Rules of War (Book 1 in "War" Series)

Five~Of

"I'm holding on your rope, got me ten feet off the ground. I'm hearing what you say but I just cant make a sound."

***

He was back to the torture. Megatron's "kindness and hospitality" only lasted for a few days; and Optimus knew the warlord was growing impatient.

Megatron was expecting the Autobots to have attacked the Nemesis already. So why weren't they? They were ruining his whole plan. He growled as he thought it over. Perhaps he had to switch things up a bit.

He stormed into the room, and Optimus was back to staring at the floor. He was poorly patched up, per Megatron's orders to Knockout, and his frame still had his energon on it from former torture episodes. His pauldron was still missing; Megatron wasn't going to return it anytime soon.

"Has your team forgotten your existence?" Megatron snapped. It was a question that Optimus knew he shouldn't answer. Megatron stared at him for a minute before growling angrily and closing the door to the cell. Soundwave was already ready; though he wouldn't be recording any visual images today. Just to change things up and hopefully want to make the Autobots make a move.

"Have they...deserted you?" Megatron asked, unsheathing his blade and using the tip of it to raise Optimus' helm.

"No," Optimus replied firmly, though he rasped; he hadn't used his voicebox recently. "They have not."

"How do you know?" Megatron replied. Optimus was silent, leaving the warlord to cackle softly.

"I wonder what they will think of themselves when they realize that they left you at the mercy of me for such this long amount of time," he said, blade starting to trace over previous welds, the sound of metal sliding against metal could be heard as they were reopened and even deeper this time. The gash on his leg now almost went straight through the leg itself, and Megatron decided it was a good idea to fully make it happen, by stabbing the leg and dragging the blade down, ultimately destroying his leg to the point that it didn't even look like one anymore. Optimus hissed and grunted in pain, clenching his servos and gnashing his dentas, though what he really wanted to do was scream. He wouldn't give Megatron the satisfaction. He couldn't.

Fresh energon flowed from the new cut and onto the floor, forming a pool around the leg as Megatron smiled faintly and looked at his own blade; covered in his own enemy's energon.

"I wonder..." he muttered out loud before plunging his blade into Optimus' other leg without warning, causing Optimus to shout and then later hiss in pain as he dragged the blade down his leg. What was he trying to gain from-?

...Right, his own sadistic pleasure, and to draw out his team.

Now Optimus truly wasn't going anywhere; and he would probably bleed out if he didn't receive immediate medical attention.

*

"Now do you know how it feels, Optimus Prime?" Megatron said his name as if it were poison. Orion still wasn't used to the title. He didn't ask to be a part of this; to lead the faction that was against his former friend.

Or did he?

"How...what...feels?" the young Prime rasped, before coughing up energon.

"The pain of losing everything you've worked toward. The Autobots are dead, our planet is dead, Elita is dead-"

"My brother is dead."

Megatron stopped his ranting to realize who Optimus meant. He growled and punched him across the face, earning a grunt.

"And he's never coming back."

More scenes, some of them Autobots that saluted to him before Megatron killed them in front of him, some glaring at him before Megatron killed them. The energon covered the floor of his cell that night, quite literally, covered. All the soldiers that had been captured with him were destroyed right in front of him. He was obviously rescued, but it had changed him, left him broken, less innocent than he was before. He couldn't take things very light heartedly anymore. It was a wake up call, though he wished he hadn't received it on the cost of so many lives.

A sharp pain coming from his good shoulder snapped the Prime out of his thoughts as he let out a soft but audible cry.

"Welcome back to the present," Megatron hissed, wrenching the blade out of his shoulder plate. "You spaced out for a while."

Optimus didn't say anything in reply.

"If your team truly does not care for you, I suppose I can just get it over with, and take the matrix from your sparkless husk," Megatron sneered in the Prime's faceplate. "I have left ways for them to find you. And they have not taken it. They have been inactive. It's almost as if they...shut down. Perhaps they've given up. And I'm wasting my time. My patience wears thin, Optimus."

"What do you expect me to do?" Optimus finally looked up at the warlord. Megatron looked him directly in the optics before leaning over to his audial receptor.

"Scream," he hissed quietly so only Optimus heard, and without warning stabbed him in the chassis and twisted his blade, barely missing his spark. The pain was too much; his scream echoed through the halls of the Nemesis. Megatron grinned.

***

"Oh Primus."

"What?" Arcee asked, looking over at the medic.

"Another message."

"We don't have time to watch it."

"Listen to it. There's no visual feed."

"Whatever. We have the coordinates, we don't have the time," she replied. "Activate the bridge."

Ratchet didn't argue and opened the bridge before joining the others. Optimus would need a medic, perhaps immediate medical attention.

"Stay," he commanded the humans, mainly Miko, and ran through after Bulkhead, and the bridge closed behind them.

The humans watched the bridge intently, silently hoping that they would bring Optimus back alive.

~~~

Changed the chapter names. So if "of" doesn't make sense, look at the others. :>