You Are My Knight - Optimus Prime x OC

- 8 -

The flight back to base is awkward. The Autobots don't speak to each other and Optimus sits deep in thought, Allspark cube in hand as he's trying desperately to figure out the best way to go about it and make sure the Allspark is intact. The last time he was met with a decision like this, he had destroyed the Transwarp key to ensure Earth wasn't destroyed in the process.

Who knew that 13 years later, he'd be met with the same decision once again. Time and time again Optimus was shouldered with life changing decisions not only for himself but for his entire kind. He didn't know how much more guilt he could handle if he messed this one up. Shutting his optics, he opens them to look at the cube once again. He'd hadn't seen this in thousands of years. It served as a reminder of his mistakes, his decisions, his regrets. It reminds him of Shockwave. And them begging him one fateful night to keep it on planet.

That very next day, Shockwave had almost died. Their helm nearly destroyed to where it was unrecognisable, spinal strut ripped to shreds. Ratchet had to do an emergency surgery not only to replace their spine but their entire helm. And with limited supplies, Shockwave lost their face, an optic sensor only remaining. It left them out of commission for a week. Only for them to wake up to Optimus sending the Allspark off planet and shattering their relationship in the process.

Optimus' servo squeezes the cube, out of anger, out of sorrow, out of fear. He's not surprised that everything keeps coming back to haunt him. First Elita, now Shockwave and now... Optimus glances over to Kaede this time.

Kaede sits against the wall, strapped in once again and in a conversation with Noah, one of the older NEST agents as well as someone Optimus had worked closely with in 1994. Optimus isn't surprised that Kaede's been interacting with Noah. Both their affiliation with the Autobots made it for easy conversation.

"So you were in Peru when Unicron came?" Kaede asks Noah. Noah nods. "How'd you fly there? I thought you said NEST only became a thing in 2000."

"An old Autobot named Stratosphere. Dunno where he's been off to lately since we just use NEST planes to go everywhere now, but I've seen Optimus call him a few times," Noah replies.

"What about this Transwarp key... what was that?"

"That was the thing Unicron was after, some portal opening thing that went through space and time. He sent his goons after it, a real bad guy named Scourge. Optimus ripped that guy's head off," Noah says.

"Whoa."

"Yeah, he was pissed over Scourge killing Bee so, I don't blame him, plus he wanted to redeem himself after getting his ass beat," Noah says quietly this time. Kaede looks surprised now.

"What, you mean Optimus... lost a fight?"

"Yeah, you shoulda seen how grumpy he was back then too, he wasn't too fond of humans," Noah says. "You're pretty lucky he likes you so much." Kaede sends him a look. "Not in that way!" he says, flicking Kaede on the nose. "Don't look at me like that, you looked so excited there, jeez," he says, turning away.

"Why'd everyone look so surprised when Optimus was holding me earlier then," Kaede asks. Noah shrugs.

"Don't ask me, he picked me up first thing when he met me."

"What."

"Man was like, 'you brought a human here?!'" Noah says, mimicking Optimus' voice. "And then he picked me up and set me on the catwalk, humiliating shit, man. It was like getting put in timeout." Kaede stifles a laugh this time. Noah looks over to him again. "And you wanted in on all this. What were you doin' before?"

"I was a car mechanic, fixed cars, fixed my own and raced them," he says.

"Oh, I see so you like getting into trouble then."