors damaged and his own personal vendetta. I could never trust him. Not now, not when he has killed us both and so many others."

When he said others, I thought about Elita again and became tense. Optimus must have noticed because he pulled back a little to look me in the eye. "I know what she said to you. It's not true."

"B-but, she was right!" I breathed. "I ran. I… I could've helped you and I ran."

"Because I told you to. Spade, you were not aware of the power you had until after I was killed. Don't let her get to you," he said sternly.

We were silent for a few minutes. Optimus stroked my back and I bit back a moan. We stood this way for a while.

"Do you think she'll come back?" Optimus asked gently.

I sighed and pursed my lips. "Well, she still has common sense, so I think she will. Her Energon levels were low."

Optimus pulled back and looked me in the eye. "How did you know that?"

"Allspark." He hummed in response and kissed my forehead. "Yeah. You know, I'm glad you were stalking me. Otherwise, I would be facing criminal charges for murder of a liaison."

"I was not stalking you, Spade." There was humour laced in his voice that made me a little suspicious, but the Prime doesn't lie. "If anything, I was haunting you." I laughed.

"Mmm. Call it what you want. What, were you bored or did you just miss seeing my beautiful face?"

He smiled. "It can't be both?"

I grinned and tried not to blush. "Of course it can." We were silent again. I looked into his bright, blue, Autobot eyes and saw that he was thinking again. His eyes took on a sad look.

I put my hand on his cheek. "I'll make you a deal. I'll stop blaming myself for your death if you stop blaming yourself for everything else."

Optimus smiled and brought me closer, tilting my chin up and gently bringing his lips to my own. "Deal."

And that's the end!

Denali Prime out!