Chapter Text
He dreams, sometimes. He understands that it’s impossible - his people do not truly sleep as organics do - but the visions come to him nonetheless. He dreams of the spires of Crystal City, and the vast, tumultuous cacophony of the Sonic Canyon. He sees the twisting towers of Vos, so impossibly tall and slender beneath the stars, and the fearsome wastes of the Sea of Rust.
He sees Iacon, glimmering with a thousand thousand lights. He sees the infernal glow of Kaon. He sees them whole, untouched by war. And he sees another.
In his dreams Megatronus stands beside him, arm a reassuring weight on his shoulders. Together they look out on the trembling shimmer of the city, or the pale haze on the horizon of the energon mines. There is a plan, he knows - a means to bring the lights of the cities to all, to raise up the lowest castes - but that knowledge is secure with the one beside him. He trusts, and is trusted in return. Loves-
And he wakes. Shivering in a cold berth on an alien planet, Optimus feels his tanks twist, and cannot decide which is more troubling - the knowledge that what he wished for could have never been, or the dream that it came so easily to pass.