Chapter Text
“So this is what it feels like to be a hero,” Optimus Prime managed to say through the pain as everything seemed to grind to a halt.
And then it changed. He wasn’t in pain, wasn’t laying on his back. He was standing somewhere… bright. Light surrounded him, and he couldn’t see what he was standing on. He knew he should be worried, but it felt safe. He was safe here.
“What happened?” Someone behind him asked, sounding concerned.
Optimus jerked and whirled around. There was another mech there- taller, with red eyes and a Decepticon badge on his shoulder, right where Optimus’ Autobot badge was. They were very similarly colored, though the other mech was red where Optimus was blue, and vice versa. And the other mech looked concerned. And somehow, Optimus knew he was safe with the other mech.
“I…” Optimus paused. He should not feel safe around the obvious Decepticon. The other mech even had shoulder mounted guns. He was also a flight frame of some type- a warbuild. And Optimus was an Autobot who had just fought another Decepticon to protect the Allspark.
“Optimus. I felt that pain in our Spark. What happened?”
“Our…” Optimus froze and shook his head as suddenly the memories returned. The fifty years in stasis that had been spent right here, talking to the mech in front of him. That one time he’d been injured enough to be unconscious for more than a solar cycle, spent with this mech.
“Sorry, Orion, I didn’t remember…” Optimus took a deep breath. They were the same, but the firewalls in their processer- that Optimus didn’t remember when he was awake- made it easier for him to manifest as two mechs like this.
Optimus reached out and took Orion’s hand. Their memories flowed between them, and neither had to say a word.
“So… we’re offline?”
“I think so,” Optimus offered. “I… this feels like when we were in stasis, though.”
“I know,” Orion said. “It does.”
Optimus gave into impulse and cuddled close against Orion. The bigger half of his spark simply held him. Optimus had Orion’s memories, at least here, and Orion his, but… they were almost two different mechs. Except Optimus knew his different beliefs were mostly programmed into his processor.
And… Optimus agreed with Orion, when he knew the truth.
“I’m sorry about Starscream,” Orion said quietly. “I don’t know what happened, he was never this way before.”
“I think… it was us. Me. What the Autobots did to you to get me,” Optimus said. “You remember, what we read. Of course, a lot of it is propaganda, I have no idea how much is true.”
“Yes,” Orion said sadly. “I remember. We weren’t a peaceful revolution to begin with, but we weren’t this bad.”
“I think, the attack, it made the other Decepticons understand what exactly Autobots were willing to do.”
Orion sighed and held on to the smaller half.
“I know you don’t like to think about it.”
“I almost can’t,” Optimus retorted. “I definitely can’t when I’m awake. And alive.”
Orion nodded. “I wish we could get rid of that programming. It doesn’t help you, and if you could just remember…”
“I can’t even tell anything is wrong, to talk to Ratchet.”
Orion smiled. “Ratchet was famous, you know. For more than the stories you were told.”
“I know,” Optimus said. “The best medic our species has ever had, and he’s on our team. I hope he can heal this. I… don’t know if he can.”
Orion leaned forward and let his chin rest on Optimus’ head. “I don’t either. But if he can’t… what happens to us?”
“You’re the original,” Optimus said. “I’m just a result of the programming the Autobots forced on your spark and processer. My body is new, but it’s not yours. I…”
“You are not just that. You are, perhaps, who I would have been if things had been different. You are not “just” programming. You are a part of me. Perhaps, in the Well, it won’t matter. A Spark is a Spark, and you and I are the same. We are one, and neither of us will be gone. We’ll just be… one.”
Optimus smiled. “I’d like that,” he admitted. “And I… I’m tired, Orion. I never realize it, but I’m so tired. I’m fighting against the firewalls and programming, and I don’t even know it.”
“I know,” Orion said. Of course he knew. “I’m tired too. I don’t want to fight my own brother like this. I don’t blame you, of course I don’t, but Megatron’s death…” he keened, just briefly. Still, they had mourned during the fifty years of stasis. “And Starscream. He was so…”
Optimus sighed. “I know,” he said. He didn’t blame himself, even if he’d been the one fighting. He’d been trying to protect the younger bots on his team, and he couldn’t regret that. He could regret Megatron’s death. Megatron was his brother, after all.
“How long will we be like this before our Spark enters the Well?” Optimus asked. “It’s… I’m sure our Spark extinguished.”
Orion chuckled. “I don’t know, any more than you do.”
Optimus chuckled in turn. “I know. I like this, though.”
“So do I,” Orion replied.
Light, a different color from the white surrounding them, flashed through the space. They turned to look at it. It was approaching rapidly, and they glanced at each other. A pair of blue optics and a pair of red optics met before they silently agreed on what they would do. Two hands, moving at the same time, reached out to the light. The light gathered in their hands and then grew, surrounding them.
They smiled. The light was soothing, easing all the aches and pains neither had realized they felt, and gently refreshing them.
They didn’t know when they realized that they were one form, not two. The separation between Orion and Optimus was gone.
He smiled and allowed the light to take him to wherever he was going.