Chapter Text
The last thing Megatron expected when he received the news that, after a million stellar cycles, he had finally found the All Spark— was that the Quints were already invading the Autobot shuttle that initially found it. Which made very little sense, given that Quints had no need for the All Spark. It was a Cybertronian relic, it had very little value to outsiders unless they were capable of harnessing the powers within it. Something he doubted greatly given that it was only useful in Cybertronian servos. This meant the Quints either had a way to use it, or a way to bargain with it and neither were good news in Megatron’s opinion. The Quints being involved in anything Cybertronian related was never good if he was being completely honest.
Generally the idea of getting his servos on the All Spark after all this time would have made Megatron retrieve it on his own. However the appearance of a rather annoying adversary made him second guess his decision and take Starscream with him as back up. Starscream was far from his first choice but he was the only bot Megatron could rely on to not destroy the Autobot shuttle during the scuffle.
As the two made their way through the narrow corridors of the shuttle, they found nothing but carnage and a servoful of Autobot frames, torn apart and turned gray. Not a single corpse of a Sharkticon drone that the Quints favored using could be seen. Though there was plenty of evidence of their presence on the ship from the bite marks and slashes common amongst victims and strewn across the shuttle’s interior. Only once they’d gone deeper into did Megatron hear the scraping and chittering of the Sharkticons and then a loud explosion as the shuttle shook violently. Both he and Starscream braced themselves as the shuttle shifted and smoke filed in from ahead.
“What in the pits was that?” Starscream complained, his wings tight behind him so that he could fit in the narrow halls built for civilian frames.
Megatron let out a hum before picking up his pace, reaching the source of the explosion and nearly stepping on a Sharkticon corpse. Just missing it, and instead, knocking it to the side, Megatron took a quick look around to assess the situation. Four Sharkticons lay dead with slash wounds that clearly came from a weapon and not the explosion, riddling their forms. They were laid out away from the far wall where the furthest one still had a battle axe embedded into the gaps of its armor. Hidden behind its bulk was an Autobot, still retaining their colors but clearly not for long with the injuries Megatron could make out. To his right, a large hole in the hull that was clearly caused by the previous explosion showed the backs of two more Sharkticons who were retreating in the direction of their vessel. Between them was a box of Cybertronian origin.
“Starscream, the All Spark!” Megatron snapped, getting his second in command to focus outside of the shuttle. Before Starscream could even reach the opening, a broken plea came from behind them.
“Wait— the … Spark! -don’t have it!” The fallen Autobot hacked through static.
Megatron turned to him, optics narrowed as he stopped Starscream and moved closer to the Autobot. Kicking away a Sharkticon corpse, with his pede, Megatron got a better look at the bot. He had a red chassis and blue helm, one of his finials was torn off and a massive chunk of his lower arm was bitten off. The worst damage was the bite on his abdomen where one of the Sharkticons had clearly gotten him in their intake at one point. The bot looked up from the brim of his helm, optics a darkening blue, energon pooling under him and sparks crackling over his broken frame. This bot was not long for this world.
“Are you saying the Quints do not have the All Spark?” Megatron asked, his voice even but demanding.
The Autobot nodded ever so slightly, unable to move anymore than that. “I… hid it…” he managed to speak though his voice continued to come out broken.
“Where?” Megatron took a step forward.
“A deal…” the dying bot replied.
“I cannot save you.” Megatron responded. No medic could fix him.
“Not me… B-“
Megatron’s optics widened as a small pittering came from the vent behind the Autobot. A vent he hadn’t realized was open until a small sparkling came wobbling out, the All Spark securely in his little grasp. Megatron took another step closer before kneeling before the dying bot and his young. The sparkling went to hide against his carrier’s chassis, pushing the All Spark against him and let out a scared warble. Starscream, having finally noticed the sparkling, watched from over his shoulder. Despite the damages done to everything else, the sparkling was unharmed, physically at least.
“You wish for me to find a safe haven for your sparkling in exchange for the All Spark?” Megatron asked, his tone much softer now.
“Yes…. No, fighting…” The Autobot said, his optics focused on his sparkling who finally seemed to realize that something was wrong with his carrier. The sparkling began to fuss as his carrier used his good servo to pet his helm.
“I will ensure he does not see combat.” Megatron promised. And he could; there were plenty of Decepticons on New Kaon who never saw combat and would gladly take in the sparkling.
The Autobot smiled behind his broken battle mask. “B… go with…” he instructed, gesturing towards Megatron with his chin. B did not like that and he especially did not like when Megatron reached for him. The sparkling wrapped himself around the All Spark more before letting out a loud cry in protest.
The All Spark suddenly began to glow before engulfing the entire space in a bright white light. Megatron and Starscream both covered their optics with grunts as they were temporarily blinded. When the light finally faded and the optics filtered properly, they found the damages done to the shuttle, including the massive hole were gone, the ship hummed with life, and the Autobot sat fully healed. Megatron couldn’t help but stare in confusion at how this had happened until Starscream’s voice shouted behind him.
“Lord Megatron, the Quintessans seem to have realized they were tricked! They’re coming in quick!” Starscream said, looking out the repaired window as a much larger fleet of Sharkticons approached swiftly.
The Autobot scrambled to his pedes, arms securely holding B and the All Spark to his chassis. “How far off is your ship?” He asked, optics locking with Megatron who stood carefully before taking a step to the side.
“Out of range, we flew here ourselves to not be noticed.” Megatron answered. The Autobot began to move swiftly down the hall they’d initially come from, not looking back to see if the two Decepticons would follow.
“Do you know the exact coordinates?” He asked, stepping over a fallen Autobot before making a turn.
“I do, why?” Megatron demanded as the Skarkticons finally reached the shuttle again, causing it to shake as they landed on it. He didn’t have to brace himself but the Autobot did, his optics going down to the still fussy sparkling in his arms.
They entered the cockpit and even the once shattered glass had somehow repaired itself. “There’s a Spacebridge on the other side of that asteroid.” The Autobot pointed at a massive rock not far ahead of them. “If we can make it there, I can send us to the next closest bridge so we can escape.”
“We don’t have time to wait for Access Codes!” Starscream shouted as the pounding from outside the shuttle became louder.
“I’m a Spacebridge repairbot! I have my own codes!” The Autobot snapped back.
“Get us to through that spacebridge.” Megatron said, turning his attention to the door to the cockpit, fusion canon warming up. The Sharkticons could destroy the shuttle again at any time and he wanted to make sure he was ready to shoot them.
“B, magnetize to my chassis.” The Autobot instructed his sparkling who quickly magnetized himself to his carrier. Now with free servos, he started bringing up the Spacebridge access panel.
After a few nano-kliks, the Spacebridge began to power up and the Autobot shuttle finally began to fly forward. The sudden movement knocked off several Sharkticons but prompted the Quintessan vessel to begin shooting at them. The Autobot did not focus on dodging the shots but rather on getting to the Spacebridge as fast as he could. In the process, shots also hit the structure, causing smoke to come from one of the sides but the transport sphere at the center stayed strong.
The klik they entered the sphere, the ship was once again engulfed in a bright light but this time was accompanied by great shaking that nearly knocked them all to the floor. The lights flickered as rough turbulence shook the shuttle every which way. Megatron stepped closer to the Autobot, using his larger frame to shelter him and his sparkling from any falling debris. When they finally escaped the vortex, they were spit out right in the trajectory of a large blue planet and had no time to escape its gravity.
“I thought you knew what you were doing!?” Starscream screeched as the shuttle began to nosedive down into the planet below.
“These aren’t the coordinates I chose!” The Autobot shouted back, peeking out from under Megatron to see exactly what was happening. The outside of the shuttle was engulfed in flames but they could still see the planet quickly approaching as they broke through the cloud cover.
Megatron grabbed the controls that were far too small for his servos as he noticed what appeared to be a city quickly approaching. He pulled the shuttle up, barely dodging the tops of structures before turning towards what appeared to be a lake of some sort. Banking on it not being a caustic substance, Megatron began an emergency landing on the surface of the lake. The shuttle bounced the first several times, knocking Starscream to his aft as they skid across the surface, towards a rocky island in the center that Megatron hadn’t expected to appear. At the last nanoklik, Megatron turned the ship horizontal to the beach, cutting their momentum as the shuttle finally came to a jerking stop against the base of a cliff.
As the world finally stopped moving, all three let out a vent in relief. Megatron stood back as the Autobot moved out from under him. Behind him, he heard Starscream get to his pedes before sauntering over to the cockpit window.
“Well that certainly could have gone better.” Starscream chided, servos on hips and wings canting slightly in frustration. “Where are we?”
The Autobot tried to pull up the shuttle transport data but much like the lights, it flickered before shutting off. He let out a frustrated rumble of his engine, barely audible over the rain pouring outside and battering the shuttle. “The Spacebridge must’ve taken too much damage when we went through it.” He said. “It dropped us at an unknown location.”
“No slag.” Starscream sneered, optics narrowing at the Autobot who glared at him, audial fins flat against the back of his helm.
“Enough, Starscream.” Megatron said, stepping between them but narrowing his optics at his second in command who looked away while crossing his arms over his chassis. Megatron then turned to the Autobot who stood just over half his size. “Putting things to the side, I believe introductions are in order, given our current situation.”
The Autobot nodded and roused his sparkling from where he rested against him. “I am Optimus of Iacon, this one is B.” He said, holding up his sparkling slightly. B looked up at Megatron with big blue optics and he noticed that the sparkling had little horns on his helm. “I know who you two are and… thank you.”
“Oh? For what?” Megatron asked with a slight tilt of his helm.
“Before I… miraculously healed, you were going to help B.” Optimus said, his optics focused on the little yellow sparkling who happily reached for his faceplate. “I should at least thank you for that.”
Megatron watched Optimus with a discerning optic as he considered this. He wasn’t sure what was stranger; Optimus initially entrusting his sparkling to the leader of the enemy faction, or Optimus thanking him for accepting to take care of said sparkling even after it became an obsolete request. He rubbed his chin with a digit and noticed that the All Spark had once again been tucked away somewhere.
“Given that our earlier negotiations no longer hold… I believe it would be in all of our best interests if we made another deal instead.” Megatron said smoothly, gesturing to Optimus with his servos.
“What do you say, little Autobot?”